Funeral lyrics

I was walking in Savannah past a church decayed and dim

When slowly through the window came a plaintive funeral hymn

And my sympathy awakened and a wonder quickly grew

Till I found myself envired in a little colored pew

Out front a colored couple sat in sorrow nearly wild

On the altar was a casket and in the casket was a child

I could picture him while livin` curly hair protuding lips

I`d seen perhaps a thousand in my hurried southern trips

Rose a sad old colored preacher from his little wooden desk

With a manner sorta awkward and countenance grotesque

The simplicity and shrewdness in his Eithopian face

Showed the wisdom and ignorance of a crushed undying race

And he said now don`t be weeping for this pretty bit of clay

For the little boy who lived there has done gone and run away

He was doin` very finely and he appreciates your love

But his shore `nuff father wanted him in the big house up above

The Lord didn`t give you that baby by no hundred thousand miles

He just thought you need some sunshine and he lent it for awhile

And he let you keep and love it till your hearts were bigger grown

And these silver tears you`re sheddin` now is just interest on the loan

Just think, my poor dear mourners creepin` along on sorrows life`s way

What a blessed picnic this here baby got today

Your good fathers and good mothers crowd the little fellow round

In the angel`s tender garden of the big plantation ground

And his eyes they brightly sparkle at the pretty things he viewed

But a tear came, and he whispered I want my parents too

But then the angel`s chief musicians teach that little boy a song

Says if only they be faithful they`ll soon be comin` along

So my poor detached mourners let your hearts with Jesus rest

And don`t go to criticizin` the one what knows the best

He has give us many comforts he`s got the right to take away

To the Lord be praised in glory forever let us pray