Timberland Bells

I used to hear them faintly

Those evening bells for prayer,

Across the fields of Tilney,

Beyond the sunset's glare.

I heard them in my childhood,

Those bells of Timberland,

When I was always happy,

Holding my father's hand.

Enchanted in the distance,

They rode upon the air,

Seeming to float from Heaven;

I knew not how nor where.

All through life's dusty pathway,

I heard those bells ring out,

A chiming in the distance,

That sung, my path about.

My father — how I miss him —

Lies in the churchyard there,

He takes my hand no longer

He knows not how I fare.

But I would give up everything

To hold again his hand,

And hear across the meadows

The bells of Timberland.