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LANTERN AND THE BELL
He's long long gone and far away, he's past the dark horizon
a man who rose before the sun, until the day they both stopped rising
and he sang the songs that shone for me, the songs that just he could tell
and i'd ask him
sing me one more please, sing the lantern and the bell

And he'd sing of the tinkling out in the twilight, hobble chains playing the song of the road
and he'd smile as he sang me the hymn of his horses as they patiently, willingly carried his load
Major and Drummer boy, William and Nugget, Pannikin, Quartpot, Starry and Nell...Henry and Streaky, Tom Thumb and Old Darby, those long lost friends of the lantern and the bell

Then whistling softy warning Grey Molly, hand on the old neck, saddle just so
a knee in the shoulder, a jingle of rowels, a touch on the flank and away she would go
look for the gap in the range in the moonlight, look for the frost painted tracks you know well
follow the light of the beckoning morning star
swinging your lantern and ringing your bell

And he'd sing of those icy starburnt mornings
out of your swag boy and into your gear
up on the night horse and into tomorrow with your head full of music that just you could hear
hearing the hope in the cry of the plover, look for the horses down by the stone well
listen for the clink of the hobble chains, swinging your lantern and ringing your bell

In the new morning at the end of the horse paddock, dew on the wire an owl on a post
hear the bell mare with the ring of her hobbles, and the breath from the horses like a meeting of ghosts
and his eyes would go misty and his voice would go lower, as if there was not much more he could tell
and i knew he'd be leaving to find those old horses
swinging his lantern and ringing his bell

i'm not sure of tomorrow and i live back in yesterday
back in the far away days that have gone
back when the earth was a friend not a fortune
back in the days when the world was a song
back where the old men could fill us with wonder
and i wonder about heaven and i'm sure there's no hell
and the old man is somewhere still looking for horses
swinging his lantern and ringing his bell