ict Over There,
With loss of life and liberty,
It's a privilege to know,
That in a world, so fraught with pain,
We feel secure from every foe
Where naught but fellowship remains.

For in our free country,
We hear not the battlecry,
We hear not the bugle's solemn call,
When men go forth to die.
For over all this land of ours
The Stars and Stripes still wave,
Waving forth in triumph
O'er this homeland of the brave.

Hats off! to our own America,
With pride we now can say,
We bow not down to rulers,
For justice still holds sway.
God keep us free from scenes like those
That are in other lands,
Where the shell-shocked and the wounded
Are there on every hand.

So, it's great to be an American,
We'll stand by our flag always,
For right shall not perish from the earth
As long as truth holds sway;
As long as her sons are united
In a cause that's just and true,
The bells of freedom still will ring,
Ring out for me and you.

--Nannie Hamm Carter

SAD LONDON TOWN

Jilson Setters composed and set to tune this ballad and sang it at the
American Folk Song Festival in June, 1941, to the delight of a vast
audience. To the surprise of some he pronounces the word bomb, _bum_,
like his early English ancestors.

Eight years ago I took a trip,
I decided to cross the sea;
I spent some weeks in London,
Everything was strange to me.

The city then was perfect peace,
They had no thought of fear,
Soon then the bombs began to fall,
The airplanes hovered near.

The people cannot rest at night,
Danger lingers nigh,
Bombs have dropped on many homes,
The innocent had to die.

The flying glass cut off their heads,
Their hands and noses too;
Folks then had to stand their ground,
There was nothing else to do.