The child was slumb'ring near the blaze,
"O captain, let him rest
Until it sinks, when God's own ways
Shall teach us what is best!"
They watched the whitened ashy heap,
They touched the child in vain;
They did not leave him there asleep,
He never woke again.
This song was sung to the music of "Little Nell," a ballad composed by
the late Mr. George Linley, to the words of Miss Charlotte Young, and
dedicated to Charles Dickens. He was very fond of it, and his eldest
daughter had been in the habit of singing it to him constantly since she
was quite a child.