Benny, Come Back to the Farm

By Thomas P. Westendorf[1]

Away from the house of your childhood you’ve gone,

To join in the worlds’ busy throng.

And my heart aches to think that perhaps you’ll be borne

Into paths that are sinful and wrong.

I miss you, my boy, and I want you to come

Away from all danger and harm.

My prayer is to-night, as I silently kneel,

O Benny, come back to the farm.

Chorus

O Benny, my boy!  I am praying for you,

May God keep you safe from all harm;

And bring you again to your mother so true.

Dear Benny, come back to the farm.

I think of you now as you sat on my knee,

The pride of a fond mothers’ heart;

And I listen again to your prattle and glee,

But oh, how the bitter tears start;

To know that the hopes that I cherished so bright

Are losing their power to charm.

And so as I weep I am pleading to-night,

Dear Benny, come back to the farm.

Chorus

“Tis the voice of the tempter that bids you remain

‘Mid pleasures that soon will destroy;

The end of your course is but sorrow and pain—

Then follow no longer, my boy.

If you would return, my heart would grow light,

I’d then have no cause for alarm;

Oh, list to a poor mother pleading to-night,

Dear Benny, come back to the farm.

Chorus

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[1] Thomas Paine Westendorf was born in 1848 and died in 1923. He was an American composer of popular music during the 1870s and 1880s. He was prolific, writing over 300 vocal and nearly as many instrumental pieces. His best-known song is I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen. The portrait of Westendorf at left hangs in the courthouse of Carolina County, Virginia. (Source: Getting Kathleen Home Again, by Richard S. Hill)