When You And I Were Young    Johnson & Butterfield

I wander'd today to the hill Maggie
To watch the scene below
The creek and the rusty old mill Maggie
Where we walked in the long, long ago.
The green grass is gone from the hill Maggie,
Where once the wild daisies sprung
The rusty old mill now is still Maggie
Since you and I were young

They say I am feeble with age Maggie
I step not as spritely as then
My face is a well a well written page Maggie
And time alone was the pen
They say we are aged and gray, Maggie,
As spray by the wild breakers flung
To me you're as fair as you were Maggie
When you and I were young



This poem was written by George Johnson of Mount Hope, Ontario (now a part of Hamilton) for his wife Maggie. James Butterfield later put it to music, but Maggie Johnson never got to hear it as a song nor to grow old with George as she died of consumption while still a young woman.