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[Verse 1]
      C                           F
They came from Scandinavia, the land of midnight sun,
     C                                    Am 
And crossed the North Atlantic when this century was young.
         F
They'd heard that in America every man was free 
    F           C    F               G               C   F   C
To live the way he chose to live and be who he could be.

[Verse 2]
C                                     F
Some of them were farmers there and tilled the frozen soil. 
     C                           Am
But all they got was poverty for all their earnest toil. 
      F                    C   F
They say one was a sailor who sailed the wide world round, 
                 C    F                      G                 C   F C F C F C F
Made home port, got drunk one night, walked off the pier and drowned.

[Verse 3]
    C                                  F
My mother was of Scottish blood, it's there that she was born.
      C                        Am 
They brought her to America in 1924. 
      F           Am   F        Am      F
They left behind the highlands and the heather-covered hills 
                 Am F           G                               C   F   C
And came to find America with broad expectant dreams and iron wills.

[Verse 4]
    C                                  F
My granddad worked the steel mills of central Illinois.
      C                         Am
His daughter was his jewel, his son was just his boy. 
      F
For thirty years he worked the mills and stoked the coke-fed fires 
                                        G                       C   F   C
And looked toward the day when he'd at last turn 65 and could retire. 

[Chorus]
         Em                                       Am
And the sons become the fathers and their daughters will be wives 
         F
As the torch is passed from hand to hand 
         C                    G
And we struggle through our lives.
             Em                    Am   G      Am   Am7
Though the generations wander, the lineage survives,
     F          Am   F            Am  G                            C
And all of us, from dust to dust, we all become forefathers by and by.

[Interlude]
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[Verse 5]
     C                          F
The woman and the man were wed just after the war 
          C                              Am 
And they settled in this river town and three fine sons she bore.
 F
One became a lawyer and one fine pictures drew
     F          Am   F          Am   F
And one became this lonely soul who sits here now 
     G                  C
And sings this song to you.

[Chorus]
         Em                                       Am
And the sons become the fathers and their daughters will be wives 
         F
As the torch is passed from hand to hand 
         C                    G
And we struggle through our lives.
             Em                    Am   G      Am   Am7
Though the generations wander, the lineage survives,
     F          Am   F                G                            C F  C F
And all of us, from dust to dust, we all become forefathers by and by.  
        C  F  C  F
By and by...
        C  F  C  F
By and by...