Charles Ives wrote this flowing and attractive song during his family's summer vacation in the town of Westbrook, CT, on Long Island Sound. It was the last summer vacation the Iveses took as a family before Charles left their hometown of Danbury, CT, for school. Charles was 17 years old, and at the beginning of the next year he left for New Haven to attend Hopkins Grammar School, for some much needed "cramming" to get into Yale.

Moreover, there had been a decided change in the family's life. After a lifetime of declining opportunities to join any of the businesses of the larger Ives family (during he which he managed to live primarily as a musician) Ives' father, George, finally joined the staff of the Danbury Savings Bank, which had been founded by his father.

Jan Swafford, in his biography of Ives, concludes that this changed George's previously lighthearted personality. This and the natural rebelliousness of Charles' 17 years resulted in some serious strains between father and son, who had previously had a strong relationship as friends.

With this insight, the lyrics to this song (by an unidentified poet) take on a poignancy. "All love that has not friendship for its base is like a mansion built upon the sand," its begins.

The song is typical of young Ives. That is, it is relatively conservative in style, showing a strong ability to build a good melody, and sensitively serves the words. It is in a moderate tempo and is rhythmically driven by pulsing syncopated patterns in the piano. It even includes a trademark of later Ives songs, the building of a climax that ends on a widely spaced loud chord, though rather than the amazing conglomerations of notes he would later use this is a relatively tame seventh chord.

For unknown reasons, Ives did not include this song in his 1922 publication of 114 Songs.

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