Songs & Ballads Of The Maine Lumberjacks

A Collection Of Traditional & Folk Songs of the area with Lyrics & Commentaries -online book

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Drinking Song
Printed (without title) in John S. Springer's Forest Life and Forest Trees, New York, 1851 (Harpers), pp. 152-154, with the remark: "I present the following original rum song, illustrating the 'spirit of the times/ and of the log swamp muse." Shoemaker's text {North Pennsylvania Minstrelsy, pp. 90-91), as "sung by John Q. Dyce, Clinton County, 1900," differs in only two or three words.
1      T is when we do go into the woods,
Drink round, brave boys! drink round, brave boys! T is when we do go into the woods,
Jolly brave boys are we; T is when we do go into the woods, We look for timber, and that which is good,
Heigh ho! drink round, brave boys,
And jolly brave boys are we.
2     Now when the choppers begin to chop,
Drink round, brave boys! drink round, brave boys! When the choppers begin to chop,
Jolly brave boys are we; And when the choppers begin to chop, They take the sound and leave the rot,
Heigh ho! drink round, brave boys,
And jolly brave boys are we.
3      And when the swampers begin to clear,
Drink round, brave boys! drink round, brave boys! And when the swampers begin to clear, Jolly brave boys are we;