Songs & Ballads Of The Maine Lumberjacks

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

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The Logger's Boast
Printed in Springer's Forest Life and Forest Trees} 1851, pp. 132-133, with the remark: "Loggers, unlike most classes of men, are under the necessity of manufacturing their own songs. . . . The following is inserted as a specimen of log-swamp literature, com­posed by one of the loggers." More or less modelled on "A Hunt­ing we Will Go." Shoemaker's text (North Pennsylvania Min­strelsy, pp. 70-71), as "sung by Maine Lumbermen on West Branch of Susquehanna, 1850-1875," differs in only a very few words.
1      Come, all ye sons of freedom
throughout the State of Maine, Come, all ye gallant lumbermen,
and listen to my strain; On the banks of the Penobscot, where the rapid waters flow, 0! well range the wild woods over, and a lumbering will go; And a lumbering we'll go, so a lumbering will go, 0! we'll range the wild woods over while a lumbering we go.
2     When the white frost gilds the valleys,
the cold congeals the flood; When many men have naught to do
to earn their families bread; When the swollen streams are frozen,
and the hills are clad with snow, 0! we'll range the wild woods over,
and a lumbering will go;