The Pike County Miner Oh! Once I was a 'right smart' lad, When I lived out in Pike, I'd a heap of good things, I never was sad And I did whatever I'd like Chorus: But now I've nothing but rags to my back And my boots scarce hide my toes And my pants are patched with an old flour sack To jive with the rest of my clothes I thought when I first started from Pike And drove an ox team o'er the plains That when I got here I should make a big strike And get some pay for my pains But now I landed at last in the mines, and I find That money is hard to be made, This sworking in water is not to my mind, And I'm sick of the pick and the spade. For now I have drifted, I've washed, I've creviced and dug, I've worked all the flesh to the bone But never have had as much as a slug That could be considered my own And now I am sick of the country, "I'm down at the heel" I'm dirth, I'm ragged, I'm cold Thought scarce one and twenty, I really do feel As thought I was powerful old. For here I've nothing now I am resolved to labor and sweat 'Til something I make like a "strike," And jiust whenever a raise I may geret, This "hombre" will "vamose" for Pike. For there I'll have good clothes to my back, And boots that will hide my toes, And never a patch will I cut from a sack For my pants of the rest of my clothes. "Songs Of The Gold Rush"
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