DADGBE e-mailed me these lyrics in August, and he published the lyrics, tune, and notes in the San Francisco Folk Music Club's Folknik in the November/December 2003 issue. Here are the lyrics, tune, and notes.
^^
THE BALLAD OF PAT McBRAID
(Grant Rogers)

1. Come all you boys and gather 'round, I'm sure the time has come.
   For many times you've asked me where I've been and seen or done.
   For now I'm old and tired, no more youthful will I be.
   I was born in that good old Garden State in eighteen sixty-three.
   
   
2. As a lad, I've roamed the shores and fished on the River Delaware,
   I saw the raftsmen steer their logs; where they came I knew not where,
   So I became determined it was this I had to learn,
   Perhaps their boss would give me work, some wages I could earn.
   
   
3. I started out one morning me bedroll on me back,
   For food I took my fishing pole with a hook stuck in me hat,
   And only when I stopped to rest it was hours after dark,
   Don't be surprised when I tell you guys here's where the story starts.
   
   
4. It was the early days in August I reached this logging camp,
   The first time since I started that I felt like heading back,
   But soon a man walks up to me, the foreman of the crew.
   He looks me top to bottom, says, "What can I do for you?"
   
   
5. Says I, "It's work that I am looking for and sure will do me best."
   "Very well," says he, "but first you'll have to stand the test.
   Now I'll go and fetch your chopping axe. Now yonder stands a tree,
   Eighteen inches on the stump and the minutes you have are three."
   
   
6. I'm proud to say I stood me test with a little time to spare.
   Stuck up me axe and turned around, the whole crew standing there.
   The boss he blew his whistle, his watch still in his hand.
   "The way it looks, go tell the cook we've got an extra man."
   
   
7. He took me to the paying shack. Says he, "Give me your name.
   And whether fake or otherwise to me its just the same.
   But you must have a handle if you're looking to be paid."
   Says I,"I'll take my wages to the name of Pat McBraid."
   
   
8. Through me fifty years of logging I have seen a mighty change,
   From river rafts to steamships from motor trucks to trains.
   If there's a moral you're looking for, there's one that's plain to see –
   We took the roof from the red man's head to shelter you and me.

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Francis James Child was knighted for his work collecting ballads. His The English and Scottish Popular Ballads still stands as the single most important scholarly work in the field. Ever since its publication in 1883, folklorists have looked for and found bits of 'Child Ballads' preserved in remote corners of English speaking countries.
Ballads continue to be written, some of a quality which equals anything found in 'Child'. A particularly rich source of material has been the experiences of folks coming to and making their way in the New World. This little known New Jersey lumbering song is a perfect example. Grant Rogers was a retired stone cutter who worked timber in his youth and wrote from personal experience.
Folk-Legacy Records has ben releasing rare and wonderful music for forty years. Sandy and Caroline Paton, Folk- Legacy's spearheads, released Grant's only extant recording in 1965. Songmaker of the Catskills now available as made-to-order CD-27, is a gem. Go to www.folklegacy.com or (800) 836-0901 for further details.