And Thus He Spoke
[Air: The Fatal Separation]

1
One stormy night, when winds blew wild
Around his cabin door,
A miner sat on a three legg'd stool-
The reason, it had not four.

CHORUS
And thus he spoke, while from his eye
A tear rolled down his cheek-
"Oh, give me back my little home,
For that is all I seek."

2
"I once possessed a cheerful heart,
A poor though happy home,
Until misfortune did us part,
And doomed me here to roam."

CHORUS- And thus he spoke, &c.

3
"The cry of gold gave life to life,
A ray of hope appeared;
I started in the hellish strife,
And found it as I feared."

CHORUS- And thus he spoke, &c.

4
The wind is howling worse and worse-
I know not what it means,
Nor do I care a single curse
For I have burned my beans!"

CHORUS- And thus he spoke, &c.

Put's Golden Songster, p. 35
Lyrics only in Dwyer & Lingenfelter, The Songs of the Gold Rush, p. 169.
Music possibly the song A Fatal Separation, set by John Welldon in A Collection of New Songs, 1702, to words in Dido and Aeneas, an opera by Henry Purcell, used between acts of an opera by Charles Gildon based on Shakespeare's play Measure for Measure. From article by Irena Cholij on Purcell's opera.

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