Lyr. Add: ROLL ON, BOYS
Sung by John D. Vass, Virginia, 1960

1
Roll on, boys,
You make your time;
I am so broke down,
I can't make mine.
2
I look at the sun,
And the sun looks high;
I look at the boss,
And close my eye.
3
Roll on, boys,
You make your dough;
I'm so broke down,
I cannot go.
4
I once was young,
As you must see;
But age has got
The best of me.
5
Roll on, boys,
The time's not long;
You'll call my name
And I'll be gone.
6
Roll on, boys,
And make your dough;
Don't look for me,
I am gone, you know.
7
Someday you'll think
Of me, I know,
When you are old
And cannot go.
8
May God but spare
You all along,
Forgive us all
For all our wrongs.

The singer said these words were uttered by an old man who'd worn himself out in a wheelbarrow gang working in the ore mines.
It may be related to the NC song, "Some of these days and it won't be long," possibly of Negro origin.

P. 47, with musical score.
Herbert Shellans, 1968, "Folk Songs of the Blue Ridge Mountains," Oak Publications.