The words that Peter Paul and Mary sing mostly come from a version in Baring Goulds A Garland of Country Song, first published in London 1895.. That is the tune, too. The song apparently Crossed over the pond. However, the words are very different and the feeling is different. It sounds like a Jim Crow protest, asking the question in the jazz song, “What did I do to be so black and blue?” Baring Gould collected it from an old laborer. The word someone asked about is transcribed as hoardin. Makes sense for it to be a sign board.

Here are the words:
I looked in the East, I looked in the West,
For Fortune a chance to Me accordin
But fortune is a blind god flyin in the clouds
Forgettin me on this side of Jordan
Pull off your old coat, and roll up your sleeves,
LIfe is a hard road to travel I believes.

Thunder in the clouds, and lightening in the trees
Shelter to my head no leaf affordin
Battered by the hailstones, beaten by the breeze
That’s my lot on this side o Jordan. (Pull...)

Silver spoons to some mouths, golden spoons to others
Providence unequally awardin
Dash it! THough they tells us all of us be brothers
Don’t see it clearly this side o Jordan.

Like a ragged owlet with its wings expanded
Nailed against a garden door or hoardin
That am I by good folk as a rascal branded
Never hunted none o this side Jordan.

Aloft a pretty cherub patchin up o blunders
My troubles and distresses is recording
Will there come a whirl about? Better times I wonders
Een to me on tother side of Jordan?

I apologize, my keyboard doesn’t do apostrophes except when Spellcheck catches something. So that is the Baring Gould British version, collected in North Devon.