I have been doing some research into songs about camping, and my speculation is that the original verse

I pitch my tent on this camp ground,
   few days, few days.
And give old Satan another round,
And I am going home.
I can't stay in these diggin's,
   few days, few days.
I can't stay in these diggin's,
I am going home.

derives from a camp meeting song, which was ripe for parody in or around 1954. The Christy Minstrel's version (above) is consistent with a parody still set in a camp meeting setting, although the other versions, which I presume follow that one, take it into political directions, whether know-nothing or abolitionism, or gold-mining.

--Charlie Baum