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Railway
Woes
(Shoal
Harbour Line)
Let her go.
Sure as I went a-walking one morning in May
A-viewing those workers down on the railway
Beneath my feet where the water do flow
All things looked pleasant wherever I go
I met an old man from the head of the bay
Who spent twenty summers down on the railway
"Good morning oh skipper and don't you look fine
And how do you like the work on the Shoal Harbour Line?"
The old man he gazed on me with saddened
surprise
I then saw the anger that came in his eyes
"I think you're a Bayman and don't you look fine
How do you like the work on the Shoal Harbour Line?
"You'll go to the grocery provisions to
buy
Old Parsons looks on you he then winks his eyes
I think you're a Bayman and don't you look fine
I'll give you a tip on the Shoal Harbour Line
"You'll go to the dairy some milk for
to buy
They'll tell you it's the richest that comes from our cow
But it's only salt water they mix up so fine
And they sell it for milk on the Shoal Harbour Line
"Sure it is for the molasses my God it
is bad
Sure it is for the fatback it would drive you mad
Sure it is for the flour it's only slaked lime
And t'would give you beriberi on the shoal Harbour Line
"To boil you a kettle they'll charge
you ten cents
And fifty to stick up a camp by the fence
To sew on a button they'll charge you a dime
Sure that is the rule on the Shoal Harbour Line>'
Sure now I'll go home to the head of the bay
No more from Old Collier's no more will I stray
I'll sit myself down with sweet Anna Devine
And I'll tell her the rules on the Shoal Harbour Line
That's lovely.
Very good.
Recorded by Wilf Doyle in 1958;
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