| HOW WE LOGGED KATAHDIN STREAM |
Come all ye river-drivers, if a tale you wish to hear
The likes for strength and daring all the North Woods has no peer:
'Twas the summer of 1860 when we took a brave ox team
And a grand bully band of braggarts up to log Katahdin Stream. |
 | Chorus: So, it's Hi derry, Ho derry, Hi derry, Down!
When our driving is over we'll come into town!
Make ready, ye maidens, for frolic and song!
When the woodsman has whiskey, then naught can go wrong! |
Bold Gattigan was foreman, he's the pride of Bangor's Town,
And there was no other like Chauncey for to mow the great pines down;
Joe Murphraw was the swamper, with Canada Jacques Dupree.
We'd the best camp cook in the wildernessI know, for it was me. |
We left from Millinocket on such a misty day
We dulled our axes chopping the fog to clear ourselves a way,
Till at last we reached the bottom of Mount Katahdin's peaks supreme
And vowed that we within the week would clear Katahdin Stream. |
O, Chauncey chopped and Murph he swamped and Canada Jacques did swear,
Bold Gattigan goaded the oxen on and shouted and tore his hair,
Till the wildwood rang with "Timber!" as the forest monarchs fell,
And the air was split with echoes of our ax-blows and our yell. |
For six whole days and twenty-three hours we threshed the forest clean
The logs we skidded by hundreds, O, such a drive was never seen!
We worked clear round the mountain, and rejoiced to a jovial strain,
When what did we see but that forest of trees was a-growing in again! |
Then all of a sudden the mountain heaved, and thunder spoke out of the earth!
"Who's walking around in my beard?" it cried, and it rumbled as though in mirth.
The next we knew, a hand appearedno larger than Moosehead Lake
And it plucked us daintily one by one, while we with fear did quake! |
Paul Bunyan held s in one hand! With the other he rubbed his chin.
"Well I'll be swamped! You fellers have logged my beard right down to the skin!"
"We thought you was Mount Katahdin," attigan shouted into his ear,
"We're sorry, but 'twouldn't have happened if the weather had been clear." |
Well, good old Paul didn't mind it at all. He paid us for the shave
A hundred dollars apiece to the men, to the oxen fodder he gave.
And now, ye young river-drivers, fill your glassesfill mine too
And we'll drink to the health of Bold Gattigan, and his gallant lumbering crew! |
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