One day I was traveling - I happened to
think,
"My pockets are empty, I can't buy a drink
I am an old bummer, completely dead broke,
And there's nothing to do but go mauling
live oak"

cho: Derry down, down, down, derry down

Well, I went right away for to see Captain
Swift
To see and find out could he give me a lift
He looked me all over from top unto toe
Said he "You're the boy that live-oaking
must go "

Then he brought out the contract that both
of us signed
To keep and secure if we both were inclined
But the very best wages that he could afford
'Twas only five dollars a month and my board

Well I had to get ready without much delay,
For the schooner was sailing the very next
day
With two pints of whiskey, a pipe and a spoon
Away we set sail for Mosquito Lagoon

Now, bluff was the game that we played every
night,
And in it Charles Douglass he took great
delight
He won my tobacco, while others cracked jokes
He said, "You'll get more when you're mauling
live oak"

Now, mauling this live oak, I'll say it's
great fun,
Especially the dry ones that makes the sweat
run
It'll make your axe handles to glimmer and
smoke -
You need iron handles for mauling live oak

It's mosquitoes by day, and it's midges by
night
The sand fleas and bedbugs, they bother me
quite,
And if ever back home my head I do poke,
To Hell I'll kick Swift and his goddam
live oak

From Minstrelsy of Maine, via Tom McHenry who blended three
versions
Recorded by the Boarding Party, Folk Legacy
@logging @work @bitching
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