The Abandoned Claim - Parody
Air:
Put's Original California Songster
Sacramento: Gardiner & Kirk, 1854
Not a doubt was heard, nor discouraging thought,
As to prospect our claim we hurried;
Not a partner but hoped, as he plnnted his foot
On the spot where our fortures lay buried.
We dug it down bravely from morning till night,
The dirt on our shovels uplifting,
By the scorching sunbeams' dazzling light
And the sands most blindly sifting.
No paying dirt we found on the ledge,
Not the color of prospect to cheer us,
As we sat on the bank looking over the edge,
With our idle tools lying near us.
We thought as we sadly picked up our tools,
And prepared for a leave in a hurry,
How that miners hereafter would say we were fools,
As the claim would tell them our story.
Lightly they'll speak of the work we have done
And o'er our ill fortune will joke us,
But little care we for their jeers or their fun,
For digging this claim has not broke us.
The whole of this fruitless task was just done,
As the sun down the west was retiring,
And we heard the welcome and well-known gun
That our cook was suddenly firing.
Slowly but surely we dug out our bounds
From the hill where't had rested for ages;
We threw out the dirt, and we rolled out the stones,
And left it all bare on the ledges.