The Happy Miner
Air: I Get in a Weaving Way
Put's Golden Songster:
containing the largest and most popular collection of California songs ever published
by John A Stone
San Francisco : D.E. Appleton & Co., 1858
- I am a happy miner, I love to sing and dance;
I wonder what my love would say, if she could see my pants,
With canvas patches on the knees, and one upon the stern;
I'll wear them while I'm digging here, and home when I return.
CHORUS
So I get in a jovial way, I spend my money free,
And I've got plenty, will you drink lager beer with me?
- She writes about her poodle-dog, but never thinks to say,
"O, do come home, my honey dear. I'm pining all away."
I'll write her half a letter, then give the ink a tip;
If that don't bring her to her milk, I'll coolly "let her rip."
CHORUS- So I get in a jovial way, &c.
- They wish to know if I can cook, and what I have to eat,
And tell me should I take a cold be sure to soak my feet;
But when they talk of cooking, I'm mighty hard to beat-
I've made ten thousand loaves of bread the d---l could not eat.
CHORUS- So I get in a jovial way, &c.
- I like a lazy partner, so I can take my ease,
Lay down and talk of going home, as happy as you please;
Without a thing to eat or drink, away from care and grief,
I'm fat and saucy, ragged too, and tough as Spanish beef.
CHORUS- So I get in a jovial way, &c.
- The dark-eyed señoritas are very fond of me,
You ought to see us throw ourselves when we get on a spree;
We are as saucy as a clipper ship dashing round the horn;
Head and tail up, like a steer rushing through the corn.
CHORUS- So I get in a jovial way, &c.
- I never changed my fancy shirt, the one I wore away,
Until it got so rotten I finally had to say,
"Farewell, old standing collar, in all thy pride of starch,
I've worn thee from December till the seventeenth of March."
CHORUS- So I get in a jovial way, &c.
- No matter whether rich or poor, I'm happy as a clam,
I wish my friends at home could look and see me as I am,
With woolen shirt and rubber boots, in mud up to my knees,
And lice as large as Chili beans fighting with the fleas.
CHORUS- So I get in a jovial way, &c.
- I'll mine for half an ounce a day, perhaps a little less;
But when it comes to China pay I cannot stand the press;
Like thousands here, I'll make a pile, if I make one at all,'About the time the allied forces take Sevastopol.
CHORUS- So I get in a jovial way, &c.
Possible tune. From Old Irish folk music and songs : a collection of 842 Irish airs and songs, hitherto unpublished (1909) by the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland.
