Canaday-I-O (2)

Come all ye jolly fellows,
How would you like to go
And spend the winter in the woods
Of Canaday-I-O?

We're go-ing up to Canaday
Is what we young men say,
And going up to Canada
Depends upon the pay.

It's "Sure we'll pay good wages
We'll pay your passage out
But you must sign the papers
That you will stay the route.

"But if you should get homesick
And say back home you'll go
We will not pay your passage
From Canaday-I-O"

We had a pleasant journey
The route we had to go
Then we landed in Three Rivers
in Canaday-I-O.

O, then the Norcross agent
He come a-prowlin' round
And said, "My jolly fellows
Why don't you all lay down?"

Our food the dohs would bark at
Our beds were in the snow,
We suffered worse than poison there
In Canaday-I-O.

From Folk Songs of Old New England, Linscott
Collected from Sam Young, ME, 1889
note: It is said to have been composed by Ephraim Braley...about 1854. The
song is based on an older lovesong, Caledonia, first printed in 1800
in "The Caledonian Garland" (notes from Linscott, summarized RG)

DT #377
Laws C17
RG
apr96