IX.
The songs of this group relate to various occupational pursuits. Of course, many of those listed elsewhere could be placed here also.
The Moonshiner, 4aa, 3: "For seventeen years I've made moonshine whiskey for one dollar per gallon, at my still in a dark hollow. I wish all would attend to their business and leave me to mine. God bless the moonshiner!"
Walking-boss, metre as below, 3: A teamster's song in couplets, with refrain, beginning:
Get up in the morning 'way before day,
Feed old Beck some corn and hay.
Get up in the morning soon, soon;
Get up in the morning soon.
The Steel-driver, ii, 4a3b4c3b, 11: John Henry, proud of his skill with sledge and hand-drill, competes with a modern steam-drill in Tunnel No. Nine, on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. Defeated, he dies, asking to be buried with his tools at his breast.
Rosin the Bow, 3abcb, 4: A lyric of an old fiddler buoyant even in the face of approaching death: he asks for wine and women at his funeral rites.
Rosin the Bow: a fragment as follows:
I'll tune up my fiddle, I'll rosin my bow,
And make myself welcome wherever I go.
The Old Shoemaker, 4a3b4c3b and 4a3b4c3b, 4: Lately become a freeman, with five pounds laid up, and half a side of leather, he sings of Kate, the woman to make his content complete.
The Farmer's Boy, ii, 4a3b4c3b, 9: An orphan lad, he obtains employment from the farmer, later to marry his daughter and inherit thus the farm.
Old Gray, 6aabb, 5: Song of a teamster, who, lured by the still-house, hauls four loads of coal per day, instead of six; becoming drunk, he rides Old Gray off to a country frolic one night, whither his father follows him, and brings him back to his duty in the morning.
The Waggoner's Lad, ii, 2abcb (or 4aa), 15: A complaint, arranged as a debat, of a lorn and loving lass against the teamster lad, as he departs from her.
Old Number Four (The F. F. V., Stockyard Gate), ii, 6aabb, 10ca: George Allen, engineer, stays at the throttle as train Number Four on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad plunges into a fallen boulder near Hinton, W. Va., and bids his fireman jump to safety, while he himself dies a hero's death.
[Railroad Boy], 4a3b4c3b and 4a3b4c3b, 5: A maiden's song in scorn of all men save the railroad conductor, with his striped shirt, handsome face, and diamond ring.
The Old Miller, 4aabb, 7: Dying, he questions his sons in order to choose one of them as his successor in the mill. Dick will take a peck as toll from each bushel; Ralph will take half; Paul will take all. But his wife assumes direction at his death.
Lynchburg Town, 4a3b4c3b, 3: A teamster's song as he takes his tobacco to the Lynchburg (Va.) market.