Digital Tradition Mirror

The Young Man From Canada

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Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

The Young Man From Canada

1.  I'm a young man from Canada some six feet in my shoes
    I left my home for Cariboo on the first exciting news
    In New York City I met a gent introduced himself to me
    Said I, "I come from Canada so you can't come over me." (bis)

2.  I sailed on the crazy Champion all in the steerage too
    I thought I'd got among the fiends or other horrid crew
    If you had only seen them feed, it quite astonished me
    And I'd been years in Canada in a lumberman's shanty

3.  With seventy-five upon my back I came the Douglas way
    And at an easy-going pace made thirty miles a day
    I landed here without a dime in 1863
    But I'd been years in Canada, 'twas nothing new to me

4.  In best of homespun I was clad so I was warmly dressed
    The wool it grew near Montreal in a place called Canada West
    On Williams Creek they called me green and Johnny come lately
    But, ah, I came from Canada, I ain't from the old country

5.  I started out my mining life by chopping cord wood
    But I was born with axe in hand so I could use it good
    My chum was from the state of Maine, somewhere near Tennessee
    But, ah, I came from Canada and he couldn't chop with me

6.  In a short time I'd made a raise and bought into a claim
    There they called me engineer or carman, 'tis the same
    The drifters then did try it on to boss it over me
    Said I, "I come from Canada and I'm on the shoulderee."

7.  In two weeks I got a div which drove away all care
    I went over to the wake-ups and had a bully square
    I danced all night till broad daylight and a gal smiled sweet on me
    Said I, "I come from Canada and I'm on the marry-ee."

8.  Now all young men who are in love and sure I am there's some
    Don't count your chicks before they're hatched or they may never come
    O when I asked that girl to wed she only laughed at me
    "You may come from Canada but you can't come over me."

- ed. by PJT from Sawney's Letters and Cariboo Rhymes (c. 1860's)
and set initially to "Tramps & Hawkers": set in Thomas' Songs of
the Pacific Northwest to tune of original "Young Man from the
Country".
JB
apr97

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!