Sully's Pail - Tom Paxton

作词：Tom Paxton

作曲：Tom Paxton

I've a thing or two ta tell ya

That I think you ought to know

About that rusty bucket Sully carries down below

You're not the first one stranger

That has laughed at Sully's Pail

You're the only one that's laughing now

The rest has heard this tale

Sure when we was young and handsome

Had ten years in the game

Old Sull he had a partner and Jim Rielly was his name

They had knocked about together

Bingham Butte and Coeur D'Alene

And they brawled in every bar-room

From Ely to Fort McLean

Now me and old Ted Johnson

Sure you'll not remember him

We was working at the Rarus

Had a stope with Sull and Jim

The four of us together

We was working side-by-side

That's how I chanced to be there

On the night Jim Reilly died

Well the blastin' had been easy

It was coming out like sand

And we was muckin' out the ore

Those days we mucked by hand

And we was nearly finished

And I hadn't heard a sound

But something must have happened

For Jim Reilly yelled Bad ground

When we headed for the timb'ring

Sully must've took a spill

For when we looked back in there

He was pinned beneath his drill

The ceiling it was groaning now

All set to drop the lid

And Sully pinned beneath his drill

Was sobbing like a kid

Well there's some can watch their partners die

Not throw their lives away

But Reilly wasn't one of them

He wasn't built that way

As soon's he seed what happened

Hey hold on there Sull he cried

And before he had the words out

He had thrown the drill aside

They come around the ore car

Reilly wearing a big grin

Guess he never knew what happened

When the hanging wall caved in

Sully reached the timb'ring his face as white as chalk

And Reilly two yards back of him

Caught fifteen tons of rock

That day Sully's pail was buried

He ate from Reilly's pail in tears

And he's carried that same bucket now

For more than twenty years

So you can laugh at Sull because

He's mean and drinks a lot

But don't laugh at Sully's bucket

That's the only friend he's got