I Come Down from the Mountain

I come down from the mountain head to toe in coal
I wash my hands in the river and I take my body home
Rounding round that corner the kids are hoe’in corn
Mama hollers out ‽hey children now your daddy’s homeâ€.
Daddy will you take us to the mountain?
He said, ‽the coal mines is a place that you should fear.
I take my body to the mountain but my heart and soul stay here
The sun is goin down but the work is hardly done
Girls go down the hill to the well to make a water run.
Boys are cutting wood till a cord or so is done
We sit down to dinner of bacon back and pon.
Mamas sewing dresses out of flour sacks
kid are doing lessons with coal on paper bags
Daddys' playin guitar singin gospel songs
Mama backs with tenor and us kids we sing along
Winter walked to school in bare feet .We wrapped our feet in rags
Left our blood in the snow and ice. And when we got there we was glad
Rich kids by the school house eye’in our apple bags.
We’d trade two bags that we carried from the holler for the one orange that
they had.