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MARRIAGE, by                    
First Line: There's a girl at calabogie an' another at the soo
Last Line: With the girl from calabogie, or the other at the soo.


THERE's a girl at Calabogie an' another at the Soo,
An' with sparkin' and colloguin', I've been foolish with the two;
But I'm foolish now for ever, an' worst of all it come
From a girl I thought was dacint when I used to live at home.

She could dance to bate the fairies that my gran'mother 'ud tell
Over there in Ireland ha'nted what they call the "holy well."
She was purty as a wood-duck whin you see him on a tree,
But so proud and independint that she'd never look at me.

So it made me feel onaisy, an' I drifted far away,
An' I wint to Calabogie a workin' by the day.
Of any kind of money the place is mighty bare,
But a girl that took my fancy happened to be livin' there.

Still the other down the river -- how I'd dream of her at night!
Spite of all the times I'd wish her gone completely out o' sight,
For she used to spile the comfort with the new wan that I had,
An' a little consolation sure I needed purty bad.

Thin the times begin to slacken, an' I'm gettin' hard up too,
So good-bye to Calabogie, an' I started for the Soo;
An' the girl I left behind me? Lord knows, it's hard to tell,
But another came between, an' she liked me just as well.

Whin you speak of bad luck comin', mine is worse nor any man's --
Think of all the good intintions an' with two o' thim on my han's!
One of thim at Calabogie, an' the other at the Soo,
An' engaged to both, it's hard to say exactly what to do.

The Cobalt-silver fever was the worst that's ever known,
An' it came in purty handy in cases like my own;
Besides of all the chances, 't was the one I fancied best,
So I had to go prospectin' jus' the same as all the rest.

An' the girls, of course they suffered, for I hadn't time to write,
Divil a thing but pick an' shovel, an' workin' day an' night, --
Till a dacint wild-cat claim I sold for fifteen thousand too --
Now I sez, "It's all a toss-up -- Calabogie or the Soo?"

Calabogie won it aisy, but, the next thing that I heard,
She got tired o' waitin' for me whin she never got a word;
So she married John Mahaffy -- "little John" that runs the farm,
An' the only thing she wished me was, "I'd never come to harm."

An' the Soo girl done the same thing -- took a brakesman on a freight;
An' in Winnipeg they're livin', so I come a trifle late;
But I'm not afeared to visit Calabogie or the Soo,
For I've tried to to do my duty, an' sure ayther wan 'ud do!

Well, I stood it for a little an' thin home agin I wint,
For with fifteen thousand dollars, any man should be contint,
An' the girl that used to give me many a beautiful heartache,
Sure I was n't back a fortnight, till I seen her at a wake.

Quiet now! No palpitation! Watch yerself, my laddy buck,
Take your time -- don't get excited -- maybe you'll have better luck.
Then she said her darlin' mother missed me for a year or more,
'T would have saved some trouble if her mother spoke like that before.

"Wan thing leadeth to another" sez the poet -- dunno who,
But we purty soon got married, so the prophecy come true;
An' whinever all my fortune's settled on the daughter sure,
Some wan seen the mother dance a sailor's hornpipe on the floor.

It's no wonder I'm distracted whin the two o' thim'll say,
"Oh! Patrick, mind the baby, sure you got out yesterday" --
Lord forgive me, I'd be happy if the ould wan only died,
But she's healthy as a tom-cat an' she couldn't if she tried.

I suppose I'm doin' pinance for the sins of airly youth,
Tho' I blame it on the women -- they betrayed me -- that's the truth.
But for all I know about thim, 't would have been the same thing too,
With the girl from Calabogie, or the other at the Soo.





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