I grew up in the scantling yards of Wheeling West Virginia
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A wheelhouse cub looking for an open door
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In the packet ways a Sweeney wed the keel of my Bonita
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Just two months from her timbers til she moored
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I paid the fare in billet on her maiden voyage to Vicksburg
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And talked my way to hand the tiller on the course
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In her planks I carved a notch and sealed the vow ?ūČe my Bonita?br>
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And her dowry was my life between the shores
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I was born with rouging ways, and she steered me like a woman
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From the port calls and the bawds that lead me stray
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The calliope serenades, made the old towns come running
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And the boys would gamble shards to pull her chains
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The striker?? boast would fain me loss, about the wrecks the shoals were keeping
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And how the old girl?? got poor Billy?? ransom saved
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On the lake at Bistineau, she set the wharf at Dixie
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With a thousand bales of cotton on her main
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As the great raft disappeared, the watermark went sinking
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And she was stuck right hard, a listing on the bank
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With the furnace still a blaze, I stood my last upon her
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Then climbed the prow and took a landsman?? trade
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?? derelict now Milady?said the watch log I??e concorded
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??ave the bosun sound us eight bells for the change?br>
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Cause I was born with rouging ways, and she steered me like a woman
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From the port calls and the bawds that lead me stray
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The calliope serenades, made the old towns come running
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And the boys would gamble shards to pull her chains
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And I would take to wider walks, so the gin I stopped a drinking
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At three scores aloft this crooked frame
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The striker?? boast would fain me loss, about the wrecks the shoals were keeping
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And how the old girl?? got poor Billy?? ransom saved
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Bonita And Bill Butler
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| Alison Krauss |
