Concerning Charlie Horse

(album: The Hard & The Easy - 2005)

Come all ye friends I'll sit you down
And sing an oleful ditty,
T'was on a day in April month
We started from the city
We planned a day or two at Mahers
We stalwart men were chosen
To remove ol' Charlie from Angle Pond,
Who fell in when the pond was frozen.

We seven men came roaring down
On the road to Roaches Line,
We might have stopped in Avondale or Brigus might have been fine,
We was hungry as sin but we never stopped in
Nor took any time to park us,
We all of us knew that we must get through to remove old Charlie's carcass.

Here's to Charlie Horse, here's to Shave the Master
No better horse ne'er ran the course nor pulled the logs more faster,
Here's to Charlie Horse and I wants ye all to know,
Charlie's gone to the big corral where all good horses go.

In the car was Ol' Pocket Comb and beside him Old Moose Coosten,
And Barracuda Bill and Jimmy Clark in the back seat he was roosting
There was Smiley Stubborn and the Mounted Police
It wasn't hard to find him,
And Johnny Pollack and Sagebrush Sam was sitting right in beside him.
Kevin and Buck was also there, but they brought some brawn and brains,
They was aiming to help as best they could to remove old Chuck's remains,
Charlie was like a brother to Shave and he loved him well of course,
Charlie was a very good man you see although he'd been a horse.

Here's to Charlie Horse, here's to Shave the Master
No better horse ne'er ran the course nor pulled the logs more faster,
Here's to Charlie Horse and I want ye all to know,
Charlie's gone to the big corral where all good horses go.

Now I'll spare you all the gruesome details
And just relate the end.
With two stout dories and a few strong ropes
We removed old Shavey's friend,
We gave him a decent send off with all our hats removed,
So long as we helped old Shave and his friend, our loyalty was proved.
Somewhere up in the great beyond his eyes are shining bright,
Charlie nods an approving nod cause he knows we did him right.
Shave will join him there one day and he'll bring the harness leather,
And so and for all of eternity they'll pull the logs together.

Here's to Charlie Horse, here's to Shave the Master
No better horse ne'er ran the course nor pulled the logs more faster,
Here's to Charlie Horse and I want ye all to know,
Charlie's gone to the big corral where all good horses go.