Alison Krauss - Bonita And Bill Butler Lyrics
I grew up in the scantling yards of Wheeling West VirginiaA wheelhouse cub looking for an open doorIn the packet ways a Sweeney wed the keel of my BonitaJust two months from her timbers til she mooredI paid the fare in billet on her maiden voyage to VicksburgAnd talked my way to hand the tiller on the courseIn her planks I carved a notch and sealed the vow 鈥æ·e my Bonita鈥br>And her dowry was my life between the shoresI was born with rouging ways, and she steered me like a womanFrom the port calls and the bawds that lead me strayThe calliope serenades, made the old towns come runningAnd the boys would gamble shards to pull her chainsThe striker鈥檚 boast would fain me loss, about the wrecks the shoals were keepingAnd how the old girl鈥檚 got poor Billy鈥檚 ransom savedOn the lake at Bistineau, she set the wharf at DixieWith a thousand bales of cotton on her mainAs the great raft disappeared, the watermark went sinkingAnd she was stuck right hard, a listing on the bankWith the furnace still a blaze, I stood my last upon herThen climbed the prow and took a landsman鈥檚 trade鈥淎 derelict now Milady鈥said the watch log I鈥æªe concorded鈥淗ave the bosun sound us eight bells for the change鈥br>Cause I was born with rouging ways, and she steered me like a womanFrom the port calls and the bawds that lead me strayThe calliope serenades, made the old towns come runningAnd the boys would gamble shards to pull her chainsAnd I would take to wider walks, so the gin I stopped a drinkingAt three scores aloft this crooked frameThe striker鈥檚 boast would fain me loss, about the wrecks the shoals were keepingAnd how the old girl鈥檚 got poor Billy鈥檚 ransom saved
