Mos' ev'ryman lak de robin An' it's pleasan' for hear heem sing,
Affer de winter 's over An' it 's comin' anoder spring.
De snow 's hardly off de mountain An' it's cole too among de
But you know w'en he sing, de sout' win' Is crowdin' heem close behin' .
An' mebbe you hear de grosbec Sittin' above de nes'-An' you see by de way he 's goin' De ole man 's doin' hees bes'Makin' de wife an' baby Happy as dey can be-An' proud he was come de fader Such fine leetle familee.
De gouglou of course he 's nicer Dan many bird dat fly,
Dunno w'at we do widout heem, But offen I wonder
He can't stay quiet a minute Lak res' of de small
An' finish de song he's startin' Till whish! an' away he go!
Got not'ing to say agen dem, De gouglou an' all de res'-'Cept only dey lak de comfort, An' come w'en it suit dem bes'-For soon as de summer 's passin' An' leaf is begin to fall-You'll wálk t'roo de wood an' medder An' never hear wan bird call.
But come wit' me on de winter On place w'ere de beeg tree
De smoke of de log house chimley Will tole you de way to go-An' if you 're not too unlucky De w'iskey jack dere you'll
Flyin' aroun' de shaintee An' dat was de bird for me.
You 'll mebbe not lak hees singin' Dough it 's better dan not'ing too,
For affer he do hees bes', den W'at more can poor Johnnie do?
It 's easy job sing on summer De sam ' as de rossignol-But out of door on de winter Jus' try youse'f -dat 's all.
See heem dere, now he's comin' Hoppin' an' hoppin' aroun' W'en we start on de morning early For work till de sun go down-T'row heem hees piece of breakfas' An' hear heem say "merci bien",
For he's fond on de pork, ba golly! Sam ' as de Canayen.
De noise of de axe don't scare heem He stay wit' us all de day,
An' w'en he was feelin' lak' it Ride home wit' de horse an' sleigh.
Den affer we reach de shaintee He 's waitin' to see us
Jompin' upon de log dere Good leetle w'iskey lack!
So here 's to de bird of winter Wearin' de coonskin coat,
W'enever it 's bird election You bet he can get ma vote-Dat 's way I be feel about it, Voyageurs let her go today!
W'iskey jack, get ready, we drink you Toujours à vot' bonne santé! Baptême!
