I am a jolly shantyboy, I love to sing and dance,
I wonder what my girl would say if she could see my pants,
Fourteen patches on the knees and sixteen on the stern.
I wear them while I'm in the woods, then home I do return.
And I'm on my jovial way and I'll spend my money free,
I have plenty, come and drink a lager beer with me.
In the autumn of the year it's to the woods I go
With my axe and my saw by my side, lumbering through the snow.
In the spring and on the drive the pine logs I will burl.
All the time I'll be thinkin' about the lovely Gatineau girls.
I love the girls of Gatineau, they are so trim and neat,
they are so slim around the waist, their kisses are so sweet.
Mary-Anne and Josephine, and likewise Jenny, too.
Along with some of the Gatineau girls, I'll roam this country through.
We often go on dancin', we dance all night, you see.
And often all the girls, they grow so very fond of me.
We dance all night 'Til broad daylight, we dance until the morn',
Head and tail off like a steer, a-running through the corn.
And when the drive is over, the boys are at the mill,
It's good-bye to the bullcook and the foreman they call Will.
The shanty life is over and to the south I'll go
To dance through the fields with the girls of Gatineau.