Your Tool Box Will Be Raffled By-And-Bye (1899)
I must shortly leave the banker,
For my card is long exempt,
The fire of youth has vanished from my eye,
And the saddest thought to-day
Is that when I've paesed away
My tool box will be raffled by-and-bye.
Chorus :
I have roamed around the country,
But I'm getting stiff and old,
And now I'm travelling home again to die,
Though you're young and strong to-day
Yet the years will pass away,
And your tool box will be raffled by-and-bye.
When I was but a 'prentice lad
just starting at the trade
Some chump would make me mad enough to cry,
But I heeded not his chaff,
For the saying made me laugh,
That his tool box would be raffled by-and-bye
When I became a journeyman,
And started on the road,
With pockets light, but spirits always high,
I was never known to, shirk
From the hardest kind of work--
But, my tool box will be raffled by-and-bye.
Sometimes I thought it hard,
When I struck a stranger's yard,
And a " rumper " worked with malice in his eye,
But I merely used to grin,
As I said, " My boy go in",
But your tool box will be raffled by-and-bye.
You may often meet a sneak
Who, with manners soft and meek,
Will do his best to down you on the sly ,
Keep your eye upon the lad,
Let the saying make you glad
That his tool box will be raffled by-and-bye.
I must end my little song,
And be jogging right along ;
My journey's end is drawing very nigh--
Take my advice : be fair,
Act the man upon the square,
For your tool box will be raffled by-and-bye.
Notes
From the Wagga NSW newspaper the Worker Saturday 14 January 1899, p. 3.