Ballad of Springhill

In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia
Down in the dark of The Cumberland Mine
There's blood on the coal and the miners lie
In the roads that never saw sun nor sky
Roads that never saw sun nor sky

In the town of Springhill, you don't sleep easy
Often the earth will tremble and roll
When the earth is restless, miners die
Bone and blood is the price of coal

In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia
Late in the year of fifty-eight
Day still comes and the sun still shines
But it's dark as the grave in the Cumberland Mine
Down at the coal face, miners working
Rattle of the belt, and the cutter's blade
Rumble of rock and the walls close round
The living and the dead men two miles down

Twelve men lay two miles from the pitshaft
Twelve men lay in the dark and sang
Long hot days in a miner's tomb
It was three feet high and a hundred long

Three days passed and the lamps gave out
And Caleb Rushton, he up and said :
"There's no more water nor light nor bread
So we'll live on hope and songs instead."

Listen for the shouts of the bareface miners
Listen through the rubble for a rescue team
Six hundred feet of coal and a slag
Hope imprisoned in a three foot seam

Eight days passed and some were rescued
Leaving the dead to die alone
Through all their lives they dug a grave
Two miles of earth for a marking stone