Sully's Pail

I've a thing or two ta tell ya that I think you ought to know

About that rusty bucket Sully carries down below

You're not the first one stranger, that has laughed at Sully's Pail

You're the only one that's laughing now, the rest has heard this tale

Sure, when we was young and had some, had ten years in the game

Old Sull, he had a partner and Jim Reilly was his name

They had knocked about together, Bingham, Butte, and Coeur D'Alene

And they brawled in every bar-room from Ely to Fort McLean

Now me and old Ted Johnson, sure you'll not remember him

We was working at the Rarus had a stope with Sull and Jim

The four of us together, we was working side-by-side

That's how I chanced to be there on the night Jim Reilly died

Well, the blastin' had been easy, it was coming out like sand

And we was muckin' out the ore, those days we mucked by hand

And we was nearly finished, and I hadn't heard a sound

But something must have happened, for Jim Reilly yelled - bad ground

When we headed for the timb'ring, Sully must've took a spill

For when we looked back in there, he was pinned beneath his drill

The ceiling, it was groaning now, all set to drop the lid

And Sully, pinned beneath his drill, was sobbing like a kid

Well, there's men can watch their partners die, not throw their lives away

But Reilly wasn't one of them, he wasn't built thatway

As soon's he seed what happened, “Hey, hold on there, Sull!” he cried

And before he had the words out, he had thrown the drill aside

They come around the ore car, Reilly wearing a big grin

Guess he never knew what happened when the hanging wall caved in

Sully reached the timb'ring, his face as white as chalk

And Reilly, two yards back of him, caught fifteen tons of rock

That day Sully's pail was buried, he ate from Reilly's pail in tears

And he's carried that same bucket now for more than twenty years

So, you can laugh at Sull because he's mean and drinks a lot

But don't laugh at Sully's bucket, that's the only friend he's got