I was just the age of sixteen when I first went on the drive,
And after six months' hard labour at home I did arrive,
I courted with a pretty girl, 'twas her caused me to roam,
Sure I'm a river driver and I'm far away from home.
I'll eat when I am hungry and I'll drink when I am dry,
Get drunk when I am ready, get sober bye and bye,
And if this river don't drown me it's down I mean to roam,
Sure I'm a river driver and I'm far away from home.5

This song shows that the woods workers were often quite young. The person in this song is only sixteen.

photo of four men standing outside of a log cabin
Credit: PANL NA 2362.
Hewlitt's Camp, circa 1930s.

5 Kenneth Peacock, Songs of the Newfoundland Outports, PEA 132 No. 913. Collected from John T. O'Quinn, Shearstown, July, 1959.