The Black Well

They could feel the way the ground shook that dusty, August day They could hear that tipple working from a mile or two away He smiled, and softly whispered There's money in those hills She gripped his hand so tightly to try and share the thrill They arrived late in the summer of 1922 The lush valley of Aberdare was all they ever knew Those hills like painted tigers with bands of browns and blacks They knew once they were off that train there was no going back He was twenty-three, and she just seventeen Lookin' for the better life that they had always dreamed But you can't spell Drumheller without H-E-double-L 'N there ain't no wishes granted down the Black Well They met his aunt and uncle; who got them at the station Two familiar faces filled them both with jubilation And early the next morning he met with foreman Dan She became a lonely woman; he became an Atlas man Then one Monday morning the boom was extra loud A lonely siren hung there amid the thick, grey cloud Thank God her prayers were answered as they pulled him from the din Alive; with flecks of coal dust embedded in his skin He was twenty-three, and she just seventeen Lookin' for the better life that they had always dreamed But you can't spell Drumheller without H-E-double-L 'N there ain't no wishes granted down the Black Well That's when they got free and moved out to the coast But part of him was lost that day, and left her with his ghost He proudly wore those freckles, but those tales he'd never tell Of how he had a lasting souvenir of the Black Well He was twenty-three, and she just seventeen Lookin' for the better life that they had always dreamed But you can't spell Drumheller without H-E-double-L 'N there ain't no wishes granted down the Black Well