northern territories (run him down)

[[ Based on the "Albert Johnson" case of 1931-1932 but not a slave to the page. ]]

That was never his real name.

He wasn't from around here.

He was a nothing from nowhere,

come north to disappear.

A minor legal infraction

put the Mounties on his case,

but he was no one for no one

and so began the chase.

When the game gets up to run,

all you can do,

all you can do

is run him down.

They tried negotiations;

He put a shot through the door.

They tried to reason man to man,

but he was no man anymore.

They chased him up the river;

he went over the divide.

They chased him through the winter

till one of them died.

 

And that was it, son. You don't kill a Mountie and run.

When the game gets up to run,

all you can do,

all you can do

is run him down.

Leave his carcass steaming on the ground.

Gone to Ontario

[[ Two brothers on opposite sides of the American civil war head up to a remote part of Canada for the duration. ]]

I would not raise a gun to my brother 

for the whole of the damned USA

so we're both heading up to Ontario

and keep each other out of harm's way

We will walk across the river at Niagara

where they've slung up the new suspension bridge

we'll ride out on the Great Western Railway

into the wilderness.

Maybe we'll live side by side with the Ojibwe.

Maybe we'll live on our own

Maybe we'll live on a boat on the bay

But I promise we'll live, 

and when the war ends, 

I promise we'll live and come home.

We could marry some girls of the wilderness

We could send off for brides in the mail

We could settle in the middle of nothing 

Or open an inn on the trail

Met a man said a place they call Lion's Head

Is half way between Equator and Pole
I think that's where we'll climb the escarpment
And watch the stars roll