You sit down for breakfast and all you have to eat Is cornbread and bulldog gravy without a bit of meat It's a hard time in old Coleman's mines A hard time poor boy In the summertime you live on cornbread and wild greens In the wintertime you live on cornbread and pinto beans It's a hard time in old Coleman's mines A hard time poor boy You go in the mines and work all day without a bit to eat Without a pair of pants to wear, no shoes upon your feet It's a hard time in old Coleman's mines A hard time poor boy When you're asked about leaving this is what you say: "We're so darn poor and ragged we can never get away" It's a hard time in old Coleman's mines A hard time poor boy You're all ragged and hungry, wearied and blue And I'm so digusted that I don't know what to do It's a hard time in old Coleman's mines A hard time poor boy Well, I will do the best I can and do you do what you like But you'd better all get together boys, and come out on a strike It's a hard time in old Coleman's mines A hard time poor boy Strike for union conditions, boys, say seventy cents a ton Stick together like big brothers, boys, till a victory you have won It's a hard times in thes old mines A hard time, I know