Dark As A Dungeon

It's as a dark as a dungeon way down in the mines
 I never will forget one time when I was on a little visit
 Down home in Ebenezer, Kentucky
 I was talking to an old man
 That had known me ever since the day I was born
 And an old friend of the family
 He says, "Son, you don't know how lucky you are
 To have a nice job like you've got
 And don't have to dig out a living
 From under these old hills and hollers
 Like me and your Pappy used to"
 When I asked him why he never had left
 And tried some other kind of work
 He says, "No sir, you just won't do that
 If ever you get this old coal dust in your blood
 You're just gonna be a plain old coal miner as long as you live"
 He went on to say it's a habit
 Sort of like chewin' tobacco
 Come and listen you fellers, so young and so fine
 And seek not your fortune in the dark dreary mines
 It will form as a habit and seep in your soul
 'Til the stream of your blood is as black as the coal
 It's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
 Where danger is double and pleasures are few
 Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
 It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mines
 It's a-many a-man I've seen in my day
 Who live just to labor his whole life away
 Like a fiend with his dope and a drunkard his wine
 A man will have lust for the lure of the mines
 I hope when I'm gone and the ages shall roll
 My body will blacken and turn into coal
 Then I'll look from the door of my heavenly home
 And pity the miner a-diggin' my bones
 Where it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
 Where the danger is double and the pleasures are few
 Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
 It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mines