Song of the Artesian water

Now the stock have started dying, for the Lord has sent a drought;
But we're sick of prayers and Providence - we're going to do without;
With the derricks up above us and the solid earth below,
We are waiting at the lever for the word to let her go.
Sinking down, deeper down,
Oh, we'll sink it deeper down:
The drill is plugging downward at a thousand feet of level,
If the Lord won't send us water, oh, we'll get it from the devil;
Yes, we'll get it from the devil deeper down.

Sinking down, deeper down,
Oh, we'll sink it deeper
Down bidee roodah yo
To the devil deeper down

Now, our engine's built in Glasgow by a very canny Scot,
And he marked it twenty horse-power, but he don't know what is what:
When Canadian Bill is firing with the sun-dried gidgee logs,
She can equal thirty horses and a score or so of dogs.
Sinking down, deeper down,
Oh, we'll sink it deeper down:
If we fail to get the water, then it's ruin to the squatter,
For the drought is on the station and the weather's growing hotter,
Yes, the weather's growing hotter deeper down.

But the shaft has started caving and the sinking's very slow,
And the yellow rods are bending in the water down below,
the tubes are always jamming, and they can't be made to shift
Till we nearly burst the engine with a forty horse-power lift.
Sinking down, deeper down,
Oh, we'll sink it deeper down:
the shaft is always caving, and the tubes are always jamming,
Yet we'll fight our way to water while the stubborn drill is ramming -
the stubborn drill is ramming deeper down.

But there's no artesian water, though we've passed three thousand feet,
And the contract price is growing, and the boss is nearly beat.
But it must be down beneath us, and it's down we've got to go,
Though she's bumping on the solid rock four thousand feet below.
Sinking down, deeper down,
Oh, we'll sink it deeper down:
it's time they heard us knocking on the roof of Satan's dwellin';
we'll get artesian water if we cave the roof of hell in -
we'll cave the roof of hell in deeper down.

But it's hark! the whistle's blowing with a wild, exultant blast,
And the boys are madly cheering, for they've struck the flow at last;
it's rushing up the tubing from four thousand feet below,
Till it spouts above the casing in a million-gallon flow.
It comes from down, deeper down --
Oh, it comes from deeper down;
Its flowing, ever flowing, in a free, unstinted measure
From the silent hidden places where the old earth hides her treasure --
the earth is hidin’ treasure deeper down.

Deeper down, deeper down,
Oh it comes from deeper
Down bidee roodah yo
From the devil deeper down

And it's clear away the timber, and it's let the water run:
How it glimmers in the shadow, how it flashes in the sun!
By the silent bells of timber, by the miles of blazing plain
It is bringing hope and comfort to the thirsty land again.
flowing down, deeper down;
Oh it flows from deeper down
To the tortured thirsty cattle, bringing gladness in its going;
Through the droughty days of summer its flowing, ever flowing --
Its flowing, ever flowing, deeper down.

Flowing down, deeper down,
Oh it flows from deeper
Down bidee roodah yo
From the devil deeper down