recorded · 1873 · north noemic · ferry-side
i went out to the harbour to wait for the ferry. the ferry was not running. i went out the next day to wait for the ferry. the ferry was not running. i went out the third day, the fog was a wall — and a ferry came in, but it was not the one, and a man got off, but he was not the one, and i stood there as long as a stranger could.
sung slowly, on two notes, with a held breath where the ferry docks. printed without a name in a chapbook of working songs of the lower coast. older versions end on the fifth line; the eighth was added at some point by someone who had waited longer.
used as a waiting song — in harbours, in waiting rooms, by patient people who wished not to look at the clock. the ferry that arrives in the song is never the one expected. nobody thinks this is sad. it is the arithmetic of fog.