Aaron Smith & the Coal Biters - The Snow Child

Frank Flood came home in the autumn
Came home from the horrors of the war
To a widowed mother
And a farm in disrepair
He bent his back to labor
And he sought his fortune there
In those fields his father had cleared
In the shadow of Mount Hersey

By the time the winter came he had a wife
Before it came again he had a son
And that house filled up with laughter
And those paper-thin cries
While the fields they filled with produce
And the pastures filled with life
All the memories of the war
Began to fade in the shadow of Mount Hersey

But the child grew ill
And in two years died
They laid him to rest on the mountain side
A little coffin by his grandfather’s grave
In the shadow of Mount Hersey

And again Frank bent his back to labor
And he built and tilled and he plowed
He found a measure of peace
Just in working with his hands
And it kept his mind off things
When he was minding to his land
On that farm his father had set
In the shadow of Mount Hersey

When the winter came again
He was laying up wood
By the family plot where two stones stood
And when he went home for dinner
He left behind his axe
And snow began to fall
By the time that Frank turned back
Old Bounce was baying at the darkness
In the shadow of Mount Hersey

And by the axe a boy
Stood trembling in the cold
And he bore a strong resemblance
And he was only two years old
And Frank searched the lands around him
But he never found a soul
Who could tell him
How that child had come to be
In the shadow of Mount Hersey

So Frank took the child into his home
And he brought the family comfort
And they claimed him as their own
He was the only snowchild ever found
In the shadow of Mount Hersey