Lyrics:

spoken:
Sho' enough, late one Sunday morning, mister Charlie's mill caught on fire. Which he'd forgot about what he had told the little boy. The little boy run up to him, he was cleaning out his front yard, makin' it beautiful with them rose bushes, you know with them red rose bushes you know how to keep 'em red those rose bushes, and the little boy run up there, tapped him on his back, and he raised up and said 'Hey son, why here's you again.'

'Ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye' and he was pointing back toward the mill, tryin' to tell him his rollin' mill was on fire. So mister Charlie said, 'I ain't got time to fool with you.' So the little boy stuttered too bad for him to understand. So mister Charlie stooped over him again, he pat him on the back, said 'ye-ye-ye-ye-your ro-ro-' he said 'Wait a minute.' He said, 'if you can't talk you must sing', and he hollered:

sung:

Whoa mister Charlie, do you know your rolling mill is burnin' down?
Mister Charlie, do you know your rolling mill is burnin' down?
Mister Charlie said if you ain't got no water boy, just let that old mill burn on down

Little boy was lonesome, he walked off and cried, he said,
He walked back and he said it one more time

Whoa mister Charlie, I won't have no place to stay
Mister Charlie, I won't have no place to stay
Mister Charlie said Boy, you'll have a home with me, just as long as there is a day

Little boy sighed and he tell it one more time
He hollered at him:

Whoa mister Charlie, do you know your rolling mill is burnin' down?
Mister Charlie, do you know your rolling mill is burnin' down?
Mister Charlie said, 'If you ain't got no water boy, just let that old mill burn on down'