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First when I come in the world my troubles they began,
Because I had a brother John who proved to be me twin;
We looked so very much alike you couldn't tell one from the other,
And often I would take the blame for lookin' like me brother.
Now, Johnny was a rascal, he proved to be a crook,
One night upon the road he stole a lady's pocketbook;
And after he had taken it he took to his heels and ran,
And when they saw me passin' by they said I was the man.
The cops pulled up long side me and off to jail I took,
Aha! You are the man who stole the lady's pocketbook;
I said, you are mistaken, sirs, you've got me in the wrong,
I said, you are mistaken, sirs, you've taken me for John.
Now, one night John got drunk, came home to go to bed,
He went to turn the gas off but he turned it on instead;
When we came down next morning the lock was on the door,
There was poor old John, he lay dead upon the floor.
We put him in a pine box and put him on a horse,
To take him to the cemetery to bury him with remorse;
The box fell off, the horse ran on, we didn't miss him gone,
But when they saw me at the grave they said that I was John.
The undertaker grabbed me and he said you must behave,
You must not kick, you know you're dead, you must go in your grave;
They put me in a pine box, and I hollered like a bugger,
And then they buried me underground for lookin like me brother.
Two slightly different variants were collected in 1951 from Tom Findlay of St. Shott's and Cyril O'Brien of Trepassey, NL, and published as The Twins in MacEdward Leach And The Songs Of Atlantic Canada © 2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA).
