"A Handful Of Gold" lyrics

I felt the fever burnin' in my veins
Packed my bags for the freezing rains
On the steamship Islander with all its crew
Hundreds of miles from everything we knew
Working the sluice every day and night
Panning the river under northern lights

Up the Chilkoot, where the frost grows deep
One thousand stairs that the devil keeps
A ton of gear on a broken back
There's no turning home, it's a one-way track

Oh, there's yellow in the river, there's fire in the sky
We're digging for the glory before we have to die
From the Fraser's mouth to the Klondike's cold
We're selling our souls for a handful of gold

My hands are cracked, and my boots are thin
Where the ice ends, the mud begins
I've panned all day till my fingers froze
For a bit of dust where the cold river flows
The merchants are rich
The miners are poor
But we're still knocking on fortune's door

Oh, there's yellow in the river, there's fire in the sky
We're digging for the glory before we have to die
From the Fraser's mouth to the Klondike's cold
We're selling our souls for a handful of gold

They don't tell you 'bout the quiet nights
Or the men who lost their minds to the sights
No names on the crosses in the permafrost
Or a tally of the lives that the glitter cost

Hmm, just a handful of gold
One more pan, one more day
And maybe a handful of gold