Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads

<p class="tit-song">THE RAMBLING COWBOY <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="page244" name="page244"></SPAN>(p. 244)</span></p> <p>There was a rich old rancher who lived in the country by,<br/> He had a lovely daughter on whom I cast my eye;<br/> She was pretty, tall, and handsome, both neat and very fair,<br/> There's no other girl in the country with her I could compare.</p> <p>I asked her if she would be willing for me to cross the plains;<br/> She said she would be truthful until I returned again;<br/> She said she would be faithful until death did prove unkind,<br/> So we kissed, shook hands, and parted, and I left my girl behind.</p> <p>I left the State of Texas, for Arizona I was bound;<br/> I landed in Tombstone City, I viewed the place all round.<br/> Money and work were plentiful and the cowboys they were kind<br/> But the only thought of my heart was the girl I left behind.</p> <p>One day as I was riding across the public square<br/> The mail-coach came in and I met the driver there;<br/> He <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="page245" name="page245"></SPAN>(p. 245)</span> handed me a letter which gave me to understand<br/> That the girl I left in Texas had married another man.</p> <p>I turned myself all round and about not knowing what to do,<br/> But I read on down some further and it proved the words were true.<br/> Hard work I have laid over, it's gambling I have designed.<br/> I'll ramble this wide world over for the girl I left behind.</p> <p>Come all you reckless and rambling boys who have listened to this song,<br/> If it hasn't done you any good, it hasn't done you any wrong;<br/> But when you court a pretty girl, just marry her while you can,<br/> For if you go across the plains she'll marry another man.</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />