Well, a group of jolly cowboys
Says, one, I'll tell you something,
please I'm an old cow puncher
And here I'm dressed in rags
And I'd go on great big jags
But I still have a homeboy's
I'm going back to Dixie once
I'm going to see my mother
when the work's all done this fall
Now after the shipping's over
and before my money's gone,
I'm going back to see them,
my loved ones, on the farm.
But my mother's heart is breaking,
breaking for me, that's all.
And with God's help I'll see her
when the work's all done this fall.
Now that very night that cowboy
went out to stand his guard,
the night was dark and stormy
The cattle all got frightened
and they rest in the mad stampede,
and we were trying to turn them
Now, riding through the darkness,
you could plainly hear him shout,
as he'd done his best to head them
But he sat upon, he stumbled,
And he'll not see his mother
when the work's all done this fall.
where all had thought him dead,
we picked him up so gently
but he opened wide his bright blue eyes
he made motions for his comrades
to sit by him on the ground.
Now boys, send mother the wages,
the wages that I've earned
For I'll not live to spend them
my last year I have turned
I'm going to that new range
And I'll not see my mother
when the work's all done this fall
Now Jim, you take my saddle
and Ted, you can have my bed
Now boys, think of me kindly
as you look upon them all
For I'll not see my mother
when the work's all done this fall
We buried him about sunrise,
no tombstone at his head,
nothing but a little old slab,
and this is what it said.
Poor Charlie died about daybreak,
his saddle horse did fall,
And he'll not see his mother
when the work's all done this fall.
4.8
