Collected by Merlin Mitchell
Transcribed by Mary C. Parler
Tom Boyd
Patrick, Ark
November 23, 1950
Reel 82, Item 4
The Girl I Left Behind
My parents they treated me kind-e-lee,
They had no boy but me,
My mind being bent on rambeling,
With them I could not agree;
My mind being bent on rambeling,
Hit grieves my heart full sore,
To leave my aged parents
And never see them no more.
I asked my girl if she'd consent
For me to cross the plain;
And if she would prove true to me
Till I returned again;
She said she would prove true to me
Till death should prove unkind.
We met, shook hands, and parted;
I left my girl behind.
Then I set out for a foreign land,
Strange faces for to see;
With work and money plentiful,
Those girls to me proved kind;
But never, never will I forget
That girl I left behind.
One evening as I returned from work,
It was on St. James's Square,
The mail-coach had arrived and
The postman met me there;
He handed me a letter
Which give me to understand
That the girl I left so far behind
Had got married to another man.
On reading this letter some futher down,
I find those words to be true,
I turned myself all around and around,
I didn't know what to do;
Kind friends I will give over,
Good company I'll resign,
I'll roam around from town to town,
From the girl I left behind.
-more-
The Girl I Left Behind
Reel 82, Item 4
Continued
Then I set out for Euchre Town,
Strange faces for to see,
Where I met Miss Margaret Lily
And she fell deep in love with me;
She told me of her money,
Her houses, and her lands,
She told me all of hit would be mine
If I could be her man.
I went straight off and married her,
Oh, what more could I do I
We lived in peace and in happiness
Along the Kansas Line;
But I never, no never could fergit
That girl I left behind.