Collected by Mary C. Parler Mrs. Anna M. Pearcy
Greenwood, Ark. October 18, 1958
Reel 314, Item 3
New Mexico
Well, it was early in one year I started out West with a bunch of fat steers I left that darling little girl behind Who had often told me her heart was mine.
I've often embraced her in my arms It seems to be ten thousand charms,
Her feature so fair and her kisses Cowboy will marry next time we meet.
Well, it was a long and a lonesome go As the herd moved on to Mexico,
And the merry music of a cowboy song
And the drifting herd as the time rolled on.
At last I reached New Mexico I longed for home but I could not go I wrote a letter to my little dear Not a word from her did I ever hear.
At last I returned to my once loved home To call that darling little girl my own.
They told me she had married to a higher life And left a poor cowboy to seek another wife.
That girl has married whom I adore I am not going to stay at home any more.
I'll go out West for many a mile And cut my way where the bullets fly.
Says she, cowboy do stay at home Don't be forever on the roam.
For there truer, prettier girls than I Don't go out west where the bullets fly.
I'll go out west to some foreign land,
And there I'll join a cowboy band,
I'll lie on the trail through the heat and cold.
I'll die on the trail of New Mexico.