Maggie Walker Blues

My parents raised me tenderly,

They had no child but me.

My mind being placed on rambling,

With them I couldn't agree

Just to leave my aged parents

And them no more to see.

There was a wealthy gentleman

Who lived there very near by.

He had a beautiful daughter,

On her I cast an eye.

She was so tall and slender,

So pretty and so fair.

There never was a girl in this whole wide world

With her I could compare.

I asked her if it differed

If I crossed over the plain.

She said, "It makes no difference

If you never return again."

We too shook hands and parted,

And I left my girl behind.

I started out in this wide world

Strange faces for to see.

I met little Maggie Walker

And she fell in love with me.

Her pockets all lined with greenback

And her labor I'll grow old,

Now if you'll consent to marry me

I'll say I'll roam no more.

I traveled out one morning,

To the salt works I were bound.

And when I reached the salt works

I viewed the city all around.

Work and money were plentiful

And the girls all kind to me.

But the only object to my heart

Was a girl in Tennessee.

I traveled out one morning

Down on the market square.

The mail train being on arrival,

I met the carrier there.

He handed me a letter,

So's I could understand

That the girl I left in Tennessee

Had married another man.

I drove on down a little further

And found that it was true.

I turned my horse and buggy around

But I didn't know what to do.

I turned all around and about there --

Bad company I'll resign;

I'll drive all about from town to town

For the girl I left behind.