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As I walked out on the streets of Laredo. |
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As I walked out on Laredo one day, |
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I spied a poor cowboy wrapped in white linen, |
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Wrapped in white linen as cold as the clay. |
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"I can see by your outfit that you are a cowboy." |
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These words he did say as I boldly walked by. |
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"Come an' sit down beside me an' hear my sad story. |
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"I'm shot in the breast an' I know I must die." |
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"It was once in the saddle, I used to go dashing. |
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"Once in the saddle, I used to go gay. |
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"First to the card-house and then down to Rose's. |
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"But I'm shot in the breast and I'm dying today." |
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"Get six jolly cowboys to carry my coffin. |
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"Six dance-hall maidens to bear up my pall. |
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"Throw bunches of roses all over my coffin. |
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"Roses to deaden the clods as they fall." |
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"Then beat the drum slowly, play the Fife lowly. |
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"Play the dead march as you carry me along. |
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"Take me to the green valley, lay the sod o'er me, |
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"I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong." |
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"Then go write a letter to my grey-haired mother, |
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"An' tell her the cowboy that she loved has gone. |
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"But please not one word of the man who had killed me. |
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"Don't mention his name and his name will pass on." |
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When thus he had spoken, the hot sun was setting. |
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The streets of Laredo grew cold as the clay. |
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We took the young cowboy down to the green valley, |
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And there stands his marker, we made, to this day. |
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We beat the drum slowly and played the Fife lowly, |
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Played the dead march as we carried him along. |
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Down in the green valley, laid the sod o'er him. |
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He was a young cowboy and he said he'd done wrong |
