The Girl I Left Behind I's brought up with loving care on a farm in Tennessee My parents raised me tenderly; they had no child but me My mind being set on rambling, with them I couldn't agree So I left my aged parents and them no more to see There was a wealthy gentleman lived on a farm nearby He had a beautiful daughter, on her I cast my eye She was so tall and slender, so pretty and so fair There never was another to her I could compare I started out in this wide world strange faces for to see I met Miss Maggie Walker and she fell in love with me Her pockets all lined in greenbacks and on the Book I swore If she'd be mine and only mine, that I would roam no more I asked her if it mattered if I crossed over the plains She said, It doesn't matter if you never come home again I knew by the way she said it she'd never change her mind So we shook hands and parted and I left that girl behind I started out on leaving, to the saltworks I were bound And when I reached the saltworks, I viewed the city all round The money and work were plentiful, and the girls were kind to me But the only object to my mind was that girl in Tennessee I started out one morning down on the market square The mail train were arriving, I met the carrier there He handed me a letter so's I could understand That the girl I left behind me had married to another man I turned my horse all around and round, not knowing what to do I handed back the letter, although I'd read it through I turned all round and backed up, and the company I resigned And I drove all around from town to town for the girl I left behind This version is from Jim Ringer's Folk-Legacy record. DT #338 Laws P1 JN
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!