(Tune is similar to an Irish Ballad called "A Handful of Laurel")
1. (F) As I walked (C7) out in the (F) streets of La (C7)redo
As (F6) I walked (C7) out in La (G7) redo one (C7) day
I (F) spied a poor (C7) cowboy all (F) wrapped in white (C7) linen
All (F) wrapped in white (Bflat) linen (Bflat/min6) as (C7) cold as the
(F) clay
2. I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy
These words he did say as I calmly walked by
Come sit down beside me and hear my sad story
I'm shot in the breast and I know I must die
3. It was once in the saddle I used to go dashing
With no one as quick on the trigger as I
I sat in a card-game in back of a barroom
Got shot in the back and today I must die
4. Get six of my buddies to carry my coffin
And six pretty maidens to sing me a song
Take me to the valley and lay the sod o er me
For I m a young cowboy who played the game wrong
5. Oh beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly
And play the deaf march as they carry my pall
Put bunches of roses all over my coffin
The roses will deaden the clods as they fall
6. So gather around you a crowd of young cowboys
And tell them the story of this my sad fate
Tell one and the other before they go further
To stop their wild roving before its too late
7. Go fetch me a cup, just a cup of cold water
To cool my parched lips, the cowboy then said
Before I returned, his brave spirit had left him
And gone to his maker the cowboy was dead
I cannot remember what verses were used by Mary Robbins so guess you can pick
and choose.
Have fun.
Lee