This Is How We Do Things in the Country

The first and last time I met her
We was children, seven years by
She held my hand so softly
She was perfectly shy
My family went to wander
Six years in foreign land
I returned on last evening
To take her by my hand
Long about break n' morn
I met with my girl
She looked at me with crossed eyes
So I sent her from this world
I cracked her with my shovel
She bent my shovel's blade
She still had them crossed eyes
As I dug her crooked grave
This is how it's always been
This is how we do things in the country (x2)
Long the next'stid morning
The rains, they came down
Washed away that crooked grave
Washed her straight into town
She nudged 'gainst Judge Henry
She looked at him with cock eyes
Judge Henry, he's as thick as the best built dam
Even he knew she passed on by
Late in the evening
I sawed her kinfolk out
I asked to sing at her funeral
They said:
Son, we'd be proud!
My song, it begin to bend and break
As her box went in the ground
They dug her a brand new hole
With walls drew up and down
This is how it's always been
This is how we do things in the country (x2)
Late in the dark time
I went creepin' round this town
Entered every pine board shed
All there tools I did found
I put them in my vice grip
Turn 'em to the left and the right
Returned them to their tool sheds
Straightened out this town with might
Now when they hoe a garden
You see, it angles to the northeast
When they raise a new building
You see, it leans askew and lord doth it creek
Now when they shape the new tools
From the ones he's made unstraight
You see, every which way things be crossin' up
Lord these crooked graves
They will our fate
This is how it's always been
This is how we do things in the country (x2)