| The snow falls on the passes
|
| And it covers up the rails
|
| And the hired men ride up to make them clean
|
| It’s a winter camp and a frozen damp
|
| And a shovel in your hand
|
| And a coal train comes rumbling through the seam
|
| That morning came up shining
|
| Clear and sharp as broken glass
|
| We were riding for the tracks at Sugaree
|
| All holler and high spirit
|
| And the devil take the last
|
| And Henry lay a wager then to me
|
| He said «I've got five dollars
|
| And a whiskey at the bar
|
| Says I make the tracks ahead of you»
|
| So we touched our horses up
|
| Sent them running down the hill
|
| And I did something I never meant to do
|
| Well I cut hard behind him
|
| From his blind side I come around
|
| Just as we were going down the scree
|
| I only meant to scare him but he tumbled to the ground
|
| And he broke his neck beneath the doubletree
|
| So you take him cut him out in a length of pine
|
| Lay him out in a suit of clothes
|
| Best that you can find
|
| Lay his body gentle in the ground
|
| And say a prayer for Henry
|
| Before you lay him down
|
| The night before poor Henry died
|
| We slept on open ground
|
| The circus of the stars a blaze of white
|
| Henry was the best friend that I ever had
|
| And I slept still as a child that night |