She went upstairs to make her bed
And not one word to her mother said
Her mother she went upstairs too
Saying, "Daughter, oh daughter, what's troublin' you?":
"Oh mother, oh mother, I cannot tell
That railroad boy that I love so well
He courted me my life away
And now at home will no longer stay."
"There is a place in yonder town
Where my love goes and he sits him down
And he takes that strange girl on his knee
And he tells to her what he won't tell me."
Her father he came home from work
Sayin', "Where is my daughter, she seems so hurt"
He went upstairs to give her hope
An' he found her hangin' by a rope
He took his knife and he cut her down
And on her bosom these words he found:
"Go dig my grave both wide and deep
Put a marble stone at my head and feet
And on my breast, put a snow white dove
To warn the world that I died of love