gone and I don't know why
Like a rusty shot in a hollow sky
She left me without warning
Sooner than the dogs could bark
And faster than the sun rose
Down to the banks in an old mule car
She took a flatboat across the shallow
Tobacco standing in the fields
And a bitter heart will not reveal
A spring that love re members
When that sweet brown girl of mine
Her black eyes are ravens
We broke the bread and drank the wine
From a jug that she'd been saving
Baby's crying and the daylight's gone
That big oak tree is groaning
In a rush of wind and river of song
I can hear my true love moaning
Crying for her baby child
Or crying for her husband
Crying for that river's wild
To take her from her loved ones