The Widow of John Hardy

(Verse 1) My name is Mary, I’m a ghost upon the road, I carry now a leaden heart, a heavy, bitter load. I saw him in the river, I saw the water rise, But the spirit of a gambler never leaves a gambler’s eyes. (Verse 2) John Hardy was a desperate man, a desperate man and small, He stood six feet of bone and sinew, but he had no soul at all. Small of mind and quick of hand, an opportunist’s greed, He planted seeds of sorrow and he left us all to bleed. (Verse 3) He staked his life on seventy cents beneath the Eckman sky, He looked at Thomas Drew and said, "One of us must die." It wasn't for the money, and it wasn't for the fame, Just a small man in a big man's frame looking for a game. (Verse 4) I stood beside the gallows tree, I wore my dress of blue, The law it took its payment for the life of Thomas Drew. John Hardy blamed the whiskey as the trapdoor opened wide, But he never told the people of the rot he held inside. (verse 5) Now they sing his name in London, and they sing it in the North, While the shadow of his heavy hand is all he putted forth. For three months later in the brush, the hidden rifles spoke, And the widow of John Hardy vanished in the mountain smoke.