I'm a decent working fella
I've a story I will tell ya
Of how I met this pretty girl and all the things that then befell me
Chorus:
Love, fare thee well
I'm goin' on down the road
I'm goin' on down the road
There's better times behind me, boys, and better times before
It was on a Sunday mornin'
I met her without warnin'
And I walked her home from church that day and oh, my love, she was a darlin'
Chorus
Well, her parents didn't like me
And they tried to make her slight me
Her daddy, he talked mean to me and her mother tried to aggravate me
Chorus
Her mother said, "Don't wrong me
Don't take my daughter from me
Or from sorrow I'll be forced to die and after death my ghost will haunt thee."
Chorus
So I left that girl a-sighin'
Forlornly once for trying
And I opened up another quart and walked on down to Maggie Ryan's
Love, fare thee well
I'm goin' on down the road
I'm goin' on down the road
There's better times behind me, boys, and better times before