Ballad of a Lonely Woman

Stranger, you call an early day
 You came as I rose from bed
 Sit a while I'll let you stay
 The cold outside is bitter
 Though you can't tell now, my hair used to be
 Yellow like the stocks of hay in our field
 My palms are rough from years sowing seed
 My skin was browned by the sun
 And I wish I had something for you to eat
 The cow is long gone, the eggs they have froze
 I wish I had something for you to eat
 Stay for a while with me
 We built this house with wood from our land
 We had enough from an acre and ten
 Each joint and beam cut by hand
 They kept us from the cold
 My husband and I grew weary and old
 No children to keep us in care
 I came in one morning and he had grown cold
 Now I wait to be with him
 And I wish I had whiskey for you to drink
 I drank the last drop the night before
 I wish I had whiskey for you to drink
 Stay for a while with me
 Now life has not done me too good or too wrong
 I haven't had much of what you could buy
 What I had a price you couldn't put on
 I lived and I loved and I paid not a dime
 And I'll sift out my stories and look at the sky
 My feet on the floor boards cut long ago
 As the flicker of candles ... to die
 I smile to see you come morning