The Migrant Mother

My sisters and brothers they hated so bad
 To see me go west like someone gone mad
 To leave all my loved ones and kiss them goodbye
 Just hoping I'd see them in the sweet by-and-by
 California promised heaven
 (All the leaves are brown)
 A heaven we could not deny
 (And the sky is grey)
 But the dust we're running from still stalks us in the night
 And all we've found's a bitter lie
 With our lives on our backs, beat a path in the earth
 Just hoping that we'd find blue skies and work
 The farmlands and sawmills worked fine for a time
 But with the father's death came our decline
 He that would the daughter win
 Must with the mother first begin
 Diligence is the mother of good luck
 Diligence is the mother of good luck
 They don't need to know my name
 Hide their faces, spare my children the shame
 They don't need to know my name
 Hide their faces, spare my children the shame
 Where is the children's father?
 Sacrificed on or left to the altar
 Where is the life I was promised?
 Best left unasked and best left unwanted
 How did they end up here?
 What are they going to do?
 How did they end up here?
 What are they going to do?
 He that would the daughter win
 Must with the mother first begin
 Diligence is the mother of good luck
 Diligence is the mother of good luck
 Good luck, good luck, good luck
 Good luck, good luck, good luck
 California promised heaven
 (All the leaves are brown)
 A heaven we could not deny
 (And the sky is grey)
 But I'll deny most anything
 Rags and riches, gods and kings
 Just need to feel the wheels underneath me