Old Rivers

How old was I when I first seen Old Rivers?
 I can't remember when he weren't around
 Well, that old fella did a heap of work
 Spent his whole life walking plowed ground
 He had a one-room shack not far from us and
 Well, we was about as poor as him
 He had one old mule he called Midnight
 And I'd trailed along after them
 He used to plow them rows
 Straight and deep
 And I'd come along there behind
 A-bustin' up clods with my own bare feet
 Old Rivers was a friend of mine
 The sun'd get high and
 That mule would work
 And Old Rivers'd finally say, "Whoa!"
 He'd wipe his brow
 And lean back on the reins
 And talk about a place he was gonna go
 He'd say, one of these days
 I'm gonna climb that mountain
 Walk up there among them clouds
 Where the cotton's high
 And the corn's a-growin'
 And there ain't no fields to plow
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 I got a letter today from the folks back home and
 They all find crops is dry
 Down at the end mom said, "Son
 You know Old Rivers died."
 Sittin' here now in this new-plowed earth
 Trying to find me a little shade
 With the sun beatin' down
 'Cross the fields I see
 That mule, old Rivers and me
 Now, one of these days
 I'm gonna climb that mountain
 Walk up there among them clouds
 Where the cotton's high
 And the corn's a-growin'
 And there ain't no fields to plow
 With the sun beating down
 Across the fields I see
 That mule
 Old Rivers
 And me