The first and last time I met her

we were children 7 years by

She held my hand so softly

She was perfectly shy

My family went to wander

six years in foriegn lands

I returned home last evening

to take her by my hand

On about break of morning

I met with my girl

she looked at me with crossed eyes

so I sent her from this world

I cracked her with my shovel

she bent my shovel blade

she still had them crossed eyes

as I dug her crooked grave

This is how it's always been

this is how we do things in the country (2x)

Long late the evening, the rains they came down

washed away her crooked grave

washed her straight into town

she nudged against Judge henry

she looked at him with cocked eyes

Judge Henry's as thick as the best built dam

but even he knew she'd passed on by

Later on that evening

I saught her kinfolk out

I asked to sing at her funeral

they said, son we'd be proud

my song it began to bend and break

as the box went in the ground

they dug her a brand new hole

with walls true up and down.

this is how it's alway been

this is how we do things in the country (2x)

Late in the dark times

I went creeping round the town

Into every pineboard shed

all their tools I did found

I put them in my vice grip

turned them to the left and right

returned them to their toolsheds

straightened out the town with might

Now when they hoe a garden

everything angles to the northeast

when they raise a new building

well it leans askew and lord does it creak

Now when they shape a new tool

from the ones I made unstraight

see everywhich way which they cross it up

lord these crooked graves

they will be our fate.

This is how it's always been

this is how we do things in the country.