As a young man I went riding   Out on the western plain   In the state of North Dakota      I met my Nellie Kane   I met my Nellie Kane      She was living in a lonely cabin   With a son by another man   Five years she had waited for him      As long as a woman can   As long as a woman can      I don't know what changed my mind   Til then I was the ramblin' kind   The kind of love I can't explain      That I had for Nellie Kane   She took me on to work that day   To help her till the land   In the afternoon we planted seeds      In the evening we held hands   In the evening we held hands      Her blue eyes told me everything   A man could want to know   And it was then I realized   I would never goI would never go      (chorus)      Now many years have gone by   And her son has grown up tall   I became a father to him   And she became my all   She became my all