A ramblin' reckless hobo   Left his happy home   Wandered away from his parents dear   To ramble and to roam   His father warned and his mother prayed   His sweetheart begged him to stay   But none could keep this reckless boy   From ramblin' far away      You see him down in a railroad town   His head hung down in shame   A bottle of rum to end his gloom   He sets in a gamblin' game   His life is filled with crime now   His thoughts go back to home   And all the ones who beg'd him not   To ramble and to roam      Upon a moonless midnight   He robbed a travelin' man   The jury gave him twenty-one years   In a jail in Birmingham   His father's advice his mother's prayers   His sweetheart's tears were vain   They never knew what became of him   For he never wrote home again      Now all you boys remember   These words I'm tellin' you   Don't ever forsake your loved ones   Or your parents kind and true   Remember wherever you travel   Wherever you may roam   You'll never find what you left behind   Your loved ones and your home