Seen a man standin' over a dead dog lyin' by the highway in a ditch   He's lookin' down kinda puzzled pokin' that dog with a stick   Got his car door flung open he's standin' out on highway 31   Like if he stood there long enough that dog'd get up and run   Struck me kinda funny seem kinda funny sir to me   Still at the end of every hard earned day people find some reason to believe      Now Mary Lou loved Johnny with a love mean and true   She said "Baby I'll work for you every day and bring my money home to you"   One day he up and left her and ever since that   She waits down at the end of that dirt road for young Johnny to come back   Struck me kinda funny seemed kind of funny sir to me   How at the end of every hard earned day people find some reason to believe      Take a baby to the river Kyle William they called him   Wash the baby in the water take away little Kyle's sin   In a whitewash shotgun shack an old man passes away take his body to the graveyard and over him they pray Lord won't you tell us   tell us what does it mean   Still at the end of every hard earned day people find some reason to believe      Congregation gathers down by the riverside   Preacher stands with his Bible groom stands waitin' for his bride   Congregation gone and the sun sets behind a weepin' willow tree   Groom stands alone and watches the river rush on so effortlessly   Wonderin' where can his baby be still at the end of every hard earned day people find some reason to believe