It was one fine march mornin   I bid New Orleans 'Adu'   I took the road to jackson town   My fortune to renew   I cursed all foreign money   For no credit could I gain   It's filled my heart with longing    For the lakes of ponchratrain      I stepped on board a railroad car   Beneath the mornin sun   I road the rails till evening then    I lay me down again   All strangers were no friends to me   Till a dark girl toward me came   And i fell in love with a creole girl   On the lakes of ponchratrain      I said me pretty creole girl   My money here's no good   If it were not for the alligators   I'd sleep out in the woods   You're welcome here kind stranger   Though our house is very plain   We never turn a stranger out    On the Lakes of Ponchratrain      She took me to her momma's house   And treated me right well   The hair upon her shoulders   It jet black, rain bliss it fell   To try to paint her beauty off her   Sure would be in vain   So handsome was the creole girl   On the Lakes of Ponchratrain      I asked her would she marry me   She said that there would be   For she had got a lover   And he was far out at sea   She said that she would wait for him   And true she would remain   Till he returned to his creole girl   On the Lakes of Ponchratrain      Oh, fair you well my bonnie ol girl   I'll never see you no more   I'll never get that kindness in the cottage   By the shore   At every social gathering, a golden glass i'll drain   Oh I'll drink all hell to that creole girl   On the Lakes of Ponchratrain   Oh I'll drink all hell to that creole girl   On the Lakes of Ponchratrain