Road hard and I put up wet, been down but I can't get up yet   It's a long ride back to the way I want to feel   Sun down across the plain, I've bee sore before I'll be sore again   No place to hide to keep from runnin'   Laid down in the cotton wood hollow though I left a trail that no man could follow,   Is it safe to rest my head again till morning   Cracked throat, my canteen's dry    Rain won't fall from an empty sky, so I whisper Hail Marys till the sun comes up      Now don't tell me that part of the story when the cowboy falls in love   When he traded in his pistol and his saddle and the stars above   When the candles burnin' down, when midnight comes around   Know the best that we could hope for is to be laughin' when we finally hit the ground      Road hard come down tired, strip from the saddle when the rifle fired,   Deep in dreams of women and clean water   Well I did before what I'll do again   So forgive me father if I have sinned, but the old wood cracks before it bends      Now don't tell me that part of the story when the cowboy falls in love   When he traded in his pistol and his saddle and the stars above   When the candles burnin' down, when midnight comes around   Know the best that we could hope for is to be laughin' when we finally hit the ground      Now don't tell me that part of the story when the cowboy falls in love   When he traded in his pistol and his saddle and the stars above   When the candles burnin' down, when midnight comes around   Know the best that we could hope for is to be laughin'   When we finally hit the ground