Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads

<p class="tit-song">RAMBLING BOY <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="page397" name="page397"></SPAN>(p. 397)</span></p> <p>I am a wild and roving lad,<br/> A wild and rambling lad I'll be;<br/> For I do love a little girl<br/> And she does love me.</p> <p>"O Willie, O Willie, I love you so,<br/> I love you more than I do know;<br/> And if my tongue could tell you so<br/> I'd give the world to let you know."</p> <p>When Julia's old father came this to know,&mdash;<br/> That Julia and Willie were loving so,&mdash;<br/> He ripped and swore among them all,<br/> And swore he'd use a cannon ball.</p> <p>She wrote Willie a letter with her right hand<br/> And sent it to him in the western land.<br/> "Oh, read these lines, sweet William dear.<br/> For this is the last of me you will hear."</p> <p>He read those lines while he wept and cried,<br/> "Ten thousand times I wish I had died",<br/> He read those lines while he wept and said,<br/> "Ten thousand times I wish I were dead."</p> <p>When <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="page398" name="page398"></SPAN>(p. 398)</span> her old father came home that night<br/> He called for Julia, his heart's delight,<br/> He ran up stairs and her door he broke<br/> And found her hanging by her own bed rope.</p> <p>And with his knife he cut her down,<br/> And in her bosom this note he found<br/> Saying, "Dig my grave both deep and wide<br/> And bury sweet Willie by my side."</p> <p>They dug her grave both deep and wide<br/> And buried sweet Willie by her side;<br/> And on her grave set a turtle dove<br/> To show the world they died for love.</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />