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THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND
    I's brought up with loving care on a farm in Tennessee
    My parents raised me tenderly; they had no child but me
    My mind being set on rambling, with them I couldn't agree
    So I left my aged parents and them no more to see

    There was a wealthy gentleman lived on a farm nearby
    He had a beautiful daughter, on her I cast my eye
    She was so tall and slender, so pretty and so fair
    There never was another to her I could compare

    I started out in this wide world strange faces for to see
    I met Miss Maggie Walker and she fell in love with me
    Her pockets all lined in greenbacks and on the Book I swore
    If she'd be mine and only mine, that I would roam no more

    I asked her if it mattered if I crossed over the plains
    She said, It doesn't matter if you never come home again
    I knew by the way she said it she'd never change her mind
    So we shook hands and parted and I left that girl behind

    I started out on leaving, to the saltworks I were bound
    And when I reached the saltworks, I viewed the city all round
    The money and work were plentiful, and the girls were kind to me
    But the only object to my mind was that girl in Tennessee

    I started out one morning down on the market square
    The mail train were arriving, I met the carrier there
    He handed me a letter so's I could understand
    That the girl I left behind me had married to another man

    I turned my horse all around and round, not knowing what to do
    I handed back the letter, although I'd read it through
    I turned all round and backed up, and the company I resigned
    And I drove all around from town to town for the girl I left behind

    This version is from Jim Ringer's Folk-Legacy record.
    @parting @infidelity