My daddy was a handsome gambler
He had a chain five miles long
On every link a heart did dangle
Of another maid he'd loved and wronged

He'd tell to you some loving story
He'd make you think he believed them true
But love grows cold as love grows older
And fades away like morning dew

I'd rather be in some dark hollow
where the sun refused to shine
Than to live here in Missouri
With your memory always haunting my mind

Come all ye fair and tender ladies
Take warning how you court your men
They're like a star on a summer's morning
First they appear then they're gone again