First time I seen my true Iove,
he was walkin' by my door,
the last time l saw his false hearted smile,
he was dead on his coolin' board.
It's a-hard and it's hard, ain't it hard,
to love one that never did love you?
It's a-hard, and it's hard, ain't it hard, great God,
to love one that never will be true?
There is a house in this town,
that's where my true love lays around.
He takes other women right down on his knee,
he tells them a little tale he won't tell me.
Don't go to drinkin' and gamblin',
don't go there your sorrows to drown.
This hard-liquor place is a low-down disgrace,
it's the meanest damn place in this town.
It was late last night, when my true love come in,
rapped, and knocked upon my door.
I jumped out in a fit of jealousy,
that true love don't knock here any more.