The Migrant Mother

"My sisters and brothers they hated so bad

To see me go west like someone gone mad

To leave all my loved ones and kiss them goodbye

Just hoping I'd see them in the sweet by-and-by"

California promised heaven

(All the leaves are brown)

A heaven we could not deny

(And the sky is grey)

But the dust we're running from still stalks us in the night

And all we've found's a bitter lie

With our lives on our backs, beat a path in the earth

Just hoping that we'd find blue skies and work

The farmlands and sawmills worked fine for a time

But with the father's death came our decline

He that would the daughter win

Must with the mother first begin

Diligence is the mother of good luck

Diligence is the mother of good luck

They don't need to know my name

Hide their faces, spare my children the shame

They don't need to know my name

Hide their faces, spare my children the shame

Where is the children's father?

Sacrificed on or left to the altar

Where is the life I was promised?

Best left unasked and best left unwanted

How did they end up here?

What are they going to do?

How did they end up here?

What are they going to do?

He that would the daughter win

Must with the mother first begin

Diligence is the mother of good luck

Diligence is the mother of good luck

Good luck, good luck, good luck

Good luck, good luck, good luck

California promised heaven

(All the leaves are brown)

A heaven we could not deny

(And the sky is grey)

But I'll deny most anything

Rags and riches, gods and kings

Just need to feel the wheels underneath me