She went upstairs to make her bed

And not a word to her mother said

Her mother, she went upstairs too

Saying, "Daughter, oh, daughter, what's troubling you?"

"Oh, mother, dear, I cannot tell

It's that railroad boy that I love so well

He's courted me my life away

And now at home he will not stay"

"There is a place in London town

That railroad boy goes and sits down

He takes a strange girl on his knee

And he tells to her what he won't tell me"

Her father, he came home from work

Sayin', "Where's my daughter, she seems so hurt"

He went upstairs to give her hope

An' he found her hangin' by a rope

He took a knife and he cut her down

And on her bosom these words he found

"Go dig my grave, both wide and deep

Put a marble stone at my head and feet

And at my breast put a white-snow dove

To tell the world that I died of love"