The boy down the road

Long long ago in a house up the road
Lived a maiden so beautiful.
Day after day she looked the same old way
As the sun shone off her hair of gold.
Someday I would go there and ask for her hand
Just as soon as I become a man.

In the afternoon she'd sit in the shade
And wave as I watched from down the road.
Time after time I wished my head to lay
In her arms and at last she would know.
Then one day a stranger came to call
And took her far away from down the road.
I watched 'til the dusk from the fields down below,
But in vain for the night began to fall.
Then came the message that summoned me to town,
And my knees gave way to the ground.

Spoken: They say that this message came with her dying breath,
The very last words she ever spoke:
Give my love to the boy down the road,
And tell him not to cry, for I know.