Sweet Betsy From Pike

Burl Ives – Sweet Betsy from Pike

Oh, Don't you remember Sweet Betsy from Pike,
She crossed the big mountains with her lover Ike,
With two yoke of oxen and one yaller dog
And an old Shanghai rooster one spotted hog.

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They got to the desert where Betsy give out,
Down on the sand she lay rolling about,
Ike he gazed at her with sobs and white sighs,
"Won't you get up, Sweet Betsy? You'll get sand in your eyes"

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Well, the oxen run off and the shanghai it died,
The last piece of bacon that morning was fried,
Ike got discouraged an Betsy got mad,
And the dog wagged his tail and looked wonderfully sad.

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Ike and Sweet Betsy attended a dance,
Ike wore a pair of his Pike country pants,
Betsy was dressed up in ribbons and rings.
Quoth Ike: "You're an angel, but where are your wings?"
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A miner come up, says, "will you dance with me?"
"I will you old hoss, if you don't make too free; tell you the reason,
if you want to know why, doggone you, I'm chock full of strong alkali."

Hoodle dang dang fol-de-die-do hoodle dang fol-de-day