(Steve Fromholz)
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Mary Martin was a schoolgirl
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Just seventeen or so
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When she married Billy Archer
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About fourteen years ago
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Not even out of high school
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Folks said it wouldn't last
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But when you grow up in the country
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You grow up mighty fast
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They married in a hurry
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In March before school was out
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Folks said that she was pregnant,
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"Just wait and you'll find out."
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It came about that winter
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One gray November morn
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The first of many more to come
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A baby boy was born
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And cattle is their game
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And Archer is the name
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They give to the acres that they own
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If the Brazos don't run dry
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And the newborn calves don't die
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Another year from Mary will have flown
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Another year from Mary will have flown
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Now Billy kept what cattle
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His father could afford
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Bouncing across the cactus
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In a 1950 Ford
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The cows were sick and skinny
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And the weed was all that grew
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But Billy kept the place alive
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The only thing he knew
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And Mary cooked the supper
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And Mary scrubbed the clothes
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And Mary busted horses
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And blew the baby's nose
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And Mary and a shotgun
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Kept the rattlesnakes away
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How she kept on smiling
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No one could ever say
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Now the drought of '57
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Was a curse upon the land
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No one in Bosque county
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Could give Bill a helping hand
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The ground was cracked and broken
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And the truck was out of gas
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And cows can't feed on prickly pear
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Instead of growing grass
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Well the weather got the water
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And a snake bite took a child
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And a fire in the old barn
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Took the hay that Bill had piled
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The mortgage got the money
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And the screw worm got the cows
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The years have come for Mary
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She's waiting for them now
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-----------------
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Texas Trilogy: Bosque County Romance
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Lyle Lovett |