The ragged kid nobody wanted,
Left alone to ramble wild.
Long ago he was abandoned,
Nobody's child.
Never smiles and never chatters,
Never quarrels or complains,
Grown as hard as the Sierras
And the Western Plains.
Come a'cow cow yicky yicky yea
A'come a'cow cow yicky yicky yea
Learned to swing a broken bottle,
Learned to use his fists and knife
In the bar rooms and bordellos
Of his life.
He drifted down towards the borders.
The sky was dark, but it did not rain.
Came the meanest pistoleros
In the Western Plains.
He fell in with these desperadoes,
Thieves and killers: every one.
Prizes hanging from their saddles
With their guns.
Come a'cow cow yicky yicky yea
A'come a'cow cow yicky yicky yea
The ragged kid nobody wanted,
Left alone to ramble wild.
Now he rides beside the Devil,
Nobody's child.
Come a'cow cow yicky yicky yea
A'come a'cow cow yicky yicky yea