A Drunkard's Child
Composer(s): Andrew Jenkins - Jimmie Rodgers
First release by: Jimmie Rodgers - 1930



My father is a drunkard
My mother, she is dead
And I am just an orphan child
No place to lay my head
All thru this world I wander
They drive me from their door
Some day I'll find a welcome
On Heaven's golden shore

Now if to me you'll listen
I'll tell my story sad
How drinking rum and gambling
Hell Has stole away my dad
My mother is in heaven
Where God and the angels smile
And now I know she's watching
Her lonely orphan child

We all were once so happy
And had a happy home
Till dad, he went to drinking rum
And then he gambled some
He left my darling mother
She died of a broken heart
And as I tell my story
I see your tear-drops start

Don't weep for me and mother
Altho' I know 'tis said
But try to get someone to cheer
And save my poor lonely dad
"I'm awful cold and hungry"
She closed her eyes and sighed
Then those who heard her story
Knew the orphan child has died