TWO CONVICTS

Two convicts sitting in a prison cell
The story of their past life to each other tell
"I had a home, boys," said the elder of the two,
A wife that I loved dearly, and a little baby too.

"We were living happy until the tempter came;
I'll tell you all the truth, boys, I was not to blame.
It was on one day that I missed her, and with him she had fled;
Oh, how I suffered; I wished that I was dead!

"Then I went to drinking — what else could I do?
I mixed with bad companions, became a burglar too.
Then I went to robbing, to rob a mansion grand;
The tools were in my pocket, revolver in my hand.

"I crawled in at a window, and all was still as death;
I fired — a flash; I saw her face: Oh, God, I'd shot my child!
I was taken across to the courthouse and sentenced for twenty-five years;
And just across the court-room sat my wife in tears.

"There by her side sat one I loved so dear;
I thanked the Lord with all my heart my baby had not died.
Just across the court-room sat the man that wrecked my home,
Sitting in a shadow, smiling there alone.

"Then I sprang toward him with murder in my heart;
My hands were clasped upon his throat when we were torn apart.
I have no friends in all this world, boys, no place to call my home;
I have no place to shelter me — none but a prison cell."

"Communicated by Mr. Sanford R. Hughston, principal of the Courtland (Panalo County, Mississippi) Public School, who obtained it from one of his pupils."

Source: Arthur Palmer Hudson, "Ballads and Songs from Mississippi," The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 39, No. 152 (April-June, 1926), p. 144-145.