Yay! I knew I wasn't crazy! I WAS hearing "paddle," and I'm not the only one! Since Arkie posted (6 1/2 years ago!) that a Jimmy Driftwood songbook says it's "prattle," and since my feeble brain could handle that small difference, and since "prattle" seems to make reasonable sense, I've been singing that in recent years. I just knew it wasn't "I gave her my gold and I gave her my cattle," whatever Skip Gorman may say.