G [Verse] G My father was a mountaineer D G His fist was a knotty hammer C G Em He was quick on his feet like a running deer G C G And he spoke with a Yankee stammer [Verse] C G Em And some are wrapped in linen fine C G And some like a godling scion C G Em But I was cradled on twigs of pine G C G In the skin of a mountain lion [Verse] G I lost my boyhood and found my wife D G A girl like a Salem clipper C G Em A woman as straight as a hunting knife G C G With eyes as bright as the Dipper [Verse] C G Em C We cleared our camp where the buffalo feed G Unheard of streams were our flagons C G Em And I sowed my sons like apple seed G C G On the trail of the Western wagons [Verse] D They were right, tight boys, never sulky or slow G A fruitful, goodly muster C G Em The eldest died at the Alamo G C G And the youngest fell with Custer [Verse] C G Em C The letter that told it burned my hand G I smiled and said, "So be it" C G Em But I could not live when they fenced my land G C G Oh, it broke my heart just to see it [Verse] C G Em C I saddled the red, unbroken colt G I rode him into the day there C G Em But he threw me down like a thunderbolt G C G And he rolled on me as I lay there [Verse] G Now I lie in the heart of the fat, black soil D G Like the seed of a prairie thistle C G Em It has washed my bones in honey and oil G C G And it's picked 'em as clean as a whistle [Verse] C G Em C And my youth returns, like the rains of Spring G My sons, like wild geese flying C G Em And I lie and I hear the meadowlark sing G C G And there's much content in my dying [Verse] C G Em C Go play with the town you have built out of blocks G The towns where you may have bound me C G Em I sleep in the earth like a tired old fox G C G And my buffalo have found me C G Em I sleep in the earth like a tired old fox G C G And my buffalo have found me