(Steve Fromholz)

Mary Martin was a schoolgirl

Just seventeen or so

When she married Billy Archer

About fourteen years ago

Not even out of high school

Folks said it wouldn't last

But when you grow up in the country

You grow up mighty fast



They married in a hurry

In March before school was out

Folks said that she was pregnant,

"Just wait and you'll find out."

It came about that winter

One gray November morn

The first of many more to come

A baby boy was born



And cattle is their game

And Archer is the name

They give to the acres that they own

If the Brazos don't run dry

And the newborn calves don't die

Another year from Mary will have flown

Another year from Mary will have flown



Now Billy kept what cattle

His father could afford

Bouncing across the cactus

In a 1950 Ford

The cows were sick and skinny

And the weed was all that grew

But Billy kept the place alive

The only thing he knew



And Mary cooked the supper

And Mary scrubbed the clothes

And Mary busted horses

And blew the baby's nose

And Mary and a shotgun

Kept the rattlesnakes away

How she kept on smiling

No one could ever say



Now the drought of '57

Was a curse upon the land

No one in Bosque county

Could give Bill a helping hand

The ground was cracked and broken

And the truck was out of gas

And cows can't feed on prickly pear

Instead of growing grass



Well the weather got the water

And a snake bite took a child

And a fire in the old barn

Took the hay that Bill had piled

The mortgage got the money

And the screw worm got the cows

The years have come for Mary-a