Coward Of The County

Everyone considered him The coward of the county He'd never stood one single time To prove the county wrong His mama named him Tommy But folks just called him yellow Something always told me They were reading Tommy wrong He was only ten years old When his daddy died in prison I looked after Tommy Cause he was my brother's son I still recall the final words My brother said to Tommy Son my life is over But yours has just begun Promise me, son Not to do the things I've done Walk away from trouble if you can Now it don't mean you're weak If you turn the other cheek And I hope you're old enough to understand Son, you don't have to fight to be a man There's someone for everyone And Tommy's love was Becky In her arms he didn't have To prove he was a man One day while he was working The Gatlin boys came calling They took turns at Becky N'there was three of them Tommy opened up the door And saw Becky crying The torn dress, the shattered look Was more than he could stand He reached above the fireplace Took down his daddy's picture As his tears fell on his daddy's face I heard these words again Promise me, son Not to do the things I've done Walk away from trouble if you can Now it don't mean you're weak If you turn the other cheek And I hope you're old enough to understand Son, you don't have to fight to be a man The Gatlin boys just laughed at him When he walked into the barroom One of them got up And met him half way cross the floor Tommy turned around they said Hey look, old yeller's leavin' You could've heard a pin drop When Tommy stopped and locked the door Twenty years of crawling Was bottled up inside him He wasn't holding nothing back He let 'em have it all Tommy left the bar room Not a Gatlin boy was standing He said, This one's for Becky As he watched the last one fall N' I heard him say I promised you, Dad Not to do the things you've done I walk away from trouble when I can Now please don't think I'm weak I didn't turn the other cheek Papa, I should hope you understand Sometimes you gotta fight When you're a man Everyone considered him The coward of the county