While we're on the subject of hard work, I just wanted
to say that I always was a man to work

I was born working and I worked my way up by hard
work I ain't never got nowhere yet but I got there by
hard work

Work of the hardest kind I been down and I been out
and I've been busted, disgusted and couldn't be trusted

I worked my way up and I worked my way down I've
been drunk and I've been sober I've had hard times
and I got hijacked and been robbed for cash and robbed
on credit

Worked my way into jail and outta jail and I woke up
a lotta mornings and I didn't even know where I was at

But the hardest work I ever done is when I was trying
to get myself a worried woman to ease my worried
mind

Now I'm gonna tell you just about how much hard
work I had to do to get this here woman that I'm a-tellin'
you about

I shook hands with 97 of her kinfolks and her blood
relatives and I done the same with 86 people that was
just her friends and her neighbors

Kissed 73 babies and put dry pants on 34 of 'em, as well
as others, and done the When thing several times, as well
as a lot of other things just about like this

I held 125 head of wild horses, put saddles and bridles
on more than that, harnessed some of the craziest,
wildest teams in the whole country I rode 14 loco
broncos to a dead standstill and let 42 hound dogs lick
me all over

7 times I was bit by hungry dogs and I was chewed
all to pieces by water moccasins and rattlesnakes on
2 separate river bottoms

I chopped and I carried 314 arm loads of stoved
wood; 100 buckets of coal, and I carried a gallon of