Reason to Believe

Seen a man standin' over a dead dog

By the highway in a ditch

He's lookin' down kinda puzzled

Pokin' that dog with a stick

Got his car-door flung open

He's standin' out on Highway 31

Like if he stood there long enough

That dog'd get up and run

It struck me kinda funny

Seemed kinda funny, sir, to me

Still at the end of every hard-earned day

People find some reason to believe

Now Mary-Lou loved Johnny

With a love mean and true

She said, "Baby I'll work for you every day

Bring my money home to you"

One day he up and left her

And ever since that

She waits down at the end of that dirt road

For young Johnny to come back

Struck me kinda funny

Funny, yeah, to me

How at the end of every hard earned-day

People find some reason to believe

Take a baby to the river

Kyle William they called him

Wash the baby in the water

Take away little Kyle's sin

In a whitewash shotgun shack

An old man passes away

Take his body to the graveyard

Over him they pray

Lord won't you tell us

Tell us what does it mean

At the end of every hard-earned day

People find some reason to believe

Congregation gathers

Down by the riverside

Preacher stands with a Bible

Groom stands waitin' for his bride

Congregation gone and the sun sets behind a weepin' willow tree

Groom stands alone and watches the river rush on so effortlessly

Wonderin' where can his baby be

Still at the end of every hard earned-day

People find some reason to believe