Mother Country

C*        C*

[Verse 1]
C*                                       C*                                   C*
  There was a story in the San Francisco Chronicle that of course I forgot to save
                             C*                            C*
but it was about a lady  who lived in the 'good old days'.   When a century was born
C*                       C*                                 C*
  and a century had died   and about these 'good old days',   the old lady replied.
C*                      C*                                C*                     C*
  "Why they were just a lot of people doing the best they could". "Just a lot of people doing
              C*                  C*                  C*                             C*
the best they could" and then the lady said that they did it, "pretty up and walking good".
          C*                                              C*            C*           C*
What ever happened to those faces in the old photographs?   I mean, the little boys. Boys?
                C*                                       C*                               C*
Hell, they were men who stood knee deep in the Johnstown mud in the time of that terrible flood 
and they
C*                     C*                 C*                           C*                  
listened to the water,   that awful noise   and then they put away the dreams that belonged
          C*
 to little boys.

[Chorus]
E E         E      Am   D                G
    And the sun is going down for Mister Bouie
        E                Am   D            G
as he's singing with his class of nineteen-two.
C          F         G        C*
Oh, mother country, I do love you.
C          F         G        C*
Oh, mother country, I do love you.

[Verse 2]
         C*                     C*              C*  C*             C*
I knew a man named E.A. Stuart,   spelled S.T.U.A.R.T and he owned some of the finest horses
                       C*               C*                        C*
that I think I've ever seen. And he had one favorite, a champion,   the old Campaigner
C*       C*                          C*     C*                              C*
  and he called her "Sweetheart On Parade".   And she was easily the finest horse
                        C*           C*                        C*           C*
that the good Lord ever made but old E.A. Stuart, he was going blind and he said
                                 C*
"Before I go, I gotta drive her one more time".
C*                                 C*                          C*   C*                  C*
  So people came from miles around   and they stood around the ring   but no one said a word,
                        C*    C*              C*    C*                               C*
you know, no one said a thing   and here they come, E.A. Stuart in the wagon right behind
C*                           C*                           C*    C*
  sitting straight and proud   and he's driving her stone blind   and would you look at her.
C*                           C*                           C*                 C*
  Oh, she never looked finer   or went better than today,   it's E.A. Stuart   and the old 
Campaigner,
C*                 C*             C*              C*                           C*
  "Sweetheart On Parade". And the people cheered.   Why I even saw a grown man break right down 
and cry
C*                           C*                 C*                     C*
  and you know it was just a little while later   that old E.A. Stuart died.

[End-Chorus]
E  E         E               Am  D           G
     And the sun it is going down for Mister Bouie
        E                Am   E            G
as he's singing with his class of nineteen-two.
C          F         G        C*
Oh, mother country, I do love you.
C          F         G        C*           C
Oh, mother country, I do love you.