From the recording Just to Hear the Whistle Blow
Lyrics
ISAAC MORTON’S REVENGE
(Tim Stafford and Steve Gulley, 2005)
V1) Isaac Morton took a wife, he’d been a soldier half his life
Saw Pickett’s Charge in ’63, marched with Sherman to the sea
V2) His bride was barely seventeen, the fairest rose he’d ever seen
He swore the day he took her hand, He’d never raise a gun again
V3) One day while Issac went to town, young Arley Walker came around
Said, “Why’d you marry that old man? I thought you promised me your hand.”
V4) When Isaac came back home that night, his eyes beheld the awful sight
Saw the bloodstains on the floor, a silver dagger by the door
V5) Time soon passed a year or more, one day a knock came at my door
“Could you spare a helping hand? Water for a weary man?”
V6) I showed him where the cistern drew and then within a day or two
Isaac Morton came and swore, “I’ve tracked a killer to your door.”
V7) He led us to the Devil’s Gate, still arrived a day’s ride late
Through the pass to old Cheyenne, there we found his trail again
V8) We chased him for a hundred days until we reach the Frisco Bay
This is where I took my leave; I left old Isaac there to grieve
V9) Some say he never found his man he chased to hell and back again
They say he never found a home; across the plains his spirit roams
V10) The postman brought a week ago a parcel postmarked Mexico
Inside a Spanish scabbard rare, a silver dagger and a lock of hair
In days to come the legend grew; I only know this part is true
Vengeance to the Lord belongs, but Isaac Morton carries on
© 2004 Daniel House Music, BMI
© 2004 Mountain Heart Music, BMI