Leaving Eden

Hush now, don’t you wake up
We’ll be leaving at first light
Mama's buying you a mockingbird
To lull you through the night
Across the Dan by morning
Here’s a blanket for you to share
They’re building down in Georgia
Daddy hears he’ll find work there

And the mockingbird can sing
Like the crying of the dove
And I can’t tell my daughters
All the things that I am scared of
But I am not afraid of that bright glory up above
Dying’s just another way to lead the ones you love

No work for the working man
Just one more empty mill
Hard times in Rockingham
Hard times harder still
The crows are in the kitchen
The wolves at the door
Our father's land of Eden is paradise no more

And the mockingbird can sing
Like the crying of the dove
And I can’t tell my daughters
All the things that I am scared of
But I am not afraid of that bright glory up above
Dying’s just another way to lead the ones you love

My sister stayed in Eden
Her husband’s got some land
An agent for the county thinks that they might make a stand
A hard life full of working
With nothing much to show
A long life of leaving with nowhere to go

And the mockingbird can sing
Like the crying of the dove
And I can’t tell my daughters
All the things that I am scared of
But I am not afraid of that bright glory up above
Dying’s just another way to lead the ones you love