You
remember Nathan,
treated me so rotten.
What did I get?
Pervasion.
Pervasion.
I got nothing.
I feel so bad, but he don't care.
I'm a rag in a bone and a hunk of hair.
My folks all left me poor.
They say I'm fool, I warn.
I ask Nathan when we're going to bed.
He tells me he can't think that far ahead.
Boy, how I hate that teller Nathan.
Boy, how he used to keep me waiting.
He always used to say,
I'll marry you into my dear.
I suppose now I'll have to be an old maid,
all on account of that teller Nathan.
When I think of how he used to come
around and smoke my father's cigars,
eat my mother's
supper,
and waste my life,
I can't look my family in the face.
I got four reasons for
a lawyer, and no,
no I got nothing.
That's what I get for fooling around with a traveling salesman.
And he's an independent salesman too.
He don't take orders from anybody.
And I'm telling you,
a man in your arms is worth three hundred dollars.
He used to say that he would lay down and die for
me, but he wouldn't stand up and work for me.
I thought he was going to marry me in December,
because he always used to say,
it will be a cold day when I marry you.
And when we used to sit in
the parlor and the lights would go out,
I'd ask him to put a quarter in the meter.
And he'd say,
no,
if your father finds out that we're in the dark,
he'll put a quarter in the meter.
And when my people had their golden wagon,
and everybody brought something made from gold,
he had the nerve to bring a bowl of gold fish.
And he plays put and take with my father.
And when he wins, he takes.
And when he loses, he puts up an argument.
You ought to hear the promises he made to me each day.
But now I know I fell for him,
and he just lets me lay.