Well, I caught my wife with another man, and it cost me ninety-nine on a prison farm in Georgia, close to the Florida line. Well, I've been here for two long years, I finally made the warden my friend, and so he sentenced me to a life of ease, takin' care of old Red. Now, old Red, he's the damnedest dog that I've ever seen. Got a nose that can smell a two-day trail, he's a four-legged tracking machine. You can consider yourself mighty lucky to get past the gators and the quicksand bats. But all these years that I've been here, ain't nobody got past Red. And the warden's sayin', come on somebody, why don't you run? Old Red's itchin' to have a little fun. Get my lantern, get my gun, Red'll have your treat for the mornin' clown. Well, I paid off the guard and I slipped out a letter to my cousin up in Tennessee. Oh, and he brought down a blue tick hound, she was pretty as she could be. Well, they pinned her up in the swampland, about a mile just south of the gate. I take old Red for his evening run, I just drop him off and wait. And the warden's sayin', come on somebody, why don't you run? Old Red's itchin' to have a little fun. Get my lantern, get my gun, Red'll have your treat for the mornin' clown. Now old Red got real used to seein' his lady every night. And so I kept him away for three or four days and waited till the time got right. Well, I made my run with the evening sun and I smiled when I heard him turn Red out. Cause I was headed north to Tennessee and old Red was headed south. And the warden's sayin', come on somebody, why don't you run? Old Red's itchin' to have a little fun. Get my lantern, get my gun, Red'll have your treat for the mornin' clown. Now there's red-haired blue ticks all in the south. Love got me in here and love got me out.