Mary Martin was a schoolgirl just seventeen or so

When she married Billy Archer about fourteen years ago

Not even out of high school folks said, It wouldn't last

But when you grow up in the country you grow up mighty fast They married in a hurry in March before school was out

Folks said that she was pregnant "Just wait and you'll find out"

It came about that winter one gray November morn

The first of many more to come a baby boy was born And cattle is their game

And Archer is the name they give to the acres that they own

Well if the Brazos don't run dry and the newborn calves they don't die

Another year from Mary will have flown

Another year from Mary will have flown And now Billy kept what cattle his daddy could afford

As went bouncing across the cactus in a 1950 ford

But the cows were sick and skinny and the weed was all that grew

But Billy kept the place alive the only thing he knew And Mary cooked the supper and Mary scrubbed the clothes

And Mary busted horses and blew the baby's nose

And Mary and a shotgun kept the rattlesnakes away

And how she kept on smiling no one could ever say And cattle is their game

And Archer is the name they give to the acres that they own

If the Brazos don't run dry and the newborn calves don't die

Another year from Mary will have flown

Another year from Mary will have flown Now the drought of '57 was a curse upon the land

No one in Bosque County could give Bill a helping hand

The ground was cracked and broken and the truck was out of gas

And cows can't feed on prickly pear instead of growing grass Well the weather got the water and a snake bite took a child

And a fire in the old barn took the hay that Bill had piled

The mortgage got the money and the screw worm got the cows

The years have come for Mary, she's waiting for them now And cattle is their game

And Archer is the name they give to the acres that they own

If the Brazos don't run dry and the newborn calves they don't die

Another year from Mary will have flown

Another year from Mary will have flown Six o'clock silence of a new day begin is heard in the small Texas town

Like a signal from nowhere the people lived their

Then up and down moving around

'Cause this began to fry and the biscuits to bake

On the store left the salvation out or you won't take

You open the windows and u turn on the fan

'Cause it's harder then hell when the sun hits the ground