o'er me. For I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong." "Go bring me a cup, a cup of cold water. To cool my parched lips", the cowboy then said. Before I returned, his spirit had departed, And gone to the round up – the cowboy was dead. We beat the drum slowly and played the fife lowly, And bitterly wept as we bore him along. For we loved our comrade, so brave, young and handsome, We all loved our comrade, although he'd done wrong. Origin The song is widely considered to be a traditional ballad. It was first published in 1910 in John Lomax's Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads. The lyrics appear to be primarily descended from an Irish folk song of the late 18th century called "The Unfortunate Rake", which also evolved (with a time signature change and completely different melody) into the New Orleans standard "St. James Infirmary Blues". The Irish ballad shares a melody with the British sea-song "Spanish Ladies". The Bodleian Library, Oxford, has copies of a 19th-century broadside entitled "The Unfortunate Lad", which is a version of the British ballad. Some elements of this song closely presage those in the "Streets of Laredo" and in the "St. James Infirmary Blues". As I was a walking down by the “Lock”, As I was walking one morning of late, Who did I spy but my own dear comrade, Wrapp'd in flannel, so hard is his fate. Chorus. Had she but told me when she disordered me, Had she but told me of it at the time, I might have got salts and pills of white mercury, But now I'm cut down in the height of my prime. I boldly stepped up to him and kindly did ask him, Why he was wrapp'd in flannel so white? My body is injured and sadly disordered, All by a young woman, my own heart's delight. My father oft told me, and of[ten] times chided me, And said my wicked ways would never do, But I never minded him, nor ever heeded him, [I] always kept up in my wicked ways. Get six jolly fellows to carry my coffin, And six pretty maidens to bear up my pall, And give to each of them bunches of roses, That they may not smell me as they go along. [Over my coffin put handsful of lavender, Handsful of lavender