he learnt me how to play, My father was a gambler, he learlt me how to play, Saying, 'Son, don't go a-begging when you hold the ace and trey, When you hold the ace and trey.' Chorus: Hang me, O hang me, and I'll be dead and gone, Hang me, O hang me, and I'll be dead and gone; I wouldn't mind the hangin', it's been gone so long, It's layin' in the grave so long. They took me down to old Fort Smith as sick as I could be, They took me down to old Fort Smith as sick as I could be, They handed me a letter saying, 'Son, come home to me,' Saying, 'Son, come home to me.' My father and my mother and my little sister makes three, My father and my mother and my little sister makes three, They all came up to the gallows to see the last of me, To see the last of me. They put the rope around my neck and drew me very high, They put the rope around my neck and drew me very high, And the words I heard 'em sayin' was 'It won't be long till he'll die, It won't be long till he'll die.' "The song itself may have not been all around this world, but it certainly has been all around the American South, from the North Carolna Piedmont, to the Mississippi to the Blue Ridge to the Ozarks." And out to California with the