The Ballad of Hattie Porter

Providence Montana
Just a dusty cattle town
It lays there in the heat
Just a place to keep you down

Hattie Porter was a plain girl
By the standards of the day
With calloused hands and a summer smile
She worked her ranch all day

Cholera took her ma and pa
In the spring of '91
Left her all aalone and dreaming
In the hot Montana sun

She kept the ranch and worked it
All alone at twenty one
No flowers or fancy dresses
For a girl stuck on her own

And she dreamed of finding someone
To touch her heart and soul
A man of gentle kindness
Strong hands and a lover's hold

Oh Hattie hold on
You'll find what you're yearning for
When the men hold all the aces
In these hard old western places
It ain't easy being a woman on your own

Randall John was a big man
All flash and a devils grin
A second son of a second son
With a soul hard washed in sin

He rode into Providence
Like a cougar on the prowl
With a trail of broken women
The mark of Cain upon his brow

Well he heard about young Hattie
In the Rattlesnake saloon
There's a ranch there for the taking
Just one woman all alone

So he rode on out to Hatties
Some flowers in his hand
And he courted her and won her heart
Poor Hattie thought she'd found her man

Oh Hattie hold on
You'll find what you're looking for
When the men hold all the aces
In these hard old western places
Its damn hard being a woman on your own

A week went by in a whirlwind
Then Randall showed his hand
Beat her bloody and left her broken
Took the title to the land

He was standing there that evening
In the Rattlesnake Saloon
His hand upon a fancy girl
And bragging to the room

The barroom door flew open
There was Hattie standing there
Bloodstains on her clothing
Bloodstains in her hair

In her hand an old blue Navy colt
Her Daddy left her there
It was cleaned and oiled and polished
And there was nothing in her stare

She smiled a little smile
And pulled that hammer back
And the villain Randall John
Lay dead upon his back

She took the deed from his hand and turned away
The good folk shrank as she rode the length of town
She rode into the windy night and the people there still say
She did Providence a favour when she gunned that bastard down
She did Providence a favour when she gunned that bastard down

Oh Hattie hold on
You'll find what you're looking for
When the men hold all the aces
In these hard old western places
It ain't easy being a woman on your own

The last was heard of Hattie
She'd filled a winning hand
Found a good man up in Canada
Raised a family on some land

I heard this tale at a graveside
From her second son
She was my grandmother
Died in 1961