Ballad for a friend

Sad i'm sittin' on the railroad track,
watchin' that old smokestack.
train is a-leavin' bit it won't be back.
Years ago we hung around,
watchin' trains roll through the town.
now that train is a-graveyard bound.
Where we go up in that north country,
lakes and streams and mines so free,
i had no better friend than he.
Something happened to him that day,
i thought i heard a stranger say,
i hung my head and stole away.
A diesel truck was rollin' slow,
pullin' down a heavy load.
it left him on a utah road.

They carried him back to his home town,
his mother cried, his sister moaned,
listin' to them church bells tone.