Reason to Believe

Seen a man standin' over a dead dog lyin' by a highway in a ditch

He's lookin' down kinda puzzled, pokin' that dog with a stick

Got his car doors flung open he's standin' out on Highway thirty-one

Like if he stood there long enough that dog'd get up and run

Struck me kinda funny, seem kinda funny, sir, to me

Still, at the end of every hard day people find some reason to believe

Now Mary Lou loved Johnny with a love mean and true

She said "Baby, I'll work for you every day, bring my money home to you"

One day he up and left her and ever since that

She waits down at the end of that dirt road for young Johnny to come back

Struck me kinda funny, funny, yeah, to me

How at the end of every hard-earned day people find some reason to believe

Take a baby to the river, Kyle William they called him

Wash the baby in the water, take away little Kyle's sin

In a whitewash shotgun shack an old man passes away

Take his body to the graveyard and over him they pray

Lord won't you tell us, tell us what does it mean

At the end of every hard-earned day people find some reason to believe

Congregation gathers down by the riverside

Preacher stands with a Bible, groom stands waitin' for his bride

Congregation gone, the sun sets behind a weepin' willow tree

Groom stands alone and watches the river rush on, so effortlessly

Wonderin' where can his baby be

Still, at the end of every hard-earned day people find some reason to believe