You can always tell, when your good gal don't want to be seen 'Cause your meals ain't ready, the house is never clean Just like huntin' for a needle buried in a bed of sand That is to find a woman hasn't got no man Three barrels of the whiskey, mama, four barrels of gin She said, "The headknocker's home, daddy, and you can't come in." It was early one morning, just at the close of four When Charlie Smith knocked on Evelyn's door She jumped up, sweet babe, tipped on across the floor Hollerin', "Long tall daddy, don't you knock no more." It was in the loving kitchen, where they made the plot For to poison her father and her mother in the coffee pot Then they carried the remains, throwed it out in the yard Killed fifteen chickens and wound that prattling dog Policeman said to Freddie, "What do you know about this?" Say, "I guess you'd have to go arrest poor Charlie Smith." Then they carried poor Charlie, put him behind the bars Give him thirty-nine days, mama, and that ain't all Poor Evelyn's in jail, with her back turned to the wall Hollerin', "Cruel kind daddy, you know you the cause of it all." I'm gonna sing this time, ain't gonna sing no more 'Cause my throat's got dry, to where my tonsils sore