Four Rode By

[Chorus]
Four rode by
Rode through here
Three McLean boys and that wild Alex Hare

[Chorus]
They were armed
All were armed
It was them, I'd have known them anywhere

[Verse 1]
Willie Palmer's stallion was no twenty dollar cayuse
And when the wild ones stole him, he high-tailed it into town
Usher in those days was keepin' order in the district
But before he'd ridden thirty miles, the McLean boys shot him down

[Chorus]
Four rode by
Rode through here
Three McLean boys and that wild Alex Hare

[Verse 2]
A shepherd known as Kelly saw the wild ones as they passed
They shot him with a rifle, and they took his watch and chain
When the posse found them they were in the lonely cabin
A hunger took their fight away, and no one else was slain

[Chorus]
Four rode by
Rode through here
Three McLean boys and that wild Alex Hare

[Instrumental Break]

[Verse 3]
They hung the boys in January 1881
The first time in that province that they'd strung up brothers three
And the son killed nineteen Germans 'cross the seas back in '17
One thing that's for damned sure they're a wild old family

[Chorus]
Four rode by
Rode through here
Three McLean boys and that wild Alex Hare

[Chorus]
They were armed
All were armed
It was them, I'd have known them anywhere