When I was young I used to wait
on my master and give him his plate
and pass the bottle when he got dry
and brush away the blue-tail fly
 
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care (3x)
my master's gone away
 
And when he'd ride in the afternoon
I'd follow after with a hickory broom
the pony being rather shy
when bitten by a blue-tail fly
 
Jimmy...
 
One day while riding round the farm
the flies so numerous they did swarm
one chanced to bite him on the thigh
the devil take the blue-tail fly
 
Jimmy...
 
The pony ran, he jumped and kicked
he threw my master in the ditch
he died, and the jury wondered why
the verdict was - the blue-tail fly
 
Jimmy...
 
They buried him under a hickory tree
his epitaph is there to see
"Beneath this stone I'm forced to lie
a victim of the blue-tail fly"
 
Jimmy...