Hawthorne is good and Hawthorne is free
Mother Earth in her kindness she gave it to me
She gave me my cabin, my pipe and its case
And she’ll give me my final resting place

When my time comes, my door shall open wide
I’ll make a place at the table and let him inside
He brings with him darkness, but it scares me no more
For twice in my life I’ve met him before

First time he came on Harvestman’s Eve
The wheat from the fields tremb’ling in their sheaves
He came to my cabin, he opened the door
And took my own gard’ner to the grey-sanded shore

She was to go under, she was to fall in
But she said “I shan’t go with all that I’ve sinned
And turned from him there and left the shore
And he watched her in silence ’till she was no more

Her time was over, she should not come back
Her skin became white, her eyes they turned black
Spoke only in whispers, touched not with her hand
And left all her love on the shore in the sand

And so in this state did she dwell on this earth
Wand’ring by my cabin while I lay in my berth
It pained me to see her all like a husk
Advancing but seeing nothing in the dusk

I swore to find the one who took her that night
I’d ask him how I could save this wight
How I could lead her back to the grey shore
And free her spirit forevermore.

I roved every hollow, I searched them through
All through the mountains, every one that I knew
I asked all my neighbors, I asked all my kin
But they said no one ever went looking for him

I searched every sinkhole, each one I could find
When I found him I hoped for a peace of mind
Each one I entered was deeper than the last
And the night crept closer with each deepening shaft

I searched every cavern and every cave
Led by the will for her soul to save
Through every chamber never touched by the sun
At last I found him in the deepest one

Surrounded by silence, before him I stood
I told him I’d walked every county and wood
His gaze made me quaver, but I would not rest
Until I delivered to him my request

And when he had heard it, he spoke not a word
And I began to think I’d not be assured
Then he told me to plant a hawthorne seed
And once it had grown, that she would be free

I gave him my gratitude for answ’ring my plea
I came out from the dark to plant the seed
And while it grew, she stayed to haunt me
And the sight of her still made me very weary

Years went by, and then the tree bloomed
She could walk to the shore where she had been doomed
Of right mind and vision, she knew she was done
So she stepped in the water and then was gone

So I was assured that she had passed
But I became weary and I could not last
I’d roamed the earth up to his very door
And now I did not want to see it anymore

Hawthorne is good and Hawthorne is free
And now I haste Death for to come and take me
Soon I’ll leave my cabin and pipe in its drawer
and be led down forever to the grey shore.