"Rider on an Orphan Train" by Tom Russell, off album "The Man from God Knows Where"
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Once I rode an orphan train
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And my brother did the same
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They split us up in Missouri
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James was five and I was three
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He got taken by some pair
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But for me they did not care
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We were brave and did not cry
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When they made us say goodbye
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That was the last I saw of him
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Before some family took me in
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But I swore I'd run away
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And find my brother James someday
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I went back when I was grown
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To find our old Children's Home
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And I asked for to see my file
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Of when I was an orphan child
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It's sad, they say, there's been a flood
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File washed away in Missouri mud
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Sometimes life is a stone wall
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You either climb, or else you fall
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In every town, on every street
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All the faces that I meet
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And I wonder, could this one be
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My brother James come back to me
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Though I don't know where he's gone
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I have searched my whole life long
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Now I roam from town to town
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But there's no orphan lost-and-found
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Sometimes I dream a pleasant sight
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My brother James and I unite
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Remembering our last goodbye
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No longer brave, we start to cry
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I hope he lives a life of ease
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And all his days a soft, warm breeze
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May he sit upon a throne
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And may he never sleep alone
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Once I rode an orphan train
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And my brother did the same
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They split us up in Missouri
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James was five and I was three
