Tom: G
C G
Wild blackberries bloomin' in the thickets on the mountain,
C G
sheep shire and water cress are growin' round the fountain,
C G Em
where a big black bear is drinkin' lappin' water like a dog,
A D D7
Tiger Whitehead's in the bed, sleepin' like a log.
C G C
But tomorrow he'll see bear tracks seven inches wide,
G D G
and by sundown he'll be bringin' in the hide.
G C G C
Pretty Sally Garland comin' down the mountain side,
G D G D
where Tiger Whitehead's tryin' to nap a mill, at the mill,
G C G C
she sits down on a bearskin and she says, “You'll be my man,
G D G
I'll have me the best bearhunter in these hills.”
G C G C
A wild child was Tiger Whitehead and they say he killed
G D G D
ninety-nine bears before he went to rest, went to rest,
G C G C
once he left two bearcubs orphaned but he brought 'em right on home,
G D G G7
and Sally nursed the two bearcubs upon her breast.
G C G C
Tiger now is eighty-five and he lay upon his bed,
G D G D
and the bears he killed now numbered ninety-nine, ninety-nine.
G C G C
Some fellers trapped the bear, but Tiger said, “Just let him go,
G D G
if he ain't running wild he won't be mine.”
Em
But at the night when the wind howls
C G
'cross the hills of eastern Tennessee,
Em
and when the lightnin' flashes,
A D
there's the strange thing that the people say they see :
C G C
an old grey headed ghost runnin' through mountains there,
G D G G7
it's Tiger Whitehead after his one hundredth bear.
C G
Wild blackberries bloomin' in the thickets on the mountain,
C G
sheep shire and water cress are growin' round the fountain,
C G Em
where a big black bear is drinkin', lappin' water like a dog,
A D D7
Tiger Whitehead's in the bed, sleepin' like a log.
C G C
But tomorrow he'll see bear tracks seven inches wide,
G D G
and by sundown he'll be bringin' in the hide.
