A good many of 'em talked religion to me, but the more they talked the less I understood 'em.

I guess 'twas my fault; I never had much head-piece, while some of them had.

But when I was in the prison a man come along that talked to me about Jesus like I never was talked to before.
Somehow I could understand what he was drivin' at.

He made me feel that I had a friend that I could foller, even if I didn't keep up with him all the time, owin' to things in the road that I hadn't knowed about.
He told me if I'd b'lieve in Jesus as I b'lieved in Andrew Jackson, I'd pull through in the course of time.

I've been tryin' to do it, an' while I was in the jail I got lots of new idees of how I ort to behave myself, all from a little book that man left me, that didn't have nothin' in it but Jesus' own words.