Four rode by, rode through here
Three McLean boys and that wild Alex Hare
They were armed, all were armed
It was them, I'd have known them anywhere
Willie Palmer's stallion was no twenty-dollar cayuse
And when the wild ones stole him, they high-tailed it into town
Thompson in those days was keeping order in the district
But before he'd ridden thirty miles, the McLean boys shot him down
Four rode by, rode through here
Three McLean boys and that wild Alex Hare
They were armed, all were armed
It was them, I'd have known them anywhere
A shepherd known as Gillis saw the wild ones as they passed
They shot him with a rifle and they took his watch and chain
When the posse found them, they were in a lonely cabin
A hunger took their fight away and no one else was slain
Four rode by, rode through here
Three McLean boys and that wild Alex Hare
They were armed, all were armed
It was them, I'd have known them anywhere
They hanged those boys in January 1881
First time in the province that they've strung up brothers three
A son killed nineteen Germans 'cross the seas back in '17
One thing that's for damn sure, they're a wild old family
Four rode by, rode through here
Three McLean boys and that wild Alex Hare
They were armed, all were armed
It was them, I'd have known them anywhere