Johnny was a child When the wheels of progress came And slowed things down again Oh, when the wheat was high And a big moon sailed in a rolling sky And the stars came down so close You could touch them just like rings And you felt so happy-sad It all seemed part of the same thing Oh, when the days ran wild And he was a child And later on when the tractors came And made light work, that would have taken days So with nothing else to do We just turned the days to rain It would take an endless chain of circumstance To get up and start again Oh, when the tractors came The the field of grain. Johnny, now those days have ended There's no more time on our side They say, in a little while It will all take on a new light.