Just a little box all covered with blossoms white as snow Chinese red and made of brass that he gave her long ago Like the red dirt Oklahoma hills and the springtime flowering trees That she kept with all the love they shared inside her memories She got it from her captain when he sailed around the horn Bringing gifts from China to their Oklahoma home There were fancy silks and carved wood chests from the places he had gone She kept them all until she died but this was her favourite one Just a little box all covered with blossoms white as snow Chinese red and made of brass that he gave her long ago Like the red dirt Oklahoma hills and the springtime flowering trees That she kept with all the love they shared inside her memories And she kept it on her dresser filled with gold and silver rings Necklaces of turquoise beads and other things It filled her heart with the mystery and the magic of the day When he gave it to her for her own in his quiet loving way Ten years they spent together he'd come home and then he'd leave One day while she waited he disappeared at sea No one knew how she called his name to the silent rocks and stones Or how she'd sit and hold that little box so she would not feel alone Just a little box all covered with blossoms white as snow Chinese red and made of brass that he gave her long ago Like the red dirt Oklahoma hills and the springtime flowering trees That she kept with all the love they shared inside her memories No she never was a dancer or wrote a fancy line The treasures of her life were the things she left behind They buried her without them where the prairie grasses grow In China or a woman's heart there are places no one knows Just a little box all covered with blossoms white as snow Chinese red and made of brass that he gave her long ago Like the red dirt Oklahoma hills and the springtime flowering trees That she kept with all the love they shared inside her memories They buried her without them where the prairie grasses grow In China or a woman's heart there are places no one knows