Cowboy Songs, and Other Frontier Ballads. Various

Who are posted and know every brand.

      I know there's many a stray cowboy

       Who'll be lost at the great, final sale,

       When he might have gone in the green pastures

       Had he known of the dim, narrow trail.

      I wonder if ever a cowboy

       Stood ready for that Judgment Day,

       And could say to the Boss of the Riders,

       "I'm ready, come drive me away."

      For they, like the cows that are locoed,

       Stampede at the sight of a hand,

       Are dragged with a rope to the round-up,

       Or get marked with some crooked man's brand.

      And I'm scared that I'll be a stray yearling—

       A maverick, unbranded on high—

       And get cut in the bunch with the "rusties"

       When the Boss of the Riders goes by.

      For they tell of another big owner

       Whose ne'er overstocked, so they say,

       But who always makes room for the sinner

       Who drifts from the straight, narrow way.

      They say he will never forget you,

       That he knows every action and look;

       So, for safety, you'd better get branded,

       Have your name in the great Tally Book.

      THE COWBOY'S LIFE[3]

      The bawl of a steer,

       To a cowboy's ear,

       Is music of sweetest strain;

       And the yelping notes

       Of the gray cayotes

       To him are a glad refrain.

      And his jolly songs

       Speed him along,

       As he thinks of the little gal

       With golden hair

       Who is waiting there

       At the bars of the home corral.

      For a kingly crown

       In the noisy town

       His saddle he wouldn't change;

       No life so free

       As the life we see

       Way out on the Yaso range.

      His eyes are bright

       And his heart as light

       As the smoke of his cigarette;

       There's never a care

       For his soul to bear,

       No trouble to make him fret.

      The rapid beat

       Of his broncho's feet

       On the sod as he speeds along,

       Keeps living time

       To the ringing rhyme

       Of his rollicking cowboy song.

      Hike it, cowboys,

       For the range away

       On the back of a bronc of steel,

       With a careless flirt

       Of the raw-hide quirt

       And a dig of a roweled heel!

      The winds may blow

       And the thunder growl

       Or the breezes may safely moan;—

       A cowboy's life

       Is a royal life,

       His saddle his kingly throne.

      Saddle up, boys,

       For the work is play

       When love's in the cowboy's eyes—

       When his heart is light

       As the clouds of white

       That swim in the summer skies.

      THE KANSAS LINE

      Come all you jolly cowmen, don't you want to go

       Way up on the Kansas line?

       Where you whoop up the cattle from morning till night

       All out in the midnight rain.

      The cowboy's life is a dreadful life,

       He's driven through heat and cold;

       I'm almost froze with the water on my clothes,

       A-ridin' through heat and cold.

      I've been where the lightnin', the lightnin' tangled in my eyes,

       The cattle I could scarcely hold;

       Think I heard my boss man say:

       "I want all brave-hearted men who ain't afraid to die

       To whoop up the cattle from morning till night,

       Way up on the Kansas line."

      Speaking of your farms and your shanty charms,

       Speaking of your silver and gold—

       Take a cowman's advice, go and marry you a true and lovely little wife,

       Never to roam, always stay at home;

       That's a cowman's, a cowman's advice,

       Way up on the Kansas line.

      Think I heard the noisy cook say,

       "Wake up, boys, it's near the break of day,"—

       Way up on the Kansas line,

       And slowly we will rise with the sleepy feeling eyes,

       Way up on the Kansas line.

      The cowboy's life is a dreary, dreary life,

       All out in the midnight rain;

       I'm almost froze with the water on my clothes,

       Way up on the Kansas line.

      THE COWMAN'S PRAYER

      Now, O Lord, please lend me thine ear,

       The prayer of a cattleman to hear,

       No doubt the prayers may seem strange,

       But I want you to bless our cattle range.

      Bless the round-ups year by year,

       And don't forget the growing steer;

       Water the lands with brooks and rills

       For my cattle that roam on a thousand hills.

      Prairie fires, won't you please stop?

       Let thunder roll and water drop.

       It frightens me to see the smoke;

       Unless it's stopped, I'll go dead broke.

      As you, O Lord, my herd behold,

       It represents a sack of gold;

       I think at least five cents a pound

       Will be the price of beef the year around.

      One thing more and then I'm through—

       Instead of one calf, give my cows two.

       I may pray different from other men

       But I've had my say, and now, Amen.

      THE MINER'S SONG[4]

      In a rusty, worn-out cabin sat a broken-hearted leaser,

       His singlejack was resting on his knee.

       His old "buggy" in the corner told the same old plaintive tale,