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Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads

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WHOOPEE TI YI YO, GIT ALONG LITTLE DOGIES (p. 087) As I walked out one morning for pleasure, I spied a cow-puncher all riding alone; His hat was throwed back and his spurs was a jingling, As he approached me a-singin' this song, Whoopee ti yi yo, git along little dogies, It's your misfortune, and none of my own. Whoopee ti yi yo, git along little dogies, For you know Wyoming will be your new home. Early in the spring we round up the dogies, Mark and brand and bob off their tails; Round up our horses, load up the chuck-wagon, Then throw the dogies upon the trail. It's whooping and yelling and driving the dogies; Oh how I wish you would go on; It's whooping and punching and go on little dogies, For you know Wyoming will be your new home. Some boys goes up the trail for pleasure, But that's where you get it most awfully wrong; For you haven't any idea the trouble they give us While we go driving them all along. When (p. 088) the night comes on and we hold them on the bedground, These little dogies that roll on so slow; Roll up the herd and cut out the strays, And roll the little dogies that never rolled before. Your mother she was raised way down in Texas, Where the jimson weed and sand-burrs grow; Now we'll fill you up on prickly pear and cholla Till you are ready for the trail to Idaho. Oh, you'll be soup for Uncle Sam's Injuns; "It's beef, heap beef," I hear them cry. Git along, git along, git along little dogies You're going to be beef steers by and by. THE U-S-U RANGE (p. 092) O come cowboys and listen to my song, I'm in hopes I'll please you and not keep you long; I'll sing you of things you may think strange About West Texas and the U-S-U range. You may go to Stamford and there see a man Who wears a white shirt and is asking for hands; You may ask him for work and he'll answer you short, He will hurry you up, for he wants you to start. He will put you in a wagon and be off in the rain, You will go up on Tongue River on the U-S-U range. You will drive up to the ranch and there you will stop. It's a little sod house with dirt all on top. You will ask what it is and they will tell you out plain That it's the ranch house on the U-S-U range. You will go in the house and he will begin to explain; You will see some blankets rolled up on the floor; You may ask what it is and they will tell you out plain That it is the bedding on the U-S-U range. You (p. 093) are up in the morning at the daybreak To eat cold beef and U-S-U steak, And out to your work no matter if it's rain,— And that is the life on the U-S-U range. You work hard all day and come in at night, And turn your horse loose, for they say it's all right, And set down to supper and begin to complain Of the chuck that you eat on the U-S-U range. The grub that you get is beans and cold rice And U-S-U steak cooked up very nice; And if you don't like that you needn't complain, For that's what you get on the U-S-U range. Now, kind friends, I must leave you, I no longer can remain, I hope I have pleased you and given you no pain. But when I am gone, don't think me strange, For I have been a cow-puncher on the U-S-U range. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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