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Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads

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MISSISSIPPI GIRLS (p. 108) Come, all you Mississippi girls, and listen to my noise, If you happen to go West, don't you marry those Texian boys; For if you do, your fortune will be Cold jonny-cake and beefsteak, that's all that you will see,— Cold jonny-cake and beefsteak, that's all that you will see. When they go courting, here's what they wear: An old leather coat, and it's all ripped and tore; And an old brown hat with the brim tore down, And a pair of dirty socks, they've worn the winter round. When one comes in, the first thing you hear Is, "Madam, your father has killed a deer"; And the next thing they say when they sit down Is, "Madam, the jonny-cake is too damned brown." They live in a hut with hewed log wall, But it ain't got any windows at all; With a clap-board roof and a puncheon floor, And that's the way all Texas o'er. They (p. 109) will take you out on a live-oak hill And there they will leave you much against your will. They will leave you on the prairie, starve you on the plains, For that is the way with the Texians,— For that is the way with the Texians. When they go to preaching let me tell you how they dress; Just an old black shirt without any vest, Just an old straw hat more brim than crown And an old sock leg that they wear the winter round,— And an old sock leg that they wear the winter round. For your wedding supper, there'll be beef and cornbread; There it is to eat when the ceremony's said. And when you go to milk you'll milk into a gourd; And set it in the corner and cover it with a board; Some gets little and some gets none, For that is the way with the Texians,— For that is the way with the Texians. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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