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Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads

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JOHN GARNER'S TRAIL HERD (p. 114) Come all you old timers and listen to my song; I'll make it short as possible and I'll not keep you long; I'll relate to you about the time you all remember well When we, with old Joe Garner, drove a beef herd up the trail. When we left the ranch it was early in the spring, We had as good a corporal as ever rope did swing, Good hands and good horses, good outfit through and through,— We went well equipped, we were a jolly crew. We had no little herd—two thousand head or more— And some as wild a brush beeves as you ever saw before. We swung to them all the way and sometimes by the tail,— Oh, you know we had a circus as we all went up the trail. All things went on well till we reached the open ground, And then them cattle turned in and they gave us merry hell. They (p. 115) stampeded every night that came and did it without fail,— Oh, you know we had a circus as we all went up the trail. We would round them up at morning and the boss would make a count, And say, "Look here, old punchers, we are out quite an amount; You must make all losses good and do it without fail Or you will never get another job of driving up the trail." When we reached Red River we gave the Inspector the dodge. He swore by God Almighty, in jail old John should lodge. We told him if he'd taken our boss and had him locked in jail, We would shore get his scalp as we all came down the trail. When we reached the Reservation, how squirmish we did feel, Although we had tried old Garner and knew him true as steel. And if we would follow him and do as he said do, That old bald-headed cow-thief would surely take us through. When (p. 116) we reached Dodge City we drew our four months' pay. Times was better then, boys, that was a better day. The way we drank and gambled and threw the girls around,— "Say, a crowd of Texas cowboys has come to take our town." The cowboy sees many hardships although he takes them well; The fun we had upon that trip, no human tongue can tell. The cowboy's life is a dreary life, though his mind it is no load, And he always spends his money like he found it in the road. If ever you meet old Garner, you must meet him on the square, For he is the biggest cow-thief that ever tramped out there. But if you want to hear him roar and spin a lively tale, Just ask him about the time we all went up the trail. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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