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Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads

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THE HORSE WRANGLER (p. 136) I thought one spring just for fun I'd see how cow-punching was done, And when the round-ups had begun I tackled the cattle-king. Says he, "My foreman is in town, He's at the plaza, and his name is Brown, If you'll see him, he'll take you down." Says I, "That's just the thing." We started for the ranch next day; Brown augured me most all the way. He said that cow-punching was nothing but play, That it was no work at all,— That all you had to do was ride, And only drifting with the tide; The son of a gun, oh, how he lied. Don't you think he had his gall? He put me in charge of a cavyard, And told me not to work too hard, That all I had to do was guard The horses from getting away; I had one hundred and sixty head, I sometimes wished that I was dead; When one got away, Brown's head turned red, And there was the devil to pay. Sometimes (p. 137) one would make a break, Across the prairie he would take, As if running for a stake,— It seemed to them but play; Sometimes I could not head them at all, Sometimes my horse would catch a fall And I'd shoot on like a cannon ball Till the earth came in my way. They saddled me up an old gray hack With two set-fasts on his back, They padded him down with a gunny sack And used my bedding all. When I got on he quit the ground, Went up in the air and turned around, And I came down and busted the ground,— I got one hell of a fall. They took me up and carried me in And rubbed me down with an old stake pin. "That's the way they all begin; You're doing well," says Brown. "And in the morning, if you don't die, I'll give you another horse to try." "Oh say, can't I walk?" says I. Says he, "Yes, back to town." I've traveled up and I've traveled down, I've traveled this country round and round, I've lived in city and I've lived in town, But (p. 138) I've got this much to say: Before you try cow-punching, kiss your wife, Take a heavy insurance on your life, Then cut your throat with a barlow knife,— For it's easier done that way. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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