Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads

<p class="tit-song">HARRY BALE <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="page172" name="page172"></SPAN>(p. 172)</span></p> <p>Come all kind friends and kindred dear and Christians young and old,<br/> A story I'll relate to you, 'twill make your blood run cold;<br/> 'Tis all about an unfortunate boy who lived not far from here,<br/> In the township of Arcade in the County of Lapeer.<br/> It seems his occupation was a sawyer in a mill,<br/> He followed it successfully two years, one month, until,<br/> Until this fatal accident that caused many to weep and wail;<br/> 'Twas where this young man lost his life,&mdash;his name was Harry Bale.</p> <p>On the 29th of April in the year of seventy-nine,<br/> He went to work as usual, no fear did he design;<br/> In lowering of the feed bar throwing the carriage into gear<br/> It brought him down upon the saw and cut him quite severe;<br/> It cut him through the collar-bone and half way down the back,<br/> It threw him down upon the saw, the carriage coming back.<br/> He <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="page173" name="page173"></SPAN>(p. 173)</span> started for the shanty, his strength was failing fast;<br/> He said, "Oh, boys, I'm wounded: I fear it is my last."</p> <p>His brothers they were sent for, likewise his sisters too,<br/> The doctors came and dressed his wound, but kind words proved untrue.<br/> Poor Harry had no father to weep beside his bed,<br/> No kind and loving mother to sooth his aching head.<br/> He was just as gallant a young man as ever you wished to know,<br/> But he withered like a flower, it was his time to go.</p> <p>They placed him in his coffin and laid him in his grave;<br/> His brothers and sisters mourned the loss of a brother so true and brave.<br/> They took him to the graveyard and laid him away to rest,<br/> His body lies mouldering, his soul is among the blest.</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />