Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads

<p class="tit-song">THE LONE STAR TRAIL <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="page310" name="page310"></SPAN>(p. 310)</span></p> <p>I'm a rowdy cowboy just off the stormy plains,<br/> My trade is girting saddles and pulling bridle reins.<br/> Oh, I can tip the lasso, it is with graceful ease;<br/> I rope a streak of lightning, and ride it where I please.<br/> My bosses they all like me, they say I am hard to beat;<br/> I give them the bold standoff, you bet I have got the cheek.<br/> I always work for wages, my pay I get in gold;<br/> I am bound to follow the longhorn steer until I am too old.</p> <p class="add2em">Ci yi yip yip yip pe ya.</p> <p>I am a Texas cowboy and I do ride the range;<br/> My trade is cinches and saddles and ropes and bridle reins;<br/> With Stetson hat and jingling spurs and leather up to the knees,<br/> Gray backs as big as chili beans and fighting like hell with fleas.<br/> And if I had a little stake, I soon would married be,<br/> But another week and I must go, the boss said so to-day.<br/> My <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="page311" name="page311"></SPAN>(p. 311)</span> girl must cheer up courage and choose some other one,<br/> For I am bound to follow the Lone Star Trail until my race is run.</p> <p class="add2em">Ci yi yip yip yip pe ya.</p> <p>It almost breaks my heart for to have to go away,<br/> And leave my own little darling, my sweetheart so far away.<br/> But when I'm out on the Lone Star Trail often I'll think of thee,<br/> Of my own dear girl, the darling one, the one I would like to see.<br/> And when I get to a shipping point, I'll get on a little spree<br/> To drive away the sorrow for the girl that once loved me.<br/> And though red licker stirs us up we're bound to have our fun,<br/> And I intend to follow the Lone Star Trail until my race is run.</p> <p class="add2em">Ci yi yip yip yip pe ya.</p> <p>I went up the Lone Star Trail in eighteen eighty-three;<br/> I fell in love with a pretty miss and she in love with me.<br/> "When you get to Kansas write and let me know;<br/> And <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="page312" name="page312"></SPAN>(p. 312)</span> if you get in trouble, your bail I'll come and go."<br/> When I got up in Kansas, I had a pleasant dream;<br/> I dreamed I was down on Trinity, down on that pleasant stream;<br/> I dreampt my true love right beside me, she come to go my bail;<br/> I woke up broken hearted with a yearling by the tail.</p> <p class="add2em">Ci yi yip yip yip pe ya.</p> <p>In came my jailer about nine o'clock,<br/> A bunch of keys was in his hand, my cell door to unlock,<br/> Saying, "Cheer up, my prisoner, I heard some voice say<br/> You're bound to hear your sentence some time to-day."<br/> In came my mother about ten o'clock,<br/> Saying, "O my loving Johnny, what sentence have you got?"<br/> "The jury found me guilty and the judge a-standin' by<br/> Has sent me down to Huntsville to lock me up and die."</p> <p class="add2em">Ci yi yip yip yip pe ya.</p> <p>Down come the jailer, just about eleven o'clock,<br/> With a bunch of keys all in his hand the cell doors to unlock,<br/> Saying, <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="page313" name="page313"></SPAN>(p. 313)</span> "Cheer up, my prisoner, I heard the jury say<br/> Just ten long years in Huntsville you're bound to go and stay."<br/> Down come my sweetheart, ten dollars in her hand,<br/> Saying, "Give this to my cowboy, 'tis all that I command;<br/> O give this to my cowboy and think of olden times,<br/> Think of the darling that he has left behind."</p> <p class="add2em">Ci yi yip yip yip pe ya.</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />