Old Spookses' Pass, Malcolm's Katie, and other poems

Excerpt

OLD SPOOKSES' PASS.

I.

We'd camp'd that night on Yaller Bull Flat—
  Thar was Possum Billy, an' Tom, an' me.
Right smart at throwin' a lariat
  Was them two fellers, as ever I see;
An' for ridin' a broncho, or argyin' squar
  With the devil roll'd up in the hide of a mule,
Them two fellers that camp'd with me thar
  Would hev made an' or'nary feller a fool.

II.

Fur argyfyin' in any way,
  Thet hed to be argy'd with sinew an' bone,
I never see'd fellers could argy like them;
  But just right har I will hev to own
Thet whar brains come in in the game of life,
  They held the poorest keerds in the lot;
An' when hands was shown, some other chap
  Rak'd in the hull of the blam'd old pot!

III.

We was short of hands, the herd was large,
  An' watch an' watch we divided the night;
We could hear the coyotes howl an' whine,
  But the darn'd critters kept out of sight
Of the camp-fire blazin'; an' now an' then
  Thar come a rustle an' sort of rush,
A rattle a-sneakin' away from the blaze,
  Thro' the rattlin', cracklin' grey sage bush.

IV.

We'd chanc'd that night on a pootyish lot,
  With a tol'ble show of tall, sweet grass—
We was takin' Speredo's drove across
  The Rockies, by way of "Old Spookses' Pass"—
An' a mite of a creek went crinklin' down,
  Like a "pocket" bust in the rocks overhead,
Consid'able shrunk, by the summer drought,
  To a silver streak in its gravelly bed.

V.

'Twas a fairish spot fur to camp a' night;
  An' chipper I felt, tho' sort of skeer'd
That them two cowboys with only me,
  Couldn't boss three thousand head of a herd.
I took the fust of the watch myself;
  An' as the red sun down the mountains sprang,
I roll'd a fresh quid, an' got on the back
  Of my peart leetle chunk of a tough mustang.

VI.

An' Possum Billy was sleepin' sound,
  Es only a cowboy knows how to sleep;
An' Tommy's snores would hev made a old
  Buffalo bull feel kind o' cheap.
Wal, pard, I reckin' thar's no sech time
  For dwind'lin' a chap in his own conceit,
Es when them mountains an' awful stars,
  Jest hark to the tramp of his mustang's feet.

VII.

It 'pears to me that them solemn hills
  Beckin' them stars so big an' calm,
An' whisper, "Make tracks this way, my friends,
  We've ring'd in here a specimen man;
He's here alone, so we'll take a look
  Thro' his ganzy an' vest, an' his blood an' bone,
An post ourselves as to whether his heart
 Is flesh, or a rotten, made-up stone!"

VIII.

An' it's often seemed, on a midnight watch,
  When the mountains blacken'd the dry, brown sod,
That a chap, if he shut his eyes, might grip
  The great kind hand of his Father-God.
I rode round the herd at a sort of walk—
  The shadders come stealin' thick an' black;
I'd jest got to leave tew that thar chunk
  Of a mustang tew keep in the proper track.

IX.

Ever see'd a herd ring'd in at night?
  Wal, it's sort of cur'us,—the watchin' sky,
The howl of coyotes—a great black mass,
  With thar an' thar the gleam of a eye
An' the white of a horn—an', now an' then,
  An' old bull liftin' his shaggy head,
With a beller like a broke-up thunder growl—
  An' the summer lightnin', quick an' red,

X....