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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/13560-0.txt b/13560-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e8b8b5a --- /dev/null +++ b/13560-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2527 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13560 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 13560-h.htm or 13560-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/5/6/13560/13560-h/13560-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/5/6/13560/13560-h.zip) + + + + + +Nancy MacIntyre + +A Tale of the Prairies + +by + +Lester Shepard Parker + +1910 + + + + + + + +[Illustration: "I was takin' leave of Nancy, +Standin' out there in the night."] + + + + +_To My Wee Daughter +RACHEL ELLEN PARKER +this little story is +affectionately inscribed_ + + + + +CONTENTS + +Billy's Revery +The Quarrel +The Disappointment +The Decision +The Search +The Return +Nancy's Story + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +"I was takin' leave of Nancy +Standin out there in the night" (Frontispiece) + +"Then I dragged him on the prairie +Through a Turk's Head cactus bed" + +"I am standing by her dug-out, +Open stands the sagging door" + +"Bringing back a hat of water, +Through the dim light and the rain" + +"Loaded up their prairie schooner, +And vamoosed the ranch, 'fore light" + +"He was startled by a stranger's +Sudden presence and 'Hello!'" + +"Faithful Simon, weak and starving, +Groaned and fell beneath his pack" + +"Resting calm in fancied safety +Sat the elder MacIntyre" + +"Once again the twisted branches +Of the lone and friendly tree" + +"Fiercer with each flying moment +Drove the scorching blasts of death" + +"Standing there, a pictured goddess +Sketched against a lowering storm" + +"But, instead, I shot, to scare him, +All the buttons off his coat" + + + + +BILLY'S REVERY + + +1 + +No use talking, it's perplexing, + Everything don't look the same; +Never had these curious feelin's + Till those MacIntyres came. +Quit my plowing long 'fore dinner, + Didn't hitch my team again; +Spent the day with these new neighbors, + Getting 'quainted with the men. +Talk about the prairie roses! + Purtiest flow'rs in all the world, +But they look like weeds for beauty + When I think of that new girl. +Strange, she seems so kind of friendly + When I'm awkward, every way, +And my tongue gets hitched and hobbled, + Everything I try to say! + + +2 + +There's one person, that Jim Johnson, + That there man I can't abide; +He's been milling around near Nancy,-- + Durn his dirty, yaller hide! +Never really liked that Johnson; + Now, each time I hear his name, +Feel this state's too thickly settled,-- + That is, since that new girl came. +If this making love to women + Went like breaking in a horse, +I might stand some show of winning, + 'Cause I've learned that game, of course; +But this moonshine folks call 'courting,' + I ain't never played that part; +I can't keep from talking foolish + When I'm thinking with my heart. + + +3 + +Now, those women that you read of + In these story picture books, +They can't ride in roping distance + Of that girl in style and looks. +They have waists more like an insect, + Corset shaped and double cinched; +Feet just right to make a watch charm, + Small, of course, because they're pinched. +This here Nancy's like God made her,-- + She don't wear no saddle girth, +But she's supple as a willow, + And the purtiest thing on earth. +I'm in earnest; let me ask you-- + 'Cause I want to reason fair-- +What durn business has that rope-necked + Johnson sneaking over there? + + +4 + +Hands so soft and strong and tender, + When I shook a "how de do," +They was loaded sure with something + Seemed to thrill me through and through; +Hair as black as fire-burnt prairie; + Eyes that dance and flash and flirt; +Every time she smiled she showed you + Teeth as white's my Sunday shirt. +Baked us biscuits light as cotton; + I can't eat mine any more,-- +I must get some better breeches,-- + Kind o' 'shamed of those I wore; +But I'm goin' there to-morrow, + Like enough I'll stay all day, +Seems to me too dry for plowing-- + Durn that Johnson, anyway! + + +5 + +I ain't much on deep-down thinkin', + Reasoning out the way things go, +So I s'pose I'll keep on foolin' + Till in time I get to know. +I've had chills and fever 'n' ague; + Suffered till their course was run. +Maybe love just keeps on runnin', + Till a man has lost--or won. +One thing certain: I have got it; + Seems to struck in good and hard. +Makes me sometimes soft and tender; + Next thing I would fight my pard. +Appetite is surely failing, + Sometimes I don't eat a bite; +Dream of Nancy all the daytime, + That durn Johnson, half the night. + + +6 + +I've just got to get to plowin', + Break a fire-guard 'round my shack, +Plant my sod corn, fix my garden; + Everything is goin' to rack. +I can't work the way I used to; + Got to quittin' early now, +Since a little thing that happened, + I can't just remember how. +I was takin' leave of Nancy, + Standin' out there in the night, +And I put my arms around her-- + Heart stopped beatin', just from fright. +Can't express the kind of feelin',-- + Words wa'n't never made for this,-- +As I drew her face up closer, + And I stole my first sweet kiss. + + + + +THE QUARREL + + +1 + +Things have moved along some smoother + Since a week ago to-night, +Seems my blood turned all to p'ison-- + Me and Johnson had a fight. +Caught him twice up there to Nancy's; + Told him plain to stay away; +But he didn't seem to notice + Anything I had to say. +Caught him settin' there and talkin' + 'Bout the things that he had done-- +Durndest liar on the prairie-- + Laughing like he thought 'twas fun, +Settin' there beside o' Nancy-- + Settin' down is all he does, +Good for nothin', bug-eyed, loafin', + Wrinkled, yaller, meddlin' cuss! + + +2 + +I just let him keep on settin' + All the whole long evenin' through; +When he started off I follered, + Told him what I meant to do. +"Why," says he, "now, don't git foolish; + I ain't skeered o' your light breeze; +I'll go thar and set by Nancy, + Spite o' you, when I blame please." +Well, I don't just clear remember + All the doin's that took place, +But you'll know the story better + If you'll look at Johnson's face. +As we rode we clinched and wrestled, + Then we tumbled to the ground, +Tore the bunch grass up, and cactus, + For a hundred yards around. + + +3 + +Got him down, and in the scrimmage + Felt my lasso on the ground, +Tied his legs and bent him over, + Bound him like he's sittin' down; +Hustled quick to mount my pony, + Threw the loose end round the horn, +Thought I'd learn that Mr. Johnson + He'd missed out in bein' born. +Then I dragged him on the prairie, + Through a Turk's Head cactus bed, +Prickly pears and shoestring bushes,-- + 'Twasn't decent what he said. +He's so dev'lish fond of settin', + Thought I'd fix his settin' end +So's he'd be more kinder careful + Settin' by that girl again. + +[Illustration: "Then I dragged him on the prairie +Through a Turk's Head cactus bed."] + + + + +THE DISAPPOINTMENT + + +1 + +There's a feeling in my bosom, + Like a hound that's lost the game, +After chasing over bunch grass + Till his feet are sore and lame. +I am standing by her dug-out, + Open stands the sagging door; +Every grassblade speaks of Nancy, + But she's gone, to come no more. +For her father and her mother, + And her brothers, late last night, +Loaded up their prairie schooner, + And vamoosed the ranch, 'fore light. +'Taint no use to stand here cussin', + But my heart slumps down like lead +When I think of losing Nancy + And to know my dreams are dead. + + +2 + +It was here I held you, Nancy, + When I showed you all my heart; +When I told you I would always + Be your friend and take your part. +Oh, I thought that in life's lottery + I had drawn the biggest prize, +When I kissed you there that evening + And looked down into your eyes; +For I never had such feelin's + Fill my hide clean through and through +Such a hungry, starving longing, + To be always close to you. +But you've gone with all your family, + And I'm left to mourn my loss, +While the posse hunts your daddie, + 'Cause he stole Bill Kelly's hoss. + + +3 + +Now, I don't know where you're roaming, + And I don't know where'll you'll land; +But I wish you knew my feelin's, + And 'twas clear just how I stand: +How the good Lord, high in heaven, + Put a throbbing heart in here, +But it starts to pumping backwards + When it feels that you don't keer. +I'm a roving old jay-hawker, + Never caught like this before, +But I'd give my last possession + For a glimpse of you once more. +If we lose your old fool father + Folks 'round here can stand the loss, +He was raised in old Missoura, + Or he'd never stole that hoss. + +[Illustration: "I am standing by her dug-out, +Open stands the sagging door."] + + +4 + +When my mind gets to recalling + All the happy times we had, +Good red liquor and tobacco + Gets to tasting kind o' bad. +You remember on your birthday + How I drove 'round kind o' late, +And we went to Donkey Collins' + To a dance, to celebrate? +When you got up in my wagon, + Bless my heart, you sure was sweet! +You was bound that you'd go barefoot, + 'Cause your new shoes hurt your feet. +Well, I tell you, pretty Nancy, + Every minute of that ride +Seemed like floating through the heavens, +'Cause you set there by my side. + + +5 + +When we pulled up at old Collins', + Quite a bunch was there before, +You could hear the fiddler calling, + And the scraping on the floor. +Through the dingy sodhouse window + Gleamed a sickly yellow light, +Where I helped you from the wagon, + Holding you so loving tight. +Then they called out, "Choose your pardners, + Numbers five, six, seven, and eight," +And we hustled up to join in, + For we knew that we were late. +After starting up the music + Something happened--you know what-- +All because I loved you, Nancy, + And their manners made me hot. + + +6 + +I just glanced around the circle, + When we came to "Balance, all;" +To that mess of cowhide-covered + Feet that stomped at every call. +Sure enough, the thing I looked for + Come to pass when Aleck Rose +Tried to _dos-a-dos_ by you, dear, + And, instead, waltzed on your toes. +Recollect? I stopped the fiddler, + And I stopped that stomping crowd, +Using language that was decent, + But was mighty clear and loud: +"Now, you fellers from the Sand Hills, + Fight me, or if you refuse +You don't dance with me and Nancy + While a one of you wears shoes!" + + +7 + +Yes, they took them off, Miss Nancy, + In respect for you and me, +Putting all on equal footing, + Just the way it ought to be. +And we went through all the figures + That we knew in that quadrille, +But it didn't seem like dancin', + Steppin' round so awful still. +Fiddler, even, did his calling + In a sort of quiet hush-- +"Swing your pardners," "Back to places," + "Sounds to me like paddlin' mush." +"Man in center," "Circle round him," + "All join hands," and "'Way you go," +"Wait fur Betsy, she's in trouble, + With a splinter in her toe." + + +8 + +When I took you home, towards morning, + Such a night I never saw. +How the Kansas wind was blowing! + Swift and keen and kind o' raw. +Blew more furious every minute, + Blew a hole clear through the skies; +Blew so loud, like demons hissing, + That the moon was 'fraid to rise. +Got so fierce it blew the stars out, + Saw them flicker, then go dead, +While the blackness, mad and murky, + Rolled in thunder overhead. +Goin' with it, durn my whiskers! + Hind wheels riz plumb off the ground; +Goin' 'gainst it, you and me, dear, + Had to push the hosses down. + + +9 + +Now and then a raindrop whistled + Like a bullet past my head; +And I hollered out to you, dear, + "Scrooch down in the wagon bed." +Then they come as big as hen eggs; + Struck the hosses stinging raps, +Till the frightened, tremblin' critters + Leaped beneath the angry slaps. +Lord a'mighty, how they scampered! + While I gripped the lines in tight, +As the wagon box sailed upward + Like a mighty wind-borne kite. +Down below us ran the hosses, + While we floated through the air, +But through all that roaring shakeup, + You, dear, never turned a hair. + + +10 + +When the lightning flashed around us, + Rabbits stopped to let us by,-- +Looked as if they said by halting, + "We can't race with things that fly!" +Coyotes sneaked off in the slough grass, + Prairie dogs stayed in their holes; +We was lubricated blazes,-- + Couldn't stop to save our souls. +Up the hills we flew like swallows, + Down the slopes, a hurricane, +Bumped and jumped the humps and hollows, + Dragged the ground and riz again. +And I prayed, "Dear Lord, save Nancy, + For a desperate lover's sake!" +You was hangin' to my gallus, + And I felt it strain and break. + + +11 + +Felt you holdin' to my boot-leg, + Slattin' in the roarin' gale, +So, to save you, I worked for'ard, + Got the nigh hoss by the tail. +Miles on miles we tore on blindly, + Had to let the critters roam, +Till, at last, they turned their noses + To the north, and towards their home. +We went charging down a valley, + Stopped in something soft and deep; +Wagon box and you and me, dear, + Landed in a mixed-up heap. +Both the hosses' legs was buried + And I knew that that was proof +We had 'lighted on the top of + Old Jim Davis's dug-out roof. + + +12 + +Now, old Jim was sleeping soundly + Close beside his faithful wife; +Peace had smoothed his savage wrinkles, + All his dreams were free from strife. +He was safe from ragin' cyclones, + Wolves could never force his door, +All the ills of life had vanished, + On his mountain torrent snore. +So when our descent awoke him + Sitting bolt upright in bed, +With the flying hoofs above him, + Kicking hair off of his head, +He aroused his sleeping helpmeet; + Loud his curses and abuse, +"Mary, hike your lazy carcass, + Hell has turned the devil loose." + +[Illustration: "Bringing back a hat of water, +Through the dim light and the rain."] + + +13 + +While ole Jim was shooting at us-- + Couldn't make him understand; +Kept his blamed old gun a-going + Till he got me through the hand-- +Not a whimper did you utter, + But you grabbed the hosses' heads, +Coaxed and helped them in their trouble, + While they strove like thoroughbreds, +Lunging, plunging, you stayed with them + Till they both were clear and free. +Riding one, you lashed them forward, + Circled round and picked up me, +Helped me mount, while Jim was loading; + Then we struck off through the night, +Right across the storm-swept prairie, + Till the East was streaked with light. + + +14 + +I was faint and sick and dizzy, + From my shattered, bleeding hand, +And it seemed as if the jolting + Gave me more than I could stand. +Once I reeled, and would have fallen, + If you hadn't held me there; +Put your dear arm tight around me, + Whispered, "Billy, don't you care." +Then you headed straight for water, + Threw the lines, dismounted first, +Smoothed the grass down for my pillow, + While the hosses quenched their thirst. +Then you bathed my throbbing forehead,-- + Love and healing in the touch,-- +Sayin', "Billy, pardner, listen: + That there shootin' wasn't much!" + + +15 + +From your skirt you tore a piece out, + Dressed my wounds so neat and quick, +That I felt the Lord had sent you + Just to soothe and heal the sick. +Bringing back a hat of water, + Through the dim light and the rain, +Thought I saw your face turn paler, + Like you felt a twinge o' pain; +But as you knelt down beside me + I could hear you humming low +Some mysterious song, stopped short by, + "Billy, man, we sure must go!" +And the sun turned loose his glory, + Through the tempest-riven sky, +Till it touched us like a blessing + From the Father there on high. + + +16 + +I am standing by her dug-out; + Open swings the sagging door, +Every grassblade speaks of Nancy; + But she's gone, to come no more, +For her father and her mother, + And her brothers, late last night, +Loaded up their prairie schooner, + And vamoosed the ranch, 'fore light. +There's the bed poles and the stove hole; + Not a thing is left for me, +As a keepsake of my Nancy, + Anywhere that I can see. +What! a paper, pinned up yonder, + Kind o' folded like a note! +It has writin', sure as blazes! + It is somethin' Nancy wrote. + + +17 + +"My dere billy, you will wunder + Why I ever rote you this; +I am sorry I am leevin + Daddie needs me in his biz. +I don't reely like this quiet + Kind of sober farmer life; +I like something allus doin, + But for this, I'd be your wife. +I got two of old Jim's bullets, + Didn't like to let you know, +Cause the one that you was luggin' + Seemed to fret and hurt you so. +Daddie cut them out that evenin; + I don't mind a little such, +But, dere billy, don't you worry, + Old Jim's shootin wasn't much." + + + + +THE DECISION + + +1 + +Since that girl went off and left me, + I can't plan just what to do. +Saw Tom Frothingham this mornin', + He says Johnson's gone off, too. +My old mother used to tell me, + When I lagged at any task, +"Keep on working, do no shirking, + You will bring the thing to pass." +That advice has been my motto: + Everything that I've begun, +I've stayed with it, sick or weary, + Till the job was squarely done. +But this case is kind o' different; + Though I ain't the kind that grieves, +How you goin' to work that motto + When the job gets up and leaves? + + +2 + +S'pose, in thinkin' and decidin', + I refuse to do my part;-- +Just sit down and let my mem'ry + Finish breaking up my heart-- +S'pose I give up like a coward, + Let the world say I ain't game, +'Cause by leavin' I should forfeit + My poor eighty-acre claim. +I ain't 'fraid to do my duty + If I'm clear what it's about, +But this scrape is so peculiar + That my mind's smoked up with doubt. +I believe that Nancy loves me, + And it may be she'll stay true; +But I wonder why the blazes + That durn Johnson's gone off too. + + +3 + +Blamed if I don't get my hosses, + Saddle Zeb and lead old Si, +And we'll search the wind-swept prairie + Till we find that girl, or die! +Who'd a thought a man's whole future + Could get twisted up like this? +All his plans burn up like tinder + In the fire of one sweet kiss! +"Zeb, come here, and good old Simon-- + Listen while I talk to you; +Put your noses on my shoulder + While I tell you what we'll do. +Your fool master's deep in trouble, + Can't explain to you just how, +But until we find my Nancy, + You shall never pull a plow." + + + + +THE SEARCH + + +1 + +In the West, where twilight glories + Paint with blood each sky-line cloud, +While the virgin rolling prairie + Slowly dons her evening shroud; +While the killdeer plover settles + From its quick and noisy flight; +While the prairie cock is blowing + Warning of the coming night-- +There against the fiery background + Where the day and night have met, +Move three disappearing figures, + Outlined sharp in silhouette. +Zeb and Si and Bill, the lover, + Chafing under each delay, +Pass below the red horizon, + Toward the river trail away. + + +2 + +Far across the upland prairie + To the valley-land below, +Where the tall and tangled joint-grass + Makes the horses pant and blow, +There the silent Solomon River + Reaching westward to its source, +With its fringe of sombre timber + Guides the lover on his course. +All the night he keeps his saddle, + Urging Zeb and Simon on, +Till the trail clears up before him + In the gray of early dawn. +Where it turns in towards the river, + Arched above with vine-growth rank, +He, dismounting, ties the horses + Near the steep and treacherous bank. + + +3 + +More than light and shade and landscape + Meet the plainsman's searching look, +For the paths that lie before him + Are the pages of his book. +Stooping down and reading slowly, + Noting every trace around, +Of the travel gone before him, + Every mark upon the ground, +Down the winding, deep-cut roadway + Furrowed out by grinding tire, +Where the ruts lead to the water, + In the half-dried plastic mire, +He beholds the telltale marking + Of an odd-shaped band of steel, +Welded to secure the fellies + Of old MacIntyre's wheel. + + + +4 + +High above the wind is moaning + In a lonely, fretful mood, +Through the lofty spreading branches + Of the elm and cottonwood. +Where the willows hide the fordway + With their fringe of lighter green, +Is the dam, decayed and broken, + Where the beavers once have been. +On the sycamore bent o'er it, + With its gleaming trunk of white, +Sits the barred owl, idly blinking + At the early morning's light, +While, within its spacious hollow, + Where the rotting heart had clung +Till removed by age and fire, + Sleeps the wild cat with her young. + + +5 + +Plunging through the sluggish water, + Scarcely halting for a drink, +Toiling through the sticky quagmire, + They attain the farther brink. +Here the trail leads to the westward,-- + Once the redman's wild domain; +Now the shallow rutted highway + Of the settler's wagon train. +Here and there along the edges, + Paths work through the waving grass, +Where at night from bluff to river, + Sneaking coyotes find a pass. +Here the meadow lark sings gaily + As she leaves her hidden nest, +While the sun of early morning + Double-tints her orange breast. + + +6 + +Up this broad and fertile valley, + Tracing all its winding ways, +Plodding on with dogged patience + Through a score of weary days, +Camping in the lonely timber, + Sleeping on the scorching plain, +Bearing heat and thirst and hunger, + Sore fatigue and wind and rain-- +Halting only when the telltale + Mark was missing in the track; +Only when he called a greeting, + As he passed some settler's shack; +Till the valley and its timber + Vanished, where the rolling sward +Of the westward-sweeping prairie + Marks the trail 'cross Mingo's ford. + + +7 + +Here for hours he searched the crossing + And the wheel-ruts leading on +To the north, a full day's journey, + But the guiding mark was gone. +Not a vestige here remaining + Of the sign that could be told, +For old Mac had traveled swiftly + And the trail was mixed and old. +Two whole days Bill searched and waited, + Hoping for some other clew, +Weighing questions of direction, + Undecided what to do. +Till, one night, while cooking supper + By the camp-fire's genial glow, +He was startled by a stranger's + Sudden presence and "Hello!" + + +8 + +Tall of stature, dark of visage, + By the wind well dried and tanned, +Clad in "shaps" and spurs that jingled, + With a bull whip in his hand. +Close behind him in the shadows, + Eyes aglow with red and green, +Stood a blazed-face Texas pony, + Ewe-necked, cat-hammed, wild, and mean. +"Hello, stranger! glad to see you, + Got my cattle fixed for night; +Just got through, and riding round 'em, + 'Cross the bluff, I saw your light. +No, thanks, pardner, had my supper; + Seems your fire is short o' wood; +I just thought I'd see who's camped here-- + Gee! that bacon does smell good!" + + +9 + +When the frugal meal was over, + When the pipes were filled and lit, +And the cowboy ceased his stories + Weak in moral, rank in wit, +Billy plied him long with questions, + Wording each with thought and care, +Lest his zeal for information + Should reveal his mission there. +"Tell me who you've seen go by here, + Just within the last few days; +What they had for teams and outfits; + How the country round here lays. +Have you seen a prairie schooner-- + Old style freighter--pass this way? +Both wheel hosses white-nosed sorrels, + Lead team of a dun and gray?" + +[Illustration: "Loaded up their prairie schooner, +And vamoosed the ranch 'fore light."] + +[Illustration: "He was startled by a stranger's +Sudden presence and 'Hello!'"] + + +10 + +"I remember some such outfit, + If I've got your idee right. +Think they camped a mile below here + Week ago last Thursday night. +Pulled in sometime 'long 'bout sundown, + Turned their stock in yonder draw, +But an oldish sort of fellow + Was the only one I saw; +Rode a speckled chestnut pony + With a white star in his face; +Asked some questions 'bout the country, + 'Bout the proper crossing-place. +Pulled out sometime long 'fore daylight. + Didn't see them when they passed, +But from all the indications + They was trav'ling pretty fast. + + +11 + +"Crossed right here where we are settin', + Saw their trail that very day; +Struck plumb north, and by my reck'nin' + Towards the north they'll likely stay. +North of here, by my experience, + He'll find grass that's mighty fine. +Chances are that he'll keep goin' + Till he strikes Nebraska's line. +It was just the next day after + That my cattle scattered so; +Some strayed off 'way south to Jimson's, + One bunch in the bend below. +That's the day I met that feller + (Eyes so black he couldn't see) +Who kept pumpin' me with questions + Like you've just been askin' me. + + +12 + +"Asked about that prairie schooner, + Said that they was friends of hisn, +Like to wore me plumb to frazzles + With his everlasting quiz'n. +Rode a piebald, knock-kneed broncho; + Coat was battered, ripped, and torn; +He was yaller, long, and g'anted + Like a steer with holler horn. +An' you oughter seen his breeches! + He must sure be shy on sense; +Why, they looked like he'd been riding + On a bucking barb wire fence. +You won't meet him, 'cause I saw him + Coming back across this way, +Going eastward where he come from; + Took the back trail yesterday. + + +13 + +"Said he'd found the old man's outfit + Moving westward on North Fork. +Can't remember all he told me, + For he runs a heap to talk. +Said he'd found out what he wanted; + Said he 'had a plan or two, +And the folks that knowed Jim Johnson, + Knowed that he would put 'em through.' +Then there's others took the west trail; + They got that way huntin' range-- +Funny how folks when they come here + Get to itchin' for a change! +I've been stayin' too confinin'; + Never left this herd but once. +I'm the oldest puncher round here,-- + Been here over fourteen months." + + +14 + +Long before the sun had risen, + While the night mist's ghostly veil +Hid from view the sloughs and hollows, + Billy took the northern trail. +Through the sunflowers in the low land, + Plodding over sandstone knolls, +Winding through the level stretches + Dotted thick with treacherous holes +Where the prairie dogs sat chattering, + Bolt upright upon their mounds, +While the ground owls sought their burrows, + Startled by the warning sounds; +Stumbling into buffalo wallows, + Dug out in an earlier day +By the halting herds that rested, + Rolled and bellowed in their play. + + +15 + +Now and then the sheltered hillside + Waved its varicolored flowers +As a greeting to the trav'ler, + Solace to the toilsome hours. +Old Jack Rabbit hopped before him, + Then sat up, to watch him pass, +Dusky horned-toads scurried nimbly + Through the withered buffalo grass. +Here and there the buzzing rattler + Whirred a warning, head alert, +Then retreated from the snapping, + Stinging strokes of Billy's quirt. +Day by day the wild breeze flying, + With'ring in its scorching heat, +Hummed a tune to labored beating + Of the plodding horses' feet. + + +16 + +Day by day this panorama + Passing slowly, dully by, +With the sun's brass disc high gleaming + From a white and cloudless sky, +Sometimes drew fantastic pictures. + Many a strange and gruesome sign-- +Phantom trees and fairy castles-- + Blurred the far horizon line. +Then they'd vanish like the fancies + Of a fever-smitten brain, +And returning, changed in outline, + Elsewhere on the mighty plain +Would allure the eyesore trav'ler + Till the very sky above +Seemed to mock with vague mirages + Every surety of love. + + +17 + +When each weary day was over, + Halting near some watering-place, +Bill unpacked his meager outfit, + Turned the horses loose to graze, +Baked his varicolored dough-bread, + On a fire of cattle chips; +Coffee made of green-scummed water, + Nectar to his thirsty lips. +On the ground he spread his blanket + And reclining there alone, +Heard the swiftly sweeping breezes + Sing in dreary monotone +Strange wild anthems, weird and lonesome, + Like lost spirits floating by, +While afar in broken measure + Swelled the coyotes' yelping cry. + + +18 + +All the varied information + Gathered from the few he passed-- +Some from herders, some from stragglers + Gave the missing clew at last +As to where old Mac was heading; + For that telltale band of steel +Stamped along the endless roadway + Printed by the turning wheel, +Pressed its image on the memory + Of the settlers coming back, +Who, when questioned by the searcher, + Told him that the telltale track +Had begun to veer to westward + After crossing by the way +Leading up the North Platte River, + Where the sand wastes stretch away. + + +19 + +As he crossed this barren prairie's + Sweeping waste of poverty, +Billy paused beside the cripple + Of a wind-torn twisted tree, +Standing there, marooned forever, + Where its hapless seed had blown, +Miles on miles from forest neighbor, + Struggling out its life alone. +Here he stopped, with head uncovered, + Conscious of a strange appeal, +Yielding to the voiceless longing + Human hearts are bound to feel +When their lot is isolation, + And a field of sterile soil +Dwarfs and twists the struggling spirit + As the body bends with toil. + + +20 + +Here, that subtle, silent craving, + Which with life will never end, +Of the lonesome and the needy + For the comfort of a friend, +Drew the trav'ler to this tree waif, + And he spread his outfit near, +And they held that sacred converse + Which the soul alone can hear. +While the horses browsed the sage brush, + And the sun withdrew his light, +And the moon in mournful splendor + Ushered in the lonely night, +He lay down beneath the branches, + Wrapped in musings strange and deep-- +Thoughts that bore him off in silence + O'er the placid sea of sleep. + + +21 + +In his dreams he saw a monarch + Decked in sumptuous array, +Seated on a throne of glory + Bearing royal title, Day. +Then some mighty power transcendent, + Thrust him from his gorgeous throne, +Turning all the realm to darkness, + And the world was left alone. +As the shades of gloom were spreading, + By strange flashing threads of light +He beheld in dim-drawn outline, + On the background of the night, +Phantom horse and girlish rider, + Speeding on in reckless race, +Till she turned directly toward him + And he saw her fearless face! + +[Illustration: "Faithful Simon, weak and starving, +Groaned and fell beneath his pack...."] + + +22 + +With the journey's slow progression + Slipped away the summer days, +Merging with the sleepy beauty + Of the lazy autumn haze; +And the frosts and drought combining + Waged relentless battle there, +Withering up the scanty ranges, + Leaving all the country bare. +When he entered Colorado, + Following still the barren plain +Where for months the mocking heavens + Never spared a drop of rain, +Faithful Simon, weak and starving, + Following feebly in the track +Pulled upon his straining halter, + Groaned and fell beneath his pack. + + +23 + +Vain were all the kind entreaties, + Vain the simple nursing done +To relieve his palsied weakness-- + Poor old Simon's course was run. +Billy spent the night beside him, + But with next day's early dawn, +With the east's first flush of scarlet, + Simon's faithful soul passed on. +Then, with hands outstretched before him, + Half remembering what was said +When a child he saw the sexton + Sprinkle earth upon the dead-- +"Dust to dust, and then to ashes-- + I forget the other part-- +I can't say the words I want to, + I can't think--all's in my heart. + + +24 + +"Over twenty years, old pardner, + We have been companions true; +You have always kept your end up + In the hardships we've gone through. +If we'd stayed, and I had never + Seen her face or touched her hand, +We should still have been contented, + On our little piece of land. +This strange spell won't let me falter, + Though the chasing never ends; +Seems that nothing ever'll stop it, + Sickness, death, or loss of friends. +Where this love will drive a fellow, + I ain't wise enough to tell; +Sometimes think it leads to heaven + By a trail that runs through hell." + + +25 + +Weeks thereafter, plodding northward + Crossing over Lodge Pole creek, +Threading Colorado's stretches-- + Sandy deserts wild and bleak-- +Where the sun wars on the living, + Struggling 'neath his blinding light, +Then resigns his work of ravage + To the chilling frosts of night; +Where the bleaching bones of horses + Here and there bestrew the plains, +Telling many a ghastly story + Of misguided settlers' trains-- +Where the early frontier ranger + Marked the first trail to Cheyenne, +Billy, following its wand'rings, + Found the missing mark again. + + +26 + +Then the labored pace grew faster + As he passed each camping place, +Marking well the lessening distance + In the long-contested race. +Riding through Wyoming's foothills, + With their rugged summit lines +Stretched across the clear horizon, + Fringed with pointed spruce and pines, +He beheld, one early morning, + Rising slowly to the sky, +Smoke--the thin and gauzy column + Of a camp fire built close by; +And, on looking down the valley + With exultant, ringing cheer, +He beheld the prairie schooner + And the MacIntyres near. + + +27 + +On an open spot of grass land + Gilded by the rising sun, +Sloping sharply to the crevice + Where the mountain waters run, +Ike, reclining, watched the horses, + Now increased to quite a band, +While above him, in the timber, + Brother Bill, with gun in hand, +Held it poised in sudden wonder, + Half in attitude to shoot, +As he saw the coming rider, + Heard his loudly yelled salute. +Near an old abandoned cabin, + Huddled by the breakfast fire, +Resting calm in fancied safety + Sat the elder MacIntyre. + +[Illustration: "Resting calm in fancied safety +Sat the elder MacIntyre."] + + +28 + +"You! Why, Billy, where d'you come from? + What new game you playing now? +If you're out on posse business + By the gods, jest start your row! +What you saying? You are friendly? + Wal, I'm glad to hear it's so; +And I s'pose you made the journey + Way out here to let me know! +Oh! you're talking 'bout our Nancy! + Now I just begin to see. +Set down, Billy; you are askin' + Something that sure puzzles me. +Nancy ain't like other women-- + What I say may hit you queer, +But it's jest as well to tell you-- +That there girl--she isn't here. + + +29 + +"Don't stampede your words, now, Billy. + Slow 'em down and let 'em walk. +Lord a'mighty, man! keep quiet! + Never heard such crazy talk! +Where's the girl? Wal, let me tell you-- + T'aint no use to take on so-- +Where is Nancy? P'r'aps in heaven; + I can't tell yer,--I don't know. +When we left last spring from Kansas, + Travelin' mostly in the night, +We was chased up by a posse; + Fourth day out we had a fight. +We had jest unhitched the hosses, + Making camp at Old Man's Creek-- +Gimme some o' that tobacker, + I've been out for more'n a week. + + +30 + +"We had jest unhitched the hosses, + Nance was riding Kelly's mare, +When we heard them all a-comin'-- + They had seen us pull in there. +Nancy said,' I'll hold 'em, daddie, + Get the outfit over here, +And I'll trail you in the mornin'; + I will see they don't get near.' +It was in that heavy timber-- + Growing dark and spittin' rain-- +Where the creek runs to the eastward, + Makes that loop, and back again. +We was in a reg'lar pocket; + Creek banks made a kind of bluff +All around us, so it looked like + We was trapped there, sure enough. + + +31 + +"Wal, we had a time in movin'; + Things got mixed up in the rush; +Lead team broke a piece of harness + Pulling through the underbrush. +Then the wagon turned clean over, + But we drug her plumb across, +Hitched with ropes and other fixin's, + Usin' every extra hoss. +Wal, you never heard such shootin', + Bullets whizzin' everywhere; +Pumped 'em on us till it sounded + Like they had an army there. +Nancy stayed and cracked it to 'em, + Kind o' circlin' round and round; +I could tell the two six-shooters + She was usin', by the sound. + + +32 + +"You can bet we did some trav'lin' + All that night and all next day; +I could still a-hear the shootin' + After we was miles away. +I supposed we'd see the girl come + Ridin' up to us 'fore long, +That is--I was jest a-thinkin'-- + If there wasn't somethin' wrong. +But, in spite of all our lookin', + Sometimes slackin' up our gait, +Always thinkin' we should see her + Every time we'd stop and wait. +We have never seen her, Billy, + And I own I'm balked a bit, +Fur I know that she's a critter + Made of nothin' else but grit. + + +33 + +"I wish I could go and find her, + But 'twould be too hot for me; +Long before I got back that fur + I'd be strung up to a tree. +So I've been a kind o' thinkin', + Since I see what's both'rin' you, +'Bout a thing--I hate to ask it-- + That I'd like for you to do. +I don't think that girl has ever-- + It sure hurts me, what I say-- +But I'm sure that in the scrimmage + Nancy never got away. +Billy, you go back and find her; + You are all I've got to send, +You can sort o' fix things decent, + Where she is--in Old Man's Bend." + + + + +THE RETURN + + +1 + +Every life is but a journey-- + Trav'ling on from place to place-- +Starting from the point God gave us + With an ever-varying pace. +Outward, onward, spurred by motives + In our wand'rings here and there, +Sometimes led by hope alluring, + Sometimes halted by despair; +But the life that travels farthest + On that deeper strength depends, +For with love, there is no turning; + When love dies the journey ends. + + +2 + +Back across the broken foothills, + With a courage none can feel +Till the burning pangs of sorrow + Turn the heart-strings into steel; +Back across the winter's playground, + Tracing out the paths he trod, +With each muttered execration + Ending in a prayer to God. +Blasts that howled with fiendish laughter, + By their loud derisive cry +Seemed to mock his labored progress + As they passed him swiftly by; +Icy, blizzard-driven snowflakes + Into ghost-like fancies whirled, +Painting on the barren canvas, + Gaunt Death battling for the world. + + +3 + +Back across the snow-strewn desert, + Fighting famine face to face, +Trusting to his horse to take him + To each former camping place. +Once Zeb stopped beside a snowdrift + With a loud and startling neigh; +Tried to tell his half-dazed master + Where his mate, old Simon, lay. +Pressing on, he reached the border + Of Nebraska's whitened plain, +Where his mind in maudlin fancies + Yielded to the bitter strain, +As he saw far in the distance, + Like a battered mast at sea, +Once again the twisted branches + Of the lone and friendly tree. + +[Illustration: "Once again the twisted branches +Of the lone and friendly tree."] + + +4 + +"Git up, Zeb. Come, see! She's waving! + Waving there for you and me. +See her there, so white and pretty, + Standing by our friend, the tree! +Quit that stumbling! Now then, streak it! + Hit the gait you used to do +When we hired out for the round up + And you beat the first one through. +There she is! There's where I saw her + When we stayed there all that night; +Though 'twas dark, I saw her riding, + By those flashing threads of light; +She's been waiting! Oh, I left her + In this awful lonely place! +God forgive me! Nancy! hear me! + Oh, that face--that poor white face!" + + +5 + +One cold morning, old Zach Baxter, + Riding o'er this snowbound sea +Saw a famished pony standing + Near a queer and lonely tree. +From his frost-encrusted nostrils + Came a plaintive whinny, low, +As the man rode up beside him + Struggling through the drifted snow. +When the old man tried to lead him, + He refused to turn away; +But he pawed the drift beneath him, + Where his stricken master lay. +And below the cold, white cover, + In a deathlike stupor deep, +Old Zach found a sorry stranger + Shrouded for his last long sleep. + + +6 + +Tearing at the ragged bundle + Lodged between the horse's feet, +Clutching at the frozen blanket, + Brushing back the crusted sleet, +Faithful in his rude endeavors, + Rousing by his loud commands, +Roughly shaking, turning, rubbing, + Zach breathed on his face and hands; +Till the stiffened limbs responded + And the closed eyes opened wide, +Dazed and puzzled at the stranger + Working fiercely at his side. +Billy felt the strong arms raise him, + Felt the Frost King's stinging breath +As he struggled, half unconscious, + In the wav'ring fight with death. + + +7 + +In the east, the sun dogs glistened + Like tall shafts of marble, bright, +O'er the whitened grave of nature,-- + Ghostly spires of frozen light, +Flying frost flakes snapping, sparkling, + Dancing in a wild display, +Turned into a mist of diamonds + As they mocked the newborn day. + + +8 + +Old Zach's pony bearing double, + Reeking steam from every pore, +Reached at last the covered pathway + Leading to the dug-out door. +With his arms clasped tight round Billy, + Zach half dragged his helpless load +Through the lowly, mud-walled entrance + Of his rudely built abode. +There, upon the narrow bunk bed + Spread with nondescript attire, +Zach enfolded him in wrappings + While he started up a fire; +And no nurse, however skillful, + Whatsoever her degree, +Ever gave more loyal service + To a patient, than did he. + + +9 + +Poor and meager were the comforts + Of Zach's cave-like prairie home, +Permeated with the odor + Of the fresh-dug virgin loam. +Pungent wreaths of smoke, slow drifting, + Floated lazily above, +To the dried grass of the ceiling + From the cracked and rusty stove. +Willow poles athwart for rafters + Sagged beneath the dirt roof's strain, +And a piece of grease-smeared paper + Formed the only window-pane. +In the center, on the dirt floor + Stood a table-like affair +Fashioned from a wagon end-gate, + Where Zach spread his scanty fare. + + +10 + +There for weeks lay Billy, helpless, + Racked with mad'ning fever pains, +As the burning sun of summer + Scorches sere the desert plains. +Then he lay with cold, white features + And the feeble, scarce drawn breath, +As the silent winter prairie + Lies beneath its shroud of death. +Ofttimes when the raging sickness + Sent the hot blood to his brain, +He would point with frantic gesture + To the dingy window pane, +Calling in excited mutterings, + Eyes transfixed in frenzied fright-- +"There she is! Now, can't you see her? + See her face there in the light!" + + +11 + +Then old Zach would try to soothe him + In his simple-hearted way; +"She won't hurt you," he would tell him, + "I'll go drive her clear away. +I've seen things--now listen, pardner-- + Those things happened once to me +Once down there in old Dodge City, + Winding up a three weeks' spree. +What you see is jest a 'lusion, + 'Cause you're crazy in your head; +When your thinker's runnin' proper + You'll find 'She' is gone or dead. +There, now, pardner, see what this is! + Ain't it purty? Your tin cup; +Found a little pinch o' coffee. + That's the boy, now, drink it up!" + + +12 + +When the breeze of spring in whispers + Stirred the withered bunch-grass plume, +Humming hymns of resurrection + Over nature's silent tomb, +And the fleeing clouds of heaven, + Bending low at God's command, +Spilled their tribute from the ocean + On the long-forsaken land, +And the sun, with mellow kindness + Spread abroad his softened rays, +Calling bud and blade and blossom + From their sleep of many days, +Billy heard, at last, the music + Of the glad earth's jubilee, +Felt a new strength stir within him, + And a longing to be free. + + +13 + +One day, o'er the hill's low summit, + Whence the prairie dipped away, +There appeared a moving wagon + With its canvas patched and gray, +Like a vessel on the ocean + Under taut and close-reefed sail, +Rising slowly on the billows + Heaped up by the driving gale. +Veering towards the little dug-out, + Making for a friendly shore, +Heaving to, the schooner anchored + Close beside the open door. +Loud and hearty were the greetings, + For the driver of the team +Was Tom Frothingham, a neighbor, + Who had lived near Billy's claim. + + +14 + +Bit by bit he told the story-- + How he'd wandered all around +Since he left his Kansas homestead + And the folks near North Pole mound; +How he'd traveled all through Texas + With the roving fever on, +Camping oft in strange new places, + Where no other soul had gone. +So the news, now half forgotten + In his absence from the place, +Came in broken recollections-- + Careful efforts to retrace +All the incidents of interest + To the sick one listening there, +Who, with pale and careworn features, + Heard the story with despair. + + +15 + +"Three weeks after you left Kansas + I hitched up and came away. +Still, I reckoned you intended + To improve your claim and stay; +For your eighty was a picture-- + Running spring and good clear land-- +Everything a body needed + For a starter, right at hand. +Well, some others left 'fore I did-- + You remember Mac, of course, +How he got the moving notion + When Bill Kelly missed his horse? +Chased him clear to Old Man's crossing, + So I heard the posse say; +Thought they had him fairly cornered, + But, by jings! he got away. + + +16 + +"There are stranger things than fiction; + What is natural may seem queer, +So I s'pose we needn't wonder + At the things we see out here. +One thing happened since you left there + That I call a burning shame-- +Did you know that rope-necked Johnson + Jumped your eighty-acre claim? +Last I saw him, he was plowing, + And he laughed and tried to joke: +Said 'twas kind of you to leave him + All the ground that you had broke; +Said your house was so untidy + He was sleeping out of doors, +Till he got a girl to help him + Wash the pans and scrub the floors. + + +17 + +"Lots of people coming in there + From most every foreign land-- +Massachusetts and Missouri-- + Made a mess I couldn't stand. +Every man that's made of manhood + Wants to live where he is free, +So I'm bound to keep on moving + When they get to crowding me. +Then another thing that happened: + Puzzled every one around +When they heard one morning early, + That Bill Kelly's horse was found. +Aleck Rose told me about it + After I had packed and gone; +Said the mare strayed in the dooryard + With Mac's steel-horn saddle on." + + +18 + +As each day in steady conquest + Charged the ranks of fleeing night, +Winning back the stolen hours + With their golden spears of light; +As the living in all nature + Felt that mighty spirit's sway, +So the sick man caught the power + And his illness wore away. +One clear morning, as Aurora + Silver-tinted all the plain, +In his weatherbeaten saddle + Billy took the trail again. +"Good by, boy," old Zach repeated, + "I'm most sure you'll never see +Any more o' them 'ere 'lusions, + Anyway, what you called 'She.'" + + +19 + +Day by day the low horizon + Spread its narrow circle round, +As if fate had drawn a barrier, + And forbade advance beyond. +Though the journey dragged on slowly, + Night time brought its sure reward, +For the added miles behind him + Stretched at length to Mingo's Ford, +Where the breeze bore from the upland + Broken fragments of the song +Of the cowboy with his cattle, + As he drove the strays along; +Where the voice of flowing water + And the treble of the birds, +Swelled the hallowed evening anthem + To the bass of lowing herds. + + +20 + +Then the trail along the Solomon + Where the timber, making friends +With the ever-widening valley, + Filled the rounded river bends; +Then the rankling recollection, + As he passed some well-known place +Where before, with hope and vigor, + He had sped in fruitless chase. +Then the lonely camp at nightfall, + Where the wind in monotone +Thrummed the harp strings of the grass stems, + Breathing low its song, "Alone!" +Where the stars, fixed in the heavens, + To his upturned face would say, +With their heartless glint of distance, + "She thou seek'st is far away." + + +21 + +Then the long, far-reaching bottoms + Rank with withered blue-joint grass, +With its broken stems entangled + In a matted jungle mass; +Then across the higher prairie, + Searching out a shorter way, +To the creek that joined the river + Where Mac crossed and got away; +Then the twinge of bitter sorrow + As he neared his journey's end, +And beheld the fringe of timber + On the banks of Old Man's bend, +Where no living sign or token + Broke the gloom that brooded there, +Save a solitary buzzard + Floating idly in the air. + + +22 + +From these high and broken hilltops + He could trace the river's flow, +And the creek's untamed meandering, + With its looplike bend below, +Seeming in the light of evening + Like a giant serpent there, +Which had coiled about its victim, + And lay resting in its lair. +Breaking through the tangled brushwood + As the night was coming on, +Creeping down the steep embankment + Where the muddy waters run, +Billy crossed within the timber + Where the shroud of deeper gloom, +And its chilling breath of darkness + Marked the hidden prairie tomb. + + +23 + +As the soul in deep communion, + Seeks some isolated bower +Where the body's sordid cravings + Yield beneath the spirit's power, +So the searcher, bowed in reverence, + Left untouched his evening fare +As he listened to the voices + Of the shadows gathering there. +Here no lighted torch or camp fire + With its weak and fitful ray, +Could illume the mystic journey + Of prayer's consecrated way. +Here the silence brought its message + Of forebodings, vague and deep, +In its visions to the dreamer, + Through the mystery of sleep. + + +24 + +In his dreams he saw a monarch + Decked in sumptuous array, +Seated on a throne of glory, + Bearing royal title, Day. +Then some mighty power transcendent, + Thrust him from his gorgeous throne, +Turning all the realm to darkness, + And the world was left alone. +As the shades of gloom were spreading, + By strange flashing threads of light +He beheld in dim-drawn outline, + On the background of the night, +Phantom horse and girlish rider, + Speeding on in reckless race, +Till she turned directly toward him + And he saw her fearless face. + + +25 + +Then, behold! the King returning + With a pageantry so bright, +That the shadow-clad usurpers + Fled in ignominious fright. +As he saw the hosts approaching + Through a cloud of battle smoke, +Charging wildly down upon him, + He, in sudden fear, awoke. +As he looked, the blackened heavens + Splashed with demon-tinted blood +From the hue of burning prairie + Throbbed above the fiery flood. +Leaping o'er the rounded bluff-tops, + Down the valley's long incline, +He could see the lurid column + Spread its blazing battle line. + + +26 + +Like a troop of charging horsemen + Sweeping on with maddened roar, +Mowing down the grass battalions, + Crackling flames swept all before. +Then the driftwood's rifted breastwork, + Left there by the waters high, +Flashed up in a hissing furnace, + As the red-armed fiends leaped by. +Clinging to the swaying saddle + And the plunging horse's mane, +Billy dashed through falling embers + To the level, open plain. +On the right and left, the head fires + Rushing on at furious pace, +Stretched beside the horse and rider + In the life-and-death-fought race. + + +27 + +Here the gale with venomed fury + Met in vortex from afar, +Raising high the flaming pennons + Of the fiery fiends of war. +Flashing by, the blazing grass stems + Sped like arrows through the air, +Falling on the distant prairie, + Kindling fresh fires everywhere. +Pressing through the low-flung smoke clouds-- + Stifling fumes of Hades' breath-- +Fiercer with each flying moment + Drove those scorching blasts of death. +Thrice his horse, 'neath quirt and rowel + Bravely struggling, almost fell, +As he fled in desperation + O'er the trail that led through hell. + + +28 + +One poor singed and panting coyote + Through the perils of the ride +Hemmed in by the flames pursuing + Ran close by the horse's side. +Scarce a meager pace behind them, + Pressing hard the coyote's rear, +Raced a frantic old jack rabbit, + Ears laid low in speed and fear. +Reaching now a stretch of upland, + Here the coyote changed his course, +Breaking through the narrow side-fire, + Followed fast by hare and horse; +And, upon the smoking prairie + Over which the fire had passed, +Steaming horse and stricken rider + Found a breathing space at last. + +[Illustration: "Fiercer with each flying moment +Drove those scorching blasts of death."] + + +29 + +When the morning sun in splendor + Rose upon the blackened plain, +His red beams revealed the lover + Back at Old Man's Bend again. +Waist deep in its soothing waters + Bathing blistered brow and hands; +While near by, in pain a-tremble, + Faithful Zeb impatient stands. +Through the bend he searched and wandered, + But except the furrowed bark, +Of a gnarled and aged elm tree + Which revealed one bullet-mark, +Naught was left save blackened embers; + And the words he "knew in part"-- +"Dust to dust and then to ashes"-- + Told the story of his heart. + + +30 + +Back along the Solomon River, + Trailing towards the humble claim +He had lost when love and duty + Fired his soul to "being game"; +Back, across the beaver fordway, + Where love first had found the track, +Now returning with the rankling + Sting of hate to bring him back-- +Hate, that hunger made more bitter + When his last jerked beef was gone; +Climbing trees to cut off branches + For his horse to browse upon; +Back, where once the flower-decked prairie, + Spread its bloom of hope and bliss, +Now a blackened field of mourning, + From the fire of one sweet kiss. + + +31 + +Till one day, he saw beyond him, + In the distance, purple crowned, +That old monarch of the prairie, + Guard of ages, North Pole Mound. +Then the field where Zeb and Simon + Pulled the old sod-breaking plow +Stretching like a narrow ribbon + On the land that lay below. +Now the horse's steps grew lighter + As he passed each well-known sign +Of the old familiar landscape, + And they crossed the eighty's line, +Where the spring of running waters + Gave envenomed purpose birth, +As he drank its bubbling offering + From the pulsing heart of earth. + + +32 + +Then, ascending from the hollow, + Full before his eyes appeared +Home--his home--the low-walled sodhouse + Which his toiling hands had reared. +Near the straw shed stood the wagon + He had brought from Wichita, +And beneath the grass-fringed gable + Hung his trusty crosscut saw. +In the dooryard, near the window, + Lay the broken homemade chair, +Where, at evening, love-born fancies + Revelled, as he rested there; +Love, whose scattered seed had fallen + On a mystic field of fate, +Where the tangled vine extending + Bore the bitter fruit of hate. + + +33 + +Hurrying nearer, he dismounted, + Trembling with the rage he felt, +As he cast aside the bridle + And drew taut his cartridge belt. +Throwing down his torn sombrero, + There, before the tight-closed door, +On the cowardly usurper + Loud and bitter vengeance swore. +"Come, you dirty, green-scummed scoundrel, + With your sneaking 'plan or two'! +Just come out, you rope-necked buzzard! + See how far you'll put them through. +You can keep the eighty acres, + Hell will write your pedigree, +But I'll rub your crooked nose-piece + In the dirt you stole from me. + + +34 + +"Come outside, you sneaking coyote! + If you've got a drop of man +In your greasy, thieving carcass, + Finish up what you began." +Fiercer grew his coarse invective, + Louder yet his taunting calls, +When no answer to his challenge + Came from out the low sod walls. +Uncontrolled, his furious anger + Spoke in quick and murderous roar +As he pumped his old six-shooter + Through the barred and bolted door. +When he paused the rude door opened, + And before its splintered place +Stood the vision of the shadows, + And he saw Her fearless face. + + +35 + +As the artist in his painting + Plans the background to enhance +All the beauty of his subject + Both in pose and countenance, +So the poor and dark interior + Lent its gloom to magnify +All the power and witching beauty + Of her face and lustrous eye. +Standing there, a pictured goddess + Sketched against a lowering storm, +Bearing on her pallid features + That supernal gift of calm. + + +36 + +"Nancy! Woman! God in heaven, + Speak, girl! Can this thing be true? +Are you here with that--that scoundrel, + After all that I've gone through? +Do you stand there, fiend or human, + After lending him your hand, +First to break an honest spirit, + Then to steal away my land? +Must a man who loves a woman + Like a devil's imp be driven +Through the tortures of damnation + For a single glimpse of heaven? +Tell me where the cur is hiding-- + I've no wish to hurt his bride, +But I'll braid a twelve-foot bull whip + From his dirty, yaller hide! + + +37 + +"Speak to me and tell me, woman, + How the God in heaven above +Starts the fires of hell a-burning + From a spark of human love; +Why He ever made a woman + Who could play a fickle part; +Why He ever made a fellow + With his soul tied to his heart; +Why He made life just a gamble-- + I can't talk the way I feel-- +In the game that I've been playing, + You know this ain't no square deal! +I will go away and leave you, + But 'twould kind o' ease the pain +If you'd only tell me, Nancy-- + If you'd try--to--just explain. + +[Illustration: "Standing there, a pictured goddess +Sketched against a lowering storm."] + + +38 + +"If you wouldn't stand there looking + With a face of livid white +Like the specter of the prairie + That I saw one horrid night, +Riding through the endless darkness + Like a being doomed from birth +Just to roam outside of heaven + And denied a place on earth. +Say one word to me! Speak, Nancy, + If you have a voice and live! +Tell the worst, e'en though you ask me + To be patient and forgive. +I will listen--I will suffer-- + I will do the best I can; +Nancy, sweetheart! hear the pleading + Of a broken-hearted man," + + +39 + +"See here, Billy! You gone crazy? + Charging like you got a fit? +Johnson ain't in--just at present-- + Won't you stop and rest a bit? +Don't act strange. There's no hard feelings, + Though I've never seen before +Any man that knocked like you did + On a peaceful neighbor's door. +Come right in; now, don't be backward, + Like old times to have _you_ 'round! +You look tired, like you'd traveled + Over quite a stretch of ground. +Sit right here in this old rocker; + Johnson fixed it up one day, +Feeling certain you would never + Come meandering 'round this way. + + +40 + +"Don't get up and act uneasy, + Rest yourself, now, if you can, +You don't mind me like Jim Johnson-- + He's a most obedient man. +You went off and left your eighty, + Roaming where the luck-wind blows, +Like a tumbleweed in winter, + Where you've been, Lord only knows. +While Jim's gone we'll talk together, + As we used to, months ago, +When I tried to quench the burning + Of a love I didn't know. +Listen, Billy, while I tell you + All about my 'fickle part'; +When I'm done you may know better + How God made a woman's heart. + + +41 + +"While you're resting, I'll get supper, + Though there ain't much here to eat, +'Cepting bran, to make some muffins, + And a little rabbit meat. +Wish I had that pinch of coffee + I saved up for--oh, so long, +Till one day I went and used it, + Though I somehow felt 'twas wrong; +For I kind o' thought that sometime + Some one might be coming here +Worn out with a long, long journey, + And would crave that kind o' cheer. +Now, then, Billy, draw your stool up; + What we've got is scant and plain-- +I ain't hungry--honest--Billy, + While you eat--why--I'll 'explain.'" + + + + +NANCY'S STORY + + +1 + +"I went off and left you, Billy, + 'Cause I'm used to being free, +And I love my dear old daddie-- + He has been so good to me. +Ever since I learned to toddle + We've been living on the run, +And my first and only playthings + Were a saddle and a gun. +When I went away with daddie, + After trav'ling nigh a week, +We were caught up by the posse + In the bend on Old Man's Creek. +Think I'd let them take my daddie? + No: I held them all at bay, +While the boys hitched up the horses, + Crossed the creek and got away. + + +2 + +"I just told them I would follow + After all the fuss was through, +But instead, all night I wandered, + Thinking all the time of you; +For when we were last together + You cast over me a spell +That just seemed to change my nature, + In a way that words can't tell; +For it left a fire a-burning + Like a live and glowing coal, +That at length blazed into longing + Till I craved with all my soul +To be back, somehow, where you were, + And to hear you tell once more +That you loved me. That man-story + I had never heard before. + + +3 + +"Then I trailed back o'er the prairie, + Riding steady every night, +Picking out the wildest country + With my luck to guide me right. +When I'd see the hungry morning + Eat the stars up in the East, +I would hide in gulch or timber + Like a wild and hunted beast. +How I learned to love the darkness + As it spread its mighty arm, +Close around me, like a lover, + Fondly shielding me from harm! +And I knew the sweet caresses + Of the earth and sky above, +As the night's mysterious voices + Soothed me with their tale of love. + + +4 + +"Then I'd ride like forty devils + Just to catch upon my face +All the kisses which the tempest + Pressed upon me in the race. +How I thought of poor old daddie, + Whom, perhaps, I'd see no more +If I went clear back to your place, + While he hurried on before! +I could hardly bear the burden + When I'd think of--both of you; +But that fire you set a-burning, + One night told me what to do-- +I would see and ask you, Billy, + If you wouldn't go with me +Where we both could be with daddie, + Way out West, where he must be. + + +5 + +"Then at last the night that loved me, + Turned its pent-up furies loose, +Roaring out on me its anger + And unpitying abuse. +How the rain beat down upon me! + How the lightning burned its track +Through the clouds of storm and thunder + As I reached your sod-walled shack! +All was dark within, and quiet, + When I rapped upon the door. +Then I saw the flash of matches + And the lamplight on the floor; +Heard you stomp your heavy boots on, + Heard you walk and draw the bar, +But the door, when thrown wide open, + Showed Jim Johnson standing thar. + + +6 + +"'What you doing here?' I shouted, + When I saw his hateful leer; +'Tell me what this means, Jim Johnson. + Where is Billy? Ain't he here?' +He was standing on the doorstep, + And the light that shone within +Seemed to twist his wrinkled features + In a sort of wonder-grin. +'Well! well! Nancy! sure's I'm livin'! + Out there in the pouring wet! +Sure I'll care for you, Miss Nancy, + I'll protect you, don't you fret! +I'm a friend that you can count on, + Does me good to see your face! +Come in, gal, and dry your garments, + You have struck the very place!' + + +7 + +"You don't blame me, do you, Billy, + If I did go in and stay, +Warming by your stove and fire, + Just to hear what he would say? +I will try to tell his story + As he told it, if I can, +Putting in what I remember + Of his 'interesting plan.' +'Now, then, gal, I heard you calling + As you stood there in the dark, +On a fellow, named Bill Truly, + But you shot 'way off the mark. +Billy ain't here now, and further, + He won't be here, you can bet; +Anyhow, that's what he told me + Two weeks past, when we last met. + + +8 + +"'When your folks all skipped the country + I decided I'd move, too; +Thought perhaps you'd get in trouble + And I'd try to help you through; +So I got beyond the posse, + Rode like fire upon your track, +Found your dad, and _you_ not with him, + So I turned and came right back. +Riding home along the Solomon,-- + For the truth I pledge my word-- +I met Billy with his horses + Three miles east of Mingo's Ford. +Stopped and shook my hand and told me + He was so far on his way +To a ranch 'way up in Utah, + Where he'd made his plans to stay. + + +9 + +"'Said he wanted to be friendly, + So the things that he had left, +If I cherished no hard feelings, + I could look on as his gift. +"If you come across Miss Nancy + You can say to her for me, +That I've got another sweetheart, + And that she is wholly free." +Billy'd never do to tie to-- + He's too fickle, gal, for you-- +So I just propose to offer + You a man that will stay true. +I have worked it out, Miss Nancy-- + It's the problem of my life; +I have planned that you shall stay here + As my own dear little wife.' + + +10 + +"'Look here, Johnson! You're a liar, + When you say he's set me free! +When you met him there at Mingo's + He had gone to hunt for me. +Don't you dare to touch me, scoundrel! + Don't you dare to slur his name! +You're a cur--a thief--Jim Johnson! + You have jumped my sweetheart's claim. +Don't you dare to venture near me! + Or you'll wish you'd not begun. +All your schemes and double dealings, + All your hatched-up plans are done. +You start now and pack your fixin's! + Don't you leave the smallest bit! +Every filthy thing you own here, + Pack it up--you dog, and _git!_' + + +11 + +"He was standing there uncertain, + And I felt to clinch his throat; +But, instead, I shot--to scare him-- + All the buttons off his coat. +Then I pumped two in the corner, + Where he'd sunk down on his knees-- +Slit his ear and cut his collar, + Never listening to his pleas. +Told him if he didn't mosey + I would plant his carcass whole, +In a grave I'd dig that evening + On the eighty he had stole. +Then he promised, but I chased him + 'Way across the old Saline, +And so far as I have knowledge, + He has never since been seen. + + +12 + +"When I got back here 'fore morning, + Thought of having Kelly's mare, +So I rode her to his stable + And I left her standing there. +For I knew that you'd consider + Twas the proper thing to do, +If you came back here and found me + Holding down your claim for you. +But I felt right sorry, Billy, + When I looked around next day, +In the box there in the corner + Where the pans and dishes lay; +For in fixing for my breakfast, + My! the crockery was slim! +More than half of it was busted + By the bullets fired at Jim: + +[Illustration: "But, instead, I shot, to scare him, +All the buttons off his coat."] + + +13 + +"I forgot to tell you, Billy, + That for thirteen months or more, +You're the only man that's ever + Crossed the threshold of that door. +I have stayed alone and waited, + Full of faith that you would come, +So that I--might go to daddie, + And that you'd--have back your home. +Though perhaps I've sometimes suffered + From the cold and from the heat, +And I've gone for days together, + Here, without a bite to eat, +'Twasn't hunger of the body + That I craved to satisfy, +I was starved for--you--and daddie, + As the weary weeks trailed by. + + +14 + +"How I tried to think and reason + Why the fire from one caress +Turned my burning, yearning spirit + To a cinder of distress. +Some one told me, I remember, + Long ago when I was small, +God made every star up yonder, + Everything--the world and all. +Then I thought that in His workshop, + Up there in the heavens above, +He had made that curious hunger + Of the heart that we call love. +P'r'aps my troubles and the waiting + Stirred me to this queer-like whim; +But I couldn't help it, Billy, + I just had to talk to Him. + + +15 + +"In the night, when God wa'n't busy + And could hear the slightest sound, +I would venture from my hiding + To the top of North Pole Mound. +I was sure He'd never let His + Angels come out this-a-way, +But would use the wind to carry, + Prayers out here, that people pray. +So I'd hold my hands, and stopping + Gusts that tried to struggle free, +Tell them this here simple message + They must take to you from me: +'Please, dear God, won't you tell Billy + That I'm holding down his claim? +He don't come 'cause he's in trouble. + Thank you, God. He ain't to blame.'" + + +16 + +Long before her honest story + Faltered to its hallowed close, +Pushing back his untouched supper, + Tremblingly her guest arose. +Vain for him to curb emotion, + Or to stammer out his praise +Through a storm of rude devotion, + Cast in halting human phrase. +Vain for him to frame a message + Never meant for words to tell, +At the joy of reaching heaven + By that trail that led through hell. +But his fervent benediction + Was a passionate embrace, +And the Amen love's own ending, + As he kissed her fearless face. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13560 *** diff --git a/13560-h/13560-h.htm b/13560-h/13560-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2bbe516 --- /dev/null +++ b/13560-h/13560-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4915 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Nancy MacIntyre, by Lester Shepard Parker</title> +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em; font-size: smaller;} /* footnote */ + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;} + + .poemwrapper {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; text-align: center;} + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem p {margin: 0; padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;} + .poem p.i2 {margin-left: 2em;} + .poem p.i4 {margin-left: 4em;} + .poem p.header {margin-left: 8em;} + hr.full { width: 100%; + height: 5px; } + a:link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:#ff0000} + pre {font-size: 8pt;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13560 ***</div> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Nancy MacIntyre, by Lester Shepard Parker</h1> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<h1><a href="images/cover.jpg"><img src="images/cover.jpg" +alt="Book cover" width="60%"></a></h1> + +<a name="iwastakin"></a> + +<center><img src="images/frontispiece_002.jpg" width="323" height= +"496" alt= +"I was takin' leave of Nancy, Standin' out there in the night." +border="0"></center> + +<h1>Nancy MacIntyre</h1> + +<h2><i>A Tale of the Prairies</i></h2> + +<h3>LESTER SHEPARD PARKER</h3> + +<br> +<br> +<h5>1910</h5> + +<hr style='width: 15%;'> +<center> +<table border=0><tr><td> +<i>To My Wee Daughter<br> +RACHEL ELLEN PARKER<br> +this little story is<br> +affectionately inscribed</i> +</td></tr></table> +</center> +<hr style='width: 15%;'> +<h2><i>CONTENTS</i></h2> + +<i><b><a href="#billysrevery">Billy's Revery</a></b></i> <br> +<i><b><a href="#thequarrel">The Quarrel</a></b></i> <br> +<i><b><a href="#thedisappointment">The Disappointment</a></b></i> +<br> +<i><b><a href="#thedecision">The Decision</a></b></i> <br> +<i><b><a href="#thesearch">The Search</a></b></i> <br> +<i><b><a href="#thereturn">The Return</a></b></i> <br> +<i><b><a href="#nancysstory">Nancy's Story</a></b></i> <br> + + +<h2><i>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</i></h2> + +<b>"<a href="#iwastakin"><i>I was takin' leave of Nancy<br> +Standin out there in the night</i>"</a><br> +<br> + <a href="#thenidragged">"<i>Then I dragged him on the prairie<br> +Through a Turk's Head cactus bed</i>"</a><br> +<br> + <a href="#iamstanding">"<i>I am standing by her dug-out,<br> +Open stands the sagging door</i>"</a><br> +<br> + <a href="#bringingbacka">"<i>Bringing back a hat of water,<br> +Through the dim light and the rain</i>"</a><br> +<br> + <a href="#loadeduptheir">"<i>Loaded up their prairie schooner,<br> +And vamoosed the ranch, fore light</i>"</a><br> +<br> + <a href="#hewasstartled">"<i>He was startled by a stranger's<br> +Sudden presence and 'Hello!'</i>"</a><br> +<br> + <a href="#faithfulsimonweak">"<i>Faithful Simon, weak and +starving,<br> +Groaned and fell beneath his pack</i>"</a><br> +<br> + <a href="#restingcalmin">"<i>Resting calm in fancied safety<br> +Sat the elder MacIntyre</i>"</a><br> +<br> + <a href="#onceagainthe">"<i>Once again the twisted branches<br> +Of the lone and friendly tree</i>"</a><br> +<br> + <a href="#fiercerwitheach">"<i>Fiercer with each flying moment<br> +Drove the scorching blasts of death</i>"</a><br> +<br> + <a href="#standingtherea">"<i>Standing there, a pictured +goddess<br> +Sketched against a lowering storm</i>"</a><br> +<br> + <a href="#butinsteadi">"<i>But, instead, I shot, to scare him,<br> +All the buttons off his coat</i>"</a><br> +</b> <a name="billysrevery"></a> + +<h2>BILLY'S REVERY</h2> + +<center> +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">1<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>No use talking, it's perplexing,</p> + +<p class="i2">Everything don't look the same;</p> + +<p>Never had these curious feelin's</p> + +<p class="i2">Till those MacIntyres came.</p> + +<p>Quit my plowing long 'fore dinner,</p> + +<p class="i2">Didn't hitch my team again;</p> + +<p>Spent the day with these new neighbors,</p> + +<p class="i2">Getting 'quainted with the men.</p> + +<p>Talk about the prairie roses!</p> + +<p class="i2">Purtiest flow'rs in all the world,</p> + +<p>But they look like weeds for beauty</p> + +<p class="i2">When I think of that new girl.</p> + +<p>Strange, she seems so kind of friendly</p> + +<p class="i2">When I'm awkward, every way,</p> + +<p>And my tongue gets hitched and hobbled,</p> + +<p class="i2">Everything I try to say!</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">2<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>There's one person, that Jim Johnson,</p> + +<p class="i2">That there man I can't abide;</p> + +<p>He's been milling around near Nancy,--</p> + +<p class="i2">Durn his dirty, yaller hide!</p> + +<p>Never really liked that Johnson;</p> + +<p class="i2">Now, each time I hear his name,</p> + +<p>Feel this state's too thickly settled,--</p> + +<p class="i2">That is, since that new girl came.</p> + +<p>If this making love to women</p> + +<p class="i2">Went like breaking in a horse,</p> + +<p>I might stand some show of winning,</p> + +<p class="i2">'Cause I've learned that game, of course;</p> + +<p>But this moonshine folks call 'courting,'</p> + +<p class="i2">I ain't never played that part;</p> + +<p>I can't keep from talking foolish</p> + +<p class="i2">When I'm thinking with my heart.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">3<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Now, those women that you read of</p> + +<p class="i2">In these story picture books,</p> + +<p>They can't ride in roping distance</p> + +<p class="i2">Of that girl in style and looks.</p> + +<p>They have waists more like an insect,</p> + +<p class="i2">Corset shaped and double cinched;</p> + +<p>Feet just right to make a watch charm,</p> + +<p class="i2">Small, of course, because they're pinched.</p> + +<p>This here Nancy's like God made her,--</p> + +<p class="i2">She don't wear no saddle girth,</p> + +<p>But she's supple as a willow,</p> + +<p class="i2">And the purtiest thing on earth.</p> + +<p>I'm in earnest; let me ask you--</p> + +<p class="i2">'Cause I want to reason fair--</p> + +<p>What durn business has that rope-necked</p> + +<p class="i2">Johnson sneaking over there?</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">4<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Hands so soft and strong and tender,</p> + +<p class="i2">When I shook a "how de do,"</p> + +<p>They was loaded sure with something</p> + +<p class="i2">Seemed to thrill me through and through;</p> + +<p>Hair as black as fire-burnt prairie;</p> + +<p class="i2">Eyes that dance and flash and flirt;</p> + +<p>Every time she smiled she showed you</p> + +<p class="i2">Teeth as white's my Sunday shirt.</p> + +<p>Baked us biscuits light as cotton;</p> + +<p class="i2">I can't eat mine any more,--</p> + +<p>I must get some better breeches,--</p> + +<p class="i2">Kind o' 'shamed of those I wore;</p> + +<p>But I'm goin' there to-morrow,</p> + +<p class="i2">Like enough I'll stay all day,</p> + +<p>Seems to me too dry for plowing--</p> + +<p class="i2">Durn that Johnson, anyway!</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">5<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>I ain't much on deep-down thinkin',</p> + +<p class="i2">Reasoning out the way things go,</p> + +<p>So I s'pose I'll keep on foolin'</p> + +<p class="i2">Till in time I get to know.</p> + +<p>I've had chills and fever 'n' ague;</p> + +<p class="i2">Suffered till their course was run.</p> + +<p>Maybe love just keeps on runnin',</p> + +<p class="i2">Till a man has lost--or won.</p> + +<p>One thing certain: I have got it;</p> + +<p class="i2">Seems to struck in good and hard.</p> + +<p>Makes me sometimes soft and tender;</p> + +<p class="i2">Next thing I would fight my pard.</p> + +<p>Appetite is surely failing,</p> + +<p class="i2">Sometimes I don't eat a bite;</p> + +<p>Dream of Nancy all the daytime,</p> + +<p class="i2">That durn Johnson, half the night.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">6<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>I've just got to get to plowin',</p> + +<p class="i2">Break a fire-guard 'round my shack,</p> + +<p>Plant my sod corn, fix my garden;</p> + +<p class="i2">Everything is goin' to rack.</p> + +<p>I can't work the way I used to;</p> + +<p class="i2">Got to quittin' early now,</p> + +<p>Since a little thing that happened,</p> + +<p class="i2">I can't just remember how.</p> + +<p>I was takin' leave of Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">Standin' out there in the night,</p> + +<p>And I put my arms around her--</p> + +<p class="i2">Heart stopped beatin', just from fright.</p> + +<p>Can't express the kind of feelin',--</p> + +<p class="i2">Words wa'n't never made for this,--</p> + +<p>As I drew her face up closer,</p> + +<p class="i2">And I stole my first sweet kiss.</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + <a name="thequarrel"></a> + +<h2>THE QUARREL</h2> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">1<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Things have moved along some smoother</p> + +<p class="i2">Since a week ago to-night,</p> + +<p>Seems my blood turned all to p'ison--</p> + +<p class="i2">Me and Johnson had a fight.</p> + +<p>Caught him twice up there to Nancy's;</p> + +<p class="i2">Told him plain to stay away;</p> + +<p>But he didn't seem to notice</p> + +<p class="i2">Anything I had to say.</p> + +<p>Caught him settin' there and talkin'</p> + +<p class="i2">'Bout the things that he had done--</p> + +<p>Durndest liar on the prairie--</p> + +<p class="i2">Laughing like he thought 'twas fun,</p> + +<p>Settin' there beside o' Nancy--</p> + +<p class="i2">Settin' down is all he does,</p> + +<p>Good for nothin', bug-eyed, loafin',</p> + +<p class="i2">Wrinkled, yaller, meddlin' cuss!</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">2<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>I just let him keep on settin'</p> + +<p class="i2">All the whole long evenin' through;</p> + +<p>When he started off I follered,</p> + +<p class="i2">Told him what I meant to do.</p> + +<p>"Why," says he, "now, don't git foolish;</p> + +<p class="i2">I ain't skeered o' your light breeze;</p> + +<p>I'll go thar and set by Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">Spite o' you, when I blame please."</p> + +<p>Well, I don't just clear remember</p> + +<p class="i2">All the doin's that took place,</p> + +<p>But you'll know the story better</p> + +<p class="i2">If you'll look at Johnson's face.</p> + +<p>As we rode we clinched and wrestled,</p> + +<p class="i2">Then we tumbled to the ground,</p> + +<p>Tore the bunch grass up, and cactus,</p> + +<p class="i2">For a hundred yards around.</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="thenidragged"></a> <img src="images/illustration_021.jpg" +width="456" height="420" alt= +"Then I dragged him on the prairie Through a Turk's Head cactus bed" + border="0"> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">3<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Got him down, and in the scrimmage</p> + +<p class="i2">Felt my lasso on the ground,</p> + +<p>Tied his legs and bent him over,</p> + +<p class="i2">Bound him like he's sittin' down;</p> + +<p>Hustled quick to mount my pony,</p> + +<p class="i2">Threw the loose end round the horn,</p> + +<p>Thought I'd learn that Mr. Johnson</p> + +<p class="i2">He'd missed out in bein' born.</p> + +<p>Then I dragged him on the prairie,</p> + +<p class="i2">Through a Turk's Head cactus bed,</p> + +<p>Prickly pears and shoestring bushes,--</p> + +<p class="i2">'Twasn't decent what he said.</p> + +<p>He's so dev'lish fond of settin',</p> + +<p class="i2">Thought I'd fix his settin' end</p> + +<p>So's he'd be more kinder careful</p> + +<p class="i2">Settin' by that girl again.</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + <a name="thedisappointment"></a> + +<h2>THE DISAPPOINTMENT</h2> + +<a name="iamstanding"></a><img src="images/illustration_027.jpg" +width="317" height="485" alt= +"I am standing by her dug-out, Open stands the sagging door" +border="0"> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">1<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>There's a feeling in my bosom,</p> + +<p class="i2">Like a hound that's lost the game,</p> + +<p>After chasing over bunch grass</p> + +<p class="i2">Till his feet are sore and lame.</p> + +<p>I am standing by her dug-out,</p> + +<p class="i2">Open stands the sagging door;</p> + +<p>Every grassblade speaks of Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">But she's gone, to come no more.</p> + +<p>For her father and her mother,</p> + +<p class="i2">And her brothers, late last night,</p> + +<p>Loaded up their prairie schooner,</p> + +<p class="i2">And vamoosed the ranch, 'fore light.</p> + +<p>'Taint no use to stand here cussin',</p> + +<p class="i2">But my heart slumps down like lead</p> + +<p>When I think of losing Nancy</p> + +<p class="i2">And to know my dreams are dead.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">2<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>It was here I held you, Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">When I showed you all my heart;</p> + +<p>When I told you I would always</p> + +<p class="i2">Be your friend and take your part.</p> + +<p>Oh, I thought that in life's lottery</p> + +<p class="i2">I had drawn the biggest prize,</p> + +<p>When I kissed you there that evening</p> + +<p class="i2">And looked down into your eyes;</p> + +<p>For I never had such feelin's</p> + +<p class="i2">Fill my hide clean through and through</p> + +<p>Such a hungry, starving longing,</p> + +<p class="i2">To be always close to you.</p> + +<p>But you've gone with all your family,</p> + +<p class="i2">And I'm left to mourn my loss,</p> + +<p>While the posse hunts your daddie,</p> + +<p class="i2">'Cause he stole Bill Kelly's hoss.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">3<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Now, I don't know where you're roaming,</p> + +<p class="i2">And I don't know where'll you'll land;</p> + +<p>But I wish you knew my feelin's,</p> + +<p class="i2">And 'twas clear just how I stand:</p> + +<p>How the good Lord, high in heaven,</p> + +<p class="i2">Put a throbbing heart in here,</p> + +<p>But it starts to pumping backwards</p> + +<p class="i2">When it feels that you don't keer.</p> + +<p>I'm a roving old jay-hawker,</p> + +<p class="i2">Never caught like this before,</p> + +<p>But I'd give my last possession</p> + +<p class="i2">For a glimpse of you once more.</p> + +<p>If we lose your old fool father</p> + +<p class="i2">Folks 'round here can stand the loss,</p> + +<p>He was raised in old Missoura,</p> + +<p class="i2">Or he'd never stole that hoss.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">4<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>When my mind gets to recalling</p> + +<p class="i2">All the happy times we had,</p> + +<p>Good red liquor and tobacco</p> + +<p class="i2">Gets to tasting kind o' bad.</p> + +<p>You remember on your birthday</p> + +<p class="i2">How I drove 'round kind o' late,</p> + +<p>And we went to Donkey Collins'</p> + +<p class="i2">To a dance, to celebrate?</p> + +<p>When you got up in my wagon,</p> + +<p class="i2">Bless my heart, you sure was sweet!</p> + +<p>You was bound that you'd go barefoot,</p> + +<p class="i2">'Cause your new shoes hurt your feet.</p> + +<p>Well, I tell you, pretty Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">Every minute of that ride</p> + +<p>Seemed like floating through the heavens,</p> + +<p>'Cause you set there by my side.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">5<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>When we pulled up at old Collins',</p> + +<p class="i2">Quite a bunch was there before,</p> + +<p>You could hear the fiddler calling,</p> + +<p class="i2">And the scraping on the floor.</p> + +<p>Through the dingy sodhouse window</p> + +<p class="i2">Gleamed a sickly yellow light,</p> + +<p>Where I helped you from the wagon,</p> + +<p class="i2">Holding you so loving tight.</p> + +<p>Then they called out, "Choose your pardners,</p> + +<p class="i2">Numbers five, six, seven, and eight,"</p> + +<p>And we hustled up to join in,</p> + +<p class="i2">For we knew that we were late.</p> + +<p>After starting up the music</p> + +<p class="i2">Something happened--you know what--</p> + +<p>All because I loved you, Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">And their manners made me hot.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">6<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>I just glanced around the circle,</p> + +<p class="i2">When we came to "Balance, all;"</p> + +<p>To that mess of cowhide-covered</p> + +<p class="i2">Feet that stomped at every call.</p> + +<p>Sure enough, the thing I looked for</p> + +<p class="i2">Come to pass when Aleck Rose</p> + +<p>Tried to <i>dos-a-dos</i>by you, dear,</p> + +<p class="i2">And, instead, waltzed on your toes.</p> + +<p>Recollect? I stopped the fiddler,</p> + +<p class="i2">And I stopped that stomping crowd,</p> + +<p>Using language that was decent,</p> + +<p class="i2">But was mighty clear and loud:</p> + +<p>"Now, you fellers from the Sand Hills,</p> + +<p class="i2">Fight me, or if you refuse</p> + +<p>You don't dance with me and Nancy</p> + +<p class="i2">While a one of you wears shoes!"</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">7<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Yes, they took them off, Miss Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">In respect for you and me,</p> + +<p>Putting all on equal footing,</p> + +<p class="i2">Just the way it ought to be.</p> + +<p>And we went through all the figures</p> + +<p class="i2">That we knew in that quadrille,</p> + +<p>But it didn't seem like dancin',</p> + +<p class="i2">Steppin' round so awful still.</p> + +<p>Fiddler, even, did his calling</p> + +<p class="i2">In a sort of quiet hush--</p> + +<p>"Swing your pardners," "Back to places,"</p> + +<p class="i2">"Sounds to me like paddlin' mush."</p> + +<p>"Man in center," "Circle round him,"</p> + +<p class="i2">"All join hands," and "'Way you go,"</p> + +<p>"Wait fur Betsy, she's in trouble,</p> + +<p class="i2">With a splinter in her toe."</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">8<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>When I took you home, towards morning,</p> + +<p class="i2">Such a night I never saw.</p> + +<p>How the Kansas wind was blowing!</p> + +<p class="i2">Swift and keen and kind o' raw.</p> + +<p>Blew more furious every minute,</p> + +<p class="i2">Blew a hole clear through the skies;</p> + +<p>Blew so loud, like demons hissing,</p> + +<p class="i2">That the moon was 'fraid to rise.</p> + +<p>Got so fierce it blew the stars out,</p> + +<p class="i2">Saw them flicker, then go dead,</p> + +<p>While the blackness, mad and murky,</p> + +<p class="i2">Rolled in thunder overhead.</p> + +<p>Goin' with it, durn my whiskers!</p> + +<p class="i2">Hind wheels riz plumb off the ground;</p> + +<p>Goin' 'gainst it, you and me, dear,</p> + +<p class="i2">Had to push the hosses down.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">9<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Now and then a raindrop whistled</p> + +<p class="i2">Like a bullet past my head;</p> + +<p>And I hollered out to you, dear,</p> + +<p class="i2">"Scrooch down in the wagon bed."</p> + +<p>Then they come as big as hen eggs;</p> + +<p class="i2">Struck the hosses stinging raps,</p> + +<p>Till the frightened, tremblin' critters</p> + +<p class="i2">Leaped beneath the angry slaps.</p> + +<p>Lord a'mighty, how they scampered!</p> + +<p class="i2">While I gripped the lines in tight,</p> + +<p>As the wagon box sailed upward</p> + +<p class="i2">Like a mighty wind-borne kite.</p> + +<p>Down below us ran the hosses,</p> + +<p class="i2">While we floated through the air,</p> + +<p>But through all that roaring shakeup,</p> + +<p class="i2">You, dear, never turned a hair.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">10<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>When the lightning flashed around us,</p> + +<p class="i2">Rabbits stopped to let us by,--</p> + +<p>Looked as if they said by halting,</p> + +<p class="i2">"We can't race with things that fly!"</p> + +<p>Coyotes sneaked off in the slough grass,</p> + +<p class="i2">Prairie dogs stayed in their holes;</p> + +<p>We was lubricated blazes,--</p> + +<p class="i2">Couldn't stop to save our souls.</p> + +<p>Up the hills we flew like swallows,</p> + +<p class="i2">Down the slopes, a hurricane,</p> + +<p>Bumped and jumped the humps and hollows,</p> + +<p class="i2">Dragged the ground and riz again.</p> + +<p>And I prayed, "Dear Lord, save Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">For a desperate lover's sake!"</p> + +<p>You was hangin' to my gallus,</p> + +<p class="i2">And I felt it strain and break.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">11<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Felt you holdin' to my boot-leg,</p> + +<p class="i2">Slattin' in the roarin' gale,</p> + +<p>So, to save you, I worked for'ard,</p> + +<p class="i2">Got the nigh hoss by the tail.</p> + +<p>Miles on miles we tore on blindly,</p> + +<p class="i2">Had to let the critters roam,</p> + +<p>Till, at last, they turned their noses</p> + +<p class="i2">To the north, and towards their home.</p> + +<p>We went charging down a valley,</p> + +<p class="i2">Stopped in something soft and deep;</p> + +<p>Wagon box and you and me, dear,</p> + +<p class="i2">Landed in a mixed-up heap.</p> + +<p>Both the hosses' legs was buried</p> + +<p class="i2">And I knew that that was proof</p> + +<p>We had 'lighted on the top of</p> + +<p class="i2">Old Jim Davis's dug-out roof.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">12<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Now, old Jim was sleeping soundly</p> + +<p class="i2">Close beside his faithful wife;</p> + +<p>Peace had smoothed his savage wrinkles,</p> + +<p class="i2">All his dreams were free from strife.</p> + +<p>He was safe from ragin' cyclones,</p> + +<p class="i2">Wolves could never force his door,</p> + +<p>All the ills of life had vanished,</p> + +<p class="i2">On his mountain torrent snore.</p> + +<p>So when our descent awoke him</p> + +<p class="i2">Sitting bolt upright in bed,</p> + +<p>With the flying hoofs above him,</p> + +<p class="i2">Kicking hair off of his head,</p> + +<p>He aroused his sleeping helpmeet;</p> + +<p class="i2">Loud his curses and abuse,</p> + +<p>"Mary, hike your lazy carcass,</p> + +<p class="i2">Hell has turned the devil loose."</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">13<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>While ole Jim was shooting at us--</p> + +<p class="i2">Couldn't make him understand;</p> + +<p>Kept his blamed old gun a-going</p> + +<p class="i2">Till he got me through the hand--</p> + +<p>Not a whimper did you utter,</p> + +<p class="i2">But you grabbed the hosses' heads,</p> + +<p>Coaxed and helped them in their trouble,</p> + +<p class="i2">While they strove like thoroughbreds,</p> + +<p>Lunging, plunging, you stayed with them</p> + +<p class="i2">Till they both were clear and free.</p> + +<p>Riding one, you lashed them forward,</p> + +<p class="i2">Circled round and picked up me,</p> + +<p>Helped me mount, while Jim was loading;</p> + +<p class="i2">Then we struck off through the night,</p> + +<p>Right across the storm-swept prairie,</p> + +<p class="i2">Till the East was streaked with light.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">14<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>I was faint and sick and dizzy,</p> + +<p class="i2">From my shattered, bleeding hand,</p> + +<p>And it seemed as if the jolting</p> + +<p class="i2">Gave me more than I could stand.</p> + +<p>Once I reeled, and would have fallen,</p> + +<p class="i2">If you hadn't held me there;</p> + +<p>Put your dear arm tight around me,</p> + +<p class="i2">Whispered, "Billy, don't you care."</p> + +<p>Then you headed straight for water,</p> + +<p class="i2">Threw the lines, dismounted first,</p> + +<p>Smoothed the grass down for my pillow,</p> + +<p class="i2">While the hosses quenched their thirst.</p> + +<p>Then you bathed my throbbing forehead,--</p> + +<p class="i2">Love and healing in the touch,--</p> + +<p>Sayin', "Billy, pardner, listen:</p> + +<p class="i2">That there shootin' wasn't much!"</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="bringingbacka"></a><img src="images/illustration_034.jpg" +width="401" height="564" alt= +"Bringing back a hat of water, Through the dim light and the rain" +border="0"> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">15<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>From your skirt you tore a piece out,</p> + +<p class="i2">Dressed my wounds so neat and quick,</p> + +<p>That I felt the Lord had sent you</p> + +<p class="i2">Just to soothe and heal the sick.</p> + +<p>Bringing back a hat of water,</p> + +<p class="i2">Through the dim light and the rain,</p> + +<p>Thought I saw your face turn paler,</p> + +<p class="i2">Like you felt a twinge o' pain;</p> + +<p>But as you knelt down beside me</p> + +<p class="i2">I could hear you humming low</p> + +<p>Some mysterious song, stopped short by,</p> + +<p class="i2">"Billy, man, we sure must go!"</p> + +<p>And the sun turned loose his glory,</p> + +<p class="i2">Through the tempest-riven sky,</p> + +<p>Till it touched us like a blessing</p> + +<p class="i2">From the Father there on high.</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="loadeduptheir"></a><img src="images/illustration_051.jpg" +width="464" height="356" alt= +"Loaded up their prairie schooner, And vamoosed the ranch 'fore light" + border="0"> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">16<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>I am standing by her dug-out;</p> + +<p class="i2">Open swings the sagging door,</p> + +<p>Every grassblade speaks of Nancy;</p> + +<p class="i2">But she's gone, to come no more,</p> + +<p>For her father and her mother,</p> + +<p class="i2">And her brothers, late last night,</p> + +<p>Loaded up their prairie schooner,</p> + +<p class="i2">And vamoosed the ranch, 'fore light.</p> + +<p>There's the bed poles and the stove hole;</p> + +<p class="i2">Not a thing is left for me,</p> + +<p>As a keepsake of my Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">Anywhere that I can see.</p> + +<p>What! a paper, pinned up yonder,</p> + +<p class="i2">Kind o' folded like a note!</p> + +<p>It has writin', sure as blazes!</p> + +<p class="i2">It is somethin' Nancy wrote.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">17<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"My dere billy, you will wunder</p> + +<p class="i2">Why I ever rote you this;</p> + +<p>I am sorry I am leevin</p> + +<p class="i2">Daddie needs me in his biz.</p> + +<p>I don't reely like this quiet</p> + +<p class="i2">Kind of sober farmer life;</p> + +<p>I like something allus doin,</p> + +<p class="i2">But for this, I'd be your wife.</p> + +<p>I got two of old Jim's bullets,</p> + +<p class="i2">Didn't like to let you know,</p> + +<p>Cause the one that you was luggin'</p> + +<p class="i2">Seemed to fret and hurt you so.</p> + +<p>Daddie cut them out that evenin;</p> + +<p class="i2">I don't mind a little such,</p> + +<p>But, dere billy, don't you worry,</p> + +<p class="i2">Old Jim's shootin wasn't much."</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<br> +<br> +<br> + <a name="thedecision"></a> + +<h2>THE DECISION</h2> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">1<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Since that girl went off and left me,</p> + +<p class="i2">I can't plan just what to do.</p> + +<p>Saw Tom Frothingham this mornin',</p> + +<p class="i2">He says Johnson's gone off, too.</p> + +<p>My old mother used to tell me,</p> + +<p class="i2">When I lagged at any task,</p> + +<p>"Keep on working, do no shirking,</p> + +<p class="i2">You will bring the thing to pass."</p> + +<p>That advice has been my motto:</p> + +<p class="i2">Everything that I've begun,</p> + +<p>I've stayed with it, sick or weary,</p> + +<p class="i2">Till the job was squarely done.</p> + +<p>But this case is kind o' different;</p> + +<p class="i2">Though I ain't the kind that grieves,</p> + +<p>How you goin' to work that motto</p> + +<p class="i2">When the job gets up and leaves?</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">2<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>S'pose, in thinkin' and decidin',</p> + +<p class="i2">I refuse to do my part;--</p> + +<p>Just sit down and let my mem'ry</p> + +<p class="i2">Finish breaking up my heart--</p> + +<p>S'pose I give up like a coward,</p> + +<p class="i2">Let the world say I ain't game,</p> + +<p>'Cause by leavin' I should forfeit</p> + +<p class="i2">My poor eighty-acre claim.</p> + +<p>I ain't 'fraid to do my duty</p> + +<p class="i2">If I'm clear what it's about,</p> + +<p>But this scrape is so peculiar</p> + +<p class="i2">That my mind's smoked up with doubt.</p> + +<p>I believe that Nancy loves me,</p> + +<p class="i2">And it may be she'll stay true;</p> + +<p>But I wonder why the blazes</p> + +<p class="i2">That durn Johnson's gone off too.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">3<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Blamed if I don't get my hosses,</p> + +<p class="i2">Saddle Zeb and lead old Si,</p> + +<p>And we'll search the wind-swept prairie</p> + +<p class="i2">Till we find that girl, or die!</p> + +<p>Who'd a thought a man's whole future</p> + +<p class="i2">Could get twisted up like this?</p> + +<p>All his plans burn up like tinder</p> + +<p class="i2">In the fire of one sweet kiss!</p> + +<p>"Zeb, come here, and good old Simon--</p> + +<p class="i2">Listen while I talk to you;</p> + +<p>Put your noses on my shoulder</p> + +<p class="i2">While I tell you what we'll do.</p> + +<p>Your fool master's deep in trouble,</p> + +<p class="i2">Can't explain to you just how,</p> + +<p>But until we find my Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">You shall never pull a plow."</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="thesearch"></a> + +<h2>THE SEARCH</h2> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">1<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>In the West, where twilight glories</p> + +<p class="i2">Paint with blood each sky-line cloud,</p> + +<p>While the virgin rolling prairie</p> + +<p class="i2">Slowly dons her evening shroud;</p> + +<p>While the killdeer plover settles</p> + +<p class="i2">From its quick and noisy flight;</p> + +<p>While the prairie cock is blowing</p> + +<p class="i2">Warning of the coming night--</p> + +<p>There against the fiery background</p> + +<p class="i2">Where the day and night have met,</p> + +<p>Move three disappearing figures,</p> + +<p class="i2">Outlined sharp in silhouette.</p> + +<p>Zeb and Si and Bill, the lover,</p> + +<p class="i2">Chafing under each delay,</p> + +<p>Pass below the red horizon,</p> + +<p class="i2">Toward the river trail away.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">2<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Far across the upland prairie</p> + +<p class="i2">To the valley-land below,</p> + +<p>Where the tall and tangled joint-grass</p> + +<p class="i2">Makes the horses pant and blow,</p> + +<p>There the silent Solomon River</p> + +<p class="i2">Reaching westward to its source,</p> + +<p>With its fringe of sombre timber</p> + +<p class="i2">Guides the lover on his course.</p> + +<p>All the night he keeps his saddle,</p> + +<p class="i2">Urging Zeb and Simon on,</p> + +<p>Till the trail clears up before him</p> + +<p class="i2">In the gray of early dawn.</p> + +<p>Where it turns in towards the river,</p> + +<p class="i2">Arched above with vine-growth rank,</p> + +<p>He, dismounting, ties the horses</p> + +<p class="i2">Near the steep and treacherous bank.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">3<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>More than light and shade and landscape</p> + +<p class="i2">Meet the plainsman's searching look,</p> + +<p>For the paths that lie before him</p> + +<p class="i2">Are the pages of his book.</p> + +<p>Stooping down and reading slowly,</p> + +<p class="i2">Noting every trace around,</p> + +<p>Of the travel gone before him,</p> + +<p class="i2">Every mark upon the ground,</p> + +<p>Down the winding, deep-cut roadway</p> + +<p class="i2">Furrowed out by grinding tire,</p> + +<p>Where the ruts lead to the water,</p> + +<p class="i2">In the half-dried plastic mire,</p> + +<p>He beholds the telltale marking</p> + +<p class="i2">Of an odd-shaped band of steel,</p> + +<p>Welded to secure the fellies</p> + +<p class="i2">Of old MacIntyre's wheel.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">4<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>High above the wind is moaning</p> + +<p class="i2">In a lonely, fretful mood,</p> + +<p>Through the lofty spreading branches</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the elm and cottonwood.</p> + +<p>Where the willows hide the fordway</p> + +<p class="i2">With their fringe of lighter green,</p> + +<p>Is the dam, decayed and broken,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where the beavers once have been.</p> + +<p>On the sycamore bent o'er it,</p> + +<p class="i2">With its gleaming trunk of white,</p> + +<p>Sits the barred owl, idly blinking</p> + +<p class="i2">At the early morning's light,</p> + +<p>While, within its spacious hollow,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where the rotting heart had clung</p> + +<p>Till removed by age and fire,</p> + +<p class="i2">Sleeps the wild cat with her young.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">5<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Plunging through the sluggish water,</p> + +<p class="i2">Scarcely halting for a drink,</p> + +<p>Toiling through the sticky quagmire,</p> + +<p class="i2">They attain the farther brink.</p> + +<p>Here the trail leads to the westward,--</p> + +<p class="i2">Once the redman's wild domain;</p> + +<p>Now the shallow rutted highway</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the settler's wagon train.</p> + +<p>Here and there along the edges,</p> + +<p class="i2">Paths work through the waving grass,</p> + +<p>Where at night from bluff to river,</p> + +<p class="i2">Sneaking coyotes find a pass.</p> + +<p>Here the meadow lark sings gaily</p> + +<p class="i2">As she leaves her hidden nest,</p> + +<p>While the sun of early morning</p> + +<p class="i2">Double-tints her orange breast.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">6<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Up this broad and fertile valley,</p> + +<p class="i2">Tracing all its winding ways,</p> + +<p>Plodding on with dogged patience</p> + +<p class="i2">Through a score of weary days,</p> + +<p>Camping in the lonely timber,</p> + +<p class="i2">Sleeping on the scorching plain,</p> + +<p>Bearing heat and thirst and hunger,</p> + +<p class="i2">Sore fatigue and wind and rain--</p> + +<p>Halting only when the telltale</p> + +<p class="i2">Mark was missing in the track;</p> + +<p>Only when he called a greeting,</p> + +<p class="i2">As he passed some settler's shack;</p> + +<p>Till the valley and its timber</p> + +<p class="i2">Vanished, where the rolling sward</p> + +<p>Of the westward-sweeping prairie</p> + +<p class="i2">Marks the trail 'cross Mingo's ford.</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="hewasstartled"></a><img src="images/illustration_052.jpg" +width="395" height="555" alt= +"He was startled by a stranger's Sudden presence and 'Hello!'" +border="0"> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">7<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Here for hours he searched the crossing</p> + +<p class="i2">And the wheel-ruts leading on</p> + +<p>To the north, a full day's journey,</p> + +<p class="i2">But the guiding mark was gone.</p> + +<p>Not a vestige here remaining</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the sign that could be told,</p> + +<p>For old Mac had traveled swiftly</p> + +<p class="i2">And the trail was mixed and old.</p> + +<p>Two whole days Bill searched and waited,</p> + +<p class="i2">Hoping for some other clew,</p> + +<p>Weighing questions of direction,</p> + +<p class="i2">Undecided what to do.</p> + +<p>Till, one night, while cooking supper</p> + +<p class="i2">By the camp-fire's genial glow,</p> + +<p>He was startled by a stranger's</p> + +<p class="i2">Sudden presence and "Hello!"</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">8<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Tall of stature, dark of visage,</p> + +<p class="i2">By the wind well dried and tanned,</p> + +<p>Clad in "shaps" and spurs that jingled,</p> + +<p class="i2">With a bull whip in his hand.</p> + +<p>Close behind him in the shadows,</p> + +<p class="i2">Eyes aglow with red and green,</p> + +<p>Stood a blazed-face Texas pony,</p> + +<p class="i2">Ewe-necked, cat-hammed, wild, and mean.</p> + +<p>"Hello, stranger! glad to see you,</p> + +<p class="i2">Got my cattle fixed for night;</p> + +<p>Just got through, and riding round 'em,</p> + +<p class="i2">'Cross the bluff, I saw your light.</p> + +<p>No, thanks, pardner, had my supper;</p> + +<p class="i2">Seems your fire is short o' wood;</p> + +<p>I just thought I'd see who's camped here--</p> + +<p>Gee! that bacon does smell good!"</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">9<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>When the frugal meal was over,</p> + +<p class="i2">When the pipes were filled and lit,</p> + +<p>And the cowboy ceased his stories</p> + +<p class="i2">Weak in moral, rank in wit,</p> + +<p>Billy plied him long with questions,</p> + +<p class="i2">Wording each with thought and care,</p> + +<p>Lest his zeal for information</p> + +<p class="i2">Should reveal his mission there.</p> + +<p>"Tell me who you've seen go by here,</p> + +<p class="i2">Just within the last few days;</p> + +<p>What they had for teams and outfits;</p> + +<p class="i2">How the country round here lays.</p> + +<p>Have you seen a prairie schooner--</p> + +<p class="i2">Old style freighter--pass this way?</p> + +<p>Both wheel hosses white-nosed sorrels,</p> + +<p class="i2">Lead team of a dun and gray?"</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">10<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"I remember some such outfit,</p> + +<p class="i2">If I've got your idee right.</p> + +<p>Think they camped a mile below here</p> + +<p class="i2">Week ago last Thursday night.</p> + +<p>Pulled in sometime 'long 'bout sundown,</p> + +<p class="i2">Turned their stock in yonder draw,</p> + +<p>But an oldish sort of fellow</p> + +<p class="i2">Was the only one I saw;</p> + +<p>Rode a speckled chestnut pony</p> + +<p class="i2">With a white star in his face;</p> + +<p>Asked some questions 'bout the country,</p> + +<p class="i2">'Bout the proper crossing-place.</p> + +<p>Pulled out sometime long 'fore daylight.</p> + +<p class="i2">Didn't see them when they passed,</p> + +<p>But from all the indications</p> + +<p class="i2">They was trav'ling pretty fast.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">11<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Crossed right here where we are settin',</p> + +<p class="i2">Saw their trail that very day;</p> + +<p>Struck plumb north, and by my reck'nin'</p> + +<p class="i2">Towards the north they'll likely stay.</p> + +<p>North of here, by my experience,</p> + +<p class="i2">He'll find grass that's mighty fine.</p> + +<p>Chances are that he'll keep goin'</p> + +<p class="i2">Till he strikes Nebraska's line.</p> + +<p>It was just the next day after</p> + +<p class="i2">That my cattle scattered so;</p> + +<p>Some strayed off 'way south to Jimson's,</p> + +<p class="i2">One bunch in the bend below.</p> + +<p>That's the day I met that feller</p> + +<p class="i2">(Eyes so black he couldn't see)</p> + +<p>Who kept pumpin' me with questions</p> + +<p class="i2">Like you've just been askin' me.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">12<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Asked about that prairie schooner,</p> + +<p class="i2">Said that they was friends of hisn,</p> + +<p>Like to wore me plumb to frazzles</p> + +<p class="i2">With his everlasting quiz'n.</p> + +<p>Rode a piebald, knock-kneed broncho;</p> + +<p class="i2">Coat was battered, ripped, and torn;</p> + +<p>He was yaller, long, and g'anted</p> + +<p class="i2">Like a steer with holler horn.</p> + +<p>An' you oughter seen his breeches!</p> + +<p class="i2">He must sure be shy on sense;</p> + +<p>Why, they looked like he'd been riding</p> + +<p class="i2">On a bucking barb wire fence.</p> + +<p>You won't meet him, 'cause I saw him</p> + +<p class="i2">Coming back across this way,</p> + +<p>Going eastward where he come from;</p> + +<p class="i2">Took the back trail yesterday.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">13<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Said he'd found the old man's outfit</p> + +<p class="i2">Moving westward on North Fork.</p> + +<p>Can't remember all he told me,</p> + +<p class="i2">For he runs a heap to talk.</p> + +<p>Said he'd found out what he wanted;</p> + +<p class="i2">Said he 'had a plan or two,</p> + +<p>And the folks that knowed Jim Johnson,</p> + +<p class="i2">Knowed that he would put 'em through.'</p> + +<p>Then there's others took the west trail;</p> + +<p class="i2">They got that way huntin' range--</p> + +<p>Funny how folks when they come here</p> + +<p class="i2">Get to itchin' for a change!</p> + +<p>I've been stayin' too confinin';</p> + +<p class="i2">Never left this herd but once.</p> + +<p>I'm the oldest puncher round here,--</p> + +<p class="i2">Been here over fourteen months."</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">14<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Long before the sun had risen,</p> + +<p class="i2">While the night mist's ghostly veil</p> + +<p>Hid from view the sloughs and hollows,</p> + +<p class="i2">Billy took the northern trail.</p> + +<p>Through the sunflowers in the low land,</p> + +<p class="i2">Plodding over sandstone knolls,</p> + +<p>Winding through the level stretches</p> + +<p class="i2">Dotted thick with treacherous holes</p> + +<p>Where the prairie dogs sat chattering,</p> + +<p class="i2">Bolt upright upon their mounds,</p> + +<p>While the ground owls sought their burrows,</p> + +<p class="i2">Startled by the warning sounds;</p> + +<p>Stumbling into buffalo wallows,</p> + +<p class="i2">Dug out in an earlier day</p> + +<p>By the halting herds that rested,</p> + +<p class="i2">Rolled and bellowed in their play.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">15<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Now and then the sheltered hillside</p> + +<p class="i2">Waved its varicolored flowers</p> + +<p>As a greeting to the trav'ler,</p> + +<p class="i2">Solace to the toilsome hours.</p> + +<p>Old Jack Rabbit hopped before him,</p> + +<p class="i2">Then sat up, to watch him pass,</p> + +<p>Dusky horned-toads scurried nimbly</p> + +<p class="i2">Through the withered buffalo grass.</p> + +<p>Here and there the buzzing rattler</p> + +<p class="i2">Whirred a warning, head alert,</p> + +<p>Then retreated from the snapping,</p> + +<p class="i2">Stinging strokes of Billy's quirt.</p> + +<p>Day by day the wild breeze flying,</p> + +<p class="i2">With'ring in its scorching heat,</p> + +<p>Hummed a tune to labored beating</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the plodding horses' feet.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">16<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Day by day this panorama</p> + +<p class="i2">Passing slowly, dully by,</p> + +<p>With the sun's brass disc high gleaming</p> + +<p class="i2">From a white and cloudless sky,</p> + +<p>Sometimes drew fantastic pictures.</p> + +<p class="i2">Many a strange and gruesome sign--</p> + +<p>Phantom trees and fairy castles--</p> + +<p class="i2">Blurred the far horizon line.</p> + +<p>Then they'd vanish like the fancies</p> + +<p class="i2">Of a fever-smitten brain,</p> + +<p>And returning, changed in outline,</p> + +<p class="i2">Elsewhere on the mighty plain</p> + +<p>Would allure the eyesore trav'ler</p> + +<p class="i2">Till the very sky above</p> + +<p>Seemed to mock with vague mirages</p> + +<p class="i2">Every surety of love.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">17<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>When each weary day was over,</p> + +<p class="i2">Halting near some watering-place,</p> + +<p>Bill unpacked his meager outfit,</p> + +<p class="i2">Turned the horses loose to graze,</p> + +<p>Baked his varicolored dough-bread,</p> + +<p class="i2">On a fire of cattle chips;</p> + +<p>Coffee made of green-scummed water,</p> + +<p class="i2">Nectar to his thirsty lips.</p> + +<p>On the ground he spread his blanket</p> + +<p class="i2">And reclining there alone,</p> + +<p>Heard the swiftly sweeping breezes</p> + +<p class="i2">Sing in dreary monotone</p> + +<p>Strange wild anthems, weird and lonesome,</p> + +<p class="i2">Like lost spirits floating by,</p> + +<p>While afar in broken measure</p> + +<p class="i2">Swelled the coyotes' yelping cry.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">18<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>All the varied information</p> + +<p class="i2">Gathered from the few he passed--</p> + +<p>Some from herders, some from stragglers</p> + +<p class="i2">Gave the missing clew at last</p> + +<p>As to where old Mac was heading;</p> + +<p class="i2">For that telltale band of steel</p> + +<p>Stamped along the endless roadway</p> + +<p class="i2">Printed by the turning wheel,</p> + +<p>Pressed its image on the memory</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the settlers coming back,</p> + +<p>Who, when questioned by the searcher,</p> + +<p class="i2">Told him that the telltale track</p> + +<p>Had begun to veer to westward</p> + +<p class="i2">After crossing by the way</p> + +<p>Leading up the North Platte River,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where the sand wastes stretch away.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">19<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>As he crossed this barren prairie's</p> + +<p class="i2">Sweeping waste of poverty,</p> + +<p>Billy paused beside the cripple</p> + +<p class="i2">Of a wind-torn twisted tree,</p> + +<p>Standing there, marooned forever,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where its hapless seed had blown,</p> + +<p>Miles on miles from forest neighbor,</p> + +<p class="i2">Struggling out its life alone.</p> + +<p>Here he stopped, with head uncovered,</p> + +<p class="i2">Conscious of a strange appeal,</p> + +<p>Yielding to the voiceless longing</p> + +<p class="i2">Human hearts are bound to feel</p> + +<p>When their lot is isolation,</p> + +<p class="i2">And a field of sterile soil</p> + +<p>Dwarfs and twists the struggling spirit</p> + +<p class="i2">As the body bends with toil.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">20<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Here, that subtle, silent craving,</p> + +<p class="i2">Which with life will never end,</p> + +<p>Of the lonesome and the needy</p> + +<p class="i2">For the comfort of a friend,</p> + +<p>Drew the trav'ler to this tree waif,</p> + +<p class="i2">And he spread his outfit near,</p> + +<p>And they held that sacred converse</p> + +<p class="i2">Which the soul alone can hear.</p> + +<p>While the horses browsed the sage brush,</p> + +<p class="i2">And the sun withdrew his light,</p> + +<p>And the moon in mournful splendor</p> + +<p class="i2">Ushered in the lonely night,</p> + +<p>He lay down beneath the branches,</p> + +<p class="i2">Wrapped in musings strange and deep--</p> + +<p>Thoughts that bore him off in silence</p> + +<p class="i2">O'er the placid sea of sleep.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">21<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>In his dreams he saw a monarch</p> + +<p class="i2">Decked in sumptuous array,</p> + +<p>Seated on a throne of glory</p> + +<p class="i2">Bearing royal title, Day.</p> + +<p>Then some mighty power transcendent,</p> + +<p class="i2">Thrust him from his gorgeous throne,</p> + +<p>Turning all the realm to darkness,</p> + +<p class="i2">And the world was left alone.</p> + +<p>As the shades of gloom were spreading,</p> + +<p class="i2">By strange flashing threads of light</p> + +<p>He beheld in dim-drawn outline,</p> + +<p class="i2">On the background of the night,</p> + +<p>Phantom horse and girlish rider,</p> + +<p class="i2">Speeding on in reckless race,</p> + +<p>Till she turned directly toward him</p> + +<p class="i2">And he saw her fearless face!</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="faithfulsimonweak"></a> <img src= +"images/illustration_061.jpg" width="431" height="588" alt= +"Faithful Simon, weak and starving, Groaned and fell beneath his pack...." + border="0"> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">22<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>With the journey's slow progression</p> + +<p class="i2">Slipped away the summer days,</p> + +<p>Merging with the sleepy beauty</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the lazy autumn haze;</p> + +<p>And the frosts and drought combining</p> + +<p class="i2">Waged relentless battle there,</p> + +<p>Withering up the scanty ranges,</p> + +<p class="i2">Leaving all the country bare.</p> + +<p>When he entered Colorado,</p> + +<p class="i2">Following still the barren plain</p> + +<p>Where for months the mocking heavens</p> + +<p class="i2">Never spared a drop of rain,</p> + +<p>Faithful Simon, weak and starving,</p> + +<p class="i2">Following feebly in the track</p> + +<p>Pulled upon his straining halter,</p> + +<p class="i2">Groaned and fell beneath his pack.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">23<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Vain were all the kind entreaties,</p> + +<p class="i2">Vain the simple nursing done</p> + +<p>To relieve his palsied weakness--</p> + +<p class="i2">Poor old Simon's course was run.</p> + +<p>Billy spent the night beside him,</p> + +<p class="i2">But with next day's early dawn,</p> + +<p>With the east's first flush of scarlet,</p> + +<p class="i2">Simon's faithful soul passed on.</p> + +<p>Then, with hands outstretched before him,</p> + +<p class="i2">Half remembering what was said</p> + +<p>When a child he saw the sexton</p> + +<p class="i2">Sprinkle earth upon the dead--</p> + +<p>"Dust to dust, and then to ashes--</p> + +<p class="i2">I forget the other part--</p> + +<p>I can't say the words I want to,</p> + +<p class="i2">I can't think--all's in my heart.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">24<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Over twenty years, old pardner,</p> + +<p class="i2">We have been companions true;</p> + +<p>You have always kept your end up</p> + +<p class="i2">In the hardships we've gone through.</p> + +<p>If we'd stayed, and I had never</p> + +<p class="i2">Seen her face or touched her hand,</p> + +<p>We should still have been contented,</p> + +<p class="i2">On our little piece of land.</p> + +<p>This strange spell won't let me falter,</p> + +<p class="i2">Though the chasing never ends;</p> + +<p>Seems that nothing ever'll stop it,</p> + +<p class="i2">Sickness, death, or loss of friends.</p> + +<p>Where this love will drive a fellow,</p> + +<p class="i2">I ain't wise enough to tell;</p> + +<p>Sometimes think it leads to heaven</p> + +<p class="i2">By a trail that runs through hell."</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">25<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Weeks thereafter, plodding northward</p> + +<p class="i2">Crossing over Lodge Pole creek,</p> + +<p>Threading Colorado's stretches--</p> + +<p class="i2">Sandy deserts wild and bleak--</p> + +<p>Where the sun wars on the living,</p> + +<p class="i2">Struggling 'neath his blinding light,</p> + +<p>Then resigns his work of ravage</p> + +<p class="i2">To the chilling frosts of night;</p> + +<p>Where the bleaching bones of horses</p> + +<p class="i2">Here and there bestrew the plains,</p> + +<p>Telling many a ghastly story</p> + +<p class="i2">Of misguided settlers' trains--</p> + +<p>Where the early frontier ranger</p> + +<p class="i2">Marked the first trail to Cheyenne,</p> + +<p>Billy, following its wand'rings,</p> + +<p class="i2">Found the missing mark again.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">26<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Then the labored pace grew faster</p> + +<p class="i2">As he passed each camping place,</p> + +<p>Marking well the lessening distance</p> + +<p class="i2">In the long-contested race.</p> + +<p>Riding through Wyoming's foothills,</p> + +<p class="i2">With their rugged summit lines</p> + +<p>Stretched across the clear horizon,</p> + +<p class="i2">Fringed with pointed spruce and pines,</p> + +<p>He beheld, one early morning,</p> + +<p class="i2">Rising slowly to the sky,</p> + +<p>Smoke--the thin and gauzy column</p> + +<p class="i2">Of a camp fire built close by;</p> + +<p>And, on looking down the valley</p> + +<p class="i2">With exultant, ringing cheer,</p> + +<p>He beheld the prairie schooner</p> + +<p class="i2">And the MacIntyres near.</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="restingcalmin"></a> <img src="images/illustration_066.jpg" +width="456" height="431" alt= +"Resting calm in fancied safety Sat the elder MacIntyre" border= +"0"> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">27<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>On an open spot of grass land</p> + +<p class="i2">Gilded by the rising sun,</p> + +<p>Sloping sharply to the crevice</p> + +<p class="i2">Where the mountain waters run,</p> + +<p>Ike, reclining, watched the horses,</p> + +<p class="i2">Now increased to quite a band,</p> + +<p>While above him, in the timber,</p> + +<p class="i2">Brother Bill, with gun in hand,</p> + +<p>Held it poised in sudden wonder,</p> + +<p class="i2">Half in attitude to shoot,</p> + +<p>As he saw the coming rider,</p> + +<p class="i2">Heard his loudly yelled salute.</p> + +<p>Near an old abandoned cabin,</p> + +<p class="i2">Huddled by the breakfast fire,</p> + +<p>Resting calm in fancied safety</p> + +<p class="i2">Sat the elder MacIntyre.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">28<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"You! Why, Billy, where d'you come from?</p> + +<p class="i2">What new game you playing now?</p> + +<p>If you're out on posse business</p> + +<p class="i2">By the gods, jest start your row!</p> + +<p>What you saying? You are friendly?</p> + +<p class="i2">Wal, I'm glad to hear it's so;</p> + +<p>And I s'pose you made the journey</p> + +<p class="i2">Way out here to let me know!</p> + +<p>Oh! you're talking 'bout our Nancy!</p> + +<p class="i2">Now I just begin to see.</p> + +<p>Set down, Billy; you are askin'</p> + +<p class="i2">Something that sure puzzles me.</p> + +<p>Nancy ain't like other women--</p> + +<p class="i2">What I say may hit you queer,</p> + +<p>But it's jest as well to tell you--</p> + +<p>That there girl--she isn't here.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">29<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Don't stampede your words, now, Billy.</p> + +<p class="i2">Slow 'em down and let 'em walk.</p> + +<p>Lord a'mighty, man! keep quiet!</p> + +<p class="i2">Never heard such crazy talk!</p> + +<p>Where's the girl? Wal, let me tell you--</p> + +<p class="i2">T'aint no use to take on so--</p> + +<p>Where is Nancy? P'r'aps in heaven;</p> + +<p class="i2">I can't tell yer,--I don't know.</p> + +<p>When we left last spring from Kansas,</p> + +<p class="i2">Travelin' mostly in the night,</p> + +<p>We was chased up by a posse;</p> + +<p class="i2">Fourth day out we had a fight.</p> + +<p>We had jest unhitched the hosses,</p> + +<p class="i2">Making camp at Old Man's Creek--</p> + +<p>Gimme some o' that tobacker,</p> + +<p class="i2">I've been out for more'n a week.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">30<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"We had jest unhitched the hosses,</p> + +<p class="i2">Nance was riding Kelly's mare,</p> + +<p>When we heard them all a-comin'--</p> + +<p class="i2">They had seen us pull in there.</p> + +<p>Nancy said,' I'll hold 'em, daddie,</p> + +<p class="i2">Get the outfit over here,</p> + +<p>And I'll trail you in the mornin';</p> + +<p class="i2">I will see they don't get near.'</p> + +<p>It was in that heavy timber--</p> + +<p class="i2">Growing dark and spittin' rain--</p> + +<p>Where the creek runs to the eastward,</p> + +<p class="i2">Makes that loop, and back again.</p> + +<p>We was in a reg'lar pocket;</p> + +<p class="i2">Creek banks made a kind of bluff</p> + +<p>All around us, so it looked like</p> + +<p class="i2">We was trapped there, sure enough.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">31<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Wal, we had a time in movin';</p> + +<p class="i2">Things got mixed up in the rush;</p> + +<p>Lead team broke a piece of harness</p> + +<p class="i2">Pulling through the underbrush.</p> + +<p>Then the wagon turned clean over,</p> + +<p class="i2">But we drug her plumb across,</p> + +<p>Hitched with ropes and other fixin's,</p> + +<p class="i2">Usin' every extra hoss.</p> + +<p>Wal, you never heard such shootin',</p> + +<p class="i2">Bullets whizzin' everywhere;</p> + +<p>Pumped 'em on us till it sounded</p> + +<p class="i2">Like they had an army there.</p> + +<p>Nancy stayed and cracked it to 'em,</p> + +<p class="i2">Kind o' circlin' round and round;</p> + +<p>I could tell the two six-shooters</p> + +<p class="i2">She was usin', by the sound.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">32<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"You can bet we did some trav'lin'</p> + +<p class="i2">All that night and all next day;</p> + +<p>I could still a-hear the shootin'</p> + +<p class="i2">After we was miles away.</p> + +<p>I supposed we'd see the girl come</p> + +<p class="i2">Ridin' up to us 'fore long,</p> + +<p>That is--I was jest a-thinkin'--</p> + +<p class="i2">If there wasn't somethin' wrong.</p> + +<p>But, in spite of all our lookin',</p> + +<p class="i2">Sometimes slackin' up our gait,</p> + +<p>Always thinkin' we should see her</p> + +<p class="i2">Every time we'd stop and wait.</p> + +<p>We have never seen her, Billy,</p> + +<p class="i2">And I own I'm balked a bit,</p> + +<p>Fur I know that she's a critter</p> + +<p class="i2">Made of nothin' else but grit.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">33<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"I wish I could go and find her,</p> + +<p class="i2">But 'twould be too hot for me;</p> + +<p>Long before I got back that fur</p> + +<p class="i2">I'd be strung up to a tree.</p> + +<p>So I've been a kind o' thinkin',</p> + +<p class="i2">Since I see what's both'rin' you,</p> + +<p>'Bout a thing--I hate to ask it--</p> + +<p class="i2">That I'd like for you to do.</p> + +<p>I don't think that girl has ever--</p> + +<p class="i2">It sure hurts me, what I say--</p> + +<p>But I'm sure that in the scrimmage</p> + +<p class="i2">Nancy never got away.</p> + +<p>Billy, you go back and find her;</p> + +<p class="i2">You are all I've got to send,</p> + +<p>You can sort o' fix things decent,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where she is--in Old Man's Bend."</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="thereturn"></a> + +<h2>THE RETURN</h2> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">1<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Every life is but a journey--</p> + +<p class="i2">Trav'ling on from place to place--</p> + +<p>Starting from the point God gave us</p> + +<p class="i2">With an ever-varying pace.</p> + +<p>Outward, onward, spurred by motives</p> + +<p class="i2">In our wand'rings here and there,</p> + +<p>Sometimes led by hope alluring,</p> + +<p class="i2">Sometimes halted by despair;</p> + +<p>But the life that travels farthest</p> + +<p class="i2">On that deeper strength depends,</p> + +<p>For with love, there is no turning;</p> + +<p class="i2">When love dies the journey ends.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">2<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Back across the broken foothills,</p> + +<p class="i2">With a courage none can feel</p> + +<p>Till the burning pangs of sorrow</p> + +<p class="i2">Turn the heart-strings into steel;</p> + +<p>Back across the winter's playground,</p> + +<p class="i2">Tracing out the paths he trod,</p> + +<p>With each muttered execration</p> + +<p class="i2">Ending in a prayer to God.</p> + +<p>Blasts that howled with fiendish laughter,</p> + +<p class="i2">By their loud derisive cry</p> + +<p>Seemed to mock his labored progress</p> + +<p class="i2">As they passed him swiftly by;</p> + +<p>Icy, blizzard-driven snowflakes</p> + +<p class="i2">Into ghost-like fancies whirled,</p> + +<p>Painting on the barren canvas,</p> + +<p class="i2">Gaunt Death battling for the world.</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="onceagainthe"></a> <img src="images/illustration_075.jpg" +width="387" height="483" alt= +"Once again the twisted branches Of the lone and friendly tree" +border="0"> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">3<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Back across the snow-strewn desert,</p> + +<p class="i2">Fighting famine face to face,</p> + +<p>Trusting to his horse to take him</p> + +<p class="i2">To each former camping place.</p> + +<p>Once Zeb stopped beside a snowdrift</p> + +<p class="i2">With a loud and startling neigh;</p> + +<p>Tried to tell his half-dazed master</p> + +<p class="i2">Where his mate, old Simon, lay.</p> + +<p>Pressing on, he reached the border</p> + +<p class="i2">Of Nebraska's whitened plain,</p> + +<p>Where his mind in maudlin fancies</p> + +<p class="i2">Yielded to the bitter strain,</p> + +<p>As he saw far in the distance,</p> + +<p class="i2">Like a battered mast at sea,</p> + +<p>Once again the twisted branches</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the lone and friendly tree.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">4<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Git up, Zeb. Come, see! She's waving!</p> + +<p class="i2">Waving there for you and me.</p> + +<p>See her there, so white and pretty,</p> + +<p class="i2">Standing by our friend, the tree!</p> + +<p>Quit that stumbling! Now then, streak it!</p> + +<p class="i2">Hit the gait you used to do</p> + +<p>When we hired out for the round up</p> + +<p class="i2">And you beat the first one through.</p> + +<p>There she is! There's where I saw her</p> + +<p class="i2">When we stayed there all that night;</p> + +<p>Though 'twas dark, I saw her riding,</p> + +<p class="i2">By those flashing threads of light;</p> + +<p>She's been waiting! Oh, I left her</p> + +<p class="i2">In this awful lonely place!</p> + +<p>God forgive me! Nancy! hear me!</p> + +<p class="i2">Oh, that face--that poor white face!"</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">5<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>One cold morning, old Zach Baxter,</p> + +<p class="i2">Riding o'er this snowbound sea</p> + +<p>Saw a famished pony standing</p> + +<p class="i2">Near a queer and lonely tree.</p> + +<p>From his frost-encrusted nostrils</p> + +<p class="i2">Came a plaintive whinny, low,</p> + +<p>As the man rode up beside him</p> + +<p class="i2">Struggling through the drifted snow.</p> + +<p>When the old man tried to lead him,</p> + +<p class="i2">He refused to turn away;</p> + +<p>But he pawed the drift beneath him,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where his stricken master lay.</p> + +<p>And below the cold, white cover,</p> + +<p class="i2">In a deathlike stupor deep,</p> + +<p>Old Zach found a sorry stranger</p> + +<p class="i2">Shrouded for his last long sleep.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">6<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Tearing at the ragged bundle</p> + +<p class="i2">Lodged between the horse's feet,</p> + +<p>Clutching at the frozen blanket,</p> + +<p class="i2">Brushing back the crusted sleet,</p> + +<p>Faithful in his rude endeavors,</p> + +<p class="i2">Rousing by his loud commands,</p> + +<p>Roughly shaking, turning, rubbing,</p> + +<p class="i2">Zach breathed on his face and hands;</p> + +<p>Till the stiffened limbs responded</p> + +<p class="i2">And the closed eyes opened wide,</p> + +<p>Dazed and puzzled at the stranger</p> + +<p class="i2">Working fiercely at his side.</p> + +<p>Billy felt the strong arms raise him,</p> + +<p class="i2">Felt the Frost King's stinging breath</p> + +<p>As he struggled, half unconscious,</p> + +<p class="i2">In the wav'ring fight with death.</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">7<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>In the east, the sun dogs glistened</p> + +<p class="i2">Like tall shafts of marble, bright,</p> + +<p>O'er the whitened grave of nature,--</p> + +<p class="i2">Ghostly spires of frozen light,</p> + +<p>Flying frost flakes snapping, sparkling,</p> + +<p class="i2">Dancing in a wild display,</p> + +<p>Turned into a mist of diamonds</p> + +<p class="i2">As they mocked the newborn day.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">8<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Old Zach's pony bearing double,</p> + +<p class="i2">Reeking steam from every pore,</p> + +<p>Reached at last the covered pathway</p> + +<p class="i2">Leading to the dug-out door.</p> + +<p>With his arms clasped tight round Billy,</p> + +<p class="i2">Zach half dragged his helpless load</p> + +<p>Through the lowly, mud-walled entrance</p> + +<p class="i2">Of his rudely built abode.</p> + +<p>There, upon the narrow bunk bed</p> + +<p class="i2">Spread with nondescript attire,</p> + +<p>Zach enfolded him in wrappings</p> + +<p class="i2">While he started up a fire;</p> + +<p>And no nurse, however skillful,</p> + +<p class="i2">Whatsoever her degree,</p> + +<p>Ever gave more loyal service</p> + +<p class="i2">To a patient, than did he.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">9<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Poor and meager were the comforts</p> + +<p class="i2">Of Zach's cave-like prairie home,</p> + +<p>Permeated with the odor</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the fresh-dug virgin loam.</p> + +<p>Pungent wreaths of smoke, slow drifting,</p> + +<p class="i2">Floated lazily above,</p> + +<p>To the dried grass of the ceiling</p> + +<p class="i2">From the cracked and rusty stove.</p> + +<p>Willow poles athwart for rafters</p> + +<p class="i2">Sagged beneath the dirt roof's strain,</p> + +<p>And a piece of grease-smeared paper</p> + +<p class="i2">Formed the only window-pane.</p> + +<p>In the center, on the dirt floor</p> + +<p class="i2">Stood a table-like affair</p> + +<p>Fashioned from a wagon end-gate,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where Zach spread his scanty fare.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">10<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>There for weeks lay Billy, helpless,</p> + +<p class="i2">Racked with mad'ning fever pains,</p> + +<p>As the burning sun of summer</p> + +<p class="i2">Scorches sere the desert plains.</p> + +<p>Then he lay with cold, white features</p> + +<p class="i2">And the feeble, scarce drawn breath,</p> + +<p>As the silent winter prairie</p> + +<p class="i2">Lies beneath its shroud of death.</p> + +<p>Ofttimes when the raging sickness</p> + +<p class="i2">Sent the hot blood to his brain,</p> + +<p>He would point with frantic gesture</p> + +<p class="i2">To the dingy window pane,</p> + +<p>Calling in excited mutterings,</p> + +<p class="i2">Eyes transfixed in frenzied fright--</p> + +<p>"There she is! Now, can't you see her?</p> + +<p class="i2">See her face there in the light!"</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">11<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Then old Zach would try to soothe him</p> + +<p class="i2">In his simple-hearted way;</p> + +<p>"She won't hurt you," he would tell him,</p> + +<p class="i2">"I'll go drive her clear away.</p> + +<p>I've seen things--now listen, pardner--</p> + +<p class="i2">Those things happened once to me</p> + +<p>Once down there in old Dodge City,</p> + +<p class="i2">Winding up a three weeks' spree.</p> + +<p>What you see is jest a 'lusion,</p> + +<p class="i2">'Cause you're crazy in your head;</p> + +<p>When your thinker's runnin' proper</p> + +<p class="i2">You'll find 'She' is gone or dead.</p> + +<p>There, now, pardner, see what this is!</p> + +<p class="i2">Ain't it purty? Your tin cup;</p> + +<p>Found a little pinch o' coffee.</p> + +<p class="i2">That's the boy, now, drink it up!"</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">12<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>When the breeze of spring in whispers</p> + +<p class="i2">Stirred the withered bunch-grass plume,</p> + +<p>Humming hymns of resurrection</p> + +<p class="i2">Over nature's silent tomb,</p> + +<p>And the fleeing clouds of heaven,</p> + +<p class="i2">Bending low at God's command,</p> + +<p>Spilled their tribute from the ocean</p> + +<p class="i2">On the long-forsaken land,</p> + +<p>And the sun, with mellow kindness</p> + +<p class="i2">Spread abroad his softened rays,</p> + +<p>Calling bud and blade and blossom</p> + +<p class="i2">From their sleep of many days,</p> + +<p>Billy heard, at last, the music</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the glad earth's jubilee,</p> + +<p>Felt a new strength stir within him,</p> + +<p class="i2">And a longing to be free.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">13<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>One day, o'er the hill's low summit,</p> + +<p class="i2">Whence the prairie dipped away,</p> + +<p>There appeared a moving wagon</p> + +<p class="i2">With its canvas patched and gray,</p> + +<p>Like a vessel on the ocean</p> + +<p class="i2">Under taut and close-reefed sail,</p> + +<p>Rising slowly on the billows</p> + +<p class="i2">Heaped up by the driving gale.</p> + +<p>Veering towards the little dug-out,</p> + +<p class="i2">Making for a friendly shore,</p> + +<p>Heaving to, the schooner anchored</p> + +<p class="i2">Close beside the open door.</p> + +<p>Loud and hearty were the greetings,</p> + +<p class="i2">For the driver of the team</p> + +<p>Was Tom Frothingham, a neighbor,</p> + +<p class="i2">Who had lived near Billy's claim.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">14<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Bit by bit he told the story--</p> + +<p class="i2">How he'd wandered all around</p> + +<p>Since he left his Kansas homestead</p> + +<p class="i2">And the folks near North Pole mound;</p> + +<p>How he'd traveled all through Texas</p> + +<p class="i2">With the roving fever on,</p> + +<p>Camping oft in strange new places,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where no other soul had gone.</p> + +<p>So the news, now half forgotten</p> + +<p class="i2">In his absence from the place,</p> + +<p>Came in broken recollections--</p> + +<p class="i2">Careful efforts to retrace</p> + +<p>All the incidents of interest</p> + +<p class="i2">To the sick one listening there,</p> + +<p>Who, with pale and careworn features,</p> + +<p class="i2">Heard the story with despair.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">15<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Three weeks after you left Kansas</p> + +<p class="i2">I hitched up and came away.</p> + +<p>Still, I reckoned you intended</p> + +<p class="i2">To improve your claim and stay;</p> + +<p>For your eighty was a picture--</p> + +<p class="i2">Running spring and good clear land--</p> + +<p>Everything a body needed</p> + +<p class="i2">For a starter, right at hand.</p> + +<p>Well, some others left 'fore I did--</p> + +<p class="i2">You remember Mac, of course,</p> + +<p>How he got the moving notion</p> + +<p class="i2">When Bill Kelly missed his horse?</p> + +<p>Chased him clear to Old Man's crossing,</p> + +<p class="i2">So I heard the posse say;</p> + +<p>Thought they had him fairly cornered,</p> + +<p class="i2">But, by jings! he got away.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">16<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"There are stranger things than fiction;</p> + +<p class="i2">What is natural may seem queer,</p> + +<p>So I s'pose we needn't wonder</p> + +<p class="i2">At the things we see out here.</p> + +<p>One thing happened since you left there</p> + +<p class="i2">That I call a burning shame--</p> + +<p>Did you know that rope-necked Johnson</p> + +<p class="i2">Jumped your eighty-acre claim?</p> + +<p>Last I saw him, he was plowing,</p> + +<p class="i2">And he laughed and tried to joke:</p> + +<p>Said 'twas kind of you to leave him</p> + +<p class="i2">All the ground that you had broke;</p> + +<p>Said your house was so untidy</p> + +<p class="i2">He was sleeping out of doors,</p> + +<p>Till he got a girl to help him</p> + +<p class="i2">Wash the pans and scrub the floors.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">17<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Lots of people coming in there</p> + +<p class="i2">From most every foreign land--</p> + +<p>Massachusetts and Missouri--</p> + +<p class="i2">Made a mess I couldn't stand.</p> + +<p>Every man that's made of manhood</p> + +<p class="i2">Wants to live where he is free,</p> + +<p>So I'm bound to keep on moving</p> + +<p class="i2">When they get to crowding me.</p> + +<p>Then another thing that happened:</p> + +<p class="i2">Puzzled every one around</p> + +<p>When they heard one morning early,</p> + +<p class="i2">That Bill Kelly's horse was found.</p> + +<p>Aleck Rose told me about it</p> + +<p class="i2">After I had packed and gone;</p> + +<p>Said the mare strayed in the dooryard</p> + +<p class="i2">With Mac's steel-horn saddle on."</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">18<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>As each day in steady conquest</p> + +<p class="i2">Charged the ranks of fleeing night,</p> + +<p>Winning back the stolen hours</p> + +<p class="i2">With their golden spears of light;</p> + +<p>As the living in all nature</p> + +<p class="i2">Felt that mighty spirit's sway,</p> + +<p>So the sick man caught the power</p> + +<p class="i2">And his illness wore away.</p> + +<p>One clear morning, as Aurora</p> + +<p class="i2">Silver-tinted all the plain,</p> + +<p>In his weatherbeaten saddle</p> + +<p class="i2">Billy took the trail again.</p> + +<p>"Good by, boy," old Zach repeated,</p> + +<p class="i2">"I'm most sure you'll never see</p> + +<p>Any more o' them 'ere 'lusions,</p> + +<p class="i2">Anyway, what you called 'She.'"</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">19<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Day by day the low horizon</p> + +<p class="i2">Spread its narrow circle round,</p> + +<p>As if fate had drawn a barrier,</p> + +<p class="i2">And forbade advance beyond.</p> + +<p>Though the journey dragged on slowly,</p> + +<p class="i2">Night time brought its sure reward,</p> + +<p>For the added miles behind him</p> + +<p class="i2">Stretched at length to Mingo's Ford,</p> + +<p>Where the breeze bore from the upland</p> + +<p class="i2">Broken fragments of the song</p> + +<p>Of the cowboy with his cattle,</p> + +<p class="i2">As he drove the strays along;</p> + +<p>Where the voice of flowing water</p> + +<p class="i2">And the treble of the birds,</p> + +<p>Swelled the hallowed evening anthem</p> + +<p class="i2">To the bass of lowing herds.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">20<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Then the trail along the Solomon</p> + +<p class="i2">Where the timber, making friends</p> + +<p>With the ever-widening valley,</p> + +<p class="i2">Filled the rounded river bends;</p> + +<p>Then the rankling recollection,</p> + +<p class="i2">As he passed some well-known place</p> + +<p>Where before, with hope and vigor,</p> + +<p class="i2">He had sped in fruitless chase.</p> + +<p>Then the lonely camp at nightfall,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where the wind in monotone</p> + +<p>Thrummed the harp strings of the grass stems,</p> + +<p class="i2">Breathing low its song, "Alone!"</p> + +<p>Where the stars, fixed in the heavens,</p> + +<p class="i2">To his upturned face would say,</p> + +<p>With their heartless glint of distance,</p> + +<p class="i2">"She thou seek'st is far away."</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">21<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Then the long, far-reaching bottoms</p> + +<p class="i2">Rank with withered blue-joint grass,</p> + +<p>With its broken stems entangled</p> + +<p class="i2">In a matted jungle mass;</p> + +<p>Then across the higher prairie,</p> + +<p class="i2">Searching out a shorter way,</p> + +<p>To the creek that joined the river</p> + +<p class="i2">Where Mac crossed and got away;</p> + +<p>Then the twinge of bitter sorrow</p> + +<p class="i2">As he neared his journey's end,</p> + +<p>And beheld the fringe of timber</p> + +<p class="i2">On the banks of Old Man's bend,</p> + +<p>Where no living sign or token</p> + +<p class="i2">Broke the gloom that brooded there,</p> + +<p>Save a solitary buzzard</p> + +<p class="i2">Floating idly in the air.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">22<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>From these high and broken hilltops</p> + +<p class="i2">He could trace the river's flow,</p> + +<p>And the creek's untamed meandering,</p> + +<p class="i2">With its looplike bend below,</p> + +<p>Seeming in the light of evening</p> + +<p class="i2">Like a giant serpent there,</p> + +<p>Which had coiled about its victim,</p> + +<p class="i2">And lay resting in its lair.</p> + +<p>Breaking through the tangled brushwood</p> + +<p class="i2">As the night was coming on,</p> + +<p>Creeping down the steep embankment</p> + +<p class="i2">Where the muddy waters run,</p> + +<p>Billy crossed within the timber</p> + +<p class="i2">Where the shroud of deeper gloom,</p> + +<p>And its chilling breath of darkness</p> + +<p class="i2">Marked the hidden prairie tomb.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">23<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>As the soul in deep communion,</p> + +<p class="i2">Seeks some isolated bower</p> + +<p>Where the body's sordid cravings</p> + +<p class="i2">Yield beneath the spirit's power,</p> + +<p>So the searcher, bowed in reverence,</p> + +<p class="i2">Left untouched his evening fare</p> + +<p>As he listened to the voices</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the shadows gathering there.</p> + +<p>Here no lighted torch or camp fire</p> + +<p class="i2">With its weak and fitful ray,</p> + +<p>Could illume the mystic journey</p> + +<p class="i2">Of prayer's consecrated way.</p> + +<p>Here the silence brought its message</p> + +<p class="i2">Of forebodings, vague and deep,</p> + +<p>In its visions to the dreamer,</p> + +<p class="i2">Through the mystery of sleep.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">24<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>In his dreams he saw a monarch</p> + +<p class="i2">Decked in sumptuous array,</p> + +<p>Seated on a throne of glory,</p> + +<p class="i2">Bearing royal title, Day.</p> + +<p>Then some mighty power transcendent,</p> + +<p class="i2">Thrust him from his gorgeous throne,</p> + +<p>Turning all the realm to darkness,</p> + +<p class="i2">And the world was left alone.</p> + +<p>As the shades of gloom were spreading,</p> + +<p class="i2">By strange flashing threads of light</p> + +<p>He beheld in dim-drawn outline,</p> + +<p class="i2">On the background of the night,</p> + +<p>Phantom horse and girlish rider,</p> + +<p class="i2">Speeding on in reckless race,</p> + +<p>Till she turned directly toward him</p> + +<p class="i2">And he saw her fearless face.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">25<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Then, behold! the King returning</p> + +<p class="i2">With a pageantry so bright,</p> + +<p>That the shadow-clad usurpers</p> + +<p class="i2">Fled in ignominious fright.</p> + +<p>As he saw the hosts approaching</p> + +<p class="i2">Through a cloud of battle smoke,</p> + +<p>Charging wildly down upon him,</p> + +<p class="i2">He, in sudden fear, awoke.</p> + +<p>As he looked, the blackened heavens</p> + +<p class="i2">Splashed with demon-tinted blood</p> + +<p>From the hue of burning prairie</p> + +<p class="i2">Throbbed above the fiery flood.</p> + +<p>Leaping o'er the rounded bluff-tops,</p> + +<p class="i2">Down the valley's long incline,</p> + +<p>He could see the lurid column</p> + +<p class="i2">Spread its blazing battle line.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">26<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Like a troop of charging horsemen</p> + +<p class="i2">Sweeping on with maddened roar,</p> + +<p>Mowing down the grass battalions,</p> + +<p class="i2">Crackling flames swept all before.</p> + +<p>Then the driftwood's rifted breastwork,</p> + +<p class="i2">Left there by the waters high,</p> + +<p>Flashed up in a hissing furnace,</p> + +<p class="i2">As the red-armed fiends leaped by.</p> + +<p>Clinging to the swaying saddle</p> + +<p class="i2">And the plunging horse's mane,</p> + +<p>Billy dashed through falling embers</p> + +<p class="i2">To the level, open plain.</p> + +<p>On the right and left, the head fires</p> + +<p class="i2">Rushing on at furious pace,</p> + +<p>Stretched beside the horse and rider</p> + +<p class="i2">In the life-and-death-fought race.</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="fiercerwitheach"></a> <img src= +"images/illustration_092.jpg" width="474" height="453" alt= +"Fiercer with each flying moment Drove those scorching blasts of death" + border="0"> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">27<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Here the gale with venomed fury</p> + +<p class="i2">Met in vortex from afar,</p> + +<p>Raising high the flaming pennons</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the fiery fiends of war.</p> + +<p>Flashing by, the blazing grass stems</p> + +<p class="i2">Sped like arrows through the air,</p> + +<p>Falling on the distant prairie,</p> + +<p class="i2">Kindling fresh fires everywhere.</p> + +<p>Pressing through the low-flung smoke clouds--</p> + +<p class="i2">Stifling fumes of Hades' breath--</p> + +<p>Fiercer with each flying moment</p> + +<p class="i2">Drove those scorching blasts of death.</p> + +<p>Thrice his horse, 'neath quirt and rowel</p> + +<p class="i2">Bravely struggling, almost fell,</p> + +<p>As he fled in desperation</p> + +<p class="i2">O'er the trail that led through hell.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">28<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>One poor singed and panting coyote</p> + +<p class="i2">Through the perils of the ride</p> + +<p>Hemmed in by the flames pursuing</p> + +<p class="i2">Ran close by the horse's side.</p> + +<p>Scarce a meager pace behind them,</p> + +<p class="i2">Pressing hard the coyote's rear,</p> + +<p>Raced a frantic old jack rabbit,</p> + +<p class="i2">Ears laid low in speed and fear.</p> + +<p>Reaching now a stretch of upland,</p> + +<p class="i2">Here the coyote changed his course,</p> + +<p>Breaking through the narrow side-fire,</p> + +<p class="i2">Followed fast by hare and horse;</p> + +<p>And, upon the smoking prairie</p> + +<p class="i2">Over which the fire had passed,</p> + +<p>Steaming horse and stricken rider</p> + +<p class="i2">Found a breathing space at last.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">29<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>When the morning sun in splendor</p> + +<p class="i2">Rose upon the blackened plain,</p> + +<p>His red beams revealed the lover</p> + +<p class="i2">Back at Old Man's Bend again.</p> + +<p>Waist deep in its soothing waters</p> + +<p class="i2">Bathing blistered brow and hands;</p> + +<p>While near by, in pain a-tremble,</p> + +<p class="i2">Faithful Zeb impatient stands.</p> + +<p>Through the bend he searched and wandered,</p> + +<p class="i2">But except the furrowed bark,</p> + +<p>Of a gnarled and aged elm tree</p> + +<p class="i2">Which revealed one bullet-mark,</p> + +<p>Naught was left save blackened embers;</p> + +<p class="i2">And the words he "knew in part"--</p> + +<p>"Dust to dust and then to ashes"--</p> + +<p class="i2">Told the story of his heart.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">30<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Back along the Solomon River,</p> + +<p class="i2">Trailing towards the humble claim</p> + +<p>He had lost when love and duty</p> + +<p class="i2">Fired his soul to "being game";</p> + +<p>Back, across the beaver fordway,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where love first had found the track,</p> + +<p>Now returning with the rankling</p> + +<p class="i2">Sting of hate to bring him back--</p> + +<p>Hate, that hunger made more bitter</p> + +<p class="i2">When his last jerked beef was gone;</p> + +<p>Climbing trees to cut off branches</p> + +<p class="i2">For his horse to browse upon;</p> + +<p>Back, where once the flower-decked prairie,</p> + +<p class="i2">Spread its bloom of hope and bliss,</p> + +<p>Now a blackened field of mourning,</p> + +<p class="i2">From the fire of one sweet kiss.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">31<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Till one day, he saw beyond him,</p> + +<p class="i2">In the distance, purple crowned,</p> + +<p>That old monarch of the prairie,</p> + +<p class="i2">Guard of ages, North Pole Mound.</p> + +<p>Then the field where Zeb and Simon</p> + +<p class="i2">Pulled the old sod-breaking plow</p> + +<p>Stretching like a narrow ribbon</p> + +<p class="i2">On the land that lay below.</p> + +<p>Now the horse's steps grew lighter</p> + +<p class="i2">As he passed each well-known sign</p> + +<p>Of the old familiar landscape,</p> + +<p class="i2">And they crossed the eighty's line,</p> + +<p>Where the spring of running waters</p> + +<p class="i2">Gave envenomed purpose birth,</p> + +<p>As he drank its bubbling offering</p> + +<p class="i2">From the pulsing heart of earth.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">32<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Then, ascending from the hollow,</p> + +<p class="i2">Full before his eyes appeared</p> + +<p>Home--his home--the low-walled sodhouse</p> + +<p class="i2">Which his toiling hands had reared.</p> + +<p>Near the straw shed stood the wagon</p> + +<p class="i2">He had brought from Wichita,</p> + +<p>And beneath the grass-fringed gable</p> + +<p class="i2">Hung his trusty crosscut saw.</p> + +<p>In the dooryard, near the window,</p> + +<p class="i2">Lay the broken homemade chair,</p> + +<p>Where, at evening, love-born fancies</p> + +<p class="i2">Revelled, as he rested there;</p> + +<p>Love, whose scattered seed had fallen</p> + +<p class="i2">On a mystic field of fate,</p> + +<p>Where the tangled vine extending</p> + +<p class="i2">Bore the bitter fruit of hate.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">33<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Hurrying nearer, he dismounted,</p> + +<p class="i2">Trembling with the rage he felt,</p> + +<p>As he cast aside the bridle</p> + +<p class="i2">And drew taut his cartridge belt.</p> + +<p>Throwing down his torn sombrero,</p> + +<p class="i2">There, before the tight-closed door,</p> + +<p>On the cowardly usurper</p> + +<p class="i2">Loud and bitter vengeance swore.</p> + +<p>"Come, you dirty, green-scummed scoundrel,</p> + +<p class="i2">With your sneaking 'plan or two'!</p> + +<p>Just come out, you rope-necked buzzard!</p> + +<p class="i2">See how far you'll put them through.</p> + +<p>You can keep the eighty acres,</p> + +<p class="i2">Hell will write your pedigree,</p> + +<p>But I'll rub your crooked nose-piece</p> + +<p class="i2">In the dirt you stole from me.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">34<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Come outside, you sneaking coyote!</p> + +<p class="i2">If you've got a drop of man</p> + +<p>In your greasy, thieving carcass,</p> + +<p class="i2">Finish up what you began."</p> + +<p>Fiercer grew his coarse invective,</p> + +<p class="i2">Louder yet his taunting calls,</p> + +<p>When no answer to his challenge</p> + +<p class="i2">Came from out the low sod walls.</p> + +<p>Uncontrolled, his furious anger</p> + +<p class="i2">Spoke in quick and murderous roar</p> + +<p>As he pumped his old six-shooter</p> + +<p class="i2">Through the barred and bolted door.</p> + +<p>When he paused the rude door opened,</p> + +<p class="i2">And before its splintered place</p> + +<p>Stood the vision of the shadows,</p> + +<p class="i2">And he saw Her fearless face.</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="standingtherea"></a> <img src= +"images/illustration_099.jpg" width="438" height="581" alt= +"Standing there, a pictured goddess Sketched against a lowering storm" + border="0"> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">35<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>As the artist in his painting</p> + +<p class="i2">Plans the background to enhance</p> + +<p>All the beauty of his subject</p> + +<p class="i2">Both in pose and countenance,</p> + +<p>So the poor and dark interior</p> + +<p class="i2">Lent its gloom to magnify</p> + +<p>All the power and witching beauty</p> + +<p class="i2">Of her face and lustrous eye.</p> + +<p>Standing there, a pictured goddess</p> + +<p class="i2">Sketched against a lowering storm,</p> + +<p>Bearing on her pallid features</p> + +<p class="i2">That supernal gift of calm.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">36<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Nancy! Woman! God in heaven,</p> + +<p class="i2">Speak, girl! Can this thing be true?</p> + +<p>Are you here with that--that scoundrel,</p> + +<p class="i2">After all that I've gone through?</p> + +<p>Do you stand there, fiend or human,</p> + +<p class="i2">After lending him your hand,</p> + +<p>First to break an honest spirit,</p> + +<p class="i2">Then to steal away my land?</p> + +<p>Must a man who loves a woman</p> + +<p class="i2">Like a devil's imp be driven</p> + +<p>Through the tortures of damnation</p> + +<p class="i2">For a single glimpse of heaven?</p> + +<p>Tell me where the cur is hiding--</p> + +<p class="i2">I've no wish to hurt his bride,</p> + +<p>But I'll braid a twelve-foot bull whip</p> + +<p class="i2">From his dirty, yaller hide!</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">37<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Speak to me and tell me, woman,</p> + +<p class="i2">How the God in heaven above</p> + +<p>Starts the fires of hell a-burning</p> + +<p class="i2">From a spark of human love;</p> + +<p>Why He ever made a woman</p> + +<p class="i2">Who could play a fickle part;</p> + +<p>Why He ever made a fellow</p> + +<p class="i2">With his soul tied to his heart;</p> + +<p>Why He made life just a gamble--</p> + +<p class="i2">I can't talk the way I feel--</p> + +<p>In the game that I've been playing,</p> + +<p class="i2">You know this ain't no square deal!</p> + +<p>I will go away and leave you,</p> + +<p class="i2">But 'twould kind o' ease the pain</p> + +<p>If you'd only tell me, Nancy--</p> + +<p class="i2">If you'd try--to--just explain.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">38<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"If you wouldn't stand there looking</p> + +<p class="i2">With a face of livid white</p> + +<p>Like the specter of the prairie</p> + +<p class="i2">That I saw one horrid night,</p> + +<p>Riding through the endless darkness</p> + +<p class="i2">Like a being doomed from birth</p> + +<p>Just to roam outside of heaven</p> + +<p class="i2">And denied a place on earth.</p> + +<p>Say one word to me! Speak, Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">If you have a voice and live!</p> + +<p>Tell the worst, e'en though you ask me</p> + +<p class="i2">To be patient and forgive.</p> + +<p>I will listen--I will suffer--</p> + +<p class="i2">I will do the best I can;</p> + +<p>Nancy, sweetheart! hear the pleading</p> + +<p class="i2">Of a broken-hearted man,"</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">39<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"See here, Billy! You gone crazy?</p> + +<p class="i2">Charging like you got a fit?</p> + +<p>Johnson ain't in--just at present--</p> + +<p class="i2">Won't you stop and rest a bit?</p> + +<p>Don't act strange. There's no hard feelings,</p> + +<p class="i2">Though I've never seen before</p> + +<p>Any man that knocked like you did</p> + +<p class="i2">On a peaceful neighbor's door.</p> + +<p>Come right in; now, don't be backward,</p> + +<p class="i2">Like old times to have <i>you</i>'round!</p> + +<p>You look tired, like you'd traveled</p> + +<p class="i2">Over quite a stretch of ground.</p> + +<p>Sit right here in this old rocker;</p> + +<p class="i2">Johnson fixed it up one day,</p> + +<p>Feeling certain you would never</p> + +<p class="i2">Come meandering 'round this way.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">40<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Don't get up and act uneasy,</p> + +<p class="i2">Rest yourself, now, if you can,</p> + +<p>You don't mind me like Jim Johnson--</p> + +<p class="i2">He's a most obedient man.</p> + +<p>You went off and left your eighty,</p> + +<p class="i2">Roaming where the luck-wind blows,</p> + +<p>Like a tumbleweed in winter,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where you've been, Lord only knows.</p> + +<p>While Jim's gone we'll talk together,</p> + +<p class="i2">As we used to, months ago,</p> + +<p>When I tried to quench the burning</p> + +<p class="i2">Of a love I didn't know.</p> + +<p>Listen, Billy, while I tell you</p> + +<p class="i2">All about my 'fickle part';</p> + +<p>When I'm done you may know better</p> + +<p class="i2">How God made a woman's heart.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">41<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"While you're resting, I'll get supper,</p> + +<p class="i2">Though there ain't much here to eat,</p> + +<p>'Cepting bran, to make some muffins,</p> + +<p class="i2">And a little rabbit meat.</p> + +<p>Wish I had that pinch of coffee</p> + +<p class="i2">I saved up for--oh, so long,</p> + +<p>Till one day I went and used it,</p> + +<p class="i2">Though I somehow felt 'twas wrong;</p> + +<p>For I kind o' thought that sometime</p> + +<p class="i2">Some one might be coming here</p> + +<p>Worn out with a long, long journey,</p> + +<p class="i2">And would crave that kind o' cheer.</p> + +<p>Now, then, Billy, draw your stool up;</p> + +<p class="i2">What we've got is scant and plain--</p> + +<p>I ain't hungry--honest--Billy,</p> + +<p class="i2">While you eat--why--I'll 'explain.'"</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="nancysstory"></a> + +<h2>NANCY'S STORY</h2> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">1<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"I went off and left you, Billy,</p> + +<p class="i2">'Cause I'm used to being free,</p> + +<p>And I love my dear old daddie--</p> + +<p class="i2">He has been so good to me.</p> + +<p>Ever since I learned to toddle</p> + +<p class="i2">We've been living on the run,</p> + +<p>And my first and only playthings</p> + +<p class="i2">Were a saddle and a gun.</p> + +<p>When I went away with daddie,</p> + +<p class="i2">After trav'ling nigh a week,</p> + +<p>We were caught up by the posse</p> + +<p class="i2">In the bend on Old Man's Creek.</p> + +<p>Think I'd let them take my daddie?</p> + +<p class="i2">No: I held them all at bay,</p> + +<p>While the boys hitched up the horses,</p> + +<p class="i2">Crossed the creek and got away.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">2<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"I just told them I would follow</p> + +<p class="i2">After all the fuss was through,</p> + +<p>But instead, all night I wandered,</p> + +<p class="i2">Thinking all the time of you;</p> + +<p>For when we were last together</p> + +<p class="i2">You cast over me a spell</p> + +<p>That just seemed to change my nature,</p> + +<p class="i2">In a way that words can't tell;</p> + +<p>For it left a fire a-burning</p> + +<p class="i2">Like a live and glowing coal,</p> + +<p>That at length blazed into longing</p> + +<p class="i2">Till I craved with all my soul</p> + +<p>To be back, somehow, where you were,</p> + +<p class="i2">And to hear you tell once more</p> + +<p>That you loved me. That man-story</p> + +<p class="i2">I had never heard before.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">3<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Then I trailed back o'er the prairie,</p> + +<p class="i2">Riding steady every night,</p> + +<p>Picking out the wildest country</p> + +<p class="i2">With my luck to guide me right.</p> + +<p>When I'd see the hungry morning</p> + +<p class="i2">Eat the stars up in the East,</p> + +<p>I would hide in gulch or timber</p> + +<p class="i2">Like a wild and hunted beast.</p> + +<p>How I learned to love the darkness</p> + +<p class="i2">As it spread its mighty arm,</p> + +<p>Close around me, like a lover,</p> + +<p class="i2">Fondly shielding me from harm!</p> + +<p>And I knew the sweet caresses</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the earth and sky above,</p> + +<p>As the night's mysterious voices</p> + +<p class="i2">Soothed me with their tale of love.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">4<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Then I'd ride like forty devils</p> + +<p class="i2">Just to catch upon my face</p> + +<p>All the kisses which the tempest</p> + +<p class="i2">Pressed upon me in the race.</p> + +<p>How I thought of poor old daddie,</p> + +<p class="i2">Whom, perhaps, I'd see no more</p> + +<p>If I went clear back to your place,</p> + +<p class="i2">While he hurried on before!</p> + +<p>I could hardly bear the burden</p> + +<p class="i2">When I'd think of--both of you;</p> + +<p>But that fire you set a-burning,</p> + +<p class="i2">One night told me what to do--</p> + +<p>I would see and ask you, Billy,</p> + +<p class="i2">If you wouldn't go with me</p> + +<p>Where we both could be with daddie,</p> + +<p class="i2">Way out West, where he must be.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">5<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Then at last the night that loved me,</p> + +<p class="i2">Turned its pent-up furies loose,</p> + +<p>Roaring out on me its anger</p> + +<p class="i2">And unpitying abuse.</p> + +<p>How the rain beat down upon me!</p> + +<p class="i2">How the lightning burned its track</p> + +<p>Through the clouds of storm and thunder</p> + +<p class="i2">As I reached your sod-walled shack!</p> + +<p>All was dark within, and quiet,</p> + +<p class="i2">When I rapped upon the door.</p> + +<p>Then I saw the flash of matches</p> + +<p class="i2">And the lamplight on the floor;</p> + +<p>Heard you stomp your heavy boots on,</p> + +<p class="i2">Heard you walk and draw the bar,</p> + +<p>But the door, when thrown wide open,</p> + +<p class="i2">Showed Jim Johnson standing thar.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">6<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"'What you doing here?' I shouted,</p> + +<p class="i2">When I saw his hateful leer;</p> + +<p>'Tell me what this means, Jim Johnson.</p> + +<p class="i2">Where is Billy? Ain't he here?'</p> + +<p>He was standing on the doorstep,</p> + +<p class="i2">And the light that shone within</p> + +<p>Seemed to twist his wrinkled features</p> + +<p class="i2">In a sort of wonder-grin.</p> + +<p>'Well! well! Nancy! sure's I'm livin'!</p> + +<p class="i2">Out there in the pouring wet!</p> + +<p>Sure I'll care for you, Miss Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">I'll protect you, don't you fret!</p> + +<p>I'm a friend that you can count on,</p> + +<p class="i2">Does me good to see your face!</p> + +<p>Come in, gal, and dry your garments,</p> + +<p class="i2">You have struck the very place!'</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">7<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"You don't blame me, do you, Billy,</p> + +<p class="i2">If I did go in and stay,</p> + +<p>Warming by your stove and fire,</p> + +<p class="i2">Just to hear what he would say?</p> + +<p>I will try to tell his story</p> + +<p class="i2">As he told it, if I can,</p> + +<p>Putting in what I remember</p> + +<p class="i2">Of his 'interesting plan.'</p> + +<p>'Now, then, gal, I heard you calling</p> + +<p class="i2">As you stood there in the dark,</p> + +<p>On a fellow, named Bill Truly,</p> + +<p class="i2">But you shot 'way off the mark.</p> + +<p>Billy ain't here now, and further,</p> + +<p class="i2">He won't be here, you can bet;</p> + +<p>Anyhow, that's what he told me</p> + +<p class="i2">Two weeks past, when we last met.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">8<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"'When your folks all skipped the country</p> + +<p class="i2">I decided I'd move, too;</p> + +<p>Thought perhaps you'd get in trouble</p> + +<p class="i2">And I'd try to help you through;</p> + +<p>So I got beyond the posse,</p> + +<p class="i2">Rode like fire upon your track,</p> + +<p>Found your dad, and <i>you</i>not with him,</p> + +<p class="i2">So I turned and came right back.</p> + +<p>Riding home along the Solomon,--</p> + +<p class="i2">For the truth I pledge my word--</p> + +<p>I met Billy with his horses</p> + +<p class="i2">Three miles east of Mingo's Ford.</p> + +<p>Stopped and shook my hand and told me</p> + +<p class="i2">He was so far on his way</p> + +<p>To a ranch 'way up in Utah,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where he'd made his plans to stay.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">9<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"'Said he wanted to be friendly,</p> + +<p class="i2">So the things that he had left,</p> + +<p>If I cherished no hard feelings,</p> + +<p class="i2">I could look on as his gift.</p> + +<p>"If you come across Miss Nancy</p> + +<p class="i2">You can say to her for me,</p> + +<p>That I've got another sweetheart,</p> + +<p class="i2">And that she is wholly free."</p> + +<p>Billy'd never do to tie to--</p> + +<p class="i2">He's too fickle, gal, for you--</p> + +<p>So I just propose to offer</p> + +<p class="i2">You a man that will stay true.</p> + +<p>I have worked it out, Miss Nancy--</p> + +<p class="i2">It's the problem of my life;</p> + +<p>I have planned that you shall stay here</p> + +<p class="i2">As my own dear little wife.'</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">10<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"'Look here, Johnson! You're a liar,</p> + +<p class="i2">When you say he's set me free!</p> + +<p>When you met him there at Mingo's</p> + +<p class="i2">He had gone to hunt for me.</p> + +<p>Don't you dare to touch me, scoundrel!</p> + +<p class="i2">Don't you dare to slur his name!</p> + +<p>You're a cur--a thief--Jim Johnson!</p> + +<p class="i2">You have jumped my sweetheart's claim.</p> + +<p>Don't you dare to venture near me!</p> + +<p class="i2">Or you'll wish you'd not begun.</p> + +<p>All your schemes and double dealings,</p> + +<p class="i2">All your hatched-up plans are done.</p> + +<p>You start now and pack your fixin's!</p> + +<p class="i2">Don't you leave the smallest bit!</p> + +<p>Every filthy thing you own here,</p> + +<p class="i2">Pack it up--you dog, and <i>git!</i>'</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="butinsteadi"></a> <img src="images/illustration_114.jpg" +width="369" height="596" alt= +"But, instead, I shot, to scare him, All the buttons off his coat" +border="0"> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">11<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"He was standing there uncertain,</p> + +<p class="i2">And I felt to clinch his throat;</p> + +<p>But, instead, I shot--to scare him--</p> + +<p class="i2">All the buttons off his coat.</p> + +<p>Then I pumped two in the corner,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where he'd sunk down on his knees--</p> + +<p>Slit his ear and cut his collar,</p> + +<p class="i2">Never listening to his pleas.</p> + +<p>Told him if he didn't mosey</p> + +<p class="i2">I would plant his carcass whole,</p> + +<p>In a grave I'd dig that evening</p> + +<p class="i2">On the eighty he had stole.</p> + +<p>Then he promised, but I chased him</p> + +<p class="i2">'Way across the old Saline,</p> + +<p>And so far as I have knowledge,</p> + +<p class="i2">He has never since been seen.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">12<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"When I got back here 'fore morning,</p> + +<p class="i2">Thought of having Kelly's mare,</p> + +<p>So I rode her to his stable</p> + +<p class="i2">And I left her standing there.</p> + +<p>For I knew that you'd consider</p> + +<p class="i2">Twas the proper thing to do,</p> + +<p>If you came back here and found me</p> + +<p class="i2">Holding down your claim for you.</p> + +<p>But I felt right sorry, Billy,</p> + +<p class="i2">When I looked around next day,</p> + +<p>In the box there in the corner</p> + +<p class="i2">Where the pans and dishes lay;</p> + +<p>For in fixing for my breakfast,</p> + +<p class="i2">My! the crockery was slim!</p> + +<p>More than half of it was busted</p> + +<p class="i2">By the bullets fired at Jim:</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">13<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"I forgot to tell you, Billy,</p> + +<p class="i2">That for thirteen months or more,</p> + +<p>You're the only man that's ever</p> + +<p class="i2">Crossed the threshold of that door.</p> + +<p>I have stayed alone and waited,</p> + +<p class="i2">Full of faith that you would come,</p> + +<p>So that I--might go to daddie,</p> + +<p class="i2">And that you'd--have back your home.</p> + +<p>Though perhaps I've sometimes suffered</p> + +<p class="i2">From the cold and from the heat,</p> + +<p>And I've gone for days together,</p> + +<p class="i2">Here, without a bite to eat,</p> + +<p>'Twasn't hunger of the body</p> + +<p class="i2">That I craved to satisfy,</p> + +<p>I was starved for--you--and daddie,</p> + +<p class="i2">As the weary weeks trailed by.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">14<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"How I tried to think and reason</p> + +<p class="i2">Why the fire from one caress</p> + +<p>Turned my burning, yearning spirit</p> + +<p class="i2">To a cinder of distress.</p> + +<p>Some one told me, I remember,</p> + +<p class="i2">Long ago when I was small,</p> + +<p>God made every star up yonder,</p> + +<p class="i2">Everything--the world and all.</p> + +<p>Then I thought that in His workshop,</p> + +<p class="i2">Up there in the heavens above,</p> + +<p>He had made that curious hunger</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the heart that we call love.</p> + +<p>P'r'aps my troubles and the waiting</p> + +<p class="i2">Stirred me to this queer-like whim;</p> + +<p>But I couldn't help it, Billy,</p> + +<p class="i2">I just had to talk to Him.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">15<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"In the night, when God wa'n't busy</p> + +<p class="i2">And could hear the slightest sound,</p> + +<p>I would venture from my hiding</p> + +<p class="i2">To the top of North Pole Mound.</p> + +<p>I was sure He'd never let His</p> + +<p class="i2">Angels come out this-a-way,</p> + +<p>But would use the wind to carry,</p> + +<p class="i2">Prayers out here, that people pray.</p> + +<p>So I'd hold my hands, and stopping</p> + +<p class="i2">Gusts that tried to struggle free,</p> + +<p>Tell them this here simple message</p> + +<p class="i2">They must take to you from me:</p> + +<p>'Please, dear God, won't you tell Billy</p> + +<p class="i2">That I'm holding down his claim?</p> + +<p>He don't come 'cause he's in trouble.</p> + +<p class="i2">Thank you, God. He ain't to blame.'"</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">16<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Long before her honest story</p> + +<p class="i2">Faltered to its hallowed close,</p> + +<p>Pushing back his untouched supper,</p> + +<p class="i2">Tremblingly her guest arose.</p> + +<p>Vain for him to curb emotion,</p> + +<p class="i2">Or to stammer out his praise</p> + +<p>Through a storm of rude devotion,</p> + +<p class="i2">Cast in halting human phrase.</p> + +<p>Vain for him to frame a message</p> + +<p class="i2">Never meant for words to tell,</p> + +<p>At the joy of reaching heaven</p> + +<p class="i2">By that trail that led through hell.</p> + +<p>But his fervent benediction</p> + +<p class="i2">Was a passionate embrace,</p> + +<p>And the Amen love's own ending,</p> + +<p class="i2">As he kissed her fearless face.</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> +</center> +<br> +<br> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13560 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/13560-h/images/cover.jpg b/13560-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..380165e --- /dev/null +++ b/13560-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/13560-h/images/frontispiece_002.jpg b/13560-h/images/frontispiece_002.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..67cf224 --- /dev/null +++ b/13560-h/images/frontispiece_002.jpg diff --git a/13560-h/images/illustration_021.jpg b/13560-h/images/illustration_021.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6811f58 --- /dev/null +++ b/13560-h/images/illustration_021.jpg diff --git a/13560-h/images/illustration_027.jpg b/13560-h/images/illustration_027.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad6d91a --- /dev/null +++ b/13560-h/images/illustration_027.jpg diff --git a/13560-h/images/illustration_034.jpg b/13560-h/images/illustration_034.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..aab4da2 --- /dev/null +++ b/13560-h/images/illustration_034.jpg diff --git a/13560-h/images/illustration_051.jpg b/13560-h/images/illustration_051.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5441d56 --- /dev/null +++ b/13560-h/images/illustration_051.jpg diff --git a/13560-h/images/illustration_052.jpg b/13560-h/images/illustration_052.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b789981 --- /dev/null +++ b/13560-h/images/illustration_052.jpg diff --git a/13560-h/images/illustration_061.jpg b/13560-h/images/illustration_061.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d8bb66 --- /dev/null +++ b/13560-h/images/illustration_061.jpg diff --git a/13560-h/images/illustration_066.jpg b/13560-h/images/illustration_066.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0332984 --- /dev/null +++ b/13560-h/images/illustration_066.jpg diff --git a/13560-h/images/illustration_075.jpg b/13560-h/images/illustration_075.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..89a636c --- /dev/null +++ b/13560-h/images/illustration_075.jpg diff --git a/13560-h/images/illustration_092.jpg b/13560-h/images/illustration_092.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6203073 --- /dev/null +++ b/13560-h/images/illustration_092.jpg diff --git a/13560-h/images/illustration_099.jpg b/13560-h/images/illustration_099.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e1d217f --- /dev/null +++ b/13560-h/images/illustration_099.jpg diff --git a/13560-h/images/illustration_114.jpg b/13560-h/images/illustration_114.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e09f880 --- /dev/null +++ b/13560-h/images/illustration_114.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..81efa06 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #13560 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13560) diff --git a/old/13560-h.zip b/old/13560-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1312d41 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13560-h.zip diff --git a/old/13560-h/13560-h.htm b/old/13560-h/13560-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1e989dc --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13560-h/13560-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5318 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Nancy MacIntyre, by Lester Shepard Parker</title> +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em; font-size: smaller;} /* footnote */ + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;} + + .poemwrapper {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; text-align: center;} + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem p {margin: 0; padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;} + .poem p.i2 {margin-left: 2em;} + .poem p.i4 {margin-left: 4em;} + .poem p.header {margin-left: 8em;} + hr.full { width: 100%; + height: 5px; } + a:link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:#ff0000} + pre {font-size: 8pt;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + +</style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Nancy MacIntyre, by Lester Shepard Parker</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Nancy MacIntyre</p> +<p>Author: Lester Shepard Parker</p> +<p>Release Date: September 30, 2004 [eBook #13560]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NANCY MACINTYRE***</p> +<br><br><h3>E-text prepared by Audrey Longhurst, Leah Moser,<br> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</h3><br><br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<h1><a href="images/cover.jpg"><img src="images/cover.jpg" +alt="Book cover" width="60%"></a></h1> + +<a name="iwastakin"></a> + +<center><img src="images/frontispiece_002.jpg" width="323" height= +"496" alt= +"I was takin' leave of Nancy, Standin' out there in the night." +border="0"></center> + +<h1>Nancy MacIntyre</h1> + +<h2><i>A Tale of the Prairies</i></h2> + +<h3>LESTER SHEPARD PARKER</h3> + +<br> +<br> +<h5>1910</h5> + +<hr style='width: 15%;'> +<center> +<table border=0><tr><td> +<i>To My Wee Daughter<br> +RACHEL ELLEN PARKER<br> +this little story is<br> +affectionately inscribed</i> +</td></tr></table> +</center> +<hr style='width: 15%;'> +<h2><i>CONTENTS</i></h2> + +<i><b><a href="#billysrevery">Billy's Revery</a></b></i> <br> +<i><b><a href="#thequarrel">The Quarrel</a></b></i> <br> +<i><b><a href="#thedisappointment">The Disappointment</a></b></i> +<br> +<i><b><a href="#thedecision">The Decision</a></b></i> <br> +<i><b><a href="#thesearch">The Search</a></b></i> <br> +<i><b><a href="#thereturn">The Return</a></b></i> <br> +<i><b><a href="#nancysstory">Nancy's Story</a></b></i> <br> + + +<h2><i>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</i></h2> + +<b>"<a href="#iwastakin"><i>I was takin' leave of Nancy<br> +Standin out there in the night</i>"</a><br> +<br> + <a href="#thenidragged">"<i>Then I dragged him on the prairie<br> +Through a Turk's Head cactus bed</i>"</a><br> +<br> + <a href="#iamstanding">"<i>I am standing by her dug-out,<br> +Open stands the sagging door</i>"</a><br> +<br> + <a href="#bringingbacka">"<i>Bringing back a hat of water,<br> +Through the dim light and the rain</i>"</a><br> +<br> + <a href="#loadeduptheir">"<i>Loaded up their prairie schooner,<br> +And vamoosed the ranch, fore light</i>"</a><br> +<br> + <a href="#hewasstartled">"<i>He was startled by a stranger's<br> +Sudden presence and 'Hello!'</i>"</a><br> +<br> + <a href="#faithfulsimonweak">"<i>Faithful Simon, weak and +starving,<br> +Groaned and fell beneath his pack</i>"</a><br> +<br> + <a href="#restingcalmin">"<i>Resting calm in fancied safety<br> +Sat the elder MacIntyre</i>"</a><br> +<br> + <a href="#onceagainthe">"<i>Once again the twisted branches<br> +Of the lone and friendly tree</i>"</a><br> +<br> + <a href="#fiercerwitheach">"<i>Fiercer with each flying moment<br> +Drove the scorching blasts of death</i>"</a><br> +<br> + <a href="#standingtherea">"<i>Standing there, a pictured +goddess<br> +Sketched against a lowering storm</i>"</a><br> +<br> + <a href="#butinsteadi">"<i>But, instead, I shot, to scare him,<br> +All the buttons off his coat</i>"</a><br> +</b> <a name="billysrevery"></a> + +<h2>BILLY'S REVERY</h2> + +<center> +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">1<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>No use talking, it's perplexing,</p> + +<p class="i2">Everything don't look the same;</p> + +<p>Never had these curious feelin's</p> + +<p class="i2">Till those MacIntyres came.</p> + +<p>Quit my plowing long 'fore dinner,</p> + +<p class="i2">Didn't hitch my team again;</p> + +<p>Spent the day with these new neighbors,</p> + +<p class="i2">Getting 'quainted with the men.</p> + +<p>Talk about the prairie roses!</p> + +<p class="i2">Purtiest flow'rs in all the world,</p> + +<p>But they look like weeds for beauty</p> + +<p class="i2">When I think of that new girl.</p> + +<p>Strange, she seems so kind of friendly</p> + +<p class="i2">When I'm awkward, every way,</p> + +<p>And my tongue gets hitched and hobbled,</p> + +<p class="i2">Everything I try to say!</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">2<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>There's one person, that Jim Johnson,</p> + +<p class="i2">That there man I can't abide;</p> + +<p>He's been milling around near Nancy,--</p> + +<p class="i2">Durn his dirty, yaller hide!</p> + +<p>Never really liked that Johnson;</p> + +<p class="i2">Now, each time I hear his name,</p> + +<p>Feel this state's too thickly settled,--</p> + +<p class="i2">That is, since that new girl came.</p> + +<p>If this making love to women</p> + +<p class="i2">Went like breaking in a horse,</p> + +<p>I might stand some show of winning,</p> + +<p class="i2">'Cause I've learned that game, of course;</p> + +<p>But this moonshine folks call 'courting,'</p> + +<p class="i2">I ain't never played that part;</p> + +<p>I can't keep from talking foolish</p> + +<p class="i2">When I'm thinking with my heart.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">3<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Now, those women that you read of</p> + +<p class="i2">In these story picture books,</p> + +<p>They can't ride in roping distance</p> + +<p class="i2">Of that girl in style and looks.</p> + +<p>They have waists more like an insect,</p> + +<p class="i2">Corset shaped and double cinched;</p> + +<p>Feet just right to make a watch charm,</p> + +<p class="i2">Small, of course, because they're pinched.</p> + +<p>This here Nancy's like God made her,--</p> + +<p class="i2">She don't wear no saddle girth,</p> + +<p>But she's supple as a willow,</p> + +<p class="i2">And the purtiest thing on earth.</p> + +<p>I'm in earnest; let me ask you--</p> + +<p class="i2">'Cause I want to reason fair--</p> + +<p>What durn business has that rope-necked</p> + +<p class="i2">Johnson sneaking over there?</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">4<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Hands so soft and strong and tender,</p> + +<p class="i2">When I shook a "how de do,"</p> + +<p>They was loaded sure with something</p> + +<p class="i2">Seemed to thrill me through and through;</p> + +<p>Hair as black as fire-burnt prairie;</p> + +<p class="i2">Eyes that dance and flash and flirt;</p> + +<p>Every time she smiled she showed you</p> + +<p class="i2">Teeth as white's my Sunday shirt.</p> + +<p>Baked us biscuits light as cotton;</p> + +<p class="i2">I can't eat mine any more,--</p> + +<p>I must get some better breeches,--</p> + +<p class="i2">Kind o' 'shamed of those I wore;</p> + +<p>But I'm goin' there to-morrow,</p> + +<p class="i2">Like enough I'll stay all day,</p> + +<p>Seems to me too dry for plowing--</p> + +<p class="i2">Durn that Johnson, anyway!</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">5<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>I ain't much on deep-down thinkin',</p> + +<p class="i2">Reasoning out the way things go,</p> + +<p>So I s'pose I'll keep on foolin'</p> + +<p class="i2">Till in time I get to know.</p> + +<p>I've had chills and fever 'n' ague;</p> + +<p class="i2">Suffered till their course was run.</p> + +<p>Maybe love just keeps on runnin',</p> + +<p class="i2">Till a man has lost--or won.</p> + +<p>One thing certain: I have got it;</p> + +<p class="i2">Seems to struck in good and hard.</p> + +<p>Makes me sometimes soft and tender;</p> + +<p class="i2">Next thing I would fight my pard.</p> + +<p>Appetite is surely failing,</p> + +<p class="i2">Sometimes I don't eat a bite;</p> + +<p>Dream of Nancy all the daytime,</p> + +<p class="i2">That durn Johnson, half the night.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">6<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>I've just got to get to plowin',</p> + +<p class="i2">Break a fire-guard 'round my shack,</p> + +<p>Plant my sod corn, fix my garden;</p> + +<p class="i2">Everything is goin' to rack.</p> + +<p>I can't work the way I used to;</p> + +<p class="i2">Got to quittin' early now,</p> + +<p>Since a little thing that happened,</p> + +<p class="i2">I can't just remember how.</p> + +<p>I was takin' leave of Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">Standin' out there in the night,</p> + +<p>And I put my arms around her--</p> + +<p class="i2">Heart stopped beatin', just from fright.</p> + +<p>Can't express the kind of feelin',--</p> + +<p class="i2">Words wa'n't never made for this,--</p> + +<p>As I drew her face up closer,</p> + +<p class="i2">And I stole my first sweet kiss.</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + <a name="thequarrel"></a> + +<h2>THE QUARREL</h2> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">1<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Things have moved along some smoother</p> + +<p class="i2">Since a week ago to-night,</p> + +<p>Seems my blood turned all to p'ison--</p> + +<p class="i2">Me and Johnson had a fight.</p> + +<p>Caught him twice up there to Nancy's;</p> + +<p class="i2">Told him plain to stay away;</p> + +<p>But he didn't seem to notice</p> + +<p class="i2">Anything I had to say.</p> + +<p>Caught him settin' there and talkin'</p> + +<p class="i2">'Bout the things that he had done--</p> + +<p>Durndest liar on the prairie--</p> + +<p class="i2">Laughing like he thought 'twas fun,</p> + +<p>Settin' there beside o' Nancy--</p> + +<p class="i2">Settin' down is all he does,</p> + +<p>Good for nothin', bug-eyed, loafin',</p> + +<p class="i2">Wrinkled, yaller, meddlin' cuss!</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">2<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>I just let him keep on settin'</p> + +<p class="i2">All the whole long evenin' through;</p> + +<p>When he started off I follered,</p> + +<p class="i2">Told him what I meant to do.</p> + +<p>"Why," says he, "now, don't git foolish;</p> + +<p class="i2">I ain't skeered o' your light breeze;</p> + +<p>I'll go thar and set by Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">Spite o' you, when I blame please."</p> + +<p>Well, I don't just clear remember</p> + +<p class="i2">All the doin's that took place,</p> + +<p>But you'll know the story better</p> + +<p class="i2">If you'll look at Johnson's face.</p> + +<p>As we rode we clinched and wrestled,</p> + +<p class="i2">Then we tumbled to the ground,</p> + +<p>Tore the bunch grass up, and cactus,</p> + +<p class="i2">For a hundred yards around.</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="thenidragged"></a> <img src="images/illustration_021.jpg" +width="456" height="420" alt= +"Then I dragged him on the prairie Through a Turk's Head cactus bed" + border="0"> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">3<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Got him down, and in the scrimmage</p> + +<p class="i2">Felt my lasso on the ground,</p> + +<p>Tied his legs and bent him over,</p> + +<p class="i2">Bound him like he's sittin' down;</p> + +<p>Hustled quick to mount my pony,</p> + +<p class="i2">Threw the loose end round the horn,</p> + +<p>Thought I'd learn that Mr. Johnson</p> + +<p class="i2">He'd missed out in bein' born.</p> + +<p>Then I dragged him on the prairie,</p> + +<p class="i2">Through a Turk's Head cactus bed,</p> + +<p>Prickly pears and shoestring bushes,--</p> + +<p class="i2">'Twasn't decent what he said.</p> + +<p>He's so dev'lish fond of settin',</p> + +<p class="i2">Thought I'd fix his settin' end</p> + +<p>So's he'd be more kinder careful</p> + +<p class="i2">Settin' by that girl again.</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + <a name="thedisappointment"></a> + +<h2>THE DISAPPOINTMENT</h2> + +<a name="iamstanding"></a><img src="images/illustration_027.jpg" +width="317" height="485" alt= +"I am standing by her dug-out, Open stands the sagging door" +border="0"> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">1<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>There's a feeling in my bosom,</p> + +<p class="i2">Like a hound that's lost the game,</p> + +<p>After chasing over bunch grass</p> + +<p class="i2">Till his feet are sore and lame.</p> + +<p>I am standing by her dug-out,</p> + +<p class="i2">Open stands the sagging door;</p> + +<p>Every grassblade speaks of Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">But she's gone, to come no more.</p> + +<p>For her father and her mother,</p> + +<p class="i2">And her brothers, late last night,</p> + +<p>Loaded up their prairie schooner,</p> + +<p class="i2">And vamoosed the ranch, 'fore light.</p> + +<p>'Taint no use to stand here cussin',</p> + +<p class="i2">But my heart slumps down like lead</p> + +<p>When I think of losing Nancy</p> + +<p class="i2">And to know my dreams are dead.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">2<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>It was here I held you, Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">When I showed you all my heart;</p> + +<p>When I told you I would always</p> + +<p class="i2">Be your friend and take your part.</p> + +<p>Oh, I thought that in life's lottery</p> + +<p class="i2">I had drawn the biggest prize,</p> + +<p>When I kissed you there that evening</p> + +<p class="i2">And looked down into your eyes;</p> + +<p>For I never had such feelin's</p> + +<p class="i2">Fill my hide clean through and through</p> + +<p>Such a hungry, starving longing,</p> + +<p class="i2">To be always close to you.</p> + +<p>But you've gone with all your family,</p> + +<p class="i2">And I'm left to mourn my loss,</p> + +<p>While the posse hunts your daddie,</p> + +<p class="i2">'Cause he stole Bill Kelly's hoss.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">3<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Now, I don't know where you're roaming,</p> + +<p class="i2">And I don't know where'll you'll land;</p> + +<p>But I wish you knew my feelin's,</p> + +<p class="i2">And 'twas clear just how I stand:</p> + +<p>How the good Lord, high in heaven,</p> + +<p class="i2">Put a throbbing heart in here,</p> + +<p>But it starts to pumping backwards</p> + +<p class="i2">When it feels that you don't keer.</p> + +<p>I'm a roving old jay-hawker,</p> + +<p class="i2">Never caught like this before,</p> + +<p>But I'd give my last possession</p> + +<p class="i2">For a glimpse of you once more.</p> + +<p>If we lose your old fool father</p> + +<p class="i2">Folks 'round here can stand the loss,</p> + +<p>He was raised in old Missoura,</p> + +<p class="i2">Or he'd never stole that hoss.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">4<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>When my mind gets to recalling</p> + +<p class="i2">All the happy times we had,</p> + +<p>Good red liquor and tobacco</p> + +<p class="i2">Gets to tasting kind o' bad.</p> + +<p>You remember on your birthday</p> + +<p class="i2">How I drove 'round kind o' late,</p> + +<p>And we went to Donkey Collins'</p> + +<p class="i2">To a dance, to celebrate?</p> + +<p>When you got up in my wagon,</p> + +<p class="i2">Bless my heart, you sure was sweet!</p> + +<p>You was bound that you'd go barefoot,</p> + +<p class="i2">'Cause your new shoes hurt your feet.</p> + +<p>Well, I tell you, pretty Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">Every minute of that ride</p> + +<p>Seemed like floating through the heavens,</p> + +<p>'Cause you set there by my side.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">5<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>When we pulled up at old Collins',</p> + +<p class="i2">Quite a bunch was there before,</p> + +<p>You could hear the fiddler calling,</p> + +<p class="i2">And the scraping on the floor.</p> + +<p>Through the dingy sodhouse window</p> + +<p class="i2">Gleamed a sickly yellow light,</p> + +<p>Where I helped you from the wagon,</p> + +<p class="i2">Holding you so loving tight.</p> + +<p>Then they called out, "Choose your pardners,</p> + +<p class="i2">Numbers five, six, seven, and eight,"</p> + +<p>And we hustled up to join in,</p> + +<p class="i2">For we knew that we were late.</p> + +<p>After starting up the music</p> + +<p class="i2">Something happened--you know what--</p> + +<p>All because I loved you, Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">And their manners made me hot.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">6<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>I just glanced around the circle,</p> + +<p class="i2">When we came to "Balance, all;"</p> + +<p>To that mess of cowhide-covered</p> + +<p class="i2">Feet that stomped at every call.</p> + +<p>Sure enough, the thing I looked for</p> + +<p class="i2">Come to pass when Aleck Rose</p> + +<p>Tried to <i>dos-a-dos</i>by you, dear,</p> + +<p class="i2">And, instead, waltzed on your toes.</p> + +<p>Recollect? I stopped the fiddler,</p> + +<p class="i2">And I stopped that stomping crowd,</p> + +<p>Using language that was decent,</p> + +<p class="i2">But was mighty clear and loud:</p> + +<p>"Now, you fellers from the Sand Hills,</p> + +<p class="i2">Fight me, or if you refuse</p> + +<p>You don't dance with me and Nancy</p> + +<p class="i2">While a one of you wears shoes!"</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">7<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Yes, they took them off, Miss Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">In respect for you and me,</p> + +<p>Putting all on equal footing,</p> + +<p class="i2">Just the way it ought to be.</p> + +<p>And we went through all the figures</p> + +<p class="i2">That we knew in that quadrille,</p> + +<p>But it didn't seem like dancin',</p> + +<p class="i2">Steppin' round so awful still.</p> + +<p>Fiddler, even, did his calling</p> + +<p class="i2">In a sort of quiet hush--</p> + +<p>"Swing your pardners," "Back to places,"</p> + +<p class="i2">"Sounds to me like paddlin' mush."</p> + +<p>"Man in center," "Circle round him,"</p> + +<p class="i2">"All join hands," and "'Way you go,"</p> + +<p>"Wait fur Betsy, she's in trouble,</p> + +<p class="i2">With a splinter in her toe."</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">8<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>When I took you home, towards morning,</p> + +<p class="i2">Such a night I never saw.</p> + +<p>How the Kansas wind was blowing!</p> + +<p class="i2">Swift and keen and kind o' raw.</p> + +<p>Blew more furious every minute,</p> + +<p class="i2">Blew a hole clear through the skies;</p> + +<p>Blew so loud, like demons hissing,</p> + +<p class="i2">That the moon was 'fraid to rise.</p> + +<p>Got so fierce it blew the stars out,</p> + +<p class="i2">Saw them flicker, then go dead,</p> + +<p>While the blackness, mad and murky,</p> + +<p class="i2">Rolled in thunder overhead.</p> + +<p>Goin' with it, durn my whiskers!</p> + +<p class="i2">Hind wheels riz plumb off the ground;</p> + +<p>Goin' 'gainst it, you and me, dear,</p> + +<p class="i2">Had to push the hosses down.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">9<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Now and then a raindrop whistled</p> + +<p class="i2">Like a bullet past my head;</p> + +<p>And I hollered out to you, dear,</p> + +<p class="i2">"Scrooch down in the wagon bed."</p> + +<p>Then they come as big as hen eggs;</p> + +<p class="i2">Struck the hosses stinging raps,</p> + +<p>Till the frightened, tremblin' critters</p> + +<p class="i2">Leaped beneath the angry slaps.</p> + +<p>Lord a'mighty, how they scampered!</p> + +<p class="i2">While I gripped the lines in tight,</p> + +<p>As the wagon box sailed upward</p> + +<p class="i2">Like a mighty wind-borne kite.</p> + +<p>Down below us ran the hosses,</p> + +<p class="i2">While we floated through the air,</p> + +<p>But through all that roaring shakeup,</p> + +<p class="i2">You, dear, never turned a hair.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">10<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>When the lightning flashed around us,</p> + +<p class="i2">Rabbits stopped to let us by,--</p> + +<p>Looked as if they said by halting,</p> + +<p class="i2">"We can't race with things that fly!"</p> + +<p>Coyotes sneaked off in the slough grass,</p> + +<p class="i2">Prairie dogs stayed in their holes;</p> + +<p>We was lubricated blazes,--</p> + +<p class="i2">Couldn't stop to save our souls.</p> + +<p>Up the hills we flew like swallows,</p> + +<p class="i2">Down the slopes, a hurricane,</p> + +<p>Bumped and jumped the humps and hollows,</p> + +<p class="i2">Dragged the ground and riz again.</p> + +<p>And I prayed, "Dear Lord, save Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">For a desperate lover's sake!"</p> + +<p>You was hangin' to my gallus,</p> + +<p class="i2">And I felt it strain and break.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">11<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Felt you holdin' to my boot-leg,</p> + +<p class="i2">Slattin' in the roarin' gale,</p> + +<p>So, to save you, I worked for'ard,</p> + +<p class="i2">Got the nigh hoss by the tail.</p> + +<p>Miles on miles we tore on blindly,</p> + +<p class="i2">Had to let the critters roam,</p> + +<p>Till, at last, they turned their noses</p> + +<p class="i2">To the north, and towards their home.</p> + +<p>We went charging down a valley,</p> + +<p class="i2">Stopped in something soft and deep;</p> + +<p>Wagon box and you and me, dear,</p> + +<p class="i2">Landed in a mixed-up heap.</p> + +<p>Both the hosses' legs was buried</p> + +<p class="i2">And I knew that that was proof</p> + +<p>We had 'lighted on the top of</p> + +<p class="i2">Old Jim Davis's dug-out roof.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">12<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Now, old Jim was sleeping soundly</p> + +<p class="i2">Close beside his faithful wife;</p> + +<p>Peace had smoothed his savage wrinkles,</p> + +<p class="i2">All his dreams were free from strife.</p> + +<p>He was safe from ragin' cyclones,</p> + +<p class="i2">Wolves could never force his door,</p> + +<p>All the ills of life had vanished,</p> + +<p class="i2">On his mountain torrent snore.</p> + +<p>So when our descent awoke him</p> + +<p class="i2">Sitting bolt upright in bed,</p> + +<p>With the flying hoofs above him,</p> + +<p class="i2">Kicking hair off of his head,</p> + +<p>He aroused his sleeping helpmeet;</p> + +<p class="i2">Loud his curses and abuse,</p> + +<p>"Mary, hike your lazy carcass,</p> + +<p class="i2">Hell has turned the devil loose."</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">13<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>While ole Jim was shooting at us--</p> + +<p class="i2">Couldn't make him understand;</p> + +<p>Kept his blamed old gun a-going</p> + +<p class="i2">Till he got me through the hand--</p> + +<p>Not a whimper did you utter,</p> + +<p class="i2">But you grabbed the hosses' heads,</p> + +<p>Coaxed and helped them in their trouble,</p> + +<p class="i2">While they strove like thoroughbreds,</p> + +<p>Lunging, plunging, you stayed with them</p> + +<p class="i2">Till they both were clear and free.</p> + +<p>Riding one, you lashed them forward,</p> + +<p class="i2">Circled round and picked up me,</p> + +<p>Helped me mount, while Jim was loading;</p> + +<p class="i2">Then we struck off through the night,</p> + +<p>Right across the storm-swept prairie,</p> + +<p class="i2">Till the East was streaked with light.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">14<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>I was faint and sick and dizzy,</p> + +<p class="i2">From my shattered, bleeding hand,</p> + +<p>And it seemed as if the jolting</p> + +<p class="i2">Gave me more than I could stand.</p> + +<p>Once I reeled, and would have fallen,</p> + +<p class="i2">If you hadn't held me there;</p> + +<p>Put your dear arm tight around me,</p> + +<p class="i2">Whispered, "Billy, don't you care."</p> + +<p>Then you headed straight for water,</p> + +<p class="i2">Threw the lines, dismounted first,</p> + +<p>Smoothed the grass down for my pillow,</p> + +<p class="i2">While the hosses quenched their thirst.</p> + +<p>Then you bathed my throbbing forehead,--</p> + +<p class="i2">Love and healing in the touch,--</p> + +<p>Sayin', "Billy, pardner, listen:</p> + +<p class="i2">That there shootin' wasn't much!"</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="bringingbacka"></a><img src="images/illustration_034.jpg" +width="401" height="564" alt= +"Bringing back a hat of water, Through the dim light and the rain" +border="0"> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">15<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>From your skirt you tore a piece out,</p> + +<p class="i2">Dressed my wounds so neat and quick,</p> + +<p>That I felt the Lord had sent you</p> + +<p class="i2">Just to soothe and heal the sick.</p> + +<p>Bringing back a hat of water,</p> + +<p class="i2">Through the dim light and the rain,</p> + +<p>Thought I saw your face turn paler,</p> + +<p class="i2">Like you felt a twinge o' pain;</p> + +<p>But as you knelt down beside me</p> + +<p class="i2">I could hear you humming low</p> + +<p>Some mysterious song, stopped short by,</p> + +<p class="i2">"Billy, man, we sure must go!"</p> + +<p>And the sun turned loose his glory,</p> + +<p class="i2">Through the tempest-riven sky,</p> + +<p>Till it touched us like a blessing</p> + +<p class="i2">From the Father there on high.</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="loadeduptheir"></a><img src="images/illustration_051.jpg" +width="464" height="356" alt= +"Loaded up their prairie schooner, And vamoosed the ranch 'fore light" + border="0"> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">16<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>I am standing by her dug-out;</p> + +<p class="i2">Open swings the sagging door,</p> + +<p>Every grassblade speaks of Nancy;</p> + +<p class="i2">But she's gone, to come no more,</p> + +<p>For her father and her mother,</p> + +<p class="i2">And her brothers, late last night,</p> + +<p>Loaded up their prairie schooner,</p> + +<p class="i2">And vamoosed the ranch, 'fore light.</p> + +<p>There's the bed poles and the stove hole;</p> + +<p class="i2">Not a thing is left for me,</p> + +<p>As a keepsake of my Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">Anywhere that I can see.</p> + +<p>What! a paper, pinned up yonder,</p> + +<p class="i2">Kind o' folded like a note!</p> + +<p>It has writin', sure as blazes!</p> + +<p class="i2">It is somethin' Nancy wrote.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">17<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"My dere billy, you will wunder</p> + +<p class="i2">Why I ever rote you this;</p> + +<p>I am sorry I am leevin</p> + +<p class="i2">Daddie needs me in his biz.</p> + +<p>I don't reely like this quiet</p> + +<p class="i2">Kind of sober farmer life;</p> + +<p>I like something allus doin,</p> + +<p class="i2">But for this, I'd be your wife.</p> + +<p>I got two of old Jim's bullets,</p> + +<p class="i2">Didn't like to let you know,</p> + +<p>Cause the one that you was luggin'</p> + +<p class="i2">Seemed to fret and hurt you so.</p> + +<p>Daddie cut them out that evenin;</p> + +<p class="i2">I don't mind a little such,</p> + +<p>But, dere billy, don't you worry,</p> + +<p class="i2">Old Jim's shootin wasn't much."</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<br> +<br> +<br> + <a name="thedecision"></a> + +<h2>THE DECISION</h2> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">1<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Since that girl went off and left me,</p> + +<p class="i2">I can't plan just what to do.</p> + +<p>Saw Tom Frothingham this mornin',</p> + +<p class="i2">He says Johnson's gone off, too.</p> + +<p>My old mother used to tell me,</p> + +<p class="i2">When I lagged at any task,</p> + +<p>"Keep on working, do no shirking,</p> + +<p class="i2">You will bring the thing to pass."</p> + +<p>That advice has been my motto:</p> + +<p class="i2">Everything that I've begun,</p> + +<p>I've stayed with it, sick or weary,</p> + +<p class="i2">Till the job was squarely done.</p> + +<p>But this case is kind o' different;</p> + +<p class="i2">Though I ain't the kind that grieves,</p> + +<p>How you goin' to work that motto</p> + +<p class="i2">When the job gets up and leaves?</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">2<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>S'pose, in thinkin' and decidin',</p> + +<p class="i2">I refuse to do my part;--</p> + +<p>Just sit down and let my mem'ry</p> + +<p class="i2">Finish breaking up my heart--</p> + +<p>S'pose I give up like a coward,</p> + +<p class="i2">Let the world say I ain't game,</p> + +<p>'Cause by leavin' I should forfeit</p> + +<p class="i2">My poor eighty-acre claim.</p> + +<p>I ain't 'fraid to do my duty</p> + +<p class="i2">If I'm clear what it's about,</p> + +<p>But this scrape is so peculiar</p> + +<p class="i2">That my mind's smoked up with doubt.</p> + +<p>I believe that Nancy loves me,</p> + +<p class="i2">And it may be she'll stay true;</p> + +<p>But I wonder why the blazes</p> + +<p class="i2">That durn Johnson's gone off too.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">3<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Blamed if I don't get my hosses,</p> + +<p class="i2">Saddle Zeb and lead old Si,</p> + +<p>And we'll search the wind-swept prairie</p> + +<p class="i2">Till we find that girl, or die!</p> + +<p>Who'd a thought a man's whole future</p> + +<p class="i2">Could get twisted up like this?</p> + +<p>All his plans burn up like tinder</p> + +<p class="i2">In the fire of one sweet kiss!</p> + +<p>"Zeb, come here, and good old Simon--</p> + +<p class="i2">Listen while I talk to you;</p> + +<p>Put your noses on my shoulder</p> + +<p class="i2">While I tell you what we'll do.</p> + +<p>Your fool master's deep in trouble,</p> + +<p class="i2">Can't explain to you just how,</p> + +<p>But until we find my Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">You shall never pull a plow."</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="thesearch"></a> + +<h2>THE SEARCH</h2> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">1<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>In the West, where twilight glories</p> + +<p class="i2">Paint with blood each sky-line cloud,</p> + +<p>While the virgin rolling prairie</p> + +<p class="i2">Slowly dons her evening shroud;</p> + +<p>While the killdeer plover settles</p> + +<p class="i2">From its quick and noisy flight;</p> + +<p>While the prairie cock is blowing</p> + +<p class="i2">Warning of the coming night--</p> + +<p>There against the fiery background</p> + +<p class="i2">Where the day and night have met,</p> + +<p>Move three disappearing figures,</p> + +<p class="i2">Outlined sharp in silhouette.</p> + +<p>Zeb and Si and Bill, the lover,</p> + +<p class="i2">Chafing under each delay,</p> + +<p>Pass below the red horizon,</p> + +<p class="i2">Toward the river trail away.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">2<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Far across the upland prairie</p> + +<p class="i2">To the valley-land below,</p> + +<p>Where the tall and tangled joint-grass</p> + +<p class="i2">Makes the horses pant and blow,</p> + +<p>There the silent Solomon River</p> + +<p class="i2">Reaching westward to its source,</p> + +<p>With its fringe of sombre timber</p> + +<p class="i2">Guides the lover on his course.</p> + +<p>All the night he keeps his saddle,</p> + +<p class="i2">Urging Zeb and Simon on,</p> + +<p>Till the trail clears up before him</p> + +<p class="i2">In the gray of early dawn.</p> + +<p>Where it turns in towards the river,</p> + +<p class="i2">Arched above with vine-growth rank,</p> + +<p>He, dismounting, ties the horses</p> + +<p class="i2">Near the steep and treacherous bank.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">3<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>More than light and shade and landscape</p> + +<p class="i2">Meet the plainsman's searching look,</p> + +<p>For the paths that lie before him</p> + +<p class="i2">Are the pages of his book.</p> + +<p>Stooping down and reading slowly,</p> + +<p class="i2">Noting every trace around,</p> + +<p>Of the travel gone before him,</p> + +<p class="i2">Every mark upon the ground,</p> + +<p>Down the winding, deep-cut roadway</p> + +<p class="i2">Furrowed out by grinding tire,</p> + +<p>Where the ruts lead to the water,</p> + +<p class="i2">In the half-dried plastic mire,</p> + +<p>He beholds the telltale marking</p> + +<p class="i2">Of an odd-shaped band of steel,</p> + +<p>Welded to secure the fellies</p> + +<p class="i2">Of old MacIntyre's wheel.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">4<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>High above the wind is moaning</p> + +<p class="i2">In a lonely, fretful mood,</p> + +<p>Through the lofty spreading branches</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the elm and cottonwood.</p> + +<p>Where the willows hide the fordway</p> + +<p class="i2">With their fringe of lighter green,</p> + +<p>Is the dam, decayed and broken,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where the beavers once have been.</p> + +<p>On the sycamore bent o'er it,</p> + +<p class="i2">With its gleaming trunk of white,</p> + +<p>Sits the barred owl, idly blinking</p> + +<p class="i2">At the early morning's light,</p> + +<p>While, within its spacious hollow,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where the rotting heart had clung</p> + +<p>Till removed by age and fire,</p> + +<p class="i2">Sleeps the wild cat with her young.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">5<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Plunging through the sluggish water,</p> + +<p class="i2">Scarcely halting for a drink,</p> + +<p>Toiling through the sticky quagmire,</p> + +<p class="i2">They attain the farther brink.</p> + +<p>Here the trail leads to the westward,--</p> + +<p class="i2">Once the redman's wild domain;</p> + +<p>Now the shallow rutted highway</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the settler's wagon train.</p> + +<p>Here and there along the edges,</p> + +<p class="i2">Paths work through the waving grass,</p> + +<p>Where at night from bluff to river,</p> + +<p class="i2">Sneaking coyotes find a pass.</p> + +<p>Here the meadow lark sings gaily</p> + +<p class="i2">As she leaves her hidden nest,</p> + +<p>While the sun of early morning</p> + +<p class="i2">Double-tints her orange breast.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">6<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Up this broad and fertile valley,</p> + +<p class="i2">Tracing all its winding ways,</p> + +<p>Plodding on with dogged patience</p> + +<p class="i2">Through a score of weary days,</p> + +<p>Camping in the lonely timber,</p> + +<p class="i2">Sleeping on the scorching plain,</p> + +<p>Bearing heat and thirst and hunger,</p> + +<p class="i2">Sore fatigue and wind and rain--</p> + +<p>Halting only when the telltale</p> + +<p class="i2">Mark was missing in the track;</p> + +<p>Only when he called a greeting,</p> + +<p class="i2">As he passed some settler's shack;</p> + +<p>Till the valley and its timber</p> + +<p class="i2">Vanished, where the rolling sward</p> + +<p>Of the westward-sweeping prairie</p> + +<p class="i2">Marks the trail 'cross Mingo's ford.</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="hewasstartled"></a><img src="images/illustration_052.jpg" +width="395" height="555" alt= +"He was startled by a stranger's Sudden presence and 'Hello!'" +border="0"> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">7<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Here for hours he searched the crossing</p> + +<p class="i2">And the wheel-ruts leading on</p> + +<p>To the north, a full day's journey,</p> + +<p class="i2">But the guiding mark was gone.</p> + +<p>Not a vestige here remaining</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the sign that could be told,</p> + +<p>For old Mac had traveled swiftly</p> + +<p class="i2">And the trail was mixed and old.</p> + +<p>Two whole days Bill searched and waited,</p> + +<p class="i2">Hoping for some other clew,</p> + +<p>Weighing questions of direction,</p> + +<p class="i2">Undecided what to do.</p> + +<p>Till, one night, while cooking supper</p> + +<p class="i2">By the camp-fire's genial glow,</p> + +<p>He was startled by a stranger's</p> + +<p class="i2">Sudden presence and "Hello!"</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">8<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Tall of stature, dark of visage,</p> + +<p class="i2">By the wind well dried and tanned,</p> + +<p>Clad in "shaps" and spurs that jingled,</p> + +<p class="i2">With a bull whip in his hand.</p> + +<p>Close behind him in the shadows,</p> + +<p class="i2">Eyes aglow with red and green,</p> + +<p>Stood a blazed-face Texas pony,</p> + +<p class="i2">Ewe-necked, cat-hammed, wild, and mean.</p> + +<p>"Hello, stranger! glad to see you,</p> + +<p class="i2">Got my cattle fixed for night;</p> + +<p>Just got through, and riding round 'em,</p> + +<p class="i2">'Cross the bluff, I saw your light.</p> + +<p>No, thanks, pardner, had my supper;</p> + +<p class="i2">Seems your fire is short o' wood;</p> + +<p>I just thought I'd see who's camped here--</p> + +<p>Gee! that bacon does smell good!"</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">9<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>When the frugal meal was over,</p> + +<p class="i2">When the pipes were filled and lit,</p> + +<p>And the cowboy ceased his stories</p> + +<p class="i2">Weak in moral, rank in wit,</p> + +<p>Billy plied him long with questions,</p> + +<p class="i2">Wording each with thought and care,</p> + +<p>Lest his zeal for information</p> + +<p class="i2">Should reveal his mission there.</p> + +<p>"Tell me who you've seen go by here,</p> + +<p class="i2">Just within the last few days;</p> + +<p>What they had for teams and outfits;</p> + +<p class="i2">How the country round here lays.</p> + +<p>Have you seen a prairie schooner--</p> + +<p class="i2">Old style freighter--pass this way?</p> + +<p>Both wheel hosses white-nosed sorrels,</p> + +<p class="i2">Lead team of a dun and gray?"</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">10<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"I remember some such outfit,</p> + +<p class="i2">If I've got your idee right.</p> + +<p>Think they camped a mile below here</p> + +<p class="i2">Week ago last Thursday night.</p> + +<p>Pulled in sometime 'long 'bout sundown,</p> + +<p class="i2">Turned their stock in yonder draw,</p> + +<p>But an oldish sort of fellow</p> + +<p class="i2">Was the only one I saw;</p> + +<p>Rode a speckled chestnut pony</p> + +<p class="i2">With a white star in his face;</p> + +<p>Asked some questions 'bout the country,</p> + +<p class="i2">'Bout the proper crossing-place.</p> + +<p>Pulled out sometime long 'fore daylight.</p> + +<p class="i2">Didn't see them when they passed,</p> + +<p>But from all the indications</p> + +<p class="i2">They was trav'ling pretty fast.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">11<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Crossed right here where we are settin',</p> + +<p class="i2">Saw their trail that very day;</p> + +<p>Struck plumb north, and by my reck'nin'</p> + +<p class="i2">Towards the north they'll likely stay.</p> + +<p>North of here, by my experience,</p> + +<p class="i2">He'll find grass that's mighty fine.</p> + +<p>Chances are that he'll keep goin'</p> + +<p class="i2">Till he strikes Nebraska's line.</p> + +<p>It was just the next day after</p> + +<p class="i2">That my cattle scattered so;</p> + +<p>Some strayed off 'way south to Jimson's,</p> + +<p class="i2">One bunch in the bend below.</p> + +<p>That's the day I met that feller</p> + +<p class="i2">(Eyes so black he couldn't see)</p> + +<p>Who kept pumpin' me with questions</p> + +<p class="i2">Like you've just been askin' me.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">12<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Asked about that prairie schooner,</p> + +<p class="i2">Said that they was friends of hisn,</p> + +<p>Like to wore me plumb to frazzles</p> + +<p class="i2">With his everlasting quiz'n.</p> + +<p>Rode a piebald, knock-kneed broncho;</p> + +<p class="i2">Coat was battered, ripped, and torn;</p> + +<p>He was yaller, long, and g'anted</p> + +<p class="i2">Like a steer with holler horn.</p> + +<p>An' you oughter seen his breeches!</p> + +<p class="i2">He must sure be shy on sense;</p> + +<p>Why, they looked like he'd been riding</p> + +<p class="i2">On a bucking barb wire fence.</p> + +<p>You won't meet him, 'cause I saw him</p> + +<p class="i2">Coming back across this way,</p> + +<p>Going eastward where he come from;</p> + +<p class="i2">Took the back trail yesterday.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">13<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Said he'd found the old man's outfit</p> + +<p class="i2">Moving westward on North Fork.</p> + +<p>Can't remember all he told me,</p> + +<p class="i2">For he runs a heap to talk.</p> + +<p>Said he'd found out what he wanted;</p> + +<p class="i2">Said he 'had a plan or two,</p> + +<p>And the folks that knowed Jim Johnson,</p> + +<p class="i2">Knowed that he would put 'em through.'</p> + +<p>Then there's others took the west trail;</p> + +<p class="i2">They got that way huntin' range--</p> + +<p>Funny how folks when they come here</p> + +<p class="i2">Get to itchin' for a change!</p> + +<p>I've been stayin' too confinin';</p> + +<p class="i2">Never left this herd but once.</p> + +<p>I'm the oldest puncher round here,--</p> + +<p class="i2">Been here over fourteen months."</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">14<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Long before the sun had risen,</p> + +<p class="i2">While the night mist's ghostly veil</p> + +<p>Hid from view the sloughs and hollows,</p> + +<p class="i2">Billy took the northern trail.</p> + +<p>Through the sunflowers in the low land,</p> + +<p class="i2">Plodding over sandstone knolls,</p> + +<p>Winding through the level stretches</p> + +<p class="i2">Dotted thick with treacherous holes</p> + +<p>Where the prairie dogs sat chattering,</p> + +<p class="i2">Bolt upright upon their mounds,</p> + +<p>While the ground owls sought their burrows,</p> + +<p class="i2">Startled by the warning sounds;</p> + +<p>Stumbling into buffalo wallows,</p> + +<p class="i2">Dug out in an earlier day</p> + +<p>By the halting herds that rested,</p> + +<p class="i2">Rolled and bellowed in their play.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">15<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Now and then the sheltered hillside</p> + +<p class="i2">Waved its varicolored flowers</p> + +<p>As a greeting to the trav'ler,</p> + +<p class="i2">Solace to the toilsome hours.</p> + +<p>Old Jack Rabbit hopped before him,</p> + +<p class="i2">Then sat up, to watch him pass,</p> + +<p>Dusky horned-toads scurried nimbly</p> + +<p class="i2">Through the withered buffalo grass.</p> + +<p>Here and there the buzzing rattler</p> + +<p class="i2">Whirred a warning, head alert,</p> + +<p>Then retreated from the snapping,</p> + +<p class="i2">Stinging strokes of Billy's quirt.</p> + +<p>Day by day the wild breeze flying,</p> + +<p class="i2">With'ring in its scorching heat,</p> + +<p>Hummed a tune to labored beating</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the plodding horses' feet.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">16<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Day by day this panorama</p> + +<p class="i2">Passing slowly, dully by,</p> + +<p>With the sun's brass disc high gleaming</p> + +<p class="i2">From a white and cloudless sky,</p> + +<p>Sometimes drew fantastic pictures.</p> + +<p class="i2">Many a strange and gruesome sign--</p> + +<p>Phantom trees and fairy castles--</p> + +<p class="i2">Blurred the far horizon line.</p> + +<p>Then they'd vanish like the fancies</p> + +<p class="i2">Of a fever-smitten brain,</p> + +<p>And returning, changed in outline,</p> + +<p class="i2">Elsewhere on the mighty plain</p> + +<p>Would allure the eyesore trav'ler</p> + +<p class="i2">Till the very sky above</p> + +<p>Seemed to mock with vague mirages</p> + +<p class="i2">Every surety of love.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">17<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>When each weary day was over,</p> + +<p class="i2">Halting near some watering-place,</p> + +<p>Bill unpacked his meager outfit,</p> + +<p class="i2">Turned the horses loose to graze,</p> + +<p>Baked his varicolored dough-bread,</p> + +<p class="i2">On a fire of cattle chips;</p> + +<p>Coffee made of green-scummed water,</p> + +<p class="i2">Nectar to his thirsty lips.</p> + +<p>On the ground he spread his blanket</p> + +<p class="i2">And reclining there alone,</p> + +<p>Heard the swiftly sweeping breezes</p> + +<p class="i2">Sing in dreary monotone</p> + +<p>Strange wild anthems, weird and lonesome,</p> + +<p class="i2">Like lost spirits floating by,</p> + +<p>While afar in broken measure</p> + +<p class="i2">Swelled the coyotes' yelping cry.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">18<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>All the varied information</p> + +<p class="i2">Gathered from the few he passed--</p> + +<p>Some from herders, some from stragglers</p> + +<p class="i2">Gave the missing clew at last</p> + +<p>As to where old Mac was heading;</p> + +<p class="i2">For that telltale band of steel</p> + +<p>Stamped along the endless roadway</p> + +<p class="i2">Printed by the turning wheel,</p> + +<p>Pressed its image on the memory</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the settlers coming back,</p> + +<p>Who, when questioned by the searcher,</p> + +<p class="i2">Told him that the telltale track</p> + +<p>Had begun to veer to westward</p> + +<p class="i2">After crossing by the way</p> + +<p>Leading up the North Platte River,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where the sand wastes stretch away.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">19<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>As he crossed this barren prairie's</p> + +<p class="i2">Sweeping waste of poverty,</p> + +<p>Billy paused beside the cripple</p> + +<p class="i2">Of a wind-torn twisted tree,</p> + +<p>Standing there, marooned forever,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where its hapless seed had blown,</p> + +<p>Miles on miles from forest neighbor,</p> + +<p class="i2">Struggling out its life alone.</p> + +<p>Here he stopped, with head uncovered,</p> + +<p class="i2">Conscious of a strange appeal,</p> + +<p>Yielding to the voiceless longing</p> + +<p class="i2">Human hearts are bound to feel</p> + +<p>When their lot is isolation,</p> + +<p class="i2">And a field of sterile soil</p> + +<p>Dwarfs and twists the struggling spirit</p> + +<p class="i2">As the body bends with toil.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">20<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Here, that subtle, silent craving,</p> + +<p class="i2">Which with life will never end,</p> + +<p>Of the lonesome and the needy</p> + +<p class="i2">For the comfort of a friend,</p> + +<p>Drew the trav'ler to this tree waif,</p> + +<p class="i2">And he spread his outfit near,</p> + +<p>And they held that sacred converse</p> + +<p class="i2">Which the soul alone can hear.</p> + +<p>While the horses browsed the sage brush,</p> + +<p class="i2">And the sun withdrew his light,</p> + +<p>And the moon in mournful splendor</p> + +<p class="i2">Ushered in the lonely night,</p> + +<p>He lay down beneath the branches,</p> + +<p class="i2">Wrapped in musings strange and deep--</p> + +<p>Thoughts that bore him off in silence</p> + +<p class="i2">O'er the placid sea of sleep.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">21<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>In his dreams he saw a monarch</p> + +<p class="i2">Decked in sumptuous array,</p> + +<p>Seated on a throne of glory</p> + +<p class="i2">Bearing royal title, Day.</p> + +<p>Then some mighty power transcendent,</p> + +<p class="i2">Thrust him from his gorgeous throne,</p> + +<p>Turning all the realm to darkness,</p> + +<p class="i2">And the world was left alone.</p> + +<p>As the shades of gloom were spreading,</p> + +<p class="i2">By strange flashing threads of light</p> + +<p>He beheld in dim-drawn outline,</p> + +<p class="i2">On the background of the night,</p> + +<p>Phantom horse and girlish rider,</p> + +<p class="i2">Speeding on in reckless race,</p> + +<p>Till she turned directly toward him</p> + +<p class="i2">And he saw her fearless face!</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="faithfulsimonweak"></a> <img src= +"images/illustration_061.jpg" width="431" height="588" alt= +"Faithful Simon, weak and starving, Groaned and fell beneath his pack...." + border="0"> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">22<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>With the journey's slow progression</p> + +<p class="i2">Slipped away the summer days,</p> + +<p>Merging with the sleepy beauty</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the lazy autumn haze;</p> + +<p>And the frosts and drought combining</p> + +<p class="i2">Waged relentless battle there,</p> + +<p>Withering up the scanty ranges,</p> + +<p class="i2">Leaving all the country bare.</p> + +<p>When he entered Colorado,</p> + +<p class="i2">Following still the barren plain</p> + +<p>Where for months the mocking heavens</p> + +<p class="i2">Never spared a drop of rain,</p> + +<p>Faithful Simon, weak and starving,</p> + +<p class="i2">Following feebly in the track</p> + +<p>Pulled upon his straining halter,</p> + +<p class="i2">Groaned and fell beneath his pack.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">23<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Vain were all the kind entreaties,</p> + +<p class="i2">Vain the simple nursing done</p> + +<p>To relieve his palsied weakness--</p> + +<p class="i2">Poor old Simon's course was run.</p> + +<p>Billy spent the night beside him,</p> + +<p class="i2">But with next day's early dawn,</p> + +<p>With the east's first flush of scarlet,</p> + +<p class="i2">Simon's faithful soul passed on.</p> + +<p>Then, with hands outstretched before him,</p> + +<p class="i2">Half remembering what was said</p> + +<p>When a child he saw the sexton</p> + +<p class="i2">Sprinkle earth upon the dead--</p> + +<p>"Dust to dust, and then to ashes--</p> + +<p class="i2">I forget the other part--</p> + +<p>I can't say the words I want to,</p> + +<p class="i2">I can't think--all's in my heart.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">24<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Over twenty years, old pardner,</p> + +<p class="i2">We have been companions true;</p> + +<p>You have always kept your end up</p> + +<p class="i2">In the hardships we've gone through.</p> + +<p>If we'd stayed, and I had never</p> + +<p class="i2">Seen her face or touched her hand,</p> + +<p>We should still have been contented,</p> + +<p class="i2">On our little piece of land.</p> + +<p>This strange spell won't let me falter,</p> + +<p class="i2">Though the chasing never ends;</p> + +<p>Seems that nothing ever'll stop it,</p> + +<p class="i2">Sickness, death, or loss of friends.</p> + +<p>Where this love will drive a fellow,</p> + +<p class="i2">I ain't wise enough to tell;</p> + +<p>Sometimes think it leads to heaven</p> + +<p class="i2">By a trail that runs through hell."</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">25<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Weeks thereafter, plodding northward</p> + +<p class="i2">Crossing over Lodge Pole creek,</p> + +<p>Threading Colorado's stretches--</p> + +<p class="i2">Sandy deserts wild and bleak--</p> + +<p>Where the sun wars on the living,</p> + +<p class="i2">Struggling 'neath his blinding light,</p> + +<p>Then resigns his work of ravage</p> + +<p class="i2">To the chilling frosts of night;</p> + +<p>Where the bleaching bones of horses</p> + +<p class="i2">Here and there bestrew the plains,</p> + +<p>Telling many a ghastly story</p> + +<p class="i2">Of misguided settlers' trains--</p> + +<p>Where the early frontier ranger</p> + +<p class="i2">Marked the first trail to Cheyenne,</p> + +<p>Billy, following its wand'rings,</p> + +<p class="i2">Found the missing mark again.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">26<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Then the labored pace grew faster</p> + +<p class="i2">As he passed each camping place,</p> + +<p>Marking well the lessening distance</p> + +<p class="i2">In the long-contested race.</p> + +<p>Riding through Wyoming's foothills,</p> + +<p class="i2">With their rugged summit lines</p> + +<p>Stretched across the clear horizon,</p> + +<p class="i2">Fringed with pointed spruce and pines,</p> + +<p>He beheld, one early morning,</p> + +<p class="i2">Rising slowly to the sky,</p> + +<p>Smoke--the thin and gauzy column</p> + +<p class="i2">Of a camp fire built close by;</p> + +<p>And, on looking down the valley</p> + +<p class="i2">With exultant, ringing cheer,</p> + +<p>He beheld the prairie schooner</p> + +<p class="i2">And the MacIntyres near.</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="restingcalmin"></a> <img src="images/illustration_066.jpg" +width="456" height="431" alt= +"Resting calm in fancied safety Sat the elder MacIntyre" border= +"0"> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">27<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>On an open spot of grass land</p> + +<p class="i2">Gilded by the rising sun,</p> + +<p>Sloping sharply to the crevice</p> + +<p class="i2">Where the mountain waters run,</p> + +<p>Ike, reclining, watched the horses,</p> + +<p class="i2">Now increased to quite a band,</p> + +<p>While above him, in the timber,</p> + +<p class="i2">Brother Bill, with gun in hand,</p> + +<p>Held it poised in sudden wonder,</p> + +<p class="i2">Half in attitude to shoot,</p> + +<p>As he saw the coming rider,</p> + +<p class="i2">Heard his loudly yelled salute.</p> + +<p>Near an old abandoned cabin,</p> + +<p class="i2">Huddled by the breakfast fire,</p> + +<p>Resting calm in fancied safety</p> + +<p class="i2">Sat the elder MacIntyre.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">28<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"You! Why, Billy, where d'you come from?</p> + +<p class="i2">What new game you playing now?</p> + +<p>If you're out on posse business</p> + +<p class="i2">By the gods, jest start your row!</p> + +<p>What you saying? You are friendly?</p> + +<p class="i2">Wal, I'm glad to hear it's so;</p> + +<p>And I s'pose you made the journey</p> + +<p class="i2">Way out here to let me know!</p> + +<p>Oh! you're talking 'bout our Nancy!</p> + +<p class="i2">Now I just begin to see.</p> + +<p>Set down, Billy; you are askin'</p> + +<p class="i2">Something that sure puzzles me.</p> + +<p>Nancy ain't like other women--</p> + +<p class="i2">What I say may hit you queer,</p> + +<p>But it's jest as well to tell you--</p> + +<p>That there girl--she isn't here.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">29<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Don't stampede your words, now, Billy.</p> + +<p class="i2">Slow 'em down and let 'em walk.</p> + +<p>Lord a'mighty, man! keep quiet!</p> + +<p class="i2">Never heard such crazy talk!</p> + +<p>Where's the girl? Wal, let me tell you--</p> + +<p class="i2">T'aint no use to take on so--</p> + +<p>Where is Nancy? P'r'aps in heaven;</p> + +<p class="i2">I can't tell yer,--I don't know.</p> + +<p>When we left last spring from Kansas,</p> + +<p class="i2">Travelin' mostly in the night,</p> + +<p>We was chased up by a posse;</p> + +<p class="i2">Fourth day out we had a fight.</p> + +<p>We had jest unhitched the hosses,</p> + +<p class="i2">Making camp at Old Man's Creek--</p> + +<p>Gimme some o' that tobacker,</p> + +<p class="i2">I've been out for more'n a week.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">30<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"We had jest unhitched the hosses,</p> + +<p class="i2">Nance was riding Kelly's mare,</p> + +<p>When we heard them all a-comin'--</p> + +<p class="i2">They had seen us pull in there.</p> + +<p>Nancy said,' I'll hold 'em, daddie,</p> + +<p class="i2">Get the outfit over here,</p> + +<p>And I'll trail you in the mornin';</p> + +<p class="i2">I will see they don't get near.'</p> + +<p>It was in that heavy timber--</p> + +<p class="i2">Growing dark and spittin' rain--</p> + +<p>Where the creek runs to the eastward,</p> + +<p class="i2">Makes that loop, and back again.</p> + +<p>We was in a reg'lar pocket;</p> + +<p class="i2">Creek banks made a kind of bluff</p> + +<p>All around us, so it looked like</p> + +<p class="i2">We was trapped there, sure enough.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">31<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Wal, we had a time in movin';</p> + +<p class="i2">Things got mixed up in the rush;</p> + +<p>Lead team broke a piece of harness</p> + +<p class="i2">Pulling through the underbrush.</p> + +<p>Then the wagon turned clean over,</p> + +<p class="i2">But we drug her plumb across,</p> + +<p>Hitched with ropes and other fixin's,</p> + +<p class="i2">Usin' every extra hoss.</p> + +<p>Wal, you never heard such shootin',</p> + +<p class="i2">Bullets whizzin' everywhere;</p> + +<p>Pumped 'em on us till it sounded</p> + +<p class="i2">Like they had an army there.</p> + +<p>Nancy stayed and cracked it to 'em,</p> + +<p class="i2">Kind o' circlin' round and round;</p> + +<p>I could tell the two six-shooters</p> + +<p class="i2">She was usin', by the sound.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">32<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"You can bet we did some trav'lin'</p> + +<p class="i2">All that night and all next day;</p> + +<p>I could still a-hear the shootin'</p> + +<p class="i2">After we was miles away.</p> + +<p>I supposed we'd see the girl come</p> + +<p class="i2">Ridin' up to us 'fore long,</p> + +<p>That is--I was jest a-thinkin'--</p> + +<p class="i2">If there wasn't somethin' wrong.</p> + +<p>But, in spite of all our lookin',</p> + +<p class="i2">Sometimes slackin' up our gait,</p> + +<p>Always thinkin' we should see her</p> + +<p class="i2">Every time we'd stop and wait.</p> + +<p>We have never seen her, Billy,</p> + +<p class="i2">And I own I'm balked a bit,</p> + +<p>Fur I know that she's a critter</p> + +<p class="i2">Made of nothin' else but grit.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">33<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"I wish I could go and find her,</p> + +<p class="i2">But 'twould be too hot for me;</p> + +<p>Long before I got back that fur</p> + +<p class="i2">I'd be strung up to a tree.</p> + +<p>So I've been a kind o' thinkin',</p> + +<p class="i2">Since I see what's both'rin' you,</p> + +<p>'Bout a thing--I hate to ask it--</p> + +<p class="i2">That I'd like for you to do.</p> + +<p>I don't think that girl has ever--</p> + +<p class="i2">It sure hurts me, what I say--</p> + +<p>But I'm sure that in the scrimmage</p> + +<p class="i2">Nancy never got away.</p> + +<p>Billy, you go back and find her;</p> + +<p class="i2">You are all I've got to send,</p> + +<p>You can sort o' fix things decent,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where she is--in Old Man's Bend."</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="thereturn"></a> + +<h2>THE RETURN</h2> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">1<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Every life is but a journey--</p> + +<p class="i2">Trav'ling on from place to place--</p> + +<p>Starting from the point God gave us</p> + +<p class="i2">With an ever-varying pace.</p> + +<p>Outward, onward, spurred by motives</p> + +<p class="i2">In our wand'rings here and there,</p> + +<p>Sometimes led by hope alluring,</p> + +<p class="i2">Sometimes halted by despair;</p> + +<p>But the life that travels farthest</p> + +<p class="i2">On that deeper strength depends,</p> + +<p>For with love, there is no turning;</p> + +<p class="i2">When love dies the journey ends.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">2<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Back across the broken foothills,</p> + +<p class="i2">With a courage none can feel</p> + +<p>Till the burning pangs of sorrow</p> + +<p class="i2">Turn the heart-strings into steel;</p> + +<p>Back across the winter's playground,</p> + +<p class="i2">Tracing out the paths he trod,</p> + +<p>With each muttered execration</p> + +<p class="i2">Ending in a prayer to God.</p> + +<p>Blasts that howled with fiendish laughter,</p> + +<p class="i2">By their loud derisive cry</p> + +<p>Seemed to mock his labored progress</p> + +<p class="i2">As they passed him swiftly by;</p> + +<p>Icy, blizzard-driven snowflakes</p> + +<p class="i2">Into ghost-like fancies whirled,</p> + +<p>Painting on the barren canvas,</p> + +<p class="i2">Gaunt Death battling for the world.</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="onceagainthe"></a> <img src="images/illustration_075.jpg" +width="387" height="483" alt= +"Once again the twisted branches Of the lone and friendly tree" +border="0"> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">3<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Back across the snow-strewn desert,</p> + +<p class="i2">Fighting famine face to face,</p> + +<p>Trusting to his horse to take him</p> + +<p class="i2">To each former camping place.</p> + +<p>Once Zeb stopped beside a snowdrift</p> + +<p class="i2">With a loud and startling neigh;</p> + +<p>Tried to tell his half-dazed master</p> + +<p class="i2">Where his mate, old Simon, lay.</p> + +<p>Pressing on, he reached the border</p> + +<p class="i2">Of Nebraska's whitened plain,</p> + +<p>Where his mind in maudlin fancies</p> + +<p class="i2">Yielded to the bitter strain,</p> + +<p>As he saw far in the distance,</p> + +<p class="i2">Like a battered mast at sea,</p> + +<p>Once again the twisted branches</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the lone and friendly tree.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">4<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Git up, Zeb. Come, see! She's waving!</p> + +<p class="i2">Waving there for you and me.</p> + +<p>See her there, so white and pretty,</p> + +<p class="i2">Standing by our friend, the tree!</p> + +<p>Quit that stumbling! Now then, streak it!</p> + +<p class="i2">Hit the gait you used to do</p> + +<p>When we hired out for the round up</p> + +<p class="i2">And you beat the first one through.</p> + +<p>There she is! There's where I saw her</p> + +<p class="i2">When we stayed there all that night;</p> + +<p>Though 'twas dark, I saw her riding,</p> + +<p class="i2">By those flashing threads of light;</p> + +<p>She's been waiting! Oh, I left her</p> + +<p class="i2">In this awful lonely place!</p> + +<p>God forgive me! Nancy! hear me!</p> + +<p class="i2">Oh, that face--that poor white face!"</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">5<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>One cold morning, old Zach Baxter,</p> + +<p class="i2">Riding o'er this snowbound sea</p> + +<p>Saw a famished pony standing</p> + +<p class="i2">Near a queer and lonely tree.</p> + +<p>From his frost-encrusted nostrils</p> + +<p class="i2">Came a plaintive whinny, low,</p> + +<p>As the man rode up beside him</p> + +<p class="i2">Struggling through the drifted snow.</p> + +<p>When the old man tried to lead him,</p> + +<p class="i2">He refused to turn away;</p> + +<p>But he pawed the drift beneath him,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where his stricken master lay.</p> + +<p>And below the cold, white cover,</p> + +<p class="i2">In a deathlike stupor deep,</p> + +<p>Old Zach found a sorry stranger</p> + +<p class="i2">Shrouded for his last long sleep.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">6<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Tearing at the ragged bundle</p> + +<p class="i2">Lodged between the horse's feet,</p> + +<p>Clutching at the frozen blanket,</p> + +<p class="i2">Brushing back the crusted sleet,</p> + +<p>Faithful in his rude endeavors,</p> + +<p class="i2">Rousing by his loud commands,</p> + +<p>Roughly shaking, turning, rubbing,</p> + +<p class="i2">Zach breathed on his face and hands;</p> + +<p>Till the stiffened limbs responded</p> + +<p class="i2">And the closed eyes opened wide,</p> + +<p>Dazed and puzzled at the stranger</p> + +<p class="i2">Working fiercely at his side.</p> + +<p>Billy felt the strong arms raise him,</p> + +<p class="i2">Felt the Frost King's stinging breath</p> + +<p>As he struggled, half unconscious,</p> + +<p class="i2">In the wav'ring fight with death.</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">7<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>In the east, the sun dogs glistened</p> + +<p class="i2">Like tall shafts of marble, bright,</p> + +<p>O'er the whitened grave of nature,--</p> + +<p class="i2">Ghostly spires of frozen light,</p> + +<p>Flying frost flakes snapping, sparkling,</p> + +<p class="i2">Dancing in a wild display,</p> + +<p>Turned into a mist of diamonds</p> + +<p class="i2">As they mocked the newborn day.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">8<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Old Zach's pony bearing double,</p> + +<p class="i2">Reeking steam from every pore,</p> + +<p>Reached at last the covered pathway</p> + +<p class="i2">Leading to the dug-out door.</p> + +<p>With his arms clasped tight round Billy,</p> + +<p class="i2">Zach half dragged his helpless load</p> + +<p>Through the lowly, mud-walled entrance</p> + +<p class="i2">Of his rudely built abode.</p> + +<p>There, upon the narrow bunk bed</p> + +<p class="i2">Spread with nondescript attire,</p> + +<p>Zach enfolded him in wrappings</p> + +<p class="i2">While he started up a fire;</p> + +<p>And no nurse, however skillful,</p> + +<p class="i2">Whatsoever her degree,</p> + +<p>Ever gave more loyal service</p> + +<p class="i2">To a patient, than did he.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">9<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Poor and meager were the comforts</p> + +<p class="i2">Of Zach's cave-like prairie home,</p> + +<p>Permeated with the odor</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the fresh-dug virgin loam.</p> + +<p>Pungent wreaths of smoke, slow drifting,</p> + +<p class="i2">Floated lazily above,</p> + +<p>To the dried grass of the ceiling</p> + +<p class="i2">From the cracked and rusty stove.</p> + +<p>Willow poles athwart for rafters</p> + +<p class="i2">Sagged beneath the dirt roof's strain,</p> + +<p>And a piece of grease-smeared paper</p> + +<p class="i2">Formed the only window-pane.</p> + +<p>In the center, on the dirt floor</p> + +<p class="i2">Stood a table-like affair</p> + +<p>Fashioned from a wagon end-gate,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where Zach spread his scanty fare.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">10<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>There for weeks lay Billy, helpless,</p> + +<p class="i2">Racked with mad'ning fever pains,</p> + +<p>As the burning sun of summer</p> + +<p class="i2">Scorches sere the desert plains.</p> + +<p>Then he lay with cold, white features</p> + +<p class="i2">And the feeble, scarce drawn breath,</p> + +<p>As the silent winter prairie</p> + +<p class="i2">Lies beneath its shroud of death.</p> + +<p>Ofttimes when the raging sickness</p> + +<p class="i2">Sent the hot blood to his brain,</p> + +<p>He would point with frantic gesture</p> + +<p class="i2">To the dingy window pane,</p> + +<p>Calling in excited mutterings,</p> + +<p class="i2">Eyes transfixed in frenzied fright--</p> + +<p>"There she is! Now, can't you see her?</p> + +<p class="i2">See her face there in the light!"</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">11<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Then old Zach would try to soothe him</p> + +<p class="i2">In his simple-hearted way;</p> + +<p>"She won't hurt you," he would tell him,</p> + +<p class="i2">"I'll go drive her clear away.</p> + +<p>I've seen things--now listen, pardner--</p> + +<p class="i2">Those things happened once to me</p> + +<p>Once down there in old Dodge City,</p> + +<p class="i2">Winding up a three weeks' spree.</p> + +<p>What you see is jest a 'lusion,</p> + +<p class="i2">'Cause you're crazy in your head;</p> + +<p>When your thinker's runnin' proper</p> + +<p class="i2">You'll find 'She' is gone or dead.</p> + +<p>There, now, pardner, see what this is!</p> + +<p class="i2">Ain't it purty? Your tin cup;</p> + +<p>Found a little pinch o' coffee.</p> + +<p class="i2">That's the boy, now, drink it up!"</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">12<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>When the breeze of spring in whispers</p> + +<p class="i2">Stirred the withered bunch-grass plume,</p> + +<p>Humming hymns of resurrection</p> + +<p class="i2">Over nature's silent tomb,</p> + +<p>And the fleeing clouds of heaven,</p> + +<p class="i2">Bending low at God's command,</p> + +<p>Spilled their tribute from the ocean</p> + +<p class="i2">On the long-forsaken land,</p> + +<p>And the sun, with mellow kindness</p> + +<p class="i2">Spread abroad his softened rays,</p> + +<p>Calling bud and blade and blossom</p> + +<p class="i2">From their sleep of many days,</p> + +<p>Billy heard, at last, the music</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the glad earth's jubilee,</p> + +<p>Felt a new strength stir within him,</p> + +<p class="i2">And a longing to be free.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">13<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>One day, o'er the hill's low summit,</p> + +<p class="i2">Whence the prairie dipped away,</p> + +<p>There appeared a moving wagon</p> + +<p class="i2">With its canvas patched and gray,</p> + +<p>Like a vessel on the ocean</p> + +<p class="i2">Under taut and close-reefed sail,</p> + +<p>Rising slowly on the billows</p> + +<p class="i2">Heaped up by the driving gale.</p> + +<p>Veering towards the little dug-out,</p> + +<p class="i2">Making for a friendly shore,</p> + +<p>Heaving to, the schooner anchored</p> + +<p class="i2">Close beside the open door.</p> + +<p>Loud and hearty were the greetings,</p> + +<p class="i2">For the driver of the team</p> + +<p>Was Tom Frothingham, a neighbor,</p> + +<p class="i2">Who had lived near Billy's claim.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">14<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Bit by bit he told the story--</p> + +<p class="i2">How he'd wandered all around</p> + +<p>Since he left his Kansas homestead</p> + +<p class="i2">And the folks near North Pole mound;</p> + +<p>How he'd traveled all through Texas</p> + +<p class="i2">With the roving fever on,</p> + +<p>Camping oft in strange new places,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where no other soul had gone.</p> + +<p>So the news, now half forgotten</p> + +<p class="i2">In his absence from the place,</p> + +<p>Came in broken recollections--</p> + +<p class="i2">Careful efforts to retrace</p> + +<p>All the incidents of interest</p> + +<p class="i2">To the sick one listening there,</p> + +<p>Who, with pale and careworn features,</p> + +<p class="i2">Heard the story with despair.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">15<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Three weeks after you left Kansas</p> + +<p class="i2">I hitched up and came away.</p> + +<p>Still, I reckoned you intended</p> + +<p class="i2">To improve your claim and stay;</p> + +<p>For your eighty was a picture--</p> + +<p class="i2">Running spring and good clear land--</p> + +<p>Everything a body needed</p> + +<p class="i2">For a starter, right at hand.</p> + +<p>Well, some others left 'fore I did--</p> + +<p class="i2">You remember Mac, of course,</p> + +<p>How he got the moving notion</p> + +<p class="i2">When Bill Kelly missed his horse?</p> + +<p>Chased him clear to Old Man's crossing,</p> + +<p class="i2">So I heard the posse say;</p> + +<p>Thought they had him fairly cornered,</p> + +<p class="i2">But, by jings! he got away.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">16<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"There are stranger things than fiction;</p> + +<p class="i2">What is natural may seem queer,</p> + +<p>So I s'pose we needn't wonder</p> + +<p class="i2">At the things we see out here.</p> + +<p>One thing happened since you left there</p> + +<p class="i2">That I call a burning shame--</p> + +<p>Did you know that rope-necked Johnson</p> + +<p class="i2">Jumped your eighty-acre claim?</p> + +<p>Last I saw him, he was plowing,</p> + +<p class="i2">And he laughed and tried to joke:</p> + +<p>Said 'twas kind of you to leave him</p> + +<p class="i2">All the ground that you had broke;</p> + +<p>Said your house was so untidy</p> + +<p class="i2">He was sleeping out of doors,</p> + +<p>Till he got a girl to help him</p> + +<p class="i2">Wash the pans and scrub the floors.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">17<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Lots of people coming in there</p> + +<p class="i2">From most every foreign land--</p> + +<p>Massachusetts and Missouri--</p> + +<p class="i2">Made a mess I couldn't stand.</p> + +<p>Every man that's made of manhood</p> + +<p class="i2">Wants to live where he is free,</p> + +<p>So I'm bound to keep on moving</p> + +<p class="i2">When they get to crowding me.</p> + +<p>Then another thing that happened:</p> + +<p class="i2">Puzzled every one around</p> + +<p>When they heard one morning early,</p> + +<p class="i2">That Bill Kelly's horse was found.</p> + +<p>Aleck Rose told me about it</p> + +<p class="i2">After I had packed and gone;</p> + +<p>Said the mare strayed in the dooryard</p> + +<p class="i2">With Mac's steel-horn saddle on."</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">18<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>As each day in steady conquest</p> + +<p class="i2">Charged the ranks of fleeing night,</p> + +<p>Winning back the stolen hours</p> + +<p class="i2">With their golden spears of light;</p> + +<p>As the living in all nature</p> + +<p class="i2">Felt that mighty spirit's sway,</p> + +<p>So the sick man caught the power</p> + +<p class="i2">And his illness wore away.</p> + +<p>One clear morning, as Aurora</p> + +<p class="i2">Silver-tinted all the plain,</p> + +<p>In his weatherbeaten saddle</p> + +<p class="i2">Billy took the trail again.</p> + +<p>"Good by, boy," old Zach repeated,</p> + +<p class="i2">"I'm most sure you'll never see</p> + +<p>Any more o' them 'ere 'lusions,</p> + +<p class="i2">Anyway, what you called 'She.'"</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">19<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Day by day the low horizon</p> + +<p class="i2">Spread its narrow circle round,</p> + +<p>As if fate had drawn a barrier,</p> + +<p class="i2">And forbade advance beyond.</p> + +<p>Though the journey dragged on slowly,</p> + +<p class="i2">Night time brought its sure reward,</p> + +<p>For the added miles behind him</p> + +<p class="i2">Stretched at length to Mingo's Ford,</p> + +<p>Where the breeze bore from the upland</p> + +<p class="i2">Broken fragments of the song</p> + +<p>Of the cowboy with his cattle,</p> + +<p class="i2">As he drove the strays along;</p> + +<p>Where the voice of flowing water</p> + +<p class="i2">And the treble of the birds,</p> + +<p>Swelled the hallowed evening anthem</p> + +<p class="i2">To the bass of lowing herds.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">20<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Then the trail along the Solomon</p> + +<p class="i2">Where the timber, making friends</p> + +<p>With the ever-widening valley,</p> + +<p class="i2">Filled the rounded river bends;</p> + +<p>Then the rankling recollection,</p> + +<p class="i2">As he passed some well-known place</p> + +<p>Where before, with hope and vigor,</p> + +<p class="i2">He had sped in fruitless chase.</p> + +<p>Then the lonely camp at nightfall,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where the wind in monotone</p> + +<p>Thrummed the harp strings of the grass stems,</p> + +<p class="i2">Breathing low its song, "Alone!"</p> + +<p>Where the stars, fixed in the heavens,</p> + +<p class="i2">To his upturned face would say,</p> + +<p>With their heartless glint of distance,</p> + +<p class="i2">"She thou seek'st is far away."</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">21<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Then the long, far-reaching bottoms</p> + +<p class="i2">Rank with withered blue-joint grass,</p> + +<p>With its broken stems entangled</p> + +<p class="i2">In a matted jungle mass;</p> + +<p>Then across the higher prairie,</p> + +<p class="i2">Searching out a shorter way,</p> + +<p>To the creek that joined the river</p> + +<p class="i2">Where Mac crossed and got away;</p> + +<p>Then the twinge of bitter sorrow</p> + +<p class="i2">As he neared his journey's end,</p> + +<p>And beheld the fringe of timber</p> + +<p class="i2">On the banks of Old Man's bend,</p> + +<p>Where no living sign or token</p> + +<p class="i2">Broke the gloom that brooded there,</p> + +<p>Save a solitary buzzard</p> + +<p class="i2">Floating idly in the air.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">22<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>From these high and broken hilltops</p> + +<p class="i2">He could trace the river's flow,</p> + +<p>And the creek's untamed meandering,</p> + +<p class="i2">With its looplike bend below,</p> + +<p>Seeming in the light of evening</p> + +<p class="i2">Like a giant serpent there,</p> + +<p>Which had coiled about its victim,</p> + +<p class="i2">And lay resting in its lair.</p> + +<p>Breaking through the tangled brushwood</p> + +<p class="i2">As the night was coming on,</p> + +<p>Creeping down the steep embankment</p> + +<p class="i2">Where the muddy waters run,</p> + +<p>Billy crossed within the timber</p> + +<p class="i2">Where the shroud of deeper gloom,</p> + +<p>And its chilling breath of darkness</p> + +<p class="i2">Marked the hidden prairie tomb.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">23<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>As the soul in deep communion,</p> + +<p class="i2">Seeks some isolated bower</p> + +<p>Where the body's sordid cravings</p> + +<p class="i2">Yield beneath the spirit's power,</p> + +<p>So the searcher, bowed in reverence,</p> + +<p class="i2">Left untouched his evening fare</p> + +<p>As he listened to the voices</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the shadows gathering there.</p> + +<p>Here no lighted torch or camp fire</p> + +<p class="i2">With its weak and fitful ray,</p> + +<p>Could illume the mystic journey</p> + +<p class="i2">Of prayer's consecrated way.</p> + +<p>Here the silence brought its message</p> + +<p class="i2">Of forebodings, vague and deep,</p> + +<p>In its visions to the dreamer,</p> + +<p class="i2">Through the mystery of sleep.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">24<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>In his dreams he saw a monarch</p> + +<p class="i2">Decked in sumptuous array,</p> + +<p>Seated on a throne of glory,</p> + +<p class="i2">Bearing royal title, Day.</p> + +<p>Then some mighty power transcendent,</p> + +<p class="i2">Thrust him from his gorgeous throne,</p> + +<p>Turning all the realm to darkness,</p> + +<p class="i2">And the world was left alone.</p> + +<p>As the shades of gloom were spreading,</p> + +<p class="i2">By strange flashing threads of light</p> + +<p>He beheld in dim-drawn outline,</p> + +<p class="i2">On the background of the night,</p> + +<p>Phantom horse and girlish rider,</p> + +<p class="i2">Speeding on in reckless race,</p> + +<p>Till she turned directly toward him</p> + +<p class="i2">And he saw her fearless face.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">25<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Then, behold! the King returning</p> + +<p class="i2">With a pageantry so bright,</p> + +<p>That the shadow-clad usurpers</p> + +<p class="i2">Fled in ignominious fright.</p> + +<p>As he saw the hosts approaching</p> + +<p class="i2">Through a cloud of battle smoke,</p> + +<p>Charging wildly down upon him,</p> + +<p class="i2">He, in sudden fear, awoke.</p> + +<p>As he looked, the blackened heavens</p> + +<p class="i2">Splashed with demon-tinted blood</p> + +<p>From the hue of burning prairie</p> + +<p class="i2">Throbbed above the fiery flood.</p> + +<p>Leaping o'er the rounded bluff-tops,</p> + +<p class="i2">Down the valley's long incline,</p> + +<p>He could see the lurid column</p> + +<p class="i2">Spread its blazing battle line.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">26<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Like a troop of charging horsemen</p> + +<p class="i2">Sweeping on with maddened roar,</p> + +<p>Mowing down the grass battalions,</p> + +<p class="i2">Crackling flames swept all before.</p> + +<p>Then the driftwood's rifted breastwork,</p> + +<p class="i2">Left there by the waters high,</p> + +<p>Flashed up in a hissing furnace,</p> + +<p class="i2">As the red-armed fiends leaped by.</p> + +<p>Clinging to the swaying saddle</p> + +<p class="i2">And the plunging horse's mane,</p> + +<p>Billy dashed through falling embers</p> + +<p class="i2">To the level, open plain.</p> + +<p>On the right and left, the head fires</p> + +<p class="i2">Rushing on at furious pace,</p> + +<p>Stretched beside the horse and rider</p> + +<p class="i2">In the life-and-death-fought race.</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="fiercerwitheach"></a> <img src= +"images/illustration_092.jpg" width="474" height="453" alt= +"Fiercer with each flying moment Drove those scorching blasts of death" + border="0"> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">27<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Here the gale with venomed fury</p> + +<p class="i2">Met in vortex from afar,</p> + +<p>Raising high the flaming pennons</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the fiery fiends of war.</p> + +<p>Flashing by, the blazing grass stems</p> + +<p class="i2">Sped like arrows through the air,</p> + +<p>Falling on the distant prairie,</p> + +<p class="i2">Kindling fresh fires everywhere.</p> + +<p>Pressing through the low-flung smoke clouds--</p> + +<p class="i2">Stifling fumes of Hades' breath--</p> + +<p>Fiercer with each flying moment</p> + +<p class="i2">Drove those scorching blasts of death.</p> + +<p>Thrice his horse, 'neath quirt and rowel</p> + +<p class="i2">Bravely struggling, almost fell,</p> + +<p>As he fled in desperation</p> + +<p class="i2">O'er the trail that led through hell.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">28<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>One poor singed and panting coyote</p> + +<p class="i2">Through the perils of the ride</p> + +<p>Hemmed in by the flames pursuing</p> + +<p class="i2">Ran close by the horse's side.</p> + +<p>Scarce a meager pace behind them,</p> + +<p class="i2">Pressing hard the coyote's rear,</p> + +<p>Raced a frantic old jack rabbit,</p> + +<p class="i2">Ears laid low in speed and fear.</p> + +<p>Reaching now a stretch of upland,</p> + +<p class="i2">Here the coyote changed his course,</p> + +<p>Breaking through the narrow side-fire,</p> + +<p class="i2">Followed fast by hare and horse;</p> + +<p>And, upon the smoking prairie</p> + +<p class="i2">Over which the fire had passed,</p> + +<p>Steaming horse and stricken rider</p> + +<p class="i2">Found a breathing space at last.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">29<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>When the morning sun in splendor</p> + +<p class="i2">Rose upon the blackened plain,</p> + +<p>His red beams revealed the lover</p> + +<p class="i2">Back at Old Man's Bend again.</p> + +<p>Waist deep in its soothing waters</p> + +<p class="i2">Bathing blistered brow and hands;</p> + +<p>While near by, in pain a-tremble,</p> + +<p class="i2">Faithful Zeb impatient stands.</p> + +<p>Through the bend he searched and wandered,</p> + +<p class="i2">But except the furrowed bark,</p> + +<p>Of a gnarled and aged elm tree</p> + +<p class="i2">Which revealed one bullet-mark,</p> + +<p>Naught was left save blackened embers;</p> + +<p class="i2">And the words he "knew in part"--</p> + +<p>"Dust to dust and then to ashes"--</p> + +<p class="i2">Told the story of his heart.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">30<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Back along the Solomon River,</p> + +<p class="i2">Trailing towards the humble claim</p> + +<p>He had lost when love and duty</p> + +<p class="i2">Fired his soul to "being game";</p> + +<p>Back, across the beaver fordway,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where love first had found the track,</p> + +<p>Now returning with the rankling</p> + +<p class="i2">Sting of hate to bring him back--</p> + +<p>Hate, that hunger made more bitter</p> + +<p class="i2">When his last jerked beef was gone;</p> + +<p>Climbing trees to cut off branches</p> + +<p class="i2">For his horse to browse upon;</p> + +<p>Back, where once the flower-decked prairie,</p> + +<p class="i2">Spread its bloom of hope and bliss,</p> + +<p>Now a blackened field of mourning,</p> + +<p class="i2">From the fire of one sweet kiss.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">31<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Till one day, he saw beyond him,</p> + +<p class="i2">In the distance, purple crowned,</p> + +<p>That old monarch of the prairie,</p> + +<p class="i2">Guard of ages, North Pole Mound.</p> + +<p>Then the field where Zeb and Simon</p> + +<p class="i2">Pulled the old sod-breaking plow</p> + +<p>Stretching like a narrow ribbon</p> + +<p class="i2">On the land that lay below.</p> + +<p>Now the horse's steps grew lighter</p> + +<p class="i2">As he passed each well-known sign</p> + +<p>Of the old familiar landscape,</p> + +<p class="i2">And they crossed the eighty's line,</p> + +<p>Where the spring of running waters</p> + +<p class="i2">Gave envenomed purpose birth,</p> + +<p>As he drank its bubbling offering</p> + +<p class="i2">From the pulsing heart of earth.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">32<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Then, ascending from the hollow,</p> + +<p class="i2">Full before his eyes appeared</p> + +<p>Home--his home--the low-walled sodhouse</p> + +<p class="i2">Which his toiling hands had reared.</p> + +<p>Near the straw shed stood the wagon</p> + +<p class="i2">He had brought from Wichita,</p> + +<p>And beneath the grass-fringed gable</p> + +<p class="i2">Hung his trusty crosscut saw.</p> + +<p>In the dooryard, near the window,</p> + +<p class="i2">Lay the broken homemade chair,</p> + +<p>Where, at evening, love-born fancies</p> + +<p class="i2">Revelled, as he rested there;</p> + +<p>Love, whose scattered seed had fallen</p> + +<p class="i2">On a mystic field of fate,</p> + +<p>Where the tangled vine extending</p> + +<p class="i2">Bore the bitter fruit of hate.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">33<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Hurrying nearer, he dismounted,</p> + +<p class="i2">Trembling with the rage he felt,</p> + +<p>As he cast aside the bridle</p> + +<p class="i2">And drew taut his cartridge belt.</p> + +<p>Throwing down his torn sombrero,</p> + +<p class="i2">There, before the tight-closed door,</p> + +<p>On the cowardly usurper</p> + +<p class="i2">Loud and bitter vengeance swore.</p> + +<p>"Come, you dirty, green-scummed scoundrel,</p> + +<p class="i2">With your sneaking 'plan or two'!</p> + +<p>Just come out, you rope-necked buzzard!</p> + +<p class="i2">See how far you'll put them through.</p> + +<p>You can keep the eighty acres,</p> + +<p class="i2">Hell will write your pedigree,</p> + +<p>But I'll rub your crooked nose-piece</p> + +<p class="i2">In the dirt you stole from me.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">34<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Come outside, you sneaking coyote!</p> + +<p class="i2">If you've got a drop of man</p> + +<p>In your greasy, thieving carcass,</p> + +<p class="i2">Finish up what you began."</p> + +<p>Fiercer grew his coarse invective,</p> + +<p class="i2">Louder yet his taunting calls,</p> + +<p>When no answer to his challenge</p> + +<p class="i2">Came from out the low sod walls.</p> + +<p>Uncontrolled, his furious anger</p> + +<p class="i2">Spoke in quick and murderous roar</p> + +<p>As he pumped his old six-shooter</p> + +<p class="i2">Through the barred and bolted door.</p> + +<p>When he paused the rude door opened,</p> + +<p class="i2">And before its splintered place</p> + +<p>Stood the vision of the shadows,</p> + +<p class="i2">And he saw Her fearless face.</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="standingtherea"></a> <img src= +"images/illustration_099.jpg" width="438" height="581" alt= +"Standing there, a pictured goddess Sketched against a lowering storm" + border="0"> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">35<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>As the artist in his painting</p> + +<p class="i2">Plans the background to enhance</p> + +<p>All the beauty of his subject</p> + +<p class="i2">Both in pose and countenance,</p> + +<p>So the poor and dark interior</p> + +<p class="i2">Lent its gloom to magnify</p> + +<p>All the power and witching beauty</p> + +<p class="i2">Of her face and lustrous eye.</p> + +<p>Standing there, a pictured goddess</p> + +<p class="i2">Sketched against a lowering storm,</p> + +<p>Bearing on her pallid features</p> + +<p class="i2">That supernal gift of calm.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">36<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Nancy! Woman! God in heaven,</p> + +<p class="i2">Speak, girl! Can this thing be true?</p> + +<p>Are you here with that--that scoundrel,</p> + +<p class="i2">After all that I've gone through?</p> + +<p>Do you stand there, fiend or human,</p> + +<p class="i2">After lending him your hand,</p> + +<p>First to break an honest spirit,</p> + +<p class="i2">Then to steal away my land?</p> + +<p>Must a man who loves a woman</p> + +<p class="i2">Like a devil's imp be driven</p> + +<p>Through the tortures of damnation</p> + +<p class="i2">For a single glimpse of heaven?</p> + +<p>Tell me where the cur is hiding--</p> + +<p class="i2">I've no wish to hurt his bride,</p> + +<p>But I'll braid a twelve-foot bull whip</p> + +<p class="i2">From his dirty, yaller hide!</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">37<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Speak to me and tell me, woman,</p> + +<p class="i2">How the God in heaven above</p> + +<p>Starts the fires of hell a-burning</p> + +<p class="i2">From a spark of human love;</p> + +<p>Why He ever made a woman</p> + +<p class="i2">Who could play a fickle part;</p> + +<p>Why He ever made a fellow</p> + +<p class="i2">With his soul tied to his heart;</p> + +<p>Why He made life just a gamble--</p> + +<p class="i2">I can't talk the way I feel--</p> + +<p>In the game that I've been playing,</p> + +<p class="i2">You know this ain't no square deal!</p> + +<p>I will go away and leave you,</p> + +<p class="i2">But 'twould kind o' ease the pain</p> + +<p>If you'd only tell me, Nancy--</p> + +<p class="i2">If you'd try--to--just explain.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">38<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"If you wouldn't stand there looking</p> + +<p class="i2">With a face of livid white</p> + +<p>Like the specter of the prairie</p> + +<p class="i2">That I saw one horrid night,</p> + +<p>Riding through the endless darkness</p> + +<p class="i2">Like a being doomed from birth</p> + +<p>Just to roam outside of heaven</p> + +<p class="i2">And denied a place on earth.</p> + +<p>Say one word to me! Speak, Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">If you have a voice and live!</p> + +<p>Tell the worst, e'en though you ask me</p> + +<p class="i2">To be patient and forgive.</p> + +<p>I will listen--I will suffer--</p> + +<p class="i2">I will do the best I can;</p> + +<p>Nancy, sweetheart! hear the pleading</p> + +<p class="i2">Of a broken-hearted man,"</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">39<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"See here, Billy! You gone crazy?</p> + +<p class="i2">Charging like you got a fit?</p> + +<p>Johnson ain't in--just at present--</p> + +<p class="i2">Won't you stop and rest a bit?</p> + +<p>Don't act strange. There's no hard feelings,</p> + +<p class="i2">Though I've never seen before</p> + +<p>Any man that knocked like you did</p> + +<p class="i2">On a peaceful neighbor's door.</p> + +<p>Come right in; now, don't be backward,</p> + +<p class="i2">Like old times to have <i>you</i>'round!</p> + +<p>You look tired, like you'd traveled</p> + +<p class="i2">Over quite a stretch of ground.</p> + +<p>Sit right here in this old rocker;</p> + +<p class="i2">Johnson fixed it up one day,</p> + +<p>Feeling certain you would never</p> + +<p class="i2">Come meandering 'round this way.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">40<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Don't get up and act uneasy,</p> + +<p class="i2">Rest yourself, now, if you can,</p> + +<p>You don't mind me like Jim Johnson--</p> + +<p class="i2">He's a most obedient man.</p> + +<p>You went off and left your eighty,</p> + +<p class="i2">Roaming where the luck-wind blows,</p> + +<p>Like a tumbleweed in winter,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where you've been, Lord only knows.</p> + +<p>While Jim's gone we'll talk together,</p> + +<p class="i2">As we used to, months ago,</p> + +<p>When I tried to quench the burning</p> + +<p class="i2">Of a love I didn't know.</p> + +<p>Listen, Billy, while I tell you</p> + +<p class="i2">All about my 'fickle part';</p> + +<p>When I'm done you may know better</p> + +<p class="i2">How God made a woman's heart.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">41<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"While you're resting, I'll get supper,</p> + +<p class="i2">Though there ain't much here to eat,</p> + +<p>'Cepting bran, to make some muffins,</p> + +<p class="i2">And a little rabbit meat.</p> + +<p>Wish I had that pinch of coffee</p> + +<p class="i2">I saved up for--oh, so long,</p> + +<p>Till one day I went and used it,</p> + +<p class="i2">Though I somehow felt 'twas wrong;</p> + +<p>For I kind o' thought that sometime</p> + +<p class="i2">Some one might be coming here</p> + +<p>Worn out with a long, long journey,</p> + +<p class="i2">And would crave that kind o' cheer.</p> + +<p>Now, then, Billy, draw your stool up;</p> + +<p class="i2">What we've got is scant and plain--</p> + +<p>I ain't hungry--honest--Billy,</p> + +<p class="i2">While you eat--why--I'll 'explain.'"</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="nancysstory"></a> + +<h2>NANCY'S STORY</h2> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">1<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"I went off and left you, Billy,</p> + +<p class="i2">'Cause I'm used to being free,</p> + +<p>And I love my dear old daddie--</p> + +<p class="i2">He has been so good to me.</p> + +<p>Ever since I learned to toddle</p> + +<p class="i2">We've been living on the run,</p> + +<p>And my first and only playthings</p> + +<p class="i2">Were a saddle and a gun.</p> + +<p>When I went away with daddie,</p> + +<p class="i2">After trav'ling nigh a week,</p> + +<p>We were caught up by the posse</p> + +<p class="i2">In the bend on Old Man's Creek.</p> + +<p>Think I'd let them take my daddie?</p> + +<p class="i2">No: I held them all at bay,</p> + +<p>While the boys hitched up the horses,</p> + +<p class="i2">Crossed the creek and got away.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">2<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"I just told them I would follow</p> + +<p class="i2">After all the fuss was through,</p> + +<p>But instead, all night I wandered,</p> + +<p class="i2">Thinking all the time of you;</p> + +<p>For when we were last together</p> + +<p class="i2">You cast over me a spell</p> + +<p>That just seemed to change my nature,</p> + +<p class="i2">In a way that words can't tell;</p> + +<p>For it left a fire a-burning</p> + +<p class="i2">Like a live and glowing coal,</p> + +<p>That at length blazed into longing</p> + +<p class="i2">Till I craved with all my soul</p> + +<p>To be back, somehow, where you were,</p> + +<p class="i2">And to hear you tell once more</p> + +<p>That you loved me. That man-story</p> + +<p class="i2">I had never heard before.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">3<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Then I trailed back o'er the prairie,</p> + +<p class="i2">Riding steady every night,</p> + +<p>Picking out the wildest country</p> + +<p class="i2">With my luck to guide me right.</p> + +<p>When I'd see the hungry morning</p> + +<p class="i2">Eat the stars up in the East,</p> + +<p>I would hide in gulch or timber</p> + +<p class="i2">Like a wild and hunted beast.</p> + +<p>How I learned to love the darkness</p> + +<p class="i2">As it spread its mighty arm,</p> + +<p>Close around me, like a lover,</p> + +<p class="i2">Fondly shielding me from harm!</p> + +<p>And I knew the sweet caresses</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the earth and sky above,</p> + +<p>As the night's mysterious voices</p> + +<p class="i2">Soothed me with their tale of love.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">4<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Then I'd ride like forty devils</p> + +<p class="i2">Just to catch upon my face</p> + +<p>All the kisses which the tempest</p> + +<p class="i2">Pressed upon me in the race.</p> + +<p>How I thought of poor old daddie,</p> + +<p class="i2">Whom, perhaps, I'd see no more</p> + +<p>If I went clear back to your place,</p> + +<p class="i2">While he hurried on before!</p> + +<p>I could hardly bear the burden</p> + +<p class="i2">When I'd think of--both of you;</p> + +<p>But that fire you set a-burning,</p> + +<p class="i2">One night told me what to do--</p> + +<p>I would see and ask you, Billy,</p> + +<p class="i2">If you wouldn't go with me</p> + +<p>Where we both could be with daddie,</p> + +<p class="i2">Way out West, where he must be.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">5<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"Then at last the night that loved me,</p> + +<p class="i2">Turned its pent-up furies loose,</p> + +<p>Roaring out on me its anger</p> + +<p class="i2">And unpitying abuse.</p> + +<p>How the rain beat down upon me!</p> + +<p class="i2">How the lightning burned its track</p> + +<p>Through the clouds of storm and thunder</p> + +<p class="i2">As I reached your sod-walled shack!</p> + +<p>All was dark within, and quiet,</p> + +<p class="i2">When I rapped upon the door.</p> + +<p>Then I saw the flash of matches</p> + +<p class="i2">And the lamplight on the floor;</p> + +<p>Heard you stomp your heavy boots on,</p> + +<p class="i2">Heard you walk and draw the bar,</p> + +<p>But the door, when thrown wide open,</p> + +<p class="i2">Showed Jim Johnson standing thar.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">6<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"'What you doing here?' I shouted,</p> + +<p class="i2">When I saw his hateful leer;</p> + +<p>'Tell me what this means, Jim Johnson.</p> + +<p class="i2">Where is Billy? Ain't he here?'</p> + +<p>He was standing on the doorstep,</p> + +<p class="i2">And the light that shone within</p> + +<p>Seemed to twist his wrinkled features</p> + +<p class="i2">In a sort of wonder-grin.</p> + +<p>'Well! well! Nancy! sure's I'm livin'!</p> + +<p class="i2">Out there in the pouring wet!</p> + +<p>Sure I'll care for you, Miss Nancy,</p> + +<p class="i2">I'll protect you, don't you fret!</p> + +<p>I'm a friend that you can count on,</p> + +<p class="i2">Does me good to see your face!</p> + +<p>Come in, gal, and dry your garments,</p> + +<p class="i2">You have struck the very place!'</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">7<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"You don't blame me, do you, Billy,</p> + +<p class="i2">If I did go in and stay,</p> + +<p>Warming by your stove and fire,</p> + +<p class="i2">Just to hear what he would say?</p> + +<p>I will try to tell his story</p> + +<p class="i2">As he told it, if I can,</p> + +<p>Putting in what I remember</p> + +<p class="i2">Of his 'interesting plan.'</p> + +<p>'Now, then, gal, I heard you calling</p> + +<p class="i2">As you stood there in the dark,</p> + +<p>On a fellow, named Bill Truly,</p> + +<p class="i2">But you shot 'way off the mark.</p> + +<p>Billy ain't here now, and further,</p> + +<p class="i2">He won't be here, you can bet;</p> + +<p>Anyhow, that's what he told me</p> + +<p class="i2">Two weeks past, when we last met.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">8<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"'When your folks all skipped the country</p> + +<p class="i2">I decided I'd move, too;</p> + +<p>Thought perhaps you'd get in trouble</p> + +<p class="i2">And I'd try to help you through;</p> + +<p>So I got beyond the posse,</p> + +<p class="i2">Rode like fire upon your track,</p> + +<p>Found your dad, and <i>you</i>not with him,</p> + +<p class="i2">So I turned and came right back.</p> + +<p>Riding home along the Solomon,--</p> + +<p class="i2">For the truth I pledge my word--</p> + +<p>I met Billy with his horses</p> + +<p class="i2">Three miles east of Mingo's Ford.</p> + +<p>Stopped and shook my hand and told me</p> + +<p class="i2">He was so far on his way</p> + +<p>To a ranch 'way up in Utah,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where he'd made his plans to stay.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">9<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"'Said he wanted to be friendly,</p> + +<p class="i2">So the things that he had left,</p> + +<p>If I cherished no hard feelings,</p> + +<p class="i2">I could look on as his gift.</p> + +<p>"If you come across Miss Nancy</p> + +<p class="i2">You can say to her for me,</p> + +<p>That I've got another sweetheart,</p> + +<p class="i2">And that she is wholly free."</p> + +<p>Billy'd never do to tie to--</p> + +<p class="i2">He's too fickle, gal, for you--</p> + +<p>So I just propose to offer</p> + +<p class="i2">You a man that will stay true.</p> + +<p>I have worked it out, Miss Nancy--</p> + +<p class="i2">It's the problem of my life;</p> + +<p>I have planned that you shall stay here</p> + +<p class="i2">As my own dear little wife.'</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">10<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"'Look here, Johnson! You're a liar,</p> + +<p class="i2">When you say he's set me free!</p> + +<p>When you met him there at Mingo's</p> + +<p class="i2">He had gone to hunt for me.</p> + +<p>Don't you dare to touch me, scoundrel!</p> + +<p class="i2">Don't you dare to slur his name!</p> + +<p>You're a cur--a thief--Jim Johnson!</p> + +<p class="i2">You have jumped my sweetheart's claim.</p> + +<p>Don't you dare to venture near me!</p> + +<p class="i2">Or you'll wish you'd not begun.</p> + +<p>All your schemes and double dealings,</p> + +<p class="i2">All your hatched-up plans are done.</p> + +<p>You start now and pack your fixin's!</p> + +<p class="i2">Don't you leave the smallest bit!</p> + +<p>Every filthy thing you own here,</p> + +<p class="i2">Pack it up--you dog, and <i>git!</i>'</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<a name="butinsteadi"></a> <img src="images/illustration_114.jpg" +width="369" height="596" alt= +"But, instead, I shot, to scare him, All the buttons off his coat" +border="0"> + +<table class="poemwrapper" summary="poemwrapper"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">11<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"He was standing there uncertain,</p> + +<p class="i2">And I felt to clinch his throat;</p> + +<p>But, instead, I shot--to scare him--</p> + +<p class="i2">All the buttons off his coat.</p> + +<p>Then I pumped two in the corner,</p> + +<p class="i2">Where he'd sunk down on his knees--</p> + +<p>Slit his ear and cut his collar,</p> + +<p class="i2">Never listening to his pleas.</p> + +<p>Told him if he didn't mosey</p> + +<p class="i2">I would plant his carcass whole,</p> + +<p>In a grave I'd dig that evening</p> + +<p class="i2">On the eighty he had stole.</p> + +<p>Then he promised, but I chased him</p> + +<p class="i2">'Way across the old Saline,</p> + +<p>And so far as I have knowledge,</p> + +<p class="i2">He has never since been seen.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">12<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"When I got back here 'fore morning,</p> + +<p class="i2">Thought of having Kelly's mare,</p> + +<p>So I rode her to his stable</p> + +<p class="i2">And I left her standing there.</p> + +<p>For I knew that you'd consider</p> + +<p class="i2">Twas the proper thing to do,</p> + +<p>If you came back here and found me</p> + +<p class="i2">Holding down your claim for you.</p> + +<p>But I felt right sorry, Billy,</p> + +<p class="i2">When I looked around next day,</p> + +<p>In the box there in the corner</p> + +<p class="i2">Where the pans and dishes lay;</p> + +<p>For in fixing for my breakfast,</p> + +<p class="i2">My! the crockery was slim!</p> + +<p>More than half of it was busted</p> + +<p class="i2">By the bullets fired at Jim:</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">13<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"I forgot to tell you, Billy,</p> + +<p class="i2">That for thirteen months or more,</p> + +<p>You're the only man that's ever</p> + +<p class="i2">Crossed the threshold of that door.</p> + +<p>I have stayed alone and waited,</p> + +<p class="i2">Full of faith that you would come,</p> + +<p>So that I--might go to daddie,</p> + +<p class="i2">And that you'd--have back your home.</p> + +<p>Though perhaps I've sometimes suffered</p> + +<p class="i2">From the cold and from the heat,</p> + +<p>And I've gone for days together,</p> + +<p class="i2">Here, without a bite to eat,</p> + +<p>'Twasn't hunger of the body</p> + +<p class="i2">That I craved to satisfy,</p> + +<p>I was starved for--you--and daddie,</p> + +<p class="i2">As the weary weeks trailed by.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">14<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"How I tried to think and reason</p> + +<p class="i2">Why the fire from one caress</p> + +<p>Turned my burning, yearning spirit</p> + +<p class="i2">To a cinder of distress.</p> + +<p>Some one told me, I remember,</p> + +<p class="i2">Long ago when I was small,</p> + +<p>God made every star up yonder,</p> + +<p class="i2">Everything--the world and all.</p> + +<p>Then I thought that in His workshop,</p> + +<p class="i2">Up there in the heavens above,</p> + +<p>He had made that curious hunger</p> + +<p class="i2">Of the heart that we call love.</p> + +<p>P'r'aps my troubles and the waiting</p> + +<p class="i2">Stirred me to this queer-like whim;</p> + +<p>But I couldn't help it, Billy,</p> + +<p class="i2">I just had to talk to Him.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">15<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>"In the night, when God wa'n't busy</p> + +<p class="i2">And could hear the slightest sound,</p> + +<p>I would venture from my hiding</p> + +<p class="i2">To the top of North Pole Mound.</p> + +<p>I was sure He'd never let His</p> + +<p class="i2">Angels come out this-a-way,</p> + +<p>But would use the wind to carry,</p> + +<p class="i2">Prayers out here, that people pray.</p> + +<p>So I'd hold my hands, and stopping</p> + +<p class="i2">Gusts that tried to struggle free,</p> + +<p>Tell them this here simple message</p> + +<p class="i2">They must take to you from me:</p> + +<p>'Please, dear God, won't you tell Billy</p> + +<p class="i2">That I'm holding down his claim?</p> + +<p>He don't come 'cause he's in trouble.</p> + +<p class="i2">Thank you, God. He ain't to blame.'"</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="header">16<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>Long before her honest story</p> + +<p class="i2">Faltered to its hallowed close,</p> + +<p>Pushing back his untouched supper,</p> + +<p class="i2">Tremblingly her guest arose.</p> + +<p>Vain for him to curb emotion,</p> + +<p class="i2">Or to stammer out his praise</p> + +<p>Through a storm of rude devotion,</p> + +<p class="i2">Cast in halting human phrase.</p> + +<p>Vain for him to frame a message</p> + +<p class="i2">Never meant for words to tell,</p> + +<p>At the joy of reaching heaven</p> + +<p class="i2">By that trail that led through hell.</p> + +<p>But his fervent benediction</p> + +<p class="i2">Was a passionate embrace,</p> + +<p>And the Amen love's own ending,</p> + +<p class="i2">As he kissed her fearless face.</p> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> +</center> +<br> +<br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NANCY MACINTYRE***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 13560-h.txt or 13560-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/5/6/13560">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/5/6/13560</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Nancy MacIntyre + +Author: Lester Shepard Parker + +Release Date: September 30, 2004 [eBook #13560] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NANCY MACINTYRE*** + + +E-text prepared by Audrey Longhurst, Leah Moser, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 13560-h.htm or 13560-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/5/6/13560/13560-h/13560-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/5/6/13560/13560-h.zip) + + + + + +Nancy MacIntyre + +A Tale of the Prairies + +by + +Lester Shepard Parker + +1910 + + + + + + + +[Illustration: "I was takin' leave of Nancy, +Standin' out there in the night."] + + + + +_To My Wee Daughter +RACHEL ELLEN PARKER +this little story is +affectionately inscribed_ + + + + +CONTENTS + +Billy's Revery +The Quarrel +The Disappointment +The Decision +The Search +The Return +Nancy's Story + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +"I was takin' leave of Nancy +Standin out there in the night" (Frontispiece) + +"Then I dragged him on the prairie +Through a Turk's Head cactus bed" + +"I am standing by her dug-out, +Open stands the sagging door" + +"Bringing back a hat of water, +Through the dim light and the rain" + +"Loaded up their prairie schooner, +And vamoosed the ranch, 'fore light" + +"He was startled by a stranger's +Sudden presence and 'Hello!'" + +"Faithful Simon, weak and starving, +Groaned and fell beneath his pack" + +"Resting calm in fancied safety +Sat the elder MacIntyre" + +"Once again the twisted branches +Of the lone and friendly tree" + +"Fiercer with each flying moment +Drove the scorching blasts of death" + +"Standing there, a pictured goddess +Sketched against a lowering storm" + +"But, instead, I shot, to scare him, +All the buttons off his coat" + + + + +BILLY'S REVERY + + +1 + +No use talking, it's perplexing, + Everything don't look the same; +Never had these curious feelin's + Till those MacIntyres came. +Quit my plowing long 'fore dinner, + Didn't hitch my team again; +Spent the day with these new neighbors, + Getting 'quainted with the men. +Talk about the prairie roses! + Purtiest flow'rs in all the world, +But they look like weeds for beauty + When I think of that new girl. +Strange, she seems so kind of friendly + When I'm awkward, every way, +And my tongue gets hitched and hobbled, + Everything I try to say! + + +2 + +There's one person, that Jim Johnson, + That there man I can't abide; +He's been milling around near Nancy,-- + Durn his dirty, yaller hide! +Never really liked that Johnson; + Now, each time I hear his name, +Feel this state's too thickly settled,-- + That is, since that new girl came. +If this making love to women + Went like breaking in a horse, +I might stand some show of winning, + 'Cause I've learned that game, of course; +But this moonshine folks call 'courting,' + I ain't never played that part; +I can't keep from talking foolish + When I'm thinking with my heart. + + +3 + +Now, those women that you read of + In these story picture books, +They can't ride in roping distance + Of that girl in style and looks. +They have waists more like an insect, + Corset shaped and double cinched; +Feet just right to make a watch charm, + Small, of course, because they're pinched. +This here Nancy's like God made her,-- + She don't wear no saddle girth, +But she's supple as a willow, + And the purtiest thing on earth. +I'm in earnest; let me ask you-- + 'Cause I want to reason fair-- +What durn business has that rope-necked + Johnson sneaking over there? + + +4 + +Hands so soft and strong and tender, + When I shook a "how de do," +They was loaded sure with something + Seemed to thrill me through and through; +Hair as black as fire-burnt prairie; + Eyes that dance and flash and flirt; +Every time she smiled she showed you + Teeth as white's my Sunday shirt. +Baked us biscuits light as cotton; + I can't eat mine any more,-- +I must get some better breeches,-- + Kind o' 'shamed of those I wore; +But I'm goin' there to-morrow, + Like enough I'll stay all day, +Seems to me too dry for plowing-- + Durn that Johnson, anyway! + + +5 + +I ain't much on deep-down thinkin', + Reasoning out the way things go, +So I s'pose I'll keep on foolin' + Till in time I get to know. +I've had chills and fever 'n' ague; + Suffered till their course was run. +Maybe love just keeps on runnin', + Till a man has lost--or won. +One thing certain: I have got it; + Seems to struck in good and hard. +Makes me sometimes soft and tender; + Next thing I would fight my pard. +Appetite is surely failing, + Sometimes I don't eat a bite; +Dream of Nancy all the daytime, + That durn Johnson, half the night. + + +6 + +I've just got to get to plowin', + Break a fire-guard 'round my shack, +Plant my sod corn, fix my garden; + Everything is goin' to rack. +I can't work the way I used to; + Got to quittin' early now, +Since a little thing that happened, + I can't just remember how. +I was takin' leave of Nancy, + Standin' out there in the night, +And I put my arms around her-- + Heart stopped beatin', just from fright. +Can't express the kind of feelin',-- + Words wa'n't never made for this,-- +As I drew her face up closer, + And I stole my first sweet kiss. + + + + +THE QUARREL + + +1 + +Things have moved along some smoother + Since a week ago to-night, +Seems my blood turned all to p'ison-- + Me and Johnson had a fight. +Caught him twice up there to Nancy's; + Told him plain to stay away; +But he didn't seem to notice + Anything I had to say. +Caught him settin' there and talkin' + 'Bout the things that he had done-- +Durndest liar on the prairie-- + Laughing like he thought 'twas fun, +Settin' there beside o' Nancy-- + Settin' down is all he does, +Good for nothin', bug-eyed, loafin', + Wrinkled, yaller, meddlin' cuss! + + +2 + +I just let him keep on settin' + All the whole long evenin' through; +When he started off I follered, + Told him what I meant to do. +"Why," says he, "now, don't git foolish; + I ain't skeered o' your light breeze; +I'll go thar and set by Nancy, + Spite o' you, when I blame please." +Well, I don't just clear remember + All the doin's that took place, +But you'll know the story better + If you'll look at Johnson's face. +As we rode we clinched and wrestled, + Then we tumbled to the ground, +Tore the bunch grass up, and cactus, + For a hundred yards around. + + +3 + +Got him down, and in the scrimmage + Felt my lasso on the ground, +Tied his legs and bent him over, + Bound him like he's sittin' down; +Hustled quick to mount my pony, + Threw the loose end round the horn, +Thought I'd learn that Mr. Johnson + He'd missed out in bein' born. +Then I dragged him on the prairie, + Through a Turk's Head cactus bed, +Prickly pears and shoestring bushes,-- + 'Twasn't decent what he said. +He's so dev'lish fond of settin', + Thought I'd fix his settin' end +So's he'd be more kinder careful + Settin' by that girl again. + +[Illustration: "Then I dragged him on the prairie +Through a Turk's Head cactus bed."] + + + + +THE DISAPPOINTMENT + + +1 + +There's a feeling in my bosom, + Like a hound that's lost the game, +After chasing over bunch grass + Till his feet are sore and lame. +I am standing by her dug-out, + Open stands the sagging door; +Every grassblade speaks of Nancy, + But she's gone, to come no more. +For her father and her mother, + And her brothers, late last night, +Loaded up their prairie schooner, + And vamoosed the ranch, 'fore light. +'Taint no use to stand here cussin', + But my heart slumps down like lead +When I think of losing Nancy + And to know my dreams are dead. + + +2 + +It was here I held you, Nancy, + When I showed you all my heart; +When I told you I would always + Be your friend and take your part. +Oh, I thought that in life's lottery + I had drawn the biggest prize, +When I kissed you there that evening + And looked down into your eyes; +For I never had such feelin's + Fill my hide clean through and through +Such a hungry, starving longing, + To be always close to you. +But you've gone with all your family, + And I'm left to mourn my loss, +While the posse hunts your daddie, + 'Cause he stole Bill Kelly's hoss. + + +3 + +Now, I don't know where you're roaming, + And I don't know where'll you'll land; +But I wish you knew my feelin's, + And 'twas clear just how I stand: +How the good Lord, high in heaven, + Put a throbbing heart in here, +But it starts to pumping backwards + When it feels that you don't keer. +I'm a roving old jay-hawker, + Never caught like this before, +But I'd give my last possession + For a glimpse of you once more. +If we lose your old fool father + Folks 'round here can stand the loss, +He was raised in old Missoura, + Or he'd never stole that hoss. + +[Illustration: "I am standing by her dug-out, +Open stands the sagging door."] + + +4 + +When my mind gets to recalling + All the happy times we had, +Good red liquor and tobacco + Gets to tasting kind o' bad. +You remember on your birthday + How I drove 'round kind o' late, +And we went to Donkey Collins' + To a dance, to celebrate? +When you got up in my wagon, + Bless my heart, you sure was sweet! +You was bound that you'd go barefoot, + 'Cause your new shoes hurt your feet. +Well, I tell you, pretty Nancy, + Every minute of that ride +Seemed like floating through the heavens, +'Cause you set there by my side. + + +5 + +When we pulled up at old Collins', + Quite a bunch was there before, +You could hear the fiddler calling, + And the scraping on the floor. +Through the dingy sodhouse window + Gleamed a sickly yellow light, +Where I helped you from the wagon, + Holding you so loving tight. +Then they called out, "Choose your pardners, + Numbers five, six, seven, and eight," +And we hustled up to join in, + For we knew that we were late. +After starting up the music + Something happened--you know what-- +All because I loved you, Nancy, + And their manners made me hot. + + +6 + +I just glanced around the circle, + When we came to "Balance, all;" +To that mess of cowhide-covered + Feet that stomped at every call. +Sure enough, the thing I looked for + Come to pass when Aleck Rose +Tried to _dos-a-dos_ by you, dear, + And, instead, waltzed on your toes. +Recollect? I stopped the fiddler, + And I stopped that stomping crowd, +Using language that was decent, + But was mighty clear and loud: +"Now, you fellers from the Sand Hills, + Fight me, or if you refuse +You don't dance with me and Nancy + While a one of you wears shoes!" + + +7 + +Yes, they took them off, Miss Nancy, + In respect for you and me, +Putting all on equal footing, + Just the way it ought to be. +And we went through all the figures + That we knew in that quadrille, +But it didn't seem like dancin', + Steppin' round so awful still. +Fiddler, even, did his calling + In a sort of quiet hush-- +"Swing your pardners," "Back to places," + "Sounds to me like paddlin' mush." +"Man in center," "Circle round him," + "All join hands," and "'Way you go," +"Wait fur Betsy, she's in trouble, + With a splinter in her toe." + + +8 + +When I took you home, towards morning, + Such a night I never saw. +How the Kansas wind was blowing! + Swift and keen and kind o' raw. +Blew more furious every minute, + Blew a hole clear through the skies; +Blew so loud, like demons hissing, + That the moon was 'fraid to rise. +Got so fierce it blew the stars out, + Saw them flicker, then go dead, +While the blackness, mad and murky, + Rolled in thunder overhead. +Goin' with it, durn my whiskers! + Hind wheels riz plumb off the ground; +Goin' 'gainst it, you and me, dear, + Had to push the hosses down. + + +9 + +Now and then a raindrop whistled + Like a bullet past my head; +And I hollered out to you, dear, + "Scrooch down in the wagon bed." +Then they come as big as hen eggs; + Struck the hosses stinging raps, +Till the frightened, tremblin' critters + Leaped beneath the angry slaps. +Lord a'mighty, how they scampered! + While I gripped the lines in tight, +As the wagon box sailed upward + Like a mighty wind-borne kite. +Down below us ran the hosses, + While we floated through the air, +But through all that roaring shakeup, + You, dear, never turned a hair. + + +10 + +When the lightning flashed around us, + Rabbits stopped to let us by,-- +Looked as if they said by halting, + "We can't race with things that fly!" +Coyotes sneaked off in the slough grass, + Prairie dogs stayed in their holes; +We was lubricated blazes,-- + Couldn't stop to save our souls. +Up the hills we flew like swallows, + Down the slopes, a hurricane, +Bumped and jumped the humps and hollows, + Dragged the ground and riz again. +And I prayed, "Dear Lord, save Nancy, + For a desperate lover's sake!" +You was hangin' to my gallus, + And I felt it strain and break. + + +11 + +Felt you holdin' to my boot-leg, + Slattin' in the roarin' gale, +So, to save you, I worked for'ard, + Got the nigh hoss by the tail. +Miles on miles we tore on blindly, + Had to let the critters roam, +Till, at last, they turned their noses + To the north, and towards their home. +We went charging down a valley, + Stopped in something soft and deep; +Wagon box and you and me, dear, + Landed in a mixed-up heap. +Both the hosses' legs was buried + And I knew that that was proof +We had 'lighted on the top of + Old Jim Davis's dug-out roof. + + +12 + +Now, old Jim was sleeping soundly + Close beside his faithful wife; +Peace had smoothed his savage wrinkles, + All his dreams were free from strife. +He was safe from ragin' cyclones, + Wolves could never force his door, +All the ills of life had vanished, + On his mountain torrent snore. +So when our descent awoke him + Sitting bolt upright in bed, +With the flying hoofs above him, + Kicking hair off of his head, +He aroused his sleeping helpmeet; + Loud his curses and abuse, +"Mary, hike your lazy carcass, + Hell has turned the devil loose." + +[Illustration: "Bringing back a hat of water, +Through the dim light and the rain."] + + +13 + +While ole Jim was shooting at us-- + Couldn't make him understand; +Kept his blamed old gun a-going + Till he got me through the hand-- +Not a whimper did you utter, + But you grabbed the hosses' heads, +Coaxed and helped them in their trouble, + While they strove like thoroughbreds, +Lunging, plunging, you stayed with them + Till they both were clear and free. +Riding one, you lashed them forward, + Circled round and picked up me, +Helped me mount, while Jim was loading; + Then we struck off through the night, +Right across the storm-swept prairie, + Till the East was streaked with light. + + +14 + +I was faint and sick and dizzy, + From my shattered, bleeding hand, +And it seemed as if the jolting + Gave me more than I could stand. +Once I reeled, and would have fallen, + If you hadn't held me there; +Put your dear arm tight around me, + Whispered, "Billy, don't you care." +Then you headed straight for water, + Threw the lines, dismounted first, +Smoothed the grass down for my pillow, + While the hosses quenched their thirst. +Then you bathed my throbbing forehead,-- + Love and healing in the touch,-- +Sayin', "Billy, pardner, listen: + That there shootin' wasn't much!" + + +15 + +From your skirt you tore a piece out, + Dressed my wounds so neat and quick, +That I felt the Lord had sent you + Just to soothe and heal the sick. +Bringing back a hat of water, + Through the dim light and the rain, +Thought I saw your face turn paler, + Like you felt a twinge o' pain; +But as you knelt down beside me + I could hear you humming low +Some mysterious song, stopped short by, + "Billy, man, we sure must go!" +And the sun turned loose his glory, + Through the tempest-riven sky, +Till it touched us like a blessing + From the Father there on high. + + +16 + +I am standing by her dug-out; + Open swings the sagging door, +Every grassblade speaks of Nancy; + But she's gone, to come no more, +For her father and her mother, + And her brothers, late last night, +Loaded up their prairie schooner, + And vamoosed the ranch, 'fore light. +There's the bed poles and the stove hole; + Not a thing is left for me, +As a keepsake of my Nancy, + Anywhere that I can see. +What! a paper, pinned up yonder, + Kind o' folded like a note! +It has writin', sure as blazes! + It is somethin' Nancy wrote. + + +17 + +"My dere billy, you will wunder + Why I ever rote you this; +I am sorry I am leevin + Daddie needs me in his biz. +I don't reely like this quiet + Kind of sober farmer life; +I like something allus doin, + But for this, I'd be your wife. +I got two of old Jim's bullets, + Didn't like to let you know, +Cause the one that you was luggin' + Seemed to fret and hurt you so. +Daddie cut them out that evenin; + I don't mind a little such, +But, dere billy, don't you worry, + Old Jim's shootin wasn't much." + + + + +THE DECISION + + +1 + +Since that girl went off and left me, + I can't plan just what to do. +Saw Tom Frothingham this mornin', + He says Johnson's gone off, too. +My old mother used to tell me, + When I lagged at any task, +"Keep on working, do no shirking, + You will bring the thing to pass." +That advice has been my motto: + Everything that I've begun, +I've stayed with it, sick or weary, + Till the job was squarely done. +But this case is kind o' different; + Though I ain't the kind that grieves, +How you goin' to work that motto + When the job gets up and leaves? + + +2 + +S'pose, in thinkin' and decidin', + I refuse to do my part;-- +Just sit down and let my mem'ry + Finish breaking up my heart-- +S'pose I give up like a coward, + Let the world say I ain't game, +'Cause by leavin' I should forfeit + My poor eighty-acre claim. +I ain't 'fraid to do my duty + If I'm clear what it's about, +But this scrape is so peculiar + That my mind's smoked up with doubt. +I believe that Nancy loves me, + And it may be she'll stay true; +But I wonder why the blazes + That durn Johnson's gone off too. + + +3 + +Blamed if I don't get my hosses, + Saddle Zeb and lead old Si, +And we'll search the wind-swept prairie + Till we find that girl, or die! +Who'd a thought a man's whole future + Could get twisted up like this? +All his plans burn up like tinder + In the fire of one sweet kiss! +"Zeb, come here, and good old Simon-- + Listen while I talk to you; +Put your noses on my shoulder + While I tell you what we'll do. +Your fool master's deep in trouble, + Can't explain to you just how, +But until we find my Nancy, + You shall never pull a plow." + + + + +THE SEARCH + + +1 + +In the West, where twilight glories + Paint with blood each sky-line cloud, +While the virgin rolling prairie + Slowly dons her evening shroud; +While the killdeer plover settles + From its quick and noisy flight; +While the prairie cock is blowing + Warning of the coming night-- +There against the fiery background + Where the day and night have met, +Move three disappearing figures, + Outlined sharp in silhouette. +Zeb and Si and Bill, the lover, + Chafing under each delay, +Pass below the red horizon, + Toward the river trail away. + + +2 + +Far across the upland prairie + To the valley-land below, +Where the tall and tangled joint-grass + Makes the horses pant and blow, +There the silent Solomon River + Reaching westward to its source, +With its fringe of sombre timber + Guides the lover on his course. +All the night he keeps his saddle, + Urging Zeb and Simon on, +Till the trail clears up before him + In the gray of early dawn. +Where it turns in towards the river, + Arched above with vine-growth rank, +He, dismounting, ties the horses + Near the steep and treacherous bank. + + +3 + +More than light and shade and landscape + Meet the plainsman's searching look, +For the paths that lie before him + Are the pages of his book. +Stooping down and reading slowly, + Noting every trace around, +Of the travel gone before him, + Every mark upon the ground, +Down the winding, deep-cut roadway + Furrowed out by grinding tire, +Where the ruts lead to the water, + In the half-dried plastic mire, +He beholds the telltale marking + Of an odd-shaped band of steel, +Welded to secure the fellies + Of old MacIntyre's wheel. + + + +4 + +High above the wind is moaning + In a lonely, fretful mood, +Through the lofty spreading branches + Of the elm and cottonwood. +Where the willows hide the fordway + With their fringe of lighter green, +Is the dam, decayed and broken, + Where the beavers once have been. +On the sycamore bent o'er it, + With its gleaming trunk of white, +Sits the barred owl, idly blinking + At the early morning's light, +While, within its spacious hollow, + Where the rotting heart had clung +Till removed by age and fire, + Sleeps the wild cat with her young. + + +5 + +Plunging through the sluggish water, + Scarcely halting for a drink, +Toiling through the sticky quagmire, + They attain the farther brink. +Here the trail leads to the westward,-- + Once the redman's wild domain; +Now the shallow rutted highway + Of the settler's wagon train. +Here and there along the edges, + Paths work through the waving grass, +Where at night from bluff to river, + Sneaking coyotes find a pass. +Here the meadow lark sings gaily + As she leaves her hidden nest, +While the sun of early morning + Double-tints her orange breast. + + +6 + +Up this broad and fertile valley, + Tracing all its winding ways, +Plodding on with dogged patience + Through a score of weary days, +Camping in the lonely timber, + Sleeping on the scorching plain, +Bearing heat and thirst and hunger, + Sore fatigue and wind and rain-- +Halting only when the telltale + Mark was missing in the track; +Only when he called a greeting, + As he passed some settler's shack; +Till the valley and its timber + Vanished, where the rolling sward +Of the westward-sweeping prairie + Marks the trail 'cross Mingo's ford. + + +7 + +Here for hours he searched the crossing + And the wheel-ruts leading on +To the north, a full day's journey, + But the guiding mark was gone. +Not a vestige here remaining + Of the sign that could be told, +For old Mac had traveled swiftly + And the trail was mixed and old. +Two whole days Bill searched and waited, + Hoping for some other clew, +Weighing questions of direction, + Undecided what to do. +Till, one night, while cooking supper + By the camp-fire's genial glow, +He was startled by a stranger's + Sudden presence and "Hello!" + + +8 + +Tall of stature, dark of visage, + By the wind well dried and tanned, +Clad in "shaps" and spurs that jingled, + With a bull whip in his hand. +Close behind him in the shadows, + Eyes aglow with red and green, +Stood a blazed-face Texas pony, + Ewe-necked, cat-hammed, wild, and mean. +"Hello, stranger! glad to see you, + Got my cattle fixed for night; +Just got through, and riding round 'em, + 'Cross the bluff, I saw your light. +No, thanks, pardner, had my supper; + Seems your fire is short o' wood; +I just thought I'd see who's camped here-- + Gee! that bacon does smell good!" + + +9 + +When the frugal meal was over, + When the pipes were filled and lit, +And the cowboy ceased his stories + Weak in moral, rank in wit, +Billy plied him long with questions, + Wording each with thought and care, +Lest his zeal for information + Should reveal his mission there. +"Tell me who you've seen go by here, + Just within the last few days; +What they had for teams and outfits; + How the country round here lays. +Have you seen a prairie schooner-- + Old style freighter--pass this way? +Both wheel hosses white-nosed sorrels, + Lead team of a dun and gray?" + +[Illustration: "Loaded up their prairie schooner, +And vamoosed the ranch 'fore light."] + +[Illustration: "He was startled by a stranger's +Sudden presence and 'Hello!'"] + + +10 + +"I remember some such outfit, + If I've got your idee right. +Think they camped a mile below here + Week ago last Thursday night. +Pulled in sometime 'long 'bout sundown, + Turned their stock in yonder draw, +But an oldish sort of fellow + Was the only one I saw; +Rode a speckled chestnut pony + With a white star in his face; +Asked some questions 'bout the country, + 'Bout the proper crossing-place. +Pulled out sometime long 'fore daylight. + Didn't see them when they passed, +But from all the indications + They was trav'ling pretty fast. + + +11 + +"Crossed right here where we are settin', + Saw their trail that very day; +Struck plumb north, and by my reck'nin' + Towards the north they'll likely stay. +North of here, by my experience, + He'll find grass that's mighty fine. +Chances are that he'll keep goin' + Till he strikes Nebraska's line. +It was just the next day after + That my cattle scattered so; +Some strayed off 'way south to Jimson's, + One bunch in the bend below. +That's the day I met that feller + (Eyes so black he couldn't see) +Who kept pumpin' me with questions + Like you've just been askin' me. + + +12 + +"Asked about that prairie schooner, + Said that they was friends of hisn, +Like to wore me plumb to frazzles + With his everlasting quiz'n. +Rode a piebald, knock-kneed broncho; + Coat was battered, ripped, and torn; +He was yaller, long, and g'anted + Like a steer with holler horn. +An' you oughter seen his breeches! + He must sure be shy on sense; +Why, they looked like he'd been riding + On a bucking barb wire fence. +You won't meet him, 'cause I saw him + Coming back across this way, +Going eastward where he come from; + Took the back trail yesterday. + + +13 + +"Said he'd found the old man's outfit + Moving westward on North Fork. +Can't remember all he told me, + For he runs a heap to talk. +Said he'd found out what he wanted; + Said he 'had a plan or two, +And the folks that knowed Jim Johnson, + Knowed that he would put 'em through.' +Then there's others took the west trail; + They got that way huntin' range-- +Funny how folks when they come here + Get to itchin' for a change! +I've been stayin' too confinin'; + Never left this herd but once. +I'm the oldest puncher round here,-- + Been here over fourteen months." + + +14 + +Long before the sun had risen, + While the night mist's ghostly veil +Hid from view the sloughs and hollows, + Billy took the northern trail. +Through the sunflowers in the low land, + Plodding over sandstone knolls, +Winding through the level stretches + Dotted thick with treacherous holes +Where the prairie dogs sat chattering, + Bolt upright upon their mounds, +While the ground owls sought their burrows, + Startled by the warning sounds; +Stumbling into buffalo wallows, + Dug out in an earlier day +By the halting herds that rested, + Rolled and bellowed in their play. + + +15 + +Now and then the sheltered hillside + Waved its varicolored flowers +As a greeting to the trav'ler, + Solace to the toilsome hours. +Old Jack Rabbit hopped before him, + Then sat up, to watch him pass, +Dusky horned-toads scurried nimbly + Through the withered buffalo grass. +Here and there the buzzing rattler + Whirred a warning, head alert, +Then retreated from the snapping, + Stinging strokes of Billy's quirt. +Day by day the wild breeze flying, + With'ring in its scorching heat, +Hummed a tune to labored beating + Of the plodding horses' feet. + + +16 + +Day by day this panorama + Passing slowly, dully by, +With the sun's brass disc high gleaming + From a white and cloudless sky, +Sometimes drew fantastic pictures. + Many a strange and gruesome sign-- +Phantom trees and fairy castles-- + Blurred the far horizon line. +Then they'd vanish like the fancies + Of a fever-smitten brain, +And returning, changed in outline, + Elsewhere on the mighty plain +Would allure the eyesore trav'ler + Till the very sky above +Seemed to mock with vague mirages + Every surety of love. + + +17 + +When each weary day was over, + Halting near some watering-place, +Bill unpacked his meager outfit, + Turned the horses loose to graze, +Baked his varicolored dough-bread, + On a fire of cattle chips; +Coffee made of green-scummed water, + Nectar to his thirsty lips. +On the ground he spread his blanket + And reclining there alone, +Heard the swiftly sweeping breezes + Sing in dreary monotone +Strange wild anthems, weird and lonesome, + Like lost spirits floating by, +While afar in broken measure + Swelled the coyotes' yelping cry. + + +18 + +All the varied information + Gathered from the few he passed-- +Some from herders, some from stragglers + Gave the missing clew at last +As to where old Mac was heading; + For that telltale band of steel +Stamped along the endless roadway + Printed by the turning wheel, +Pressed its image on the memory + Of the settlers coming back, +Who, when questioned by the searcher, + Told him that the telltale track +Had begun to veer to westward + After crossing by the way +Leading up the North Platte River, + Where the sand wastes stretch away. + + +19 + +As he crossed this barren prairie's + Sweeping waste of poverty, +Billy paused beside the cripple + Of a wind-torn twisted tree, +Standing there, marooned forever, + Where its hapless seed had blown, +Miles on miles from forest neighbor, + Struggling out its life alone. +Here he stopped, with head uncovered, + Conscious of a strange appeal, +Yielding to the voiceless longing + Human hearts are bound to feel +When their lot is isolation, + And a field of sterile soil +Dwarfs and twists the struggling spirit + As the body bends with toil. + + +20 + +Here, that subtle, silent craving, + Which with life will never end, +Of the lonesome and the needy + For the comfort of a friend, +Drew the trav'ler to this tree waif, + And he spread his outfit near, +And they held that sacred converse + Which the soul alone can hear. +While the horses browsed the sage brush, + And the sun withdrew his light, +And the moon in mournful splendor + Ushered in the lonely night, +He lay down beneath the branches, + Wrapped in musings strange and deep-- +Thoughts that bore him off in silence + O'er the placid sea of sleep. + + +21 + +In his dreams he saw a monarch + Decked in sumptuous array, +Seated on a throne of glory + Bearing royal title, Day. +Then some mighty power transcendent, + Thrust him from his gorgeous throne, +Turning all the realm to darkness, + And the world was left alone. +As the shades of gloom were spreading, + By strange flashing threads of light +He beheld in dim-drawn outline, + On the background of the night, +Phantom horse and girlish rider, + Speeding on in reckless race, +Till she turned directly toward him + And he saw her fearless face! + +[Illustration: "Faithful Simon, weak and starving, +Groaned and fell beneath his pack...."] + + +22 + +With the journey's slow progression + Slipped away the summer days, +Merging with the sleepy beauty + Of the lazy autumn haze; +And the frosts and drought combining + Waged relentless battle there, +Withering up the scanty ranges, + Leaving all the country bare. +When he entered Colorado, + Following still the barren plain +Where for months the mocking heavens + Never spared a drop of rain, +Faithful Simon, weak and starving, + Following feebly in the track +Pulled upon his straining halter, + Groaned and fell beneath his pack. + + +23 + +Vain were all the kind entreaties, + Vain the simple nursing done +To relieve his palsied weakness-- + Poor old Simon's course was run. +Billy spent the night beside him, + But with next day's early dawn, +With the east's first flush of scarlet, + Simon's faithful soul passed on. +Then, with hands outstretched before him, + Half remembering what was said +When a child he saw the sexton + Sprinkle earth upon the dead-- +"Dust to dust, and then to ashes-- + I forget the other part-- +I can't say the words I want to, + I can't think--all's in my heart. + + +24 + +"Over twenty years, old pardner, + We have been companions true; +You have always kept your end up + In the hardships we've gone through. +If we'd stayed, and I had never + Seen her face or touched her hand, +We should still have been contented, + On our little piece of land. +This strange spell won't let me falter, + Though the chasing never ends; +Seems that nothing ever'll stop it, + Sickness, death, or loss of friends. +Where this love will drive a fellow, + I ain't wise enough to tell; +Sometimes think it leads to heaven + By a trail that runs through hell." + + +25 + +Weeks thereafter, plodding northward + Crossing over Lodge Pole creek, +Threading Colorado's stretches-- + Sandy deserts wild and bleak-- +Where the sun wars on the living, + Struggling 'neath his blinding light, +Then resigns his work of ravage + To the chilling frosts of night; +Where the bleaching bones of horses + Here and there bestrew the plains, +Telling many a ghastly story + Of misguided settlers' trains-- +Where the early frontier ranger + Marked the first trail to Cheyenne, +Billy, following its wand'rings, + Found the missing mark again. + + +26 + +Then the labored pace grew faster + As he passed each camping place, +Marking well the lessening distance + In the long-contested race. +Riding through Wyoming's foothills, + With their rugged summit lines +Stretched across the clear horizon, + Fringed with pointed spruce and pines, +He beheld, one early morning, + Rising slowly to the sky, +Smoke--the thin and gauzy column + Of a camp fire built close by; +And, on looking down the valley + With exultant, ringing cheer, +He beheld the prairie schooner + And the MacIntyres near. + + +27 + +On an open spot of grass land + Gilded by the rising sun, +Sloping sharply to the crevice + Where the mountain waters run, +Ike, reclining, watched the horses, + Now increased to quite a band, +While above him, in the timber, + Brother Bill, with gun in hand, +Held it poised in sudden wonder, + Half in attitude to shoot, +As he saw the coming rider, + Heard his loudly yelled salute. +Near an old abandoned cabin, + Huddled by the breakfast fire, +Resting calm in fancied safety + Sat the elder MacIntyre. + +[Illustration: "Resting calm in fancied safety +Sat the elder MacIntyre."] + + +28 + +"You! Why, Billy, where d'you come from? + What new game you playing now? +If you're out on posse business + By the gods, jest start your row! +What you saying? You are friendly? + Wal, I'm glad to hear it's so; +And I s'pose you made the journey + Way out here to let me know! +Oh! you're talking 'bout our Nancy! + Now I just begin to see. +Set down, Billy; you are askin' + Something that sure puzzles me. +Nancy ain't like other women-- + What I say may hit you queer, +But it's jest as well to tell you-- +That there girl--she isn't here. + + +29 + +"Don't stampede your words, now, Billy. + Slow 'em down and let 'em walk. +Lord a'mighty, man! keep quiet! + Never heard such crazy talk! +Where's the girl? Wal, let me tell you-- + T'aint no use to take on so-- +Where is Nancy? P'r'aps in heaven; + I can't tell yer,--I don't know. +When we left last spring from Kansas, + Travelin' mostly in the night, +We was chased up by a posse; + Fourth day out we had a fight. +We had jest unhitched the hosses, + Making camp at Old Man's Creek-- +Gimme some o' that tobacker, + I've been out for more'n a week. + + +30 + +"We had jest unhitched the hosses, + Nance was riding Kelly's mare, +When we heard them all a-comin'-- + They had seen us pull in there. +Nancy said,' I'll hold 'em, daddie, + Get the outfit over here, +And I'll trail you in the mornin'; + I will see they don't get near.' +It was in that heavy timber-- + Growing dark and spittin' rain-- +Where the creek runs to the eastward, + Makes that loop, and back again. +We was in a reg'lar pocket; + Creek banks made a kind of bluff +All around us, so it looked like + We was trapped there, sure enough. + + +31 + +"Wal, we had a time in movin'; + Things got mixed up in the rush; +Lead team broke a piece of harness + Pulling through the underbrush. +Then the wagon turned clean over, + But we drug her plumb across, +Hitched with ropes and other fixin's, + Usin' every extra hoss. +Wal, you never heard such shootin', + Bullets whizzin' everywhere; +Pumped 'em on us till it sounded + Like they had an army there. +Nancy stayed and cracked it to 'em, + Kind o' circlin' round and round; +I could tell the two six-shooters + She was usin', by the sound. + + +32 + +"You can bet we did some trav'lin' + All that night and all next day; +I could still a-hear the shootin' + After we was miles away. +I supposed we'd see the girl come + Ridin' up to us 'fore long, +That is--I was jest a-thinkin'-- + If there wasn't somethin' wrong. +But, in spite of all our lookin', + Sometimes slackin' up our gait, +Always thinkin' we should see her + Every time we'd stop and wait. +We have never seen her, Billy, + And I own I'm balked a bit, +Fur I know that she's a critter + Made of nothin' else but grit. + + +33 + +"I wish I could go and find her, + But 'twould be too hot for me; +Long before I got back that fur + I'd be strung up to a tree. +So I've been a kind o' thinkin', + Since I see what's both'rin' you, +'Bout a thing--I hate to ask it-- + That I'd like for you to do. +I don't think that girl has ever-- + It sure hurts me, what I say-- +But I'm sure that in the scrimmage + Nancy never got away. +Billy, you go back and find her; + You are all I've got to send, +You can sort o' fix things decent, + Where she is--in Old Man's Bend." + + + + +THE RETURN + + +1 + +Every life is but a journey-- + Trav'ling on from place to place-- +Starting from the point God gave us + With an ever-varying pace. +Outward, onward, spurred by motives + In our wand'rings here and there, +Sometimes led by hope alluring, + Sometimes halted by despair; +But the life that travels farthest + On that deeper strength depends, +For with love, there is no turning; + When love dies the journey ends. + + +2 + +Back across the broken foothills, + With a courage none can feel +Till the burning pangs of sorrow + Turn the heart-strings into steel; +Back across the winter's playground, + Tracing out the paths he trod, +With each muttered execration + Ending in a prayer to God. +Blasts that howled with fiendish laughter, + By their loud derisive cry +Seemed to mock his labored progress + As they passed him swiftly by; +Icy, blizzard-driven snowflakes + Into ghost-like fancies whirled, +Painting on the barren canvas, + Gaunt Death battling for the world. + + +3 + +Back across the snow-strewn desert, + Fighting famine face to face, +Trusting to his horse to take him + To each former camping place. +Once Zeb stopped beside a snowdrift + With a loud and startling neigh; +Tried to tell his half-dazed master + Where his mate, old Simon, lay. +Pressing on, he reached the border + Of Nebraska's whitened plain, +Where his mind in maudlin fancies + Yielded to the bitter strain, +As he saw far in the distance, + Like a battered mast at sea, +Once again the twisted branches + Of the lone and friendly tree. + +[Illustration: "Once again the twisted branches +Of the lone and friendly tree."] + + +4 + +"Git up, Zeb. Come, see! She's waving! + Waving there for you and me. +See her there, so white and pretty, + Standing by our friend, the tree! +Quit that stumbling! Now then, streak it! + Hit the gait you used to do +When we hired out for the round up + And you beat the first one through. +There she is! There's where I saw her + When we stayed there all that night; +Though 'twas dark, I saw her riding, + By those flashing threads of light; +She's been waiting! Oh, I left her + In this awful lonely place! +God forgive me! Nancy! hear me! + Oh, that face--that poor white face!" + + +5 + +One cold morning, old Zach Baxter, + Riding o'er this snowbound sea +Saw a famished pony standing + Near a queer and lonely tree. +From his frost-encrusted nostrils + Came a plaintive whinny, low, +As the man rode up beside him + Struggling through the drifted snow. +When the old man tried to lead him, + He refused to turn away; +But he pawed the drift beneath him, + Where his stricken master lay. +And below the cold, white cover, + In a deathlike stupor deep, +Old Zach found a sorry stranger + Shrouded for his last long sleep. + + +6 + +Tearing at the ragged bundle + Lodged between the horse's feet, +Clutching at the frozen blanket, + Brushing back the crusted sleet, +Faithful in his rude endeavors, + Rousing by his loud commands, +Roughly shaking, turning, rubbing, + Zach breathed on his face and hands; +Till the stiffened limbs responded + And the closed eyes opened wide, +Dazed and puzzled at the stranger + Working fiercely at his side. +Billy felt the strong arms raise him, + Felt the Frost King's stinging breath +As he struggled, half unconscious, + In the wav'ring fight with death. + + +7 + +In the east, the sun dogs glistened + Like tall shafts of marble, bright, +O'er the whitened grave of nature,-- + Ghostly spires of frozen light, +Flying frost flakes snapping, sparkling, + Dancing in a wild display, +Turned into a mist of diamonds + As they mocked the newborn day. + + +8 + +Old Zach's pony bearing double, + Reeking steam from every pore, +Reached at last the covered pathway + Leading to the dug-out door. +With his arms clasped tight round Billy, + Zach half dragged his helpless load +Through the lowly, mud-walled entrance + Of his rudely built abode. +There, upon the narrow bunk bed + Spread with nondescript attire, +Zach enfolded him in wrappings + While he started up a fire; +And no nurse, however skillful, + Whatsoever her degree, +Ever gave more loyal service + To a patient, than did he. + + +9 + +Poor and meager were the comforts + Of Zach's cave-like prairie home, +Permeated with the odor + Of the fresh-dug virgin loam. +Pungent wreaths of smoke, slow drifting, + Floated lazily above, +To the dried grass of the ceiling + From the cracked and rusty stove. +Willow poles athwart for rafters + Sagged beneath the dirt roof's strain, +And a piece of grease-smeared paper + Formed the only window-pane. +In the center, on the dirt floor + Stood a table-like affair +Fashioned from a wagon end-gate, + Where Zach spread his scanty fare. + + +10 + +There for weeks lay Billy, helpless, + Racked with mad'ning fever pains, +As the burning sun of summer + Scorches sere the desert plains. +Then he lay with cold, white features + And the feeble, scarce drawn breath, +As the silent winter prairie + Lies beneath its shroud of death. +Ofttimes when the raging sickness + Sent the hot blood to his brain, +He would point with frantic gesture + To the dingy window pane, +Calling in excited mutterings, + Eyes transfixed in frenzied fright-- +"There she is! Now, can't you see her? + See her face there in the light!" + + +11 + +Then old Zach would try to soothe him + In his simple-hearted way; +"She won't hurt you," he would tell him, + "I'll go drive her clear away. +I've seen things--now listen, pardner-- + Those things happened once to me +Once down there in old Dodge City, + Winding up a three weeks' spree. +What you see is jest a 'lusion, + 'Cause you're crazy in your head; +When your thinker's runnin' proper + You'll find 'She' is gone or dead. +There, now, pardner, see what this is! + Ain't it purty? Your tin cup; +Found a little pinch o' coffee. + That's the boy, now, drink it up!" + + +12 + +When the breeze of spring in whispers + Stirred the withered bunch-grass plume, +Humming hymns of resurrection + Over nature's silent tomb, +And the fleeing clouds of heaven, + Bending low at God's command, +Spilled their tribute from the ocean + On the long-forsaken land, +And the sun, with mellow kindness + Spread abroad his softened rays, +Calling bud and blade and blossom + From their sleep of many days, +Billy heard, at last, the music + Of the glad earth's jubilee, +Felt a new strength stir within him, + And a longing to be free. + + +13 + +One day, o'er the hill's low summit, + Whence the prairie dipped away, +There appeared a moving wagon + With its canvas patched and gray, +Like a vessel on the ocean + Under taut and close-reefed sail, +Rising slowly on the billows + Heaped up by the driving gale. +Veering towards the little dug-out, + Making for a friendly shore, +Heaving to, the schooner anchored + Close beside the open door. +Loud and hearty were the greetings, + For the driver of the team +Was Tom Frothingham, a neighbor, + Who had lived near Billy's claim. + + +14 + +Bit by bit he told the story-- + How he'd wandered all around +Since he left his Kansas homestead + And the folks near North Pole mound; +How he'd traveled all through Texas + With the roving fever on, +Camping oft in strange new places, + Where no other soul had gone. +So the news, now half forgotten + In his absence from the place, +Came in broken recollections-- + Careful efforts to retrace +All the incidents of interest + To the sick one listening there, +Who, with pale and careworn features, + Heard the story with despair. + + +15 + +"Three weeks after you left Kansas + I hitched up and came away. +Still, I reckoned you intended + To improve your claim and stay; +For your eighty was a picture-- + Running spring and good clear land-- +Everything a body needed + For a starter, right at hand. +Well, some others left 'fore I did-- + You remember Mac, of course, +How he got the moving notion + When Bill Kelly missed his horse? +Chased him clear to Old Man's crossing, + So I heard the posse say; +Thought they had him fairly cornered, + But, by jings! he got away. + + +16 + +"There are stranger things than fiction; + What is natural may seem queer, +So I s'pose we needn't wonder + At the things we see out here. +One thing happened since you left there + That I call a burning shame-- +Did you know that rope-necked Johnson + Jumped your eighty-acre claim? +Last I saw him, he was plowing, + And he laughed and tried to joke: +Said 'twas kind of you to leave him + All the ground that you had broke; +Said your house was so untidy + He was sleeping out of doors, +Till he got a girl to help him + Wash the pans and scrub the floors. + + +17 + +"Lots of people coming in there + From most every foreign land-- +Massachusetts and Missouri-- + Made a mess I couldn't stand. +Every man that's made of manhood + Wants to live where he is free, +So I'm bound to keep on moving + When they get to crowding me. +Then another thing that happened: + Puzzled every one around +When they heard one morning early, + That Bill Kelly's horse was found. +Aleck Rose told me about it + After I had packed and gone; +Said the mare strayed in the dooryard + With Mac's steel-horn saddle on." + + +18 + +As each day in steady conquest + Charged the ranks of fleeing night, +Winning back the stolen hours + With their golden spears of light; +As the living in all nature + Felt that mighty spirit's sway, +So the sick man caught the power + And his illness wore away. +One clear morning, as Aurora + Silver-tinted all the plain, +In his weatherbeaten saddle + Billy took the trail again. +"Good by, boy," old Zach repeated, + "I'm most sure you'll never see +Any more o' them 'ere 'lusions, + Anyway, what you called 'She.'" + + +19 + +Day by day the low horizon + Spread its narrow circle round, +As if fate had drawn a barrier, + And forbade advance beyond. +Though the journey dragged on slowly, + Night time brought its sure reward, +For the added miles behind him + Stretched at length to Mingo's Ford, +Where the breeze bore from the upland + Broken fragments of the song +Of the cowboy with his cattle, + As he drove the strays along; +Where the voice of flowing water + And the treble of the birds, +Swelled the hallowed evening anthem + To the bass of lowing herds. + + +20 + +Then the trail along the Solomon + Where the timber, making friends +With the ever-widening valley, + Filled the rounded river bends; +Then the rankling recollection, + As he passed some well-known place +Where before, with hope and vigor, + He had sped in fruitless chase. +Then the lonely camp at nightfall, + Where the wind in monotone +Thrummed the harp strings of the grass stems, + Breathing low its song, "Alone!" +Where the stars, fixed in the heavens, + To his upturned face would say, +With their heartless glint of distance, + "She thou seek'st is far away." + + +21 + +Then the long, far-reaching bottoms + Rank with withered blue-joint grass, +With its broken stems entangled + In a matted jungle mass; +Then across the higher prairie, + Searching out a shorter way, +To the creek that joined the river + Where Mac crossed and got away; +Then the twinge of bitter sorrow + As he neared his journey's end, +And beheld the fringe of timber + On the banks of Old Man's bend, +Where no living sign or token + Broke the gloom that brooded there, +Save a solitary buzzard + Floating idly in the air. + + +22 + +From these high and broken hilltops + He could trace the river's flow, +And the creek's untamed meandering, + With its looplike bend below, +Seeming in the light of evening + Like a giant serpent there, +Which had coiled about its victim, + And lay resting in its lair. +Breaking through the tangled brushwood + As the night was coming on, +Creeping down the steep embankment + Where the muddy waters run, +Billy crossed within the timber + Where the shroud of deeper gloom, +And its chilling breath of darkness + Marked the hidden prairie tomb. + + +23 + +As the soul in deep communion, + Seeks some isolated bower +Where the body's sordid cravings + Yield beneath the spirit's power, +So the searcher, bowed in reverence, + Left untouched his evening fare +As he listened to the voices + Of the shadows gathering there. +Here no lighted torch or camp fire + With its weak and fitful ray, +Could illume the mystic journey + Of prayer's consecrated way. +Here the silence brought its message + Of forebodings, vague and deep, +In its visions to the dreamer, + Through the mystery of sleep. + + +24 + +In his dreams he saw a monarch + Decked in sumptuous array, +Seated on a throne of glory, + Bearing royal title, Day. +Then some mighty power transcendent, + Thrust him from his gorgeous throne, +Turning all the realm to darkness, + And the world was left alone. +As the shades of gloom were spreading, + By strange flashing threads of light +He beheld in dim-drawn outline, + On the background of the night, +Phantom horse and girlish rider, + Speeding on in reckless race, +Till she turned directly toward him + And he saw her fearless face. + + +25 + +Then, behold! the King returning + With a pageantry so bright, +That the shadow-clad usurpers + Fled in ignominious fright. +As he saw the hosts approaching + Through a cloud of battle smoke, +Charging wildly down upon him, + He, in sudden fear, awoke. +As he looked, the blackened heavens + Splashed with demon-tinted blood +From the hue of burning prairie + Throbbed above the fiery flood. +Leaping o'er the rounded bluff-tops, + Down the valley's long incline, +He could see the lurid column + Spread its blazing battle line. + + +26 + +Like a troop of charging horsemen + Sweeping on with maddened roar, +Mowing down the grass battalions, + Crackling flames swept all before. +Then the driftwood's rifted breastwork, + Left there by the waters high, +Flashed up in a hissing furnace, + As the red-armed fiends leaped by. +Clinging to the swaying saddle + And the plunging horse's mane, +Billy dashed through falling embers + To the level, open plain. +On the right and left, the head fires + Rushing on at furious pace, +Stretched beside the horse and rider + In the life-and-death-fought race. + + +27 + +Here the gale with venomed fury + Met in vortex from afar, +Raising high the flaming pennons + Of the fiery fiends of war. +Flashing by, the blazing grass stems + Sped like arrows through the air, +Falling on the distant prairie, + Kindling fresh fires everywhere. +Pressing through the low-flung smoke clouds-- + Stifling fumes of Hades' breath-- +Fiercer with each flying moment + Drove those scorching blasts of death. +Thrice his horse, 'neath quirt and rowel + Bravely struggling, almost fell, +As he fled in desperation + O'er the trail that led through hell. + + +28 + +One poor singed and panting coyote + Through the perils of the ride +Hemmed in by the flames pursuing + Ran close by the horse's side. +Scarce a meager pace behind them, + Pressing hard the coyote's rear, +Raced a frantic old jack rabbit, + Ears laid low in speed and fear. +Reaching now a stretch of upland, + Here the coyote changed his course, +Breaking through the narrow side-fire, + Followed fast by hare and horse; +And, upon the smoking prairie + Over which the fire had passed, +Steaming horse and stricken rider + Found a breathing space at last. + +[Illustration: "Fiercer with each flying moment +Drove those scorching blasts of death."] + + +29 + +When the morning sun in splendor + Rose upon the blackened plain, +His red beams revealed the lover + Back at Old Man's Bend again. +Waist deep in its soothing waters + Bathing blistered brow and hands; +While near by, in pain a-tremble, + Faithful Zeb impatient stands. +Through the bend he searched and wandered, + But except the furrowed bark, +Of a gnarled and aged elm tree + Which revealed one bullet-mark, +Naught was left save blackened embers; + And the words he "knew in part"-- +"Dust to dust and then to ashes"-- + Told the story of his heart. + + +30 + +Back along the Solomon River, + Trailing towards the humble claim +He had lost when love and duty + Fired his soul to "being game"; +Back, across the beaver fordway, + Where love first had found the track, +Now returning with the rankling + Sting of hate to bring him back-- +Hate, that hunger made more bitter + When his last jerked beef was gone; +Climbing trees to cut off branches + For his horse to browse upon; +Back, where once the flower-decked prairie, + Spread its bloom of hope and bliss, +Now a blackened field of mourning, + From the fire of one sweet kiss. + + +31 + +Till one day, he saw beyond him, + In the distance, purple crowned, +That old monarch of the prairie, + Guard of ages, North Pole Mound. +Then the field where Zeb and Simon + Pulled the old sod-breaking plow +Stretching like a narrow ribbon + On the land that lay below. +Now the horse's steps grew lighter + As he passed each well-known sign +Of the old familiar landscape, + And they crossed the eighty's line, +Where the spring of running waters + Gave envenomed purpose birth, +As he drank its bubbling offering + From the pulsing heart of earth. + + +32 + +Then, ascending from the hollow, + Full before his eyes appeared +Home--his home--the low-walled sodhouse + Which his toiling hands had reared. +Near the straw shed stood the wagon + He had brought from Wichita, +And beneath the grass-fringed gable + Hung his trusty crosscut saw. +In the dooryard, near the window, + Lay the broken homemade chair, +Where, at evening, love-born fancies + Revelled, as he rested there; +Love, whose scattered seed had fallen + On a mystic field of fate, +Where the tangled vine extending + Bore the bitter fruit of hate. + + +33 + +Hurrying nearer, he dismounted, + Trembling with the rage he felt, +As he cast aside the bridle + And drew taut his cartridge belt. +Throwing down his torn sombrero, + There, before the tight-closed door, +On the cowardly usurper + Loud and bitter vengeance swore. +"Come, you dirty, green-scummed scoundrel, + With your sneaking 'plan or two'! +Just come out, you rope-necked buzzard! + See how far you'll put them through. +You can keep the eighty acres, + Hell will write your pedigree, +But I'll rub your crooked nose-piece + In the dirt you stole from me. + + +34 + +"Come outside, you sneaking coyote! + If you've got a drop of man +In your greasy, thieving carcass, + Finish up what you began." +Fiercer grew his coarse invective, + Louder yet his taunting calls, +When no answer to his challenge + Came from out the low sod walls. +Uncontrolled, his furious anger + Spoke in quick and murderous roar +As he pumped his old six-shooter + Through the barred and bolted door. +When he paused the rude door opened, + And before its splintered place +Stood the vision of the shadows, + And he saw Her fearless face. + + +35 + +As the artist in his painting + Plans the background to enhance +All the beauty of his subject + Both in pose and countenance, +So the poor and dark interior + Lent its gloom to magnify +All the power and witching beauty + Of her face and lustrous eye. +Standing there, a pictured goddess + Sketched against a lowering storm, +Bearing on her pallid features + That supernal gift of calm. + + +36 + +"Nancy! Woman! God in heaven, + Speak, girl! Can this thing be true? +Are you here with that--that scoundrel, + After all that I've gone through? +Do you stand there, fiend or human, + After lending him your hand, +First to break an honest spirit, + Then to steal away my land? +Must a man who loves a woman + Like a devil's imp be driven +Through the tortures of damnation + For a single glimpse of heaven? +Tell me where the cur is hiding-- + I've no wish to hurt his bride, +But I'll braid a twelve-foot bull whip + From his dirty, yaller hide! + + +37 + +"Speak to me and tell me, woman, + How the God in heaven above +Starts the fires of hell a-burning + From a spark of human love; +Why He ever made a woman + Who could play a fickle part; +Why He ever made a fellow + With his soul tied to his heart; +Why He made life just a gamble-- + I can't talk the way I feel-- +In the game that I've been playing, + You know this ain't no square deal! +I will go away and leave you, + But 'twould kind o' ease the pain +If you'd only tell me, Nancy-- + If you'd try--to--just explain. + +[Illustration: "Standing there, a pictured goddess +Sketched against a lowering storm."] + + +38 + +"If you wouldn't stand there looking + With a face of livid white +Like the specter of the prairie + That I saw one horrid night, +Riding through the endless darkness + Like a being doomed from birth +Just to roam outside of heaven + And denied a place on earth. +Say one word to me! Speak, Nancy, + If you have a voice and live! +Tell the worst, e'en though you ask me + To be patient and forgive. +I will listen--I will suffer-- + I will do the best I can; +Nancy, sweetheart! hear the pleading + Of a broken-hearted man," + + +39 + +"See here, Billy! You gone crazy? + Charging like you got a fit? +Johnson ain't in--just at present-- + Won't you stop and rest a bit? +Don't act strange. There's no hard feelings, + Though I've never seen before +Any man that knocked like you did + On a peaceful neighbor's door. +Come right in; now, don't be backward, + Like old times to have _you_ 'round! +You look tired, like you'd traveled + Over quite a stretch of ground. +Sit right here in this old rocker; + Johnson fixed it up one day, +Feeling certain you would never + Come meandering 'round this way. + + +40 + +"Don't get up and act uneasy, + Rest yourself, now, if you can, +You don't mind me like Jim Johnson-- + He's a most obedient man. +You went off and left your eighty, + Roaming where the luck-wind blows, +Like a tumbleweed in winter, + Where you've been, Lord only knows. +While Jim's gone we'll talk together, + As we used to, months ago, +When I tried to quench the burning + Of a love I didn't know. +Listen, Billy, while I tell you + All about my 'fickle part'; +When I'm done you may know better + How God made a woman's heart. + + +41 + +"While you're resting, I'll get supper, + Though there ain't much here to eat, +'Cepting bran, to make some muffins, + And a little rabbit meat. +Wish I had that pinch of coffee + I saved up for--oh, so long, +Till one day I went and used it, + Though I somehow felt 'twas wrong; +For I kind o' thought that sometime + Some one might be coming here +Worn out with a long, long journey, + And would crave that kind o' cheer. +Now, then, Billy, draw your stool up; + What we've got is scant and plain-- +I ain't hungry--honest--Billy, + While you eat--why--I'll 'explain.'" + + + + +NANCY'S STORY + + +1 + +"I went off and left you, Billy, + 'Cause I'm used to being free, +And I love my dear old daddie-- + He has been so good to me. +Ever since I learned to toddle + We've been living on the run, +And my first and only playthings + Were a saddle and a gun. +When I went away with daddie, + After trav'ling nigh a week, +We were caught up by the posse + In the bend on Old Man's Creek. +Think I'd let them take my daddie? + No: I held them all at bay, +While the boys hitched up the horses, + Crossed the creek and got away. + + +2 + +"I just told them I would follow + After all the fuss was through, +But instead, all night I wandered, + Thinking all the time of you; +For when we were last together + You cast over me a spell +That just seemed to change my nature, + In a way that words can't tell; +For it left a fire a-burning + Like a live and glowing coal, +That at length blazed into longing + Till I craved with all my soul +To be back, somehow, where you were, + And to hear you tell once more +That you loved me. That man-story + I had never heard before. + + +3 + +"Then I trailed back o'er the prairie, + Riding steady every night, +Picking out the wildest country + With my luck to guide me right. +When I'd see the hungry morning + Eat the stars up in the East, +I would hide in gulch or timber + Like a wild and hunted beast. +How I learned to love the darkness + As it spread its mighty arm, +Close around me, like a lover, + Fondly shielding me from harm! +And I knew the sweet caresses + Of the earth and sky above, +As the night's mysterious voices + Soothed me with their tale of love. + + +4 + +"Then I'd ride like forty devils + Just to catch upon my face +All the kisses which the tempest + Pressed upon me in the race. +How I thought of poor old daddie, + Whom, perhaps, I'd see no more +If I went clear back to your place, + While he hurried on before! +I could hardly bear the burden + When I'd think of--both of you; +But that fire you set a-burning, + One night told me what to do-- +I would see and ask you, Billy, + If you wouldn't go with me +Where we both could be with daddie, + Way out West, where he must be. + + +5 + +"Then at last the night that loved me, + Turned its pent-up furies loose, +Roaring out on me its anger + And unpitying abuse. +How the rain beat down upon me! + How the lightning burned its track +Through the clouds of storm and thunder + As I reached your sod-walled shack! +All was dark within, and quiet, + When I rapped upon the door. +Then I saw the flash of matches + And the lamplight on the floor; +Heard you stomp your heavy boots on, + Heard you walk and draw the bar, +But the door, when thrown wide open, + Showed Jim Johnson standing thar. + + +6 + +"'What you doing here?' I shouted, + When I saw his hateful leer; +'Tell me what this means, Jim Johnson. + Where is Billy? Ain't he here?' +He was standing on the doorstep, + And the light that shone within +Seemed to twist his wrinkled features + In a sort of wonder-grin. +'Well! well! Nancy! sure's I'm livin'! + Out there in the pouring wet! +Sure I'll care for you, Miss Nancy, + I'll protect you, don't you fret! +I'm a friend that you can count on, + Does me good to see your face! +Come in, gal, and dry your garments, + You have struck the very place!' + + +7 + +"You don't blame me, do you, Billy, + If I did go in and stay, +Warming by your stove and fire, + Just to hear what he would say? +I will try to tell his story + As he told it, if I can, +Putting in what I remember + Of his 'interesting plan.' +'Now, then, gal, I heard you calling + As you stood there in the dark, +On a fellow, named Bill Truly, + But you shot 'way off the mark. +Billy ain't here now, and further, + He won't be here, you can bet; +Anyhow, that's what he told me + Two weeks past, when we last met. + + +8 + +"'When your folks all skipped the country + I decided I'd move, too; +Thought perhaps you'd get in trouble + And I'd try to help you through; +So I got beyond the posse, + Rode like fire upon your track, +Found your dad, and _you_ not with him, + So I turned and came right back. +Riding home along the Solomon,-- + For the truth I pledge my word-- +I met Billy with his horses + Three miles east of Mingo's Ford. +Stopped and shook my hand and told me + He was so far on his way +To a ranch 'way up in Utah, + Where he'd made his plans to stay. + + +9 + +"'Said he wanted to be friendly, + So the things that he had left, +If I cherished no hard feelings, + I could look on as his gift. +"If you come across Miss Nancy + You can say to her for me, +That I've got another sweetheart, + And that she is wholly free." +Billy'd never do to tie to-- + He's too fickle, gal, for you-- +So I just propose to offer + You a man that will stay true. +I have worked it out, Miss Nancy-- + It's the problem of my life; +I have planned that you shall stay here + As my own dear little wife.' + + +10 + +"'Look here, Johnson! You're a liar, + When you say he's set me free! +When you met him there at Mingo's + He had gone to hunt for me. +Don't you dare to touch me, scoundrel! + Don't you dare to slur his name! +You're a cur--a thief--Jim Johnson! + You have jumped my sweetheart's claim. +Don't you dare to venture near me! + Or you'll wish you'd not begun. +All your schemes and double dealings, + All your hatched-up plans are done. +You start now and pack your fixin's! + Don't you leave the smallest bit! +Every filthy thing you own here, + Pack it up--you dog, and _git!_' + + +11 + +"He was standing there uncertain, + And I felt to clinch his throat; +But, instead, I shot--to scare him-- + All the buttons off his coat. +Then I pumped two in the corner, + Where he'd sunk down on his knees-- +Slit his ear and cut his collar, + Never listening to his pleas. +Told him if he didn't mosey + I would plant his carcass whole, +In a grave I'd dig that evening + On the eighty he had stole. +Then he promised, but I chased him + 'Way across the old Saline, +And so far as I have knowledge, + He has never since been seen. + + +12 + +"When I got back here 'fore morning, + Thought of having Kelly's mare, +So I rode her to his stable + And I left her standing there. +For I knew that you'd consider + Twas the proper thing to do, +If you came back here and found me + Holding down your claim for you. +But I felt right sorry, Billy, + When I looked around next day, +In the box there in the corner + Where the pans and dishes lay; +For in fixing for my breakfast, + My! the crockery was slim! +More than half of it was busted + By the bullets fired at Jim: + +[Illustration: "But, instead, I shot, to scare him, +All the buttons off his coat."] + + +13 + +"I forgot to tell you, Billy, + That for thirteen months or more, +You're the only man that's ever + Crossed the threshold of that door. +I have stayed alone and waited, + Full of faith that you would come, +So that I--might go to daddie, + And that you'd--have back your home. +Though perhaps I've sometimes suffered + From the cold and from the heat, +And I've gone for days together, + Here, without a bite to eat, +'Twasn't hunger of the body + That I craved to satisfy, +I was starved for--you--and daddie, + As the weary weeks trailed by. + + +14 + +"How I tried to think and reason + Why the fire from one caress +Turned my burning, yearning spirit + To a cinder of distress. +Some one told me, I remember, + Long ago when I was small, +God made every star up yonder, + Everything--the world and all. +Then I thought that in His workshop, + Up there in the heavens above, +He had made that curious hunger + Of the heart that we call love. +P'r'aps my troubles and the waiting + Stirred me to this queer-like whim; +But I couldn't help it, Billy, + I just had to talk to Him. + + +15 + +"In the night, when God wa'n't busy + And could hear the slightest sound, +I would venture from my hiding + To the top of North Pole Mound. +I was sure He'd never let His + Angels come out this-a-way, +But would use the wind to carry, + Prayers out here, that people pray. +So I'd hold my hands, and stopping + Gusts that tried to struggle free, +Tell them this here simple message + They must take to you from me: +'Please, dear God, won't you tell Billy + That I'm holding down his claim? +He don't come 'cause he's in trouble. + Thank you, God. He ain't to blame.'" + + +16 + +Long before her honest story + Faltered to its hallowed close, +Pushing back his untouched supper, + Tremblingly her guest arose. +Vain for him to curb emotion, + Or to stammer out his praise +Through a storm of rude devotion, + Cast in halting human phrase. +Vain for him to frame a message + Never meant for words to tell, +At the joy of reaching heaven + By that trail that led through hell. +But his fervent benediction + Was a passionate embrace, +And the Amen love's own ending, + As he kissed her fearless face. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NANCY MACINTYRE*** + + +******* This file should be named 13560.txt or 13560.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/5/6/13560 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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