"JIM"
Say there! P'r'aps Some on you chaps Might know Jim Wild?
Well,--no offense:
Thar ain't no sense In gittin' riled!
Jim was my chum Up on the Bar:
That's why I come Down from up yar, Lookin' for Jim.
Thank ye, sir! YOU
Ain't of that crew,--Blest if you are!
Money? Not much:
That ain't my kind;
I ain't no such.
Rum? I don't mind, Seein' it's you.
Well, this yer Jim,--Did you know him?
Jes' 'bout your size;
Same kind of eyes;--Well, that is strange:
Why, it's two year Since he came here, Sick, for a change.
Well, here's to us:
Eh?
The h--- you say!
Dead?
That little cuss?
What makes you star', You over thar?
Can't a man drop 's glass in yer shop But you must r'ar?
It wouldn't take D----d much to break You and your bar.
Dead!
Poor--little--Jim!
Why, thar was me, Jones, and Bob Lee, Harry and Ben,--No-account men:
Then to take HIM!
Well, thar-- Good-by--No more, sir--I--Eh?
What's that you say?
Why, dern it!--sho!--No? Yes! By Joe!
Sold!
Sold! Why, you limb, You ornery, Derned old Long-legged Jim.
CHIQUITA
Beautiful! Sir, you may say so. Thar isn't her match in the county;
Is thar, old gal,--Chiquita, my darling, my beauty?
Feel of that neck, sir,--thar's velvet! Whoa! steady,--ah, will you, you vixen!
Whoa! I say. Jack, trot her out; let the gentleman look at her paces.
Morgan!--she ain't nothing else, and I've got the papers to prove it.
Sired by Chippewa Chief, and twelve hundred dollars won't buy her.
Briggs of Tuolumne owned her. Did you know Briggs of Tuolumne?
Busted hisself in White Pine, and blew out his brains down in 'Frisco?
Hedn't no savey, hed Briggs. Thar, Jack! that'll do,--quit that foolin'!
Nothin' to what she kin do, when she's got her work cut out before her.
Hosses is hosses, you know, and likewise, too, jockeys is jockeys:
And 'tain't ev'ry man as can ride as knows what a hoss has got in him.
Know the old ford on the Fork, that nearly got Flanigan's leaders?
Nasty in daylight, you bet, and a mighty rough ford in low water!
Well, it ain't six weeks ago that me and the Jedge and his nevey Struck for that ford in the night, in the rain, and the water all round us;
Up to our flanks in the gulch, and Rattlesnake Creek just a-bilin', Not a plank left in the dam, and nary a bridge on the river.
I had the gray, and the Jedge had his roan, and his nevey, Chiquita;
And after us trundled the rocks jest loosed from the top of the canyon.
Lickity, lickity, switch, we came to the ford, and Chiquita Buckled right down to her work, and, a fore I could yell to her rider, Took water jest at the ford, and there was the Jedge and me standing, And twelve hundred dollars of hoss-flesh afloat, and a-driftin' to thunder!
Would ye b'lieve it? That night, that hoss, that 'ar filly, Chiquita, Walked herself into her stall, and stood there, all quiet and dripping:
Clean as a beaver or rat, with nary a buckle of harness, Just as she swam the Fork,--that hoss, that 'ar filly, Chiquita.
That's what I call a hoss! and-- What did you say?-- Oh, the nevey?
Drownded, I reckon,--leastways, he never kem beck to deny it.
Ye see the derned fool had no seat, ye couldn't have made him a rider;
And then, ye know, boys will be boys, and hosses--well, hosses is hosses!
DOW'S FLAT
(1856)
Dow's Flat. That's its name;
And I reckon that you Are a stranger? The same?
Well, I thought it was true,--For thar isn't a man on the river as can't spot the place at first view.
It was called after Dow,--Which the same was an ass,--And as to the how Thet the thing kem to pass,--Jest tie up your hoss to that buckeye, and sit ye down here in the grass.
You see this 'yer Dow Hed the worst kind of luck;
He slipped up somehow On each thing thet he struck.
Why, ef he'd a straddled thet fence-rail, the derned thing'd get up and buck.
He mined on the bar Till he couldn't pay rates;
He was smashed by a car When he tunneled with Bates;
And right on the top of his trouble kem his wife and five kids from the States.
It was rough,--mighty rough;
But the boys they stood by, And they brought him the stuff For a house, on the sly;
And the old woman,--well, she did washing, and took on when no one was nigh.
But this 'yer luck of Dow's Was so powerful mean That the spring near his house Dried right up on the green;
And he sunk forty feet down for water, but nary a drop to be seen.
Then the bar petered out, And the boys wouldn't stay;
And the chills got about, And his wife fell away;
But Dow in his well kept a peggin' in his usual ridikilous way.
One day,--it was June, And a year ago, jest--This Dow kem at noon To his work like the rest, With a shovel and pick on his shoulder, and derringer hid in his breast.
He goes to the well, And he stands on the brink, And stops for a spell Jest to listen and think:
For the sun in his eyes (jest like this, sir!), you see, kinder made the cuss blink.
His two ragged gals In the gulch were at play, And a gownd that was Sal's Kinder flapped on a bay:
Not much for a man to be leavin', but his all,--as I've heer'd the folks say.
And--That's a peart hoss Thet you've got,--ain't it now?
What might be her cost?
Eh? Oh!--Well, then, Dow--Let's see,--well, that forty-foot grave wasn't his, sir, that day, anyhow.
For a blow of his pick Sorter caved in the side, And he looked and turned sick, Then he trembled and cried.
For you see the dern cuss had struck--"Water?"--Beg your parding, young man,--there you lied!
It was GOLD,--in the quartz, And it ran all alike;
And I reckon five oughts Was the worth of that strike;
And that house with the coopilow's his'n,--which the same isn't bad for a Pike.
Thet's why it's Dow's Flat;
And the thing of it is That he kinder got that Through sheer contrairiness:
For 'twas WATER the derned cuss was seekin', and his luck made him certain to miss.
Thet's so! Thar's your way, To the left of yon tree;
But--a--look h'yur, say?
Won't you come up to tea?
No? Well, then the next time you're passin'; and ask after Dow,--and thet's ME.
IN THE TUNNEL
Didn't know Flynn,--Flynn of Virginia,--Long as he's been 'yar?
Look 'ee here, stranger, Whar HEV you been?
