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.