Pike County Ballads | Page 3

scared at something and started, -?I heard one little squall,?And hell-to-split over the prairie?Went team, Little Breeches and all.
Hell-to-split over the prairie!?I was almost froze with skeer;?But we rousted up some torches,?And searched for 'em far and near.?At last we struck hosses and wagon,?Snowed under a soft white mound,?Upsot, dead beat,--but of little Gabe?No hide nor hair was found.
And here all hope soured on me,?Of my fellow-critters' aid, -?I jest flopped down on my marrow-bones,?Crotch-deep in the snow, and prayed.
. . . .
By this, the torches was played out,?And me and Isrul Parr?Went off for some wood to a sheepfold?That he said was somewhar thar.
We found it at last, and a little shed?Where they shut up the lambs at night.?We looked in and seen them huddled thar,?So warm and sleepy and white;?And thar sot Little Breeches and chirped,?As peart as ever you see,?"I want a chaw of terbacker,?And that's what's the matter of me."
How did he git thar? Angels.?He could never have walked in that storm;?They jest scooped down and toted him?To whar it was safe and warm.?And I think that saving a little child,?And fotching him to his own,?Is a derned sight better business?Than loafing around The Throne.
BANTY TIM.
REMARKS OF SERGEANT TILMON JOY TO THE WHITE MAN'S COMMITTEE OF SPUNKY POINT, ILLINOIS.
I reckon I git your drift, gents, -?You 'low the boy sha'n't stay;?This is a white man's country;?You're Dimocrats, you say;?And whereas, and seein', and wherefore,?The times bein' all out o' j'int,?The nigger has got to mosey?From the limits o' Spunky P'int!
Le's reason the thing a minute:?I'm an old-fashioned Dimocrat too,?Though I laid my politics out o' the way?For to keep till the war was through.?But I come back here, allowin'?To vote as I used to do,?Though it gravels me like the devil to train?Along o' sich fools as you.
Now dog my cats ef I kin see,?In all the light of the day,?What you've got to do with the question?Ef Tim shill go or stay.?And furder than that I give notice,?Ef one of you tetches the boy,?He kin check his trunks to a warmer clime?Than he'll find in Illanoy.
Why, blame your hearts, jest hear me!?You know that ungodly day?When our left struck Vicksburg Heights, how ripped?And torn and tattered we lay.?When the rest retreated I stayed behind,?Fur reasons sufficient to me, -?With a rib caved in, and a leg on a strike,?I sprawled on that cursed glacee.
Lord! how the hot sun went for us,?And br'iled and blistered and burned!?How the Rebel bullets whizzed round us?When a cuss in his death-grip turned!?Till along toward dusk I seen a thing?I couldn't believe for a spell:?That nigger--that Tim--was a crawlin' to me?Through that fire-proof, gilt-edged hell!
The Rebels seen him as quick as me,?And the bullets buzzed like bees;?But he jumped for me, and shouldered me,?Though a shot brought him once to his knees;?But he staggered up, and packed me off,?With a dozen stumbles and falls,?Till safe in our lines he drapped us both,?His black hide riddled with balls.
So, my gentle gazelles, thar's my answer,?And here stays Banty Tim:?He trumped Death's ace for me that day,?And I'm not goin' back on him!?You may rezoloot till the cows come home,?But ef one of you tetches the boy,?He'll wrastle his hash to-night in hell,?Or my name's not Tilmon Joy!
THE MYSTERY OF GILGAL.
The darkest, strangest mystery?I ever read, or heern, or see,?Is 'long of a drink at Taggart's Hall, -?Tom Taggart's of Gilgal.
I've heern the tale a thousand ways,?But never could git through the maze?That hangs around that queer day's doin's;?But I'll tell the yarn to youans.
Tom Taggart stood behind his bar,?The time was fall, the skies was fa'r,?The neighbours round the counter drawed,?And ca'mly drinked and jawed.
At last come Colonel Blood of Pike,?And old Jedge Phinn, permiscus-like,?And each, as he meandered in,?Remarked, "A whisky-skin."
Tom mixed the beverage full and fa'r,?And slammed it, smoking, on the bar.?Some says three fingers, some says two, -?I'll leave the choice to you.
Phinn to the drink put forth his hand;?Blood drawed his knife, with accent bland,?"I ax yer parding, Mister Phinn -?Jest drap that whisky-skin."
No man high-toneder could be found?Than old Jedge Phinn the country round.?Says he, "Young man, the tribe of Phinns?Knows their own whisky-skins!"
He went for his 'leven-inch bowie-knife: -?"I tries to foller a Christian life;?But I'll drap a slice of liver or two,?My bloomin' shrub, with you."
They carved in a way that all admired,?Tell Blood drawed iron at last, and fired.?It took Seth Bludso 'twixt the eyes,?Which caused him great surprise.
Then coats went off, and all went in;?Shots and bad language swelled the din;?The short, sharp bark of Derringers,?Like bull-pups, cheered the furse.
They piled the stiffs outside the door;?They made, I reckon, a cord or more.?Girls went that winter, as a rule,?Alone to spellin'-school.
I've searched in vain, from Dan to BeerSheba,?to make this mystery clear;?But I