Poem of the Week
June 19, 2006
by
Captain Jack Crawford
" By gosh, I ar' as hungry
As a praire wolf, you bet,
An', pards, I won't forget ye,
An' am moughty glad we met.
Yer see, I've been to prospee',
An' I lost my latitud'.
Laws ee, but I war hungry,
Them beans war moughty good.
" I've see'd thet face afore, pards--
Can't say as how I know,
My eyes ain't wot they us' ter war
'Bout fifteen year ago.
But dog my cats, I'll swar it,
Let's take a closer sight--
Blest if it arn't the Gener'l !
I knew I must be right."
And then a pearly tear drop
Stood in the old man's eye.
" Yer know I've pray'd ter see him
Jist once afore I'd die ;
He saved my wife and baby
When the reds began to muster."
With outstretched hand he, sobbing, said :
"God bless ye, Gener'l Custer!"
" I reckin ye don't remember
Old Bill as run the mail
From Sidney up to Red Cloud,
When ye war on the trail ;
An' how thet frosty mornin'
Yer saved my Tommy's life,
An' took a heap o' chances--
She told me--Jane, my wife.
" I warn't thar to thank yer
When I heard the story through,
'Cause that war all I had ter give,
And all as I could do ;
An', Gener'l, if yer wants me,
'Tain't much as I kin do,
But, dog my cats, I'm ready
To trump death's ace for you."
From
The Poet Scout: A Book of Song and Story
by
Captain Jack Crawford
(Late Chief of Scouts, U.S. Army)
Funk & Wagnalls: New York & London,
1886.
Home / Archives / Previous Poem of the Week