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.