Jack the Young Cowboy: An Eastern Boy's Experiance on a Western Round-upGrinnell, George Bird
General
Jack the Young Cowboy: An Eastern Boy's Experiance on a Western Round-up
Grinnell, George Bird
Cowboys -- Juvenile fiction; Western stories
Jack's guess was a good one. The round-up foreman was glad to see him,
of course--glad to get a new hand, and a fresh hand. He told Jack
that the best thing he could do now would be to go out and catch up a
horse and take his turn at night herd until 10 o'clock. Then he could
come in and get five or six hours' sleep before they started to ride
in the morning. The cávaya had just been brought in; and Jack, taking
his rope, went out and caught one of his string and brought it in and
saddled it. Pawnee would have been the horse chosen, but Pawnee had
already carried him from Powell's to the round-up, and Jack thought
the horse entitled to a little rest.
The night was calm and pleasant, and there seemed no reason to suppose
that anything would disturb the cattle, so only two boys were sent out
to ride around them at present, relieving the four or five who had had
charge of them during the latter part of the day, who had now brought
them together and waited until they had finally lain down and were
peacefully chewing the cud under the stars, just then coming out.
Tulare Joe was Jack's companion: a new acquaintance, but a nice looking
fellow, whose name suggested that he came from somewhere in California.
He was a man eight or ten years older than Jack, quiet, pleasant,
soft-voiced, and apparently a rider. As the two approached the cattle
they separated and began to ride around them; and one by one the other
riders, as they met them, exchanged a word or two and turned their
horses in the direction of the camp. Presently from the other side of
the herd, Jack caught the sound of Joe's voice droning out a song, the
words of which he could not hear; but later, when they were relieved by
other boys, and were riding back to camp, he asked Joe to teach him the
song. Joe said that he knew only one verse, which ran like this:
"Oh! the cowboy's life is a dreary one,
He works from dawn till the setting of the sun,
And then his work is left undone,
For his night herding then comes on.
"Sing, who-o, who-o, whoop; cows away;
He works all night and he works all day.
Whoop-i-wo; whoop-i-way;
For very poor chuck and darned poor pay;
Sing, whoop-i-whoa who-ay."
After a few days Jack caught the air of this, and thereafter often sang
it when on night herd.
"I don't know why it keeps the cattle quiet," said Joe, "it certainly
ain't the sentiment; and I don't believe it's the tune. I suppose
like as not it gives them something to think about and keeps them
from looking around, hunting for things to get scared at. Maybe, too,
it gives them confidence when they think that the men and the horses
are right close to 'em all the time. Anyhow, I've always heard about
singing to the cattle ever since I first forked a horse, and I've seen
sometimes, when cattle were mighty nervous and uneasy, when the singing
seemed to keep them from breaking away."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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