Lester Shepard Parker

“ How the God in heaven above
Starts the fires of hell a-burning
From a spark of human love;
Why He ever made a woman
Who could play a fickle part;
Why He ever made a fellow
With his soul tied to his heart ”

“ Listen while I talk to you;
Put your noses on my shoulder
While I tell you what we'll do.
Your fool master's deep in trouble,
Can't explain to you just how,
But until we find my Nancy,
You shall never pull a plow. ”

“ That I saw one horrid night,
Riding through the endless darkness
Like a being doomed from birth
Just to roam outside of heaven
And denied a place on earth.
Say one word to me! Speak, Nancy,
If you have a voice and live! ”

“ In our wand'rings here and there,
Sometimes led by hope alluring,
Sometimes halted by despair;
But the life that travels farthest
On that deeper strength depends,
For with love, there is no turning;
When love dies the journey ends. ”

“ After lending him your hand,
First to break an honest spirit,
Then to steal away my land?
Must a man who loves a woman
Like a devil's imp be driven
Through the tortures of damnation
For a single glimpse of heaven? ”

“ Which with life will never end,
Of the lonesome and the needy
For the comfort of a friend,
Drew the trav'ler to this tree waif,
And he spread his outfit near,
And they held that sacred converse
Which the soul alone can hear. ”

“ Conscious of a strange appeal,
Yielding to the voiceless longing
Human hearts are bound to feel
When their lot is isolation,
And a field of sterile soil
Dwarfs and twists the struggling spirit
As the body bends with toil. ”

“ Falling on the distant prairie,
Kindling fresh fires everywhere.
Pressing through the low-flung smoke clouds--
Stifling fumes of Hades' breath--
Fiercer with each flying moment
Drove those scorching blasts of death. ”

“ Sitting bolt upright in bed,
With the flying hoofs above him,
Kicking hair off of his head,
He aroused his sleeping helpmeet;
Loud his curses and abuse,
"Mary, hike your lazy carcass,
Hell has turned the devil loose." ”

“ To the valley-land below,
Where the tall and tangled joint-grass
Makes the horses pant and blow,
There the silent Solomon River
Reaching westward to its source,
With its fringe of sombre timber
Guides the lover on his course. ”

“ Decked in sumptuous array,
Seated on a throne of glory,
Bearing royal title, Day.
Then some mighty power transcendent,
Thrust him from his gorgeous throne,
Turning all the realm to darkness,
And the world was left alone. ”

“ When the lightning flashed around us,
Rabbits stopped to let us by,--
Looked as if they said by halting,
"We can't race with things that fly!"
Coyotes sneaked off in the slough grass,
Prairie dogs stayed in their holes ”

“ I can't say the words I want to,
I can't think--all's in my heart.
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"Over twenty years, old pardner,
We have been companions true;
You have always kept your end up
In the hardships we've gone through. ”

“ This strange spell won't let me falter,
Though the chasing never ends;
Seems that nothing ever'll stop it,
Sickness, death, or loss of friends.
Where this love will drive a fellow,
I ain't wise enough to tell ”

“ Charged the ranks of fleeing night,
Winning back the stolen hours
With their golden spears of light;
As the living in all nature
Felt that mighty spirit's sway,
So the sick man caught the power
And his illness wore away. ”

“ Into ghost-like fancies whirled,
Painting on the barren canvas,
Gaunt Death battling for the world.
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Back across the snow-strewn desert,
Fighting famine face to face,
Trusting to his horse to take him
To each former camping place. ”

“ Blamed if I don't get my hosses,
Saddle Zeb and lead old Si,
And we'll search the wind-swept prairie
Till we find that girl, or die!
Who'd a thought a man's whole future
Could get twisted up like this? ”

“ Johnson fixed it up one day,
Feeling certain you would never
Come meandering 'round this way.
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"Don't get up and act uneasy,
Rest yourself, now, if you can,
You don't mind me like Jim Johnson--
He's a most obedient man. ”

“ Hell will write your pedigree,
But I'll rub your crooked nose-piece
In the dirt you stole from me.
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"Come outside, you sneaking coyote!
If you've got a drop of man
In your greasy, thieving carcass,
Finish up what you began." ”

“ Thought they had him fairly cornered,
But, by jings! he got away.
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"There are stranger things than fiction;
What is natural may seem queer,
So I s'pose we needn't wonder
At the things we see out here. ”

“ 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. ”

“ From most every foreign land--
Massachusetts and Missouri--
Made a mess I couldn't stand.
Every man that's made of manhood
Wants to live where he is free,
So I'm bound to keep on moving
When they get to crowding me. ”

“ Now, those women that you read of
In these story picture books,
They can't ride in roping distance
Of that girl in style and looks.
They have waists more like an insect,
Corset shaped and double cinched ”

“ My! the crockery was slim!
More than half of it was busted
By the bullets fired at Jim:
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"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. ”

“ Suffered till their course was run.
Maybe love just keeps on runnin',
Till a man has lost--or won.
One thing certain: I have got it;
Seems to struck in good and hard.
Makes me sometimes soft and tender ”

“ You can sort o' fix things decent,
Where she is--in Old Man's Bend."
THE RETURN
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Every life is but a journey--
Trav'ling on from place to place--
Starting from the point God gave us
With an ever-varying pace. ”