Hard Tack, Old Charlie, Jake, and Me

Hard Tack, Old Charlie, Jake, and Me

1. We’re livin’ together out here on the high, dry Colorado plain,

Eatin’ hard tack, bacon, beans, coffee, canned tamatters ’n dry beef ain’t easy, or even very interestin’.

I’ve got my favorite horse, Old Charlie, saddle ’n bedroll, my 30-30, and an old yellow dog. Jake is his name, but, truth be tell, he don‘t hear it very often.

Don’t need much else out here on the short grass prairie.

2. Round ‘em up, rope ‘em, brand and cut ‘em.

That last, they don’t appreciate all that much.

It helps ‘em remember you fair unkindly when next

you come by, and I swear, they pass the cattle word around.

The job just gets harder for Old Charlie, Jake, and on me.

3. Old Charlie don’t talk a lot. Jake, by nature, is mostly pretty quiet. For a dog. I ain’t a sterlin’ conversationalist neither.

Still, the silence and the wind don’t bother me too much.

‘Cause things get right lively at calvin’ and brandin’ time an’ there’s enough cowboys and common things to cuss and discuss.

That’s enough rawhide excitement to last me ‘til next round up.

4. Only a few things is tougher on cows and calves, and horses and riders than Spring mud. To compensate, there’s lots ‘o fresh green grass.

High Plains Summer’s heat is barely bearable. So the cows take turns lyin’ in each other’s shadder.

Fall has all the color and the return of good green grass.

Winter is the roughest of all with ice and high wind, and snow banks covern’ the short grass. Bunkhouse, or line camp, work’s just the same.

5. We was full speed after a rangy brindle cow when Charlie discovered an unexpected gopher hole.

I heard the bone snap ‘afore I landed out front, flat on my back.

Charlie screamed at first, and then sighed just once as I pulled the trigger. He knew.

When its my time, please, God, someone return me, the same favor.

Chorus:

Just Old Charlie, Jake, ten cut-plug chaw, eighty dry beans, a hard-headed herd of long-horn cattle, and me.

Two gallons of raw, red-eye whiskey. One for snakebite, and one for cutting’ the dust.

Water can be hard to find, and firewood’s mighty scarce on the short grass prairie.

Spring’s wild flower carpets and Fall bottom colors are a cowboy’s delight.

The sun’s fire hot come Summer, and in Winter it is not.

(c) Copyright 2006: George Wallace recently published a book on religion which lashes out at nearly all of the comfortable ideas about God, the trappings of organized religion, and the priesthood. His pithy comments and suggestions for a return to a God-centered personal religion will interest everyone. This article may be freely reprinted so long as all copyright attributions, and the full content of this resource box are included. www.OhGodIsThatYou.com

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