The Legend of Boastful Bill + 

At a round-up on the Gila + 

One sweet morning long ago, + 

Ten of us was throwed quite freely + 

By a hoss from Idaho. + 

An’ we ’lowed he’d go a-beggin’ + 

For a man to break his pride + 

Till, a-hitchin’ up one leggin’, + 

Boastful Bill cut loose an’ cried: + 

“I’m a ornery proposition for to hurt, + 

I fulfil my earthly mission with a quirt, + 

I can ride the highest liver + 

’Twixt the Gulf an’ Powder River, + 

An’ I’ll break this thing as easy as I’d flirt.” + 

So Bill climbed the Northern fury + 

An’ they mangled up the air + 

Till a native of Missouri + 

Would have owned the brag was fair. + 

Though the plunges kept him reelin’ + 

An’ the wind it flapped his shirt, + 

Loud above the hoss’s squealin’ + 

We could hear our friend assert: + 

“I’m the one to take such rockin’s as a joke; + 

Someone hand me up the makin’s of a smoke. + 

If you think my fame needs brightnin’, + 

Why, I’ll rope a streak o’ lightnin’ + 

An’ spur it up an’ quirt it till it’s broke.” + 

Then one caper of repulsion + 

Broke that hoss’s back in two, + 

Cinches snapped in the convulsion, + 

Skyward man and saddle flew, + 

Up they mounted, never flaggin’, + 

And we watched them through our tears, + 

While this last, thin bit o’ braggin’ + 

Came a-floatin’ to our ears: + 

“If you ever watched my habits very close, + 

You would know I broke such rabbits by the gross. + 

I have kept my talent hidin’, + 

I’m too good for earthly ridin’, + 

So I’m off to bust the lightnin’⁠—Adiós!” + 

Years have passed since that ascension; + 

Boastful Bill ain’t never lit; + 

So we reckon he’s a-wrenchin’ + 

Some celestial outlaw’s bit. + 

When the night wind flaps our slickers, + 

And the rain is cold and stout, + 

And the lightnin’ flares and flickers, + 

We can sometimes hear him shout: + 

“I’m a ridin’ son o’ thunder o’ the sky, + 

I’m a broncho twistin’ wonder on the fly. + 

Hey, you earthlin’s, shut your winders, + 

We’re a-rippin’ clouds to flinders. + 

If this blue-eyed darlin’ kicks at you, you die.” + 

Star-dust on his chaps and saddle, + 

Scornful still of jar and jolt, + 

He’ll come back sometime a-straddle + 

Of a bald-faced thunderbolt; + 

And the thin-skinned generation + 

Of that dim and distant day + 

Sure will stare with admiration + 

When they hear old Boastful say: + 

“I was first, as old raw-hiders all confest, + 

I’m the last of all rough riders, and the best. + 

Huh! you soft and dainty floaters + 

With your aeroplanes and motors, + 

Huh! are you the greatgrandchildren of the West?” + 