Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads

<p class="tit-song">THE COWBOY'S MEDITATION <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="page297" name="page297"></SPAN>(p. 297)</span></p> <p>At midnight when the cattle are sleeping<br/> On my saddle I pillow my head,<br/> And up at the heavens lie peeping<br/> From out of my cold, grassy bed,&mdash;<br/> Often and often I wondered<br/> At night when lying alone<br/> If every bright star up yonder<br/> Is a big peopled world like our own.</p> <p>Are they worlds with their ranges and ranches?<br/> Do they ring with rough rider refrains?<br/> Do the cowboys scrap there with Comanches<br/> And other Red Men of the plains?<br/> Are the hills covered over with cattle<br/> In those mystic worlds far, far away?<br/> Do the ranch-houses ring with the prattle<br/> Of sweet little children at play?</p> <p>At night in the bright stars up yonder<br/> Do the cowboys lie down to their rest?<br/> Do they gaze at this old world and wonder<br/> If rough riders dash over its breast?<br/> Do they list to the wolves in the canyons?<br/> Do they watch the night owl in its flight,<br/> With their horse their only companion<br/> While guarding the herd through the night?</p> <p>Sometimes <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="page298" name="page298"></SPAN>(p. 298)</span> when a bright star is twinkling<br/> Like a diamond set in the sky,<br/> I find myself lying and thinking,<br/> It may be God's heaven is nigh.<br/> I wonder if there I shall meet her,<br/> My mother whom God took away;<br/> If in the star-heavens I'll greet her<br/> At the round-up that's on the last day.</p> <p>In the east the great daylight is breaking<br/> And into my saddle I spring;<br/> The cattle from sleep are awakening,<br/> The heaven-thoughts from me take wing,<br/> The eyes of my bronco are flashing,<br/> Impatient he pulls at the reins,<br/> And off round the herd I go dashing,<br/> A reckless cowboy of the plains.</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />