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THE  COWBOY'S  LIFE 
    The bawl of a steer 
    To a cowboy's ear 
    Is music of sweetest strain; 
    And the yelping notes 
    Of the gray coyotes 
    To him are a glad refrain. 
    And his jolly songs 
    Speed him along 
    As he thinks of the little gal 
    With golden hair 
    Who is waiting there 
    At the bars of the home corral. 
    For a kingly crown 
    In the noisy town 
    His saddle he would n't change; 
    No life so free 
    As the life we see 
    'Way out on the Yaso range. 
    His eyes are bright 
    And his heart as light 
    As the smoke of his cigarette; 
    There's never a care 
    For his soul to bear, 
    No trouble to make him fret. 
    The rapid beat 
    Of his bronco's feet 
    On the sod as he speeds along, 
    Keeps living time 
    To the ringing rhyme 
    Of his rollicking cowboy's song. 
    Hike it, cowboys, 
    For the range away 
    On the back of a bronc of steel, 
    With a careless flirt 
    Of the raw-hide quirt 
    And the dig of a roweled heel. 
    The winds may blow 
    And the thunder growl 
    Or the breeze may safely moan; 
    A cowboy's life 
    Is a royal life, 
    His saddle his kingly throne. 
    Saddle up, boys, 
    For the work is play 
    When love's in the cowboy's eyes, 
    When his heart is light 
    As the clouds of white 
    That swim in the summer skies. 
    traditional, from Songs of the Cowboys, 1921  | 
 
