I cut a path from home when I
had scarcely sixteen years.
The War Between the States destroyed
our farm, my Ma and peers.

I didn't wait till Pa's return
from fighting far away,
but traipsed a trail that headed west
and stalked the sun each day.

In time I reached the Kansas plains,
my leather soles worn through.
There were no towns, just lonely farms.
I pondered what to do.

I limped because my legs had cramps.
Both blistered feet now bled.
I ached in every bone and joint,
each fiber filled with lead.

I wish I never saw that horse
which grazed on fresh-plowed sod.
He wasn't mine, but in my state
I needed something shod.

I crept toward him and grabbed his neck,
then climbed upon his back.
A chestnut gelding with white blaze,
a mane and tail all black.

We trotted up some gentle hills,
then through a valley wide.
I sought a town where I could work.
I had no wish to hide.

But as we passed a tidy farm,
a wrangler rode toward me.
He galloped up with pistol drawn
and yelled ferociously.

"That bay yer on belongs to us.
It has the Round Tree brand!
Get off it now or I will shoot
and plant you where you land!"

He aimed his gun, I stopped the horse
and slid off to the ground.
He bull-rushed me and crushed me flat.
In seconds I was bound.

Then I was thrown across that horse
and taken to the boss.
"Well, boy, you did a stupid thing.
You stole a farmer's hoss.

"A cayuse pulls a plow through sod,
a necessary tool.
To leave a man afoot out here
is ornery and cruel!"

I tried to speak, explain my needs.
"I took it cuz my fee--"
"Ain't list'nin' to no thief today!"
The wrangler clobbered me.

When I awoke I sat upon
that horse beneath an oak.
A long rope looped around a branch
now made me gag and choke.

"Have final words you want to say
before we stretch your neck?"
That dark-eyed wrangler sneered at me.
"You've got about a sec."

I sadly shook my head and said,
"It really seems a shame.
You'll hang a boy who steals a horse
yet never ask his name."

They stared at me with hostile eyes,
no hint of grim remorse.
The boss just nodded, then he slapped
the rump of that damn horse.