Thanksgiving on the Ranch

[CaptainTom]

Thanksgiving on the Ranch

We was settin' 'round the ranch house on the last Thanksgiving Day,
Tellin' yarns an' swappin' fables fer to pass the time away;
Fer the owner was religious an' had made it manifest
That there would n't be no ridin' on a day o' joyful rest;
An' we got in a discussion an' a heap o' talk was spent
Pro an' con an' vivy vocy what Thanksgivin' reely meant;
An I'll bet a workin' saddle 'gainst a pa'r o' hoss's shoes
That there never was another sich a scatterin' o' views.

Texas Tony though 't was taught him when he went to Sunday school,
In the days when he was swimmin' in the Baptis' pious pool,
That it was a celebration that was started on the dock
When the Scribes an' Pharisees was landed onto Plymouth Rock.
Bronco Billy said he reckoned Tex had got his stories mixed,
That his mem'ry wheels had run too long without a-bein' fixed;
That the day, if he remembered, was a day o' jubilee
In remembrance of Abe Lincoln settin' all the negroes free.

Brocky Jim, from Arizony, begged to differ, sayin' he
In his younger days had wasted lots o' time on history;
An' the day was celebrated in thanksgivin' fer the change
When the Revolution fellers drifted off King George's range.
Lengthy Jones an' Watt McGovern an' the Rio Grandy Kid
Coincided in believin', as the present writer did,
It was jest a yearly epock to remind us o' the day
When Columbus happened on us in a onexpected way.

Uncle Dick, the ol' hoss 'ranger, sot an' smoked his pipe till all
O' the fellers with the question then at stake had tuk a fall,
An' when asked fer his opinion o' the matter said that he
Had his idee o' the objeck o' the yearly jubilee:
'T was a day when all the fellers so included could show their thanks
Fer whatever they'd a mind to by a-fillin' up their tanks
Till their legs got weak an' weary from a-carryin' the load—
He had spent the day in Denver an' he reckoned that he knowed.

James Barton Adams

from Jack Thorp's Songs of the Cowboys, 1921

(the penultimate word in the second stanza has been changed from the original)