516
The Great Round-Up
Reported from Mississippi (JAFL xxxix 170-1, FSM 227) and
from Texas (CS 44-8, FB 101-3). Not the same as the piece by
the same title in the first edition of Cowboy Songs nor as the
'Cowboy's Meditation' in the 1938 edition, but is substantially the
same as "The Cowboy's Dream' in the first edition. Perhaps long
nights under the stars were favorable to the sort of religious senti-
mentality expressed here.
'The Great Round-Up.' From the John Burch Blaylock Collection.
I Last night as I lay on the prairie
Looking up at the stars in the sky,
How I wondered if ever a cowboy
Was carried to that sweet bye and bye.
Chorus:
Oh, they say there will be a great round-up
When the cowboys, like cattle, shall stand
To be roped by the riders of judgment —
Oh. 1 hope they will know every brand.
2 The way to that bright, happy region.
It is narrow and dim, so they say.
But the road that leads down to perdition,
It is broadest and blazed all the way.
3 I wonder if there will be many
Wlio will be at the oreat final sale ?
4 I hope there will be some stray cowboy
Who'll be claimed by someone that is nigh.
And be roped by the rider of judgment.
And be carried to that sweet bye and bye.