The Long and Rugged Trail

There really was a Loving & Goodnight Cattle Company, and Goodnight made several long, hard drives. And there really was a Billy who got shot in the neck with an arrow and survived. There must have been at least some men who had a sweetheart back home waiting for them.

In June of eighteen sixty-six

We started up the herd,

Two thousand head and a thousand miles,

A handshake and a word.

And I was just a young cowboy

With high hopes and a scheme

To return and wed the Texas Rose

Who filled my every dream.

Mister Goodnight said he’d made the drive

A couple of times before.

They’re buying beef in Kansas,

And we’re going to bring them more.

And the lightning storms were every bit

As fearful as the flood.

The rustlers came for the cattle,

And the Indians came for blood.

When we weren’t breathing in the dust,

We were knee-deep in the mud;

And I don’t know how we made it through the hail,

Riding on that long and rugged trail.

A rattlesnake got Lucas’ horse,

We had to shoot him dead.

When a scorpion stung him in the arm,

He nearly lost his head.

An arrow went into Billy’s neck,

But he somehow made it through.

When I caught a bullet in the leg,

I could only think of you.

And I’m thinking of you as I sit

In a bar in Abilene,

Sipping whiskey and rememb’ring,

And I don’t wish to be mean …

But I’ve seen death and danger

And more things in between,

And I’m thinking now that somehow I may fail

To make it back on that long and rugged trail.

Oh, the lightning storms were every bit

As fearful as the flood.

The rustlers came for the cattle,

And the Indians came for blood.

When we weren’t breathing in the dust,

We were knee-deep in the mud;

And I don’t know how we made it through the hail,

Riding on that long and rugged trail.

Is it the love or fear that will prevail?

I’m looking at a long and rugged trail.

r. nuñez, 8/2001