SONG OF A WESTERN'RANCH.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 88, 7 January 1908, Page 3

SONG OF A WESTERN'RANCH.

I: saddles up ■at break o'. day;. from dawn to " moon I rides; ' -, . I asks the ! pipin'-prairie dogs to tell mo where she hides; . I aslrs the plashin'beaver pups; but this is all they knoirrb: ' "It's down the long grey valley where the sagebrush yrows." :

There's water , trieklcs down the. rock'to feed her father's field; There's pinc-trce6 shoots a shaggy head her father's roof to shield; , 1 , And all about her'father's ground the blu6hin' peach-tree blows, In a loop of the long valley where the sagc- ' brush; grows., ■ ." ' '

And tbero she's.,drivin' home fho calves; or milkin' -o' the cows; Or biadin' up her ripplin'- hair has fallen about her brows; Or dra'win' wator from the well; or hangin' V out the elo'es, In a crook of the grey valley where the sage- , 'brush grows. •', ' ■ ,

You'll .know her by, her hone6t eyes, and by ' her" winnin'. grace, , And ,by, the look o' gentleness a# mantles all ... 'her' face; ; And, by the'breath o' sweeter air as'follows ■ where she goes/, . . .. Delightin' all the valley where the snge : brush grows. ■ ' , r' 1

I've asked: the. jays as Hies .-from north if they; havo.ssch her there; ~ 'I've'asked".the- jays as flies from south it.the; can'tell, nib where; » , - And wolves as ranges, east and west, but this .is-all they knows: "She's, down the long ! groy valley where the sage-brush grows.' —It. J.' Mackenzie in the "Westminster. Gazette."