Just to soothe and heal the sick.
Bringing back a hat of water,
Through the dim light and the rain,
Thought I saw your face turn paler,
Like you felt a twinge o' pain;
But as you knelt down beside me
I could hear you humming low
Some mysterious song, stopped short by,
"Billy, man, we sure must go!"
And the sun turned loose his glory,
Through the tempest-riven sky,
Till it touched us like a blessing
From the Father there on high.


16

I am standing by her dug-out;
Open swings the sagging door,
Every grassblade speaks of Nancy;
But she's gone, to come no more,
For her father and her mother,
And her brothers, late last night,
Loaded up their prairie schooner,
And vamoosed the ranch, 'fore light.
There's the bed poles and the stove hole;
Not a thing is left for me,
As a keepsake of my Nancy,
Anywhere that I can see.
What! a paper, pinned up yonder,