Читать книгу Prairie Flowers - James B. Hendryx - Страница 8

"I'm a howler from the prairie of the West.

If you want to die with terror, look at me.

I'm chain-lightning—if I ain't, may I be blessed.

I'm the snorter of the boundless prairie.

"He's a killer and a hater!

He's the great annihilator!

He's the terror of the boundless prairie!

"I'm the snoozer from the upper trail!

I'm the reveller in murder and in gore!

I can bust more Pullman coaches on the rail

Than anyone who's worked the job before.

"He's a snorter and a snoozer.

He's the great trunk line abuser.

He's the man who put the sleeper on the rail.

"I'm a double-jawed hyena from the East.

I'm the blazing, bloody blizzard from the States.

I'm the celebrated slugger; I'm the Beast.

I can snatch a man bald-headed while he waits.

"He's a double-jawed hyena!

He's the villain of the scena!

He can snatch a man bald-headed while he waits."

He finished with a whoop, and picking up the glass, drained it at a gulp. "Beat it, now, Ike, ol' Stork!" he cried, "an' take a bottle of bug-juice, an' our slumberin' friend, with you. So long, ol' timer! I'm a wolf, an' it's my night to howl! Slip up to the hotel an' tell the cook to shoot me down a half-dozen buzzard's eggs fried in grizzly juice, a couple of rattlesnake sandwiches, a platter of live centipedes, an' a prickly-pear salad. I'm hungry, an' I'm on my prowl!"