Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (18331908). An American Anthology, 17871900. 1900. |
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743. Chiquita |
| By Francis Bret Harte |
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BEAUTIFUL! Sir, you may say so. Thar is nt her match in the county; | |
Is thar, old gal,Chiquita, my darling, my beauty? | |
Feel of that neck, sir,thar s velvet! Whoa! steady,ah, will you, you vixen! | |
Whoa! I say. Jack, trot her out; let the gentleman look at her paces. | |
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Morgan!she aint nothing else, and I ve got the papers to prove it. | 5 |
Sired by Chippewa Chief, and twelve hundred dollars wont buy her. | |
Briggs of Tuolumne owned her. Did you know Briggs of Tuolumne? | |
Busted hisself in White Pine, and blew out his brains down in Frisco? | |
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Hed nt no savey, hed Briggs. Thar, Jack! that ll do,quit that foolin! | |
Nothin to what she kin do, when she s got her work cut out before her. | 10 |
Hosses is hosses, you know, and likewise, too, jockeys is jockeys: | |
And t aint evry man as can ride as knows what a hoss has got in him. | |
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Know the old ford on the Fork, that nearly got Flanigans leaders? | |
Nasty in daylight, you bet, and a mighty rough ford in low water! | |
Well, it aint six weeks ago that me and the Jedge and his nevey | 15 |
Struck for that ford in the night, in the rain, and the water all round us; | |
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Up to our flanks in the gulch, and Rattle-snake Creek jest a-bilin, | |
Not a plank left in the dam, and nary a bridge on the river. | |
I had the gray, and the Jedge had his roan, and his nevey, Chiquita; | |
And after us trundled the rocks jest loosed from the top of the cañon. | 20 |
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Lickity, lickity, switch, we came to the ford, and Chiquita | |
Buckled right down to her work, and, afore I could yell to her rider, | |
Took water jest at the ford, and there was the Jedge and me standing, | |
And twelve hundred dollars of hoss-flesh afloat, and a-driftin to thunder! | |
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Would ye blieve it? That night, that hoss, that ar filly, Chiquita, | 25 |
Walked herself into her stall, and stood there, all quiet and dripping: | |
Clean as a beaver or rat, with nary a buckle of harness, | |
Jest as she swam the Fork,that hoss, that ar filly, Chiquita. | |
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That s what I call a hoss! andWhat did you say?Oh, the nevey? | |
Drownded, I reckon,leastways, he never kem back to deny it. | 30 |
Ye see the derned fool had no seat, ye could nt have made him a rider; | |
And then, ye know, boys will be boys, and hosseswell, hosses is hosses! | |
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