And knowed he would keep his word.
And, sure's you're born, they all got off
Afore the smokestacks fell, -
And Bludso's ghost went up alone
In the smoke of the Prairie Belle.

He weren't no saint,--but at jedgment
I'd run my chance with Jim,
'Longside of some pious gentlemen
That wouldn't shook hands with him.
He seen his duty, a dead-sure thing, -
And went for it thar and then;
And Christ ain't a-going to be too hard
On a man that died for men.



LITTLE BREECHES.



I don't go much on religion,
I never ain't had no show;
But I've got a middlin' tight grip, sir,
On the handful o' things I know.
I don't pan out on the prophets
And free-will, and that sort of thing, -
But I b'lieve in God and the angels,
Ever sence one night last spring.