The wind wus blowin' hard that night,
Dust wus swirlin' all around.
The herd wus restless as hell,
Frightened of ever' sound.

Black clouds formin' overhead,
The air smelled like rain.
Off in the distance a coyote wus yippin'
Sounded like he wus in pain.

The remuda started actin' up
over on the picket. Old Dan, the lead steer,
had wandered off
Somewhere in the thicket.

Cookie Lee wus cleaning pots
and puttin' them in the chuck wagin.
He said he was hittin' the sack early,
'Cause his old tail wus draggin'.

We heard a steer make a bellowing sound
And figgered old Dan was the one.
The trail boss said, "Go find him boys,
Or the rest of the herd might run."

Me and Little Joe headed into the brush,
To try and find old Dan.
The Trail Boss gathered the rest of the boys,
'Cause we may need ever' man.

All of a sudden, the wind stopped blowin'
And things got deathly quiet.
A lightnin' bolt hit a tree nearby
And shattered the still of the night.

Lightnin' wus flashin' all around,
The thunder wus louder than a gun.
Hail started fallin' big as marbles
And the herd started to run.

Lew wus on the other side
Of a few hundred steers and me.
The herd wus headed straight for camp
And the chuck wagin' of Cookie Lee.

The trail boss yelled, "Turn em' boys,
Try to head em' south.
The herd had already reached the camp
Before words wus out of his mouth.

I saw the chuck wagin' turn over
And heard Cookie Lee scream.
The camp wus crumbled into dust,
It looked like a very bad dream.

It took a while to settle the herd
And look for Cookie Lee.
We found him yards from the camp,
Atop a large oak tree.

We all felt very blessed that night,
We never lost a man.
A dozen steers lay dead on the trail,
As well as our lead steer old Dan.

09/22/19