The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ballads of a Cheechako, by Robert W. Service

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Title: Ballads of a Cheechako

Author: Robert W. Service

Release Date: July 1, 2008 [EBook #259]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BALLADS OF A CHEECHAKO ***

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BALLADS OF A CHEECHAKO

by Robert W. Service

[British-born Canadian Poet--1874-1958.]

[Note on text: Italicized stanzas will be indented 5 spaces.
Italicized words or phrases will be capitalised. Lines longer
than 75 characters have been broken according to metre,
and the continuation is indented two spaces.]

[This etext was transcribed from an American 1909 edition.]

BALLADS OF A CHEECHAKO

by Robert W. Service

Author of "The Spell of the Yukon"

CONTENTS:

To the Man of the High North
My rhymes are rough, and often in my rhyming

Men of the High North
Men of the High North, the wild sky is blazing;

The Ballad of the Northern Lights
One of the Down and Out--that's me. Stare at me well, ay, stare!

The Ballad of the Black Fox Skin
There was Claw-fingered Kitty and Windy Ike living the life of shame,

The Ballad of Pious Pete
I tried to refine that neighbor of mine, honest to God, I did.

The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill
I took a contract to bury the body of blasphemous Bill MacKie,

The Ballad of One-Eyed Mike
This is the tale that was told to me by the man with the crystal eye,

The Ballad of the Brand
'Twas up in a land long famed for gold, where women were far and rare,

The Ballad of Hard-Luck Henry
Now wouldn't you expect to find a man an awful crank

The Man from Eldorado
He's the man from Eldorado, and he's just arrived in town,

My Friends
The man above was a murderer, the man below was a thief;

The Prospector
I strolled up old Bonanza, where I staked in ninety-eight,

The Black Sheep
Hark to the ewe that bore him:

The Telegraph Operator
I will not wash my face;

The Wood-Cutter