The Decision
1
Since that girl went off and left me,
I can’t plan just what to do.
Saw Tom Frothingham this mornin’,
He says Johnson’s gone off, too.
My old mother used to tell me,
When I lagged at any task,
“Keep on working, do no shirking,
You will bring the thing to pass.”
That advice has been my motto:
Everything that I’ve begun,
I’ve stayed with it, sick or weary,
Till the job was squarely done.
But this case is kind o’ different;
Though I ain’t the kind that grieves,
How you goin’ to work that motto
When the job gets up and leaves?
2
S’pose, in thinkin’ and decidin’,
I refuse to do my part;—
Just sit down and let my mem’ry
Finish breaking up my heart—
S’pose I give up like a coward,
Let the world say I ain’t game,
‘Cause by leavin’ I should forfeit
My poor eighty-acre claim.
I ain’t ’fraid to do my duty
If I’m clear what it’s about,
But this scrape is so peculiar
That my mind’s smoked up with doubt.
I believe that Nancy loves me,
And it may be she’ll stay true;
But I wonder why the blazes
That durn Johnson’s gone off too.
3
Blamed if I don’t get my hosses,
Saddle Zeb and lead old Si,
And we’ll search the wind-swept prairie
Till we find that girl, or die!
Who’d a thought a man’s whole future
Could get twisted up like this?
All his plans burn up like tinder
In the fire of one sweet kiss!
“Zeb, come here, and good old Simon—
Listen while I talk to you;
Put your noses on my shoulder
While I tell you what we’ll do.
Your fool master’s deep in trouble,
Can’t explain to you just how,
But until we find my Nancy,
You shall never pull a plow.”