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;