THE CHUCKWAGON COOK

Cookie was a black man over six feet tall
The boys called him cookie or old Ned
You didn’t give him no lip, he was feared by all
But food was on the table when it was time to be fed.

His domain was from the cook fire to the wagon
You didn’t want to mess around before chow was done
Joe tried to steal a biscuit one night about a month ago
His hand hurts where Cookie smashed it with the butt of his gun.

Some folks say that he was one time a preacher man
Some say that he was a slave along time ago
All I know is that he has buried several cowboys in the sand
Life ain’t easy, or even for sure on the old Chisholm Trail.

Now cookie is famous for his critter stew
Most anything that done got in his way was in the stew
Maybe a rabbit, prairie chicken a gopher or two
When they see him coming, even the rattler would run and hide.

Not only was he the cook, the preacher and dentist, but the doctor too.
He set broken bones, or fix black eyes after a fight.
He had poultice, drawing salve. And clove for your teeth
He even had a bottle of drinking whiskey for the occasional snakebite.

Though he was cuss onry mean, you were welcome around his fire,
long, as you didn’t criticize his cooking, or badmouth his biscuits.
On any cattle drive cookie was the first one that they will hire.
He is known up and down the Chisholm, for his biscuit s and beans.

---RJ