Little Joe, the Wrangler

[Verse 1]
Little Joe, the wrangler, will never wrangle more
His days with the remuda, they are done
'Twas a year ago last April when he joined the outfit here
Just a little Texas stray and all alone

[Verse 2]
'Twas late in the evening when he rode up to the herd
On a little Texas pony he called Chaw
With his brogan shoes and overalls a harder-looking kid
You never in your life had seen before

[Verse 3]
His saddle was a Southern kack built many years ago
An O.K. spur on one foot lightly hung
With his hot roll in a cotton sack so loosely tied behind
And a canteen from his saddle horn he'd slung

[Verse 4]
He said he had to leave his home, his daddy'd married twice
His new ma whipped him every day or two
So he saddled up old Chaw one night and lit a shuck this way
Thought he'd try and paddle his own canoe

[Verse 5]
He said if we would give him work, he'd do the best he could
Though he didn't know straight up about a cow
So the boss he cut him out a mount and kindly put him on
He sorta liked this little stray somehow

[Verse 6]
Taught him how to wrangle horses and learned to know them all
And round 'em up by daylight if he could
And trail the old chuckwagon and always hitch the team
And help the cosinero rustle wood

[Verse 7]
We'd rode down to Red River an the weather had been fine
We were camped down on the south side in a bend
When a norther commenced blowing and we doubled up our guards
It took every one of us to hold them in

[Verse 8]
Oh, little Joe the wrangler was called out with the rest
Now scarcely had the kid got to the herd
When the cattle they stampeded, like a hailstorm on they flew
And all of us was riding for the lead

[Verse 9]
Amid the streaks of lightning there was one horse up ahead
It was little Joe the wrangler in the lead
He was riding Old Blue Rocket with his slicker 'bove his head
He was trying to check the leaders in their speed

[Verse 10]
At last we got'em millin' and kind of quietened down
And the extra guards back to the camp did go
But there was one a-missin' and we could see it at a glance
Was our little Texas stray poor Wrangler Joe

[Verse 11]
Next morning just at sun up, we found where Rocket fell
Down in a washout twenty feet below
Beneath his horse, smashed to a pulp, his horse had ran the knell
For our little Texas stray, poor Wrangler Joe