Saddle Boy

Through the grey frosty dawn
Every cold winter's morn
Rode this lad full of life and joy
Every day just the same
Down the road way he came
He was known as their own saddle boy

In his youth, free from strife
He was called from this life
From the sorrows of life's highway
He was needed above
At the homestead of love
For the last final roundup someday

Now the sad willows wave
On a cold silent grave
Where the tall grasses bend and bow
And a jackass's laugh
Is the only epitaph
On the grave of this brave saddle boy

At the schoolhouse on the rise
Teacher always watched the skies
For the storm clouds that rose like foam
"You belong where he said
So you'd better go ahead
Saddle up, saddle boy, ride for home"

He had ten miles to ride
Through the dark countryside
As the storm all around raged on
Just one creek left across
Struck by driftwood, boy and horse
Swept away by the mad raging foam

And the lightning overhead
Showed the last sandy bed
Where the boy and the pony lay
And old boundary rider Troy
Was the one who found the boy
And who took the saddening message home next day

And the old people say
Of the long nights in May
When the winds through the valley roam
Pounding hoof beats resound
Through the tall timberlands
It's their own saddle boy riding home