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[Verse 1]
DA7D
We were camped on the plains at the head of the Cimmaron
DBmA
When along came a stranger and stopped to arger some.
DF#mGD
He looked so very very foolish that we began to look around,
DA7D
We thought he was a greenhorn that had just escaped from town.
DA7D
We asked him if he had he been to breakfast; he hadn't had a sniff;
DBmA
So we opened up the chuck-box and told him help himself.
DF#mGD
He took a little beefsteak and some biscuits and some beans,
DA7D
And then began to talk and tell about foreign kings and queens,
[Verse 2]
DA7D
He talked about the Spanish War and fighting on on the seas
DBmA
With guns as big as beef steers and ramrods big as trees,
DF#mGD
And about old Paul Jones, a fighting son of a gun,
DA7D
And he said he was the grittiest cuss that ever pulled a gun.
DA7D
Such an educated feller, his thoughts just come in herds,
DBmA
He astonished all them cowboys with them jaw-breaking words.
DF#mGD
He just kept right on talking till he made the boys all sick
DA7D
And they began to look around just how to play a trick.
[Verse 3]
DA7D
He said he had lost his job out upon the Santa Fe
DBmA
And was going across the plains to strike the 7-D.
DF#mGD
But he didn't say how come it, just some trouble with his boss,
DA7D
But said he'd like to borrow a nice fat saddle hoss.
DA7D
This tickled all the boys to death; we laughed down in their sleeves
DBmA
Said that he could have a horse as fresh as he would please.
DF#mGD
So shorty grabbed a lasso and he roped the Zebra Dun
DA7D
And led him to the stranger as we waited for the fun.
[Verse 4]
DA7D
Now Old Dunny was an outlaw he had grown so awful wild
DBmA
He could paw the white out of the moon every jump for a mile.
DF#mGD
And he always stood right still, just like he didn't know
DA7D
Until he was saddled and ready for to go.
DA7D
Now the stranger hit the saddle, and old Dunny quit the earth,
DBmA
He went straight up in the air for all that he was worth.
DF#mGD
A-bawlin and a-squalin, and having a wall-eyed fit,
DA7D
With his hind feet perpendicular, and his front ones in the bit.
[Verse 5]
DA7D
Now we could see the tops of trees beneath him every jump,
DBmA
But the stranger he was growed there just like the camel's hump;
DF#mGD
And he sat up there upon him and curled his black moustache,
DA7D
Just like a summer boarder a-waiting for his hash.
DA7D
Now he thumped him in the shoulders and spurred him when he whirled,
DBmA
He showed us flunky punchers he's the wolf of this old world.
DF#mGD
and when he had dismounted once again upon the ground,
DA7D
Why we knew he was a thoroughbred and not a gent from town.
[Verse 6]
DA7D
Now the boss he was standing and a watching all the show,
DBmA
He walks right up to him and he asks him not to go
DF#mGD
"If you can use the lasso like you rode the Zebra Dun,
DA7D
Then you're the man I've looked for ever since the year of one."
DA7D
Well he could use a lasso and he didn't do it slow;
DBmA
The cattle they stampeded he was always on the go.
DF#mGD
A one thing and a sure thing that I learned since I was born,
DA7D
Every educated feller he ain't a plumb greenhorn!