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BELLE W. COOKE
287
The following selection was not among those espe- cially liked by John Greenleaf Whittier. It deals with a theme with which she was familiar from first-hand experience, and is a sort of John Gilpin chronicle of the immigrations:
Crossing the Plains
Did you ever cross the Plains,
Where they wear the hickory shirt,
Where the eyes get used to smoke,
And the face begrimmed with dirt?
Did you cross the muddy river,
More noted than the Styx,
And begin your journey Westward,
"All in a cart and six"?
Where they wear the hickory shirt,
Where the eyes get used to smoke,
And the face begrimmed with dirt?
Did you cross the muddy river,
More noted than the Styx,
And begin your journey Westward,
"All in a cart and six"?
Have you traveled through the sand,
Up the famous river Platte,
Where the bluffs are so romantic,
And the water tastes so flat!
Have you camped out in a hail-storm
When the wind was blowing high,
Upsetting tents and wagons,
And making children cry?
Up the famous river Platte,
Where the bluffs are so romantic,
And the water tastes so flat!
Have you camped out in a hail-storm
When the wind was blowing high,
Upsetting tents and wagons,
And making children cry?
Did you get up in the morning,
Feeling somewhat water-soaked,
And finding cattle missing,
Did you never get provoked?
And while you hunted cattle,
Did the little muddy creek
Rise like a second deluge
And keep you there a week?
Feeling somewhat water-soaked,
And finding cattle missing,
Did you never get provoked?
And while you hunted cattle,
Did the little muddy creek
Rise like a second deluge
And keep you there a week?
Did you see "vast herds of bison,
Rolling like the mighty main!"
Or was it but a couple
Five miles across the plain?
Did you tread on rattlesnakes,
Rolling like the mighty main!"
Or was it but a couple
Five miles across the plain?
Did you tread on rattlesnakes,
