Kentucky Belle
| Summer of 'sixty-three, sir, and Conrad was gone away— |
| Gone to the county-town, sir, to sell our first load of hay— |
| We lived in the log house yonder, poor as ever you've seen; |
| Roschen there was a baby, and I was only nineteen. |
| Conrad, he took the oxen, but he left Kentucky Belle. |
| How much we thought of Kentuck, I couldn't begin to tell— |
| Came from the Blue-Grass country; my father gave her to me |
| When I rode north with Conrad, away from the Tennessee. |
| Conrad lived in Ohio—a German he is, you know— |
| The house stood in broad cornfields, stretching on, row after row. |
| The old folks made me welcome; they were kind as kind could be; |
| But I kept longing, longing, for the hills of the Tennessee. |
| Oh, for a sight of water, the shadowed slope of a hill! |
| Clouds that hang on the summit, a wind that never is still! |
| But the level land went stretching away to meet the sky— |
| Never a rise, from north to south, to rest the weary eye! |
| From east to west, no river to shine out under the moon, |
| Nothing to make a shadow in the yellow afternoon: |
| Only the breathless sunshine, as I looked out, all forlorn; |
| Only the rustle, rustle, as I walked among the corn. |
| When I fell sick with pining, we didn't wait any more, |
| But moved away from the cornlands, out to this river shore— |
| The Tuscarawas it's called, sir—off there's a hill, you see— |
| And now I've grown to like it next best to the Tennessee. |
| I was at work that morning. Some one came riding like mad |
| Over the bridge and up the road—Farmer Rouf's little lad. |
| Bareback he rode; he had no hat; he hardly stopped to say, |
| "Morgan's men are coming, Frau; they're galloping on this way. |
| "I'm sent to warn the neighbors. He isn't a mile behind; |
| He sweeps up all the horses—every horse that he can find. |
| Morgan, Morgan the raider, and Morgan's terrible men, |
| With bowie knives and pistols, are galloping up the glen!" |
| The lad rode down the valley, and I stood still at the door; |
| The baby laughed and prattled, playing with spools on the floor; |
| Kentuck was out in the pasture; Conrad, my man, was gone. |
| Nearer, nearer, Morgan's men were galloping, galloping on! |
| Sudden I picked up baby, and ran to the pasture bar. |
| "Kentuck!" I called—"Kentucky!" She knew me ever so far! |
| I led her down the gully that turns off there to the right, |
| And tied her to the bushes; her head was just out of sight. |
| As I ran back to the log house, at once there came a sound— |
| The ring of hoofs, galloping hoofs, trembling over the ground— |
| Coming into the turnpike out from the White Woman Glen— |
| Morgan, Morgan the raider, and Morgan's terrible men. |
| As near they drew and nearer, my heart beat fast in alarm; |
| But still I stood in the doorway with baby on my arm. |
| They came, they passed; with spur and whip in haste they sped along— |
| Morgan, Morgan the raider, and his band, six hundred strong. |