Mexican Border Ballads and Other Lore Page: 85
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MEXICAN BORDER BALLADS
decided that the only way to get mutton was to steal a sheep.
He knew that this was risky business so he kept putting
it off, but one night his craving for mutton got the best of
his fear of the Colonel, and so he armed himself with a
hickory club and slipped down to the sheep pen. When John
entered the pen, a sheep started to his feet. John knocked it
in the head. Just as he was about to hit a second sheep, he
heard footsteps approaching. When he looked up he saw
someone coming up to the pen. It was Colonel Clemons. John
yelled as loudly as he could, "Ah ain't gonna let no daw-gone
sheep butt me to death."
John as a Coachman and the Rats
Occasionally on Sunday afternoons John drove the Boss-
man and his family over to the Boss-man's brother's planta-
tion, in the coach. Since these visits usually lasted three or
four hours, John always grew tired of waiting, but the
Colonel gave him orders not to get down off the driver's seat
for fear the horses would run away. Sometimes he would
get so sleepy that he could hardly keep his eyes open.
One summer the Colonel got to visiting his brother twice
a week, and each time John would get sleepier and sleepier.
He finally decided to disobey the Colonel and find himself
a place to lie down. Fortunately his little boys, David and
Joseph, always went with him and played with the ducks
and guineas in the barnyard. So John found him a place
to rest and got the little boys to watch for the Colonel's re-
turn. He told them to wake him up when they saw the
Colonel start out of the house.
John went to a large haystack not for from the place where
he stopped the coach and lay down and went to sleep.
Now the Colonel usually stayed three or four hours, but
on this day David and Joseph were fooled, because he stayed
only one hour. The Colonel had come out of the house and
had almost reached the coach before they saw him. In a big
hurry, they shook John, woke him up, and told him the
Colonel was coming. John got up, half asleep and half awake,
and started running towards the coach at full speed.85
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Mexican Border Ballads and Other Lore (Book)
Collection of popular folklore from Mexico and Texas, including ballads, personal anecdotes, folktales of the Alabama-Coushatta Indians and other miscellaneous legends. The index begins on page 141.
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Boatright, Mody C. Mexican Border Ballads and Other Lore, book, 1946; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc67652/m1/93/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Press.