GREETING

Shake, Pard! I'm mighty proud o’ you!

( I'm know'd as “Yukon Bill” );

You blazed th’ trail an’ blazed it true;——

Some o’ my friends I see y’ knew

On old Che-cha-ko Hill;

But say, old man, y’ clean forgot my friend, “Swiftwater Bill!”

You was a kid in pettic'uts

When I went in, a man;

Grub-stakin’ with two other goats ——

We sow'd th’ last of our wild oats

An’ th’ new, clean life began;

We was th’ fu'st ( an’ p'raps th’ wu'st ) Five Fingers’ Rapids ran.

I staked out Eldorado crick

Long‘ fore th’ world was told

Them hills from Hunker to St. Mick

Groaned f'r th’ drill an’ f'r th’ pick,

The'r bellies achin’ GOLD!

Where many a night th’ moon pale white saw me in blankets rolled.

At Magnet Gulch I lit my pipe ——

Got drunk upon Gold Hill;

I hoofed it cle'r t’ Kokusqum ——

‘ Twas ther’ I lost my Siwash chum

( She drownded in a spill ),

An’ Love an’ Luck together went from pore old Yukon Bill!

Big Skookum claim might a-bin mine,

But fortune ther’ I missed;

For all I got a-though I sought ——

I starved an’ thirsted, dug an’ fought,

Was d —— plumbago schist!

Ten years of toil, of muck an’ spoil; then on th’ “Failure list.”

Labarge; th’ Canyon; I was there;

I clumb th’ Glacier mound.

I might a-bin a millionaire ——

God! think of it, and see me — WHERE?

A bum on Puget Sound!——

At night my roof th’ open sky — my pillow th’ cold ground.

Me for th’ trail at seventy!

I'm longin’ f'r th’ track:

I'll try again — no, I'll not fail ——

I hear them “Little Voices” wail:

“Come back! come back! come back!”

O, God! how Mem'ry knifes me now an’ puts me on th’ rack.

Yes, yes — I failed! Yes, yes, a drink!

An’ then my pipe I'll fill.

Boy, here's t’ you — y'r picter's true

Of them old sinners that I knew

On old Che-cha-ko Hill;

But say, old man, y’ overlooked my friend, “Swiftwater Bill!”