From Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads collected by John A. Lomax (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922), page 379:


A DEER HUNT

One pleasant summer day it came a storm of snow;
I picked my old gun and a-hunting I did go.

I came across a herd of deer and I trailed them through the snow,
I trailed them to the mountains where straight up they did go.

I trailed them o'er the mountains, I trailed them to the brim,
And I trailed them to the waters where they jumped in to swim.

I cocked both my pistols and under water went,—
To kill the fattest of them deer, that was my whole intent.

While I was under water five hundred feet or more
I fired both my pistols; like cannons did they roar.

I picked up my venison and out of water came,—
To kill the balance of them deer, I thought it would be fun.

So I bent my gun in circles and fired round a hill.
And, out of three or four deer, ten thousand I did kill.

Then I picked up my venison and on my back I tied
And as the sun came passing by I hopped up there to ride.

The sun she carried me o'er the globe, so merrily I did roam
That in four and twenty hours I landed safe at home.

And the money I received for my venison and skin,
I taken it all to the barn door and it would not all go in.

And if you doubt the truth of this I tell you how to know:
Just take my trail and go my rounds, as I did, long ago.