E. D. Smith, “The Passing of the Cattle Trail,” Collections of the Kansas State Historical Society (1910):

“It was sung to a soft tune in a minor key.…I think it was in 1890 that Mr. J. H. Nation, a cattleman,…happened to be at my old sod house for dinner. After dinner he sang for my children this song. It was the first time I had heard it, and the best rendering of it I ever heard. Since that time I have heard many times cowboys state that Mr. Nation composed it, but I do not know that to be true, and I think likely no one knows, unless Mr. Nation does, who did in fact compose it.

                  THE DIM, NARROW TRAIL.

Last night as I lay on the prairie,
Looking up at the stars in the sky,
I wondered if ever a cowboy
Would go to that sweet by and by;
I wondered if ever a cowboy
Would go to that sweet by and by.

The trail to that fair mystic region
Is narrow and dim all the way.
While the road that leads to perdition
Is posted and blazed all the way;
While the road that leads to perdition
Is posted and blazed all the way.

They say there will be a grand round-up,
Where cowboys like cattle must stand.
To be cut by the riders of judgment,
Who are posted and know every brand;
To be cut by the riders of judgment.
Who are posted and know every brand.

Perhaps there will be a stray cowboy,
Unbranded by any one nigh.
Who’ll be cut by the riders of judgment
And shipped to the sweet by and by;
Who’ll be cut by the riders of judgment
And shipped to the sweet by and by.

I don't see why there's so many
To be lost at that great final sale,
Who might have been rich and had plenty
Had they known of that great final sale;
Who might have been rich and had plenty
Had known of that great final sale.

“Those who know it insist that the person who composed the words also composed the tune to which it was sung.”

(The tune Smith remembered seems not to have been “My Bonnie.”)