HERDING SHEEP FOR GRANVILLE PACE
Lot Alexander

(This true song about the hypocritical Mormon sheep rancher has been kept alive by the author's niece, Della Turner, of Washington, Utah.)

[D]On the fourteenth of October, I [G]went a wild-goose chase,
From [A]Washington to Harmony, to work for Granville [D]Pace.
The evening I arrived there, he [G]counted out my sheep;
I [A]built my bed 'neath an old sage bush, but could not rest or [G]sleep.

Refrain:
[D]Dough gobs and boiled flank and [G]castlebloat for tea,
An [A]old sheep pelt and a ragged old quilt was all he'd furnish [D]me!
A frying pan with the handle gone, and [G]no pot to cook maize,
That's [A]all in this world you'll ever get if you work for Granville [D]Pace.

Now the first day that I herded, there came an awful fog;
I, of course, fell short some sheep, I did not have a dog.
When we got to the counting pen, Gran says," You're out two sheep!"
Granville swore and Granville cursed, but he did not find the sheep.

Now he sent me out a damned old dog, and said her name was Nell;
The first time I set her on the sheep, she scattered them to hell!
I up with my rifle and took a shot at her;
Granville never said a word, but he thought "You dirty cur!"

Refrain

On a Sunday we started for the desert, a-storming like hell,
Granville, he got momesick and said he wasn't well;
He went up to Pinto, and got in a heck of a fight,
Came sneaking back to the old sheep camp in the middle of the night.

Now when we got our new camp built, Gran often come around;
It was then Christmas time, of course we went to town;
We went up to Granville's to get a little "mon";
While we were a-sitting there, in the ward teachers come;
Granville says, "I pray each night, before I go to sleep."
But he forgot to tell of the time, when he stole Joe Prince's sheep!

Refrain

(From: Hal Cannon, ed., Old-Time Cowboy Songs, Gibbs-Smith, 1988, pp. 48-50; with music & chords)

~Masato