The Black Cat

I've a black cat here in camp,
As black as black can be,
As bright-eyed, roguish scamp
As ever you did see.
I carried him fifteen miles or more
Upon Grey Eagle's back,
From Red Fork Ranch to our camp,
Tied in a buckskin sack.

Before I brought him into camp,
The mice ran riot o'er my head,
As I lay and dreamed of far-off home,
On my rough frontiersman's bed,
But now my slumbers are undisturbed,
For the cat a vigil keeps,
And woe to the mouse that ventures near
To where his master sleeps.