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15 BALLAD OF PETE ELLERS The name of Ellers was one to speak Among the farmers of Red Hawk Creek. Two thousand acres of cattle land, And herds that carried Ellers’ brand. The widow Kramer, whose shanty stood Next Ellers’ line fence across the wood, Had half an acre, three guinea fowl, A flock of chickens, a dog to howl. When old man Ellers took sick and died, Young Pete, at twenty and in his pride, Got all the holdings—an only son, And meanness in him since time begun. Just plain, born meanness it was in Pete, As if the Devil—He like to beat His bulls and horses, would take a chain And stand there lashing, and lash again, To cut the blood out; then laugh to hear The wild horse-whicker, to smell the fear. It gave him pleasure, so it would seem, To watch things suffer and hear them scream. By Widow Kramer’s there was a spring— Unfailing water, a precious thing In cattle country. Young Pete was set At first to purchase, but when he met The Widow’s silence, he went to court And wangled somehow by deed and tort, 16 With land re-survey and lawyer tongue To oust the Widow. When she still clung To shack and springhouse and would not budge, Young Pete went bragging how he would nudge That squatter woman. She’d change her tune About his cowspring—and Goddam soon. One night that winter Pete filled his hide With rotgut whiskey and took a ride Across the woodlot, but soon returned . . . At Widow Kramer’s a shanty burned; The hens all cackled, the guineas cried; But Widow Kramer, until she died Upon the County, could never speak— Her mouth would open, her throat would creak, But no sound from it; nor could she spell Upon her fingers and terror tell. But Ellers’ fortune was fortune still. He married money and had his will And seven children—five feisty sons— The name of Ellers—for so it runs: On earth the Mighty and not the Meek; If Justice rankles, it does not speak. —And lived till eighty—The night he died When midnight answered, the guineas cried— Old Ellers screaming—and screamed to draw The window curtains—outside he saw— They pulled the curtains—but far too thin; Old Widow Kramer kept looking in. ...

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