A TALE OF THE OLD WEST Ol' Nasty Nick was a cowboy with the Texas Rangers in 1864. He was a man of few words and fast action and a real rootin' tootin' hellraiser, always out thar fightin' those Yanks and Injuns. His ma and pa gave him the name Nicholas after his grandpappy, but he was such a gnarly character he became known only as Nasty Nick. Nick was sittin' on the porch in front of the saloon in Pecos, Texas one day waitin' for trouble when suddenly a stranger came a runnin' through town on an ol mule like a bolt of lightnin’ a yellin' and a screamin' for the mule to stop, but without any luck. Nasty Nick jumped on his trusty horse Mel and began to chase the mule tryin’ to get him to stop. That mule ran through town and out into the dusty prairie with Nick and Mel right after him. Well, after a long run on that hot day, Nick and Mel brought that fired up, tuckered out, ole mule to a halt. By this time Nick was a gettin' pretty tired and wrangled about the whole thing. After a while, as he was a listenin' to the story that the stranger Thadeus told 'bout how he got the mule and how it saved his life, the Comanches started a sneakin' in around them. Well, it didn't take long for the shootin' to start. After shootin' at them Injuns all afternoon, they started a gettin' cross fires comin' outa their pistols cause they ran out of the bear grease they was usin' to seal their balls. This was a botherin' Nick cause one thing he really hated was when his pistol was a spittin' black powder all over. The Injuns let up for a while and Nick was a lookin' at the ol mule and it was lookin' pretty sick. Its nose was a runnin' and it's ears were a leakin' somethin’ awfully smelly and waxy. Just then them Injuns started up again. Well, Nasty just grabbed a handful of the stuff coming out of ole Lightnin's ears and slapped it over their cylinders on their irons. That waxy stuff worked so good it stopped them cross fires and they held on long enough to chase them Injuns away. Nick and Thadeus became best of friends and celebrated that night a laughin' and a drinkin' in the saloon in town. Nick's gone now but that stuff in old Lightnin's runny ears has showed up in all the mules bred in Pecos for years to come. (Anyway, that’s the way the tale’s been passed on . .. Click
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