Pecos Bill

Welcome to Dreamful Podcast, Stories for Slumber! Gather 'round the fire and listen to a story about the roughest, toughest feller in the wild west! Pecos Bill is an american folk hero and his story is just as tall as it is fun to listen to!  

So snuggle up in your blankets and have sweet dreams.

The music in this episode is by Benjamin Woods Meyer from Skagit Valley, Washington. You can follow him on Instagram @tenderpile 

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Dreamful Podcast is hosted by Jordan Blair.
Theme song by Joshua Snodgrass.
Cover art by Jordan Blair.

Transcript

speaker 0:   0:00
Welcome to Dreamful podcast, bedtime stories for slumber. A lot of work goes into the making of this show, and if you find value in it and would like to help support the creation of dreamful podcast, please visit patreon.com/dreamfulpodcast. As little as $1 month will give you access to a bonus episode, and patrons who pledge on the higher tiers receive additional bonus content and other goodies.

speaker 0:   0:57
Tonight I will tell you the story of Pecos Bill. Pecos Bill is one of the most famous American folktales, and many cowboys in the Old West would sit around the campfire and tell each other tall tales. These are tales and legends that were used to pass the time, and the stories often became more and more outrageous with each telling. It is an adventurous and silly story, and I hope you enjoy it.  

speaker 0:   1:29
The music in tonight's episode is by my good friend Benjamin Woods Meyer from Washington State. He's an incredible musician, and I'm so thankful that he was eager to contribute to this episode. So snuggle up in your blankets and have sweet dreams

speaker 0:   3:34
Pecos Bill was born the youngest of 18 children in East Texas, and though he was the youngest, is the most peculiar. You see, Bill was so strong and tough that as a baby, his ma gave him a knife instead of a team. One day, while Bill was outside playing with some wild animals, bills park running up to the house in a huff, a neighbor had moved in nearly 50 miles away, and it was too crowded, so they had to move. Bill's folks and the whole lot of Children packed everything into a covered wagon and headed west. The journey was long and hard, and the Children were so loud and fussy that they sounded like a roaring thunderstorm rolling through the land. In fact, they were fighting and hollering so much that when the wagon and blocked the Pecos River and poor Little Bill fell out, no one had even noticed. Bill sat at the riverbed watching as the wagon with his family, and it traveled farther and farther away until it was just a speck in the distance, will turn to look around and noticed a coyote sniffing at his hare. Startled, the coyote growled. Bill growled back. Thin pet her on the head. The coyote liked Bill and decided to bring him back home to raise with her Pops Coyotes top Bill had to roam the prairies and howl at the moon. Pretty soon he could run on all fours and hunt lizards, just like any of them. 17 years had gone by, and Bill was out hunting by the Pecos River. When he spotted something strange, he squinted at the figure approaching in the sun. A cowboy on a horse rode up to Bill on looked him up and down. Surprised to see a naked man in the desert, said Cowboy still lying Bill Know What is a fella like you doing naked as the day you were born in the wilderness? I n a feller, said Bill. I'm a coyote. How so? Asked the cowboy. Well, I got fleas, said Bill. Now we all got fleas, said the cowboy. Look here. Kyle's have bushy tails. Four paws and are covered in fur. You ain't no coyote. You're a man like me. Bill looked at his hands that weren't pause. He turned and tried to find his tail that wasn't there. Then he felt his arms that weren't covered in firm. For the first time ever, Bill realised that he was, in fact, a man will shoot side Bill. I've only ever known how to be a coyote. I don't know how to be a man Cowboy through some close to Bill and told Bill he'd teach him to be a cowboy. At first, Bill hated the clothes. He also didn't understand why people used forks and knives when you can just eat with your hands that eventually Bill became justice good a cowboy's any of them and became known as Pecos Bill since he was found that day down by the Pecos River.  

speaker 0:   8:03
Some time has passed, and Pecos Bill was riding his horse up in the foothills when suddenly a great mountain lion leaped out with brush. This scared Bill's horse so badly that he bugged Bill straight off and ran away. The mountain lion charged it bill, but Bill was too fast and strong for the mountain lion. He jumped right onto the mountain lions back and wrote it like a bucking bronco. That cat was so mad it thrashed around and twisted to fight Bill. But he was having so much fun. He held onto the mountain lion with one hand and waved his cowboy hat in the air with the other. The mountain lion did everything it could to get Bill off his back, but eventually was tamed, pulling a big cactus from the ground. Bill took all the needles out of it and from it fashioned a saddle for the mountain lion. Bill once again rode off in the foothills. They weren't riding for long before the mountain lion stopped and growled loudly, It's something behind some rocks. Bill climbed off the mountain in line to take a look and what had scared it so badly. Then a 50 foot rattlesnake rose up from the rocks, rattling its tail as its long tongue flicked in the air. Pecos Bill laughed at the snake, and the snake lunged at Bill, opening its mouth to show its long things. Grabbing the snake by the neck bill, squeeze the snake with his bare hands and, pending down to the ground Bill, squeeze the snake so hard that he squeezed the mean right out of it until it heard like a kitten you'll do find for a lasso, said Bill. And he rolled the snake around his arm and climb back onto the mountain lion to go home. When Bill arrived back at the Cowboy Ranch, all the Cowboys were stunned to see him on the back of the mountain line with a giant snake on his arm. But as soon as Bill jumped off the big cat, it chased the cattle around, and Bill had to send it back into the desert. Bill needed a horse, but he didn't want just any horse. He had had his eyes on a wild Mustang. The Cowboys called Widowmaker. Many cowboys had tried to ride Widowmaker, but we're bucked off the instant they were able to jump on its back. The young Mustang had a wild spirit and could outrun any horse on the prairie. In fact, Widowmaker was the only horse Pecos Bill couldn't outrun. He wanted the horse so bad that he raked up a giant son shot Bill, leaned his back into the slingshot and walked back, back back until it was pulled tight. He lifted his feet up off the ground and whizzed up in the air. Hi cactus below and landed right in front of Buddha. Maker Horse was so stunned when Pecos Bill landed in front of him that he stopped dead in his tracks. The only thing is Widowmaker had been running so fast that when he stopped, his hooves were stuck deep in the mud bill left upon the Mustangs back and pulled his made up so hard that the horse was freed from the mud. This made Widowmaker madder than a wet hen, and he took off with Pecos Bill into the wilderness. Pecos Bill Road widow maker for a whole week in and out of canyons, over the hills and through the desert. At last, the Mustang grew tuckered out, and Pecos Bill declared that they were partners from then on way.  

speaker 0:   12:27
Then came the year of the Great drought. Roaring rivers shriveled up cactus brown in the sun, and the coyotes even stopped howling due to their throats being so dry. One day, while Pecos Bill was looking across the plains, red desert dust began to swirl in the hot sun. Winds picked up and Bill saw cyclone forming in the distance. Bill climbed onto a widow maker and set off chasing the tornado as they were tearing across the land, a lightning bolt touchdown next to Bill. It quivered there just long enough for built a jump from widow makers back onto the Lightning as it whipped him right up into the sky. When Bill was high enough to touch the tornadoes shoulders, he dropped down, landing on its back. By this time, everyone was watching his Pecos Bill Road, the tornado swinging his rattlesnake lasso in the air. Bill had wrapped his legs around the Cyclones belly and squeeze so hard it began to panned. Then Bill swung his rattle snake around cyclones neck and pulled so hard that it began to spit out all the rain it had inside for miles below. All the people jackrabbits, lizards and coyotes lifted their heads as the rain fell down upon their faces. There was so much rain falling down that some opened their mouths until its thirst was entirely quenched. Pecos Bill brought the tornado down with such force. It created a giant crack in the earth that you can still see to this day. They later called it the Grand Canyon.  

speaker 0:   14:29
Sometime later, Bill was watering Widowmaker down the Rio Grande when he heard whooping and hollering, he looked up and was stunned to see a beautiful cowgirl riding a giant catfish while she shot patterns into the clouds with pistol. Her name was Slue Foot Sue. Pecos Bill just knew Slew foot Sue was the right gal for him. He proposed to her right there on the spot. When she agreed to marry him. He was so overjoyed that he shot all the stars out of the sky as a wedding present. As it would happen, our wedding day was the very next day. Folks came from all around to see Pecos Bill and Slue foot Sue get hitched. After all, they were the perfect match. Sue could ride rope and shoot. Nearest Good is Bill for her wedding day. So wanted to ride Widowmaker to the chapel, and Bill figured it was fine because of anyone could ride Widowmaker. It was his bride to be. That evening, Sue rode up in her beautiful white wedding dress, and the Cowboys began to shoot in the air and holler in celebration. The ruckus spooked Widowmaker so much that he suddenly began to buck and hop around. He bucked Sue off, and she flew so high that when she landed down on her steal bustle, it launched her clear up to the moon.  Sad as could be, Pecos Bill mounted Widowmaker and rode off into the wilderness. For the rest of his life, he surely had many more great adventures. As he traveled up to the forests of Canada and back down to the coast of Mexico, he'd sometimes stop and spend time with coyotes, telling them his story and troubles and how the love of his life was taken too soon. Every now and again, folks swore they could hear Pecos Bill howling at the moon singing his love to Slue Foot Sue.