Pecos Bill, according to Peter Poulakis, was the patron saint of all things cowboy. As a baby, Bill was weaned on moonshine, and teethed on a bowie knife. His legend began when he was about year old, when Bill’s father decided to move the family out west. Bill’s father felt that his farmland had become too crowed for comfort when a family moved within fifty miles of his farm. During the move Bill’s family crossed the Pecos River in their wagon. While crossing the river baby Bill fell out of the family’s wagon into the Pecos River. Fast flowing waters washed Bill far down stream away from his family. A mother coyote found Bill and raised him as her own. Bill then lived like a coyote for the next ten years (Poulakis 138). …show more content…
The cowboy watched Bill bear hug both grizzlies into submission. The cowboy was intrigued by Bill, the cowboy then enquired with Bill as to why he was running around the woods naked acting like a varmint. Bill simply stated that he is a varmint, and that’s what varmints do. Bill then howled like a coyote, walked on all fours, and pointed out his flees to the cowboy demonstrating his varmint nature. The cowboy then pointed out Bill’s lack of fur and tail means he’s a man not a varmint. The cowboy went onto explain that all Texans have fleas and doesn’t mean they’re all varmints (Poulakis