Many Trails Lyrics - Miller Bill

A boy heard the voice of the whippoorwill one night 

and went out to find where he was singing. He had to 

walk quite a ways through a big field, because the 

song of the whippoorwill carried so well in the wind he 

sound much closer then he really was. And on the way 

the boy found a well worn trail, so he stayed on it for a 

while. And sitting in the middle of the trail was coyote, 

and coyote was singing too. He turned and saw the 

boy and he said "Why are you follow me?" The boy 

was frightened and said "Well the trail you made 

happened to be a short and easy way through this 

field. Then coyote asked "Well if your not following 

me then why are you here?" "Well I heard the beautiful 

song of the whippoorwill and wanted to watch him 

sing." "Well do you not think my songs are beautiful?", 

said coyote. "Oh", said the boy, "there good but I hear 

you all the time. I much prefer the songs of the 

whippoorwill" This made coyote furious and he was 

jealous of the whippoorwill's song. He said "Listen to 

my night song you might like this one" And he pulled 

back his head and yodeled out a tune. The boy 

covered his ears and politely said, "Thank you for the 

song, but I must be going now." "Well", coyote said, "I 

can show you a short cut to the whippoorwill boy, and 

where he sings is just over there." Pointing his claw, 

smiling out of the side of his mouth. The boy paused, 

looked around, he knew the night was passing fast so 

he agreed to follow coyote. But coyote's trail was 

rough and rocky. And the boy fell in quite a few 

gopher holes along the way. Coyote turned around 

and laughed and he yelled to the boy. "Were almost 

there, hurry up." Coyote was at a full trot but the boy 

had just fallen again and hurt his knee. And by the time 

he got to the place where the whippoorwill had been 

singing all night, it was morning. Whippoorwill was 

gone. And so was coyote, in fact he could hear 

coyote's songs in another field. So the boy turned and 

headed for home, covered with burrs, misq bites and a 

skinned up knee. And it was many summers later 

when the boy became a wiser man. And he realized, 

there are no shortcuts to find something you really 

love. But there are many trails in this life. So you must 

stay true to your path, and always keep and eye out 

for coyote.