In this poem, a weary cowboy meets a gambler who offers him advice. The gambler tells the cowboy that he knows the weight of the lives he's taken and the lies he's told. He advises the cowboy to carry a weight and not to go alone on the long path he's taken. The poem ends with the gambler offering the cowboy a drink and telling him that if his life is the weight the cowboy needs to carry, he should finish it.