Saltbush Bill, J.P., and Other Verses.
by A. B. Paterson.
Song of the Pen
_Not for the love of women toil we, we of the craft, Not for the people"s praise; Only because our G.o.ddess made us her own and laughed, Claiming us all our days,
Claiming our best endeavour--body and heart and brain Given with no reserve-- n.i.g.g.ard is she towards us, granting us little gain; Still, we are proud to serve.
Not unto us is given choice of the tasks we try, Gathering grain or chaff; One of her favoured servants toils at an epic high, One, that a child may laugh.
Yet if we serve her truly in our appointed place, Freely she doth accord Unto her faithful servants always this saving grace, Work is its own reward!_
Song of the Wheat
We have sung the song of the droving days, Of the march of the travelling sheep; By silent stages and lonely ways Thin, white battalions creep.
But the man who now by the land would thrive Must his spurs to a plough-share beat.
Is there ever a man in the world alive To sing the song of the Wheat!
It"s west by south of the Great Divide The grim grey plains run out, Where the old flock-masters lived and died In a ceaseless fight with drought.
Weary with waiting and hope deferred They were ready to own defeat, Till at last they heard the master-word-- And the master-word was Wheat.
Yarran and Myall and Box and Pine-- "Twas axe and fire for all; They scarce could tarry to blaze the line Or wait for the trees to fall, Ere the team was yoked, and the gates flung wide, And the dust of the horses" feet Rose up like a pillar of smoke to guide The wonderful march of Wheat.
Furrow by furrow, and fold by fold, The soil is turned on the plain; Better than silver and better than gold Is the surface-mine of the grain; Better than cattle and better than sheep In the fight with drought and heat; For a streak of stubbornness, wide and deep, Lies hid in a grain of Wheat.
When the stock is swept by the hand of fate, Deep down in his bed of clay The brave brown Wheat will lie and wait For the resurrection day: Lie hid while the whole world thinks him dead; But the Spring-rain, soft and sweet, Will over the steaming paddocks spread The first green flush of the Wheat.
Green and amber and gold it grows When the sun sinks late in the West; And the breeze sweeps over the rippling rows Where the quail and the skylark nest.
Mountain or river or shining star, There"s never a sight can beat-- Away to the sky-line stretching far-- A sea of the ripening Wheat.
When the burning harvest sun sinks low, And the shadows stretch on the plain, The roaring strippers come and go Like ships on a sea of grain; Till the lurching, groaning waggons bear Their tale of the load complete.
Of the world"s great work he has done his share Who has gathered a crop of wheat.
Princes and Potentates and Czars, They travel in regal state, But old King Wheat has a thousand cars For his trip to the water-gate; And his thousand steamships breast the tide And plough thro" the wind and sleet To the lands where the teeming millions bide That say: "Thank G.o.d for Wheat!"
Brumby"s Run
Brumby is the Aboriginal word for a wild horse. At a recent trial a N.S.W. Supreme Court Judge, hearing of Brumby horses, asked: "Who is Brumby, and where is his Run?"
It lies beyond the Western Pines Towards the sinking sun, And not a survey mark defines The bounds of "Brumby"s Run".
On odds and ends of mountain land, On tracks of range and rock Where no one else can make a stand, Old Brumby rears his stock.
A wild, unhandled lot they are Of every shape and breed.
They venture out "neath moon and star Along the flats to feed;
But when the dawn makes pink the sky And steals along the plain, The Brumby horses turn and fly Towards the hills again.
The traveller by the mountain-track May hear their hoof-beats pa.s.s, And catch a glimpse of brown and black Dim shadows on the gra.s.s.
The eager stockhorse p.r.i.c.ks his ears And lifts his head on high In wild excitement when he hears The Brumby mob go by.
Old Brumby asks no price or fee O"er all his wide domains: The man who yards his stock is free To keep them for his pains.
So, off to scour the mountain-side With eager eyes aglow, To strongholds where the wild mobs hide The gully-rakers go.
A rush of horses through the trees, A red shirt making play; A sound of stockwhips on the breeze, They vanish far away!
Ah, me! before our day is done We long with bitter pain To ride once more on Brumby"s Run And yard his mob again.
Saltbush Bill on the Patriarchs
Come all you little rouseabouts and climb upon my knee; To-day, you see, is Christmas Day, and so it"s up to me To give you some instruction like--a kind of Christmas tale-- So name your yarn, and off she goes. What, "Jonah and the Whale"?
Well, whales is sheep I"ve never sh.o.r.e; I"ve never been to sea, So all them great Leviathans is mysteries to me; But there"s a tale the Bible tells I fully understand, About the time the Patriarchs were settling on the land.
Those Patriarchs of olden time, when all is said and done, They lived the same as far-out men on many a Queensland run-- A lot of roving, droving men who drifted to and fro, The same we did out Queensland way a score of years ago.
Now Isaac was a squatter man, and Jacob was his son, And when the boy grew up, you see, he wearied of the run.
You know the way that boys grow up--there"s some that stick at home; But any boy that"s worth his salt will roll his swag and roam.
So Jacob caught the roving fit and took the drovers" track To where his uncle had a run, beyond the outer back; You see they made for out-back runs for room to stretch and grow, The same we did out Queensland way, a score of years ago.
Now, Jacob knew the ways of stock--that"s most uncommon clear-- For when he got to Laban"s Run, they made him overseer; He didn"t ask a pound a week, but bargained for his pay To take the roan and strawberry calves--the same we"d take to-day.
The duns and blacks and "Goulburn roans" (that"s brindles), coa.r.s.e and hard, He branded them with Laban"s brand, in Old Man Laban"s yard; So, when he"d done the station work for close on seven year, Why, all the choicest stock belonged to Laban"s overseer.
It"s often so with overseers--I"ve seen the same thing done By many a Queensland overseer on many a Queensland run.
But when the mustering time came on old Laban acted straight, And gave him country of his own outside the boundary gate.