But now I hear it's safe enough, I'm going back to work
Because they say the cloud of thirst has shifted on to Bourke.
`But when you see those clouds about -- like this one over here --
All white and frothy at the top, just like a pint of beer,
It's time to go and have a drink, for if that cloud should burst
You'd find the drink would all be gone, for that's a cloud of thirst!'
. . . . .
We stood the man from Narromine a pint of half-and-half;
He drank it off without a gasp in one tremendous quaff;
`I joined some friends last night,' he said, `in what THEY called a spree;
But after Narromine 'twas just a holiday to me.'
And now beyond the Western Range, where sunset skies are red,
And clouds of dust, and clouds of thirst, go drifting overhead,
The railway-train is taking back, along the Western Line,
That narrow-minded person on his road to Narromine.
Saltbush Bill's Gamecock
'Twas Saltbush Bill, with his travelling sheep, was making his way to town;
He crossed them over the Hard Times Run, and he came to the Take 'Em Down;
He counted through at the boundary gate, and camped at the drafting yard:
For Stingy Smith, of the Hard Times Run, had hunted him rather hard.
Pages:
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40