BY W.M.F.
They draft us off their 'wasters' from lands across the seas ;
Their "ne'er-do-weels" and "black sheep," they cull them carelessly ;
They ship them off by steamer, they send them under sail,
With kisses shallow-hearted on faces deadly pale.
With swaying or the saddie. And swinging of the rein,
We take them all, we hold them all,
And make them men again.
They ride by creek and desert, they ride by dawn and day ;
By morning star and sunset the snaffle chimes the way.
And hearts are growing hardy, and minds are growing free,
For men are changed to heroes where pain and hardship be.
Through drought and heat and duststorm
We lead them recklessly ;
With rowels red across their dead,
They ride to victory.
They're camping by artesians, they're meeting at the tanks,
With new recruits to cover the gaps within their ranks ;
By shearing-shed and racecourse, by creek and river-bed.
They're sleeping in the starlight, the gum-trees overhead.
While thoughts of distant faces
And memories overlong
Are floating slow through echoes low
Of some sweet old-time song.
Or gleam of snowy shoulders, where hot hearts throb and ache.
When, hark ! A stir, a bellow—a thousand cattle break ;
No more regretful dreaming. Now saddle up and ride,
And show them how we hold them upon the western side.
To crash of splintered fences,
They charge, those thousand head,
Now ride to win, and keep them in,
And wheel them when they spread.
And there, if stakes are deadly, or horse and rider fall,
No need of plumes and hearses; no need of priest or pall ;
No call for tears or sorrow; they go where horsemen must.
The night winds sighing o'er them may whisper to their dust.
They died as men in action,
Yet would they not regret
If o'er the sea fair eyes should be
With tardy sorrow wet.
They draft us out their "wasters," their reckless sons of shame.
They "ne'er-do-weels," and 'black sheep"—we care not for the name—
We take them, and we mould them, as only we can do,
Where men are men whate'er befall, and
weaklings less than few.
With swaying of the saddle.
And swinging of the rein,
We take them all, we hold them all,
We make them men again.
Notes
From the NSW Newspaper The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser 13 Nov 1907 p. 1277.
Top