STATION BALLADS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2210, 9 July 1896, Page 41

STATION BALLADS.

11.- THE SWAGGER. The winter ain't been bad as yet, though frosts

w«s pretty keen, But there's one thing that I'll tell you, mate, Ihe

countnj's getting mean I The price of wool is looki a' up, the harvest ain't been bid, But for them that's on the wallaby there's little to be had. The country's lookin' not so bad, the prospect's

pretty fiir, But for cove* that's out of collar, mate, there's

hunger in the air. I mind the time when men was- pinched and

things was pretty blue For the mortgage-burdened station and the

struggling cockatoo, But if work was turd of getting and a fellow had

to tr*n>p He was pretty sure of tucker and a decent place

to camp. ' But it's when God's hand is openmost with plenty

and to spare . That the Bwagc? r feuls it xoughish when there's hunger in the air. It isn't fallin' wages that makes a fellow sick. We had our tur.i ef fairish times, there ain't no

cause to kick ; And driu k, that cursed the most of us, helped pay the country's way, But there's thousands tramping on the roads that

do no work to-day. And when skies ate grey abova us it seems

middhu' hard to bear The feeling that the swagger has of hunger in the

air. A rabbi ter or digger cove will stand a chap a feed— The poor man helps the poorer best in any tifce of needBut cockatoos with decent homas and firesides

waim and bright Will eend a starving fellow-man to sleep outside

at night. With stations mostly busted up that ouce was pretty fair It's little wonder there's a feel of hunger in the

air. I don't count much on parson-tilk, I ain't au

Army cove, < ; And blest if I can understand some people's God of

Love ; , They didn'fc use to go to church so much a few years back And they hadn't such a deny on the bloke upon

the track," They weren't mean and grasping and they had a feed to spare, * And fellows wssu't made to feel the hunger in the

air. I used to read the Bible once, and thought it pretty clear That Christ was on tEe wallaby that time that

He was here, And when He looked areund about some likely mates to choose He didn't pick on squatter swells or well-off cocka-

toos ; And I used to sometimes fancy, with their tramp-

ing here and there. The Lord and His disciples felt the hunger in the

air. Well, there ain't much use in talking— l'd best

hump my bluey on, - There'll be goodish men and meanish men when we'll be dead and gone ; I'd be happy aB a skylark if I dropped across a job, And as for saving money— well, you know, at

fifteen bob, With his clo'es and his tobacco, a chap won't have

much to spare, ■ But it's -bomethhig that -he'll miss awhile, the

hunger in the air ! Pukotoi, June 26. David M'Kee Wright.