TUSSOCK AND ASPHALT RHYMES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2272, 16 September 1897, Page 52

TUSSOCK AND ASPHALT RHYMES.

By David M'Kee Weight.

Ko. 28.-JUCK M4CFAY.

It was down tbe zigzag roadway that the big

wool waggon came, In the days before the carting was a thing of

f-team and flime, When tbe whip-lash made the music where the whistle makes it now, And the yellow plain had never seen a reaper or a plough ; When the stations all were paying and the diggers were the men, And the stockwhip and the shovtl were more thought of than the pen. Half a dozen chaps were standing at the shanty door below, And they saw the load was swinging on the waggon to and fro. As they watched it, someone shouted, " By the Lord ! the brake's not on ; Jack's asleep upon the waggon — in a minute he'll' be gone. ' With a load of wool top-heavy he'll be over at : •Mhe bend ; Chaps, it's touch and go to save him ; Jack Mackay was etill my friend." In a moment he had started, coiled his whip and crossed the creek, .And the other jokers, waiting, heard the heavy waggon creak. ' ' Full two hundred feeS of climbing lay before him up the slope — ■ ■ That he'd get before the wsggon none of them could dare to hope. If he did, to stop the horses seemed beyond the power of man, With the heavy waggon twinging where the steepest, pinch began: Up he went among the tussocks by the shortest, steepest track, Where the speargrass and the bushes did their best to keep him back. . With the waggou'es speed increasing it was like a race with death, And the waggoner was sleeping and the watchers held their breath. Would he do it ? Could he stop them ? They were coming to tbe bend, And the face was getting rougher as* he toiled towards the end. Round they came, and he was beaten — they we're on the turn at last ; Not a power on earth c^uld save them once the upper bend wai passed. With a load like that behind them, what could f-ave the final smash ? But the climber gained the summit, swung his whip and made -the dash ! " Right upon the driver sleeping fell the lash — he sprang awake, , »•» • Saw tbe trouble in a moment, jammed his foot upon the brake. . Round they came ; the horses steadied— slowed towards the dreaded piuch ; Took the heavy waggon swinging down the zigzag inch by inch ! All the boys below were cheering, b'ood was on the driver's face, While, the climber lay and panted, blown and beaten with his race. But for long Mackay has told it, in the camp

and on theroarl, How tbat sudden wakibg saved him going over Trith his load. Dunedin, September 11.