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18
THE DROWNED HAMLET.
For all the land was deftly clad in sparkling June's array—
Australia's June, where spring's mild reign usurps warm summer's sway—
Bright blossoms thickly strewed the plain, the birds made gayest show,
The herbage filled luxuriant fields—men said they saw it grow.
And Gundagai! that twilight on no fairer scene did close;
Joyous to view thy rustic bliss the Murrumbidgee rose.
Careering past, his gallant flood, swelling, he seemed to say:—
"No fairer scene on all my banks gladdened my course to-day."
The twilight fast has darkened down into the gloom of night;
Through every vine-clad lattice gleams the taper's cheering light:
