Page:Ballads·of·Bung•E·Iveagh·Lord•1921.pdf/7

And a lovely lady helped me, when she saw me down,
Next day when in the village I met one Bookie Lung
And tried to get him shicker, I might as well have flung
My silver in the ocean—he kept as right as pie.
Only one of us was shicker, and the one of us was I,
So I decided to go to by-bye—I decided to go to bed
Anywhere ever so lowly, to lay my buzzy head.
So I pulled myself together as well as I was able,
And then I went to bye-bye—in a manger—in a stable.
And as I slept some beautiful dreams, came floating down to me—
I was all alone in a Brewery, with nobody there to see.
I’d landed a thousand doubles. On each knee as angel sat!
I dreamt—here what’s the matter? God, I thought that was a rat!
But ’twas only Bung, the Bookie, saying, “Chummy arise!”
“Of all the books in the vineyard, you’ll surely get the prize.”
I answered him straight and even, “There’s better men than me,
Slept asleep in a stable—but never a word said he.”
He looked at me sort of reproachful, and sadly shook his head,
I don’t mind roaring, but silence! That gets me seeing red.
So I blurted straight out at him, “God in a stable was born!”
And he crumpled up with laughter. But he I want to warn
That I’ve readied Sexton McDiarmid to dig a hole wide and deep
And I’m going to put him to bye-bye—I’m going to put him to sleep
Citizens, cheer and loudly applaud—
Next, Bung the Bookie—Iveagh Lord!
••••
And now kind Citizens let me tell, the story of a great farewell,
How the old mob honoured a man they knew—knew to be dinkum through and through—
A man who’d gone right thro’ the mill, yet was laughing and fighting still—