Page:Songs from the Southern Seas and Other Poems (1873).djvu/106

You smoke? That's good; for there's plenty of weed
In that wallaby skin. Does your horse feed
In the hobbles Well, he's got good feed here,
And my own old bushmare won't interfere.
Done with that meat? Throw it there to the dogs,
And fling on a couple of banksia logs.

And now for the story. That man who goes
Through the bush with the pack and the convict's clothes
Has been mad for years; but he does no harm,
And our lonely settlers feel no alarm
When they see or meet him. Poor Dave Sloane
Was a settler once, and a friend of my own.
Some eight years back, in the spring of the year,
Dave came from Scotland, and settled here.
A splendid young fellow he was just then.
And one of the bravest and truest men
That I ever met: he was kind as a woman
To all who needed a friend, and no man—