Gentleman Jim in the stockmen's hut

Works with them, toils with them, side by side;
As to his past -- well, his lips are shut.

`Gentleman once,' say his mates with pride;
And the wildest Cornstalk can ne'er outdo

In feats of recklessness, Jim Carew.
What should he live for? A dull despair!

Drink is his master and drags him down,
Water of Lethe that drowns all care.

Gentleman Jim has a lot to drown,
And he reigns as king with a drunken crew,

Sinking to misery, Jim Carew.
Such is the end of the ne'er-do-well --

Jimmy the Boozer, all down at heel;
But he straightens up when he's asked to tell

His name and race, and a flash of steel
Still lightens up in those eyes of blue --

`I am, or -- no, I WAS -- Jim Carew.'
The Swagman's Rest

We buried old Bob where the bloodwoods wave
At the foot of the Eaglehawk;

We fashioned a cross on the old man's grave,
For fear that his ghost might walk;

We carved his name on a bloodwood tree,
With the date of his sad decease,

And in place of `Died from effects of spree',
We wrote `May he rest in peace'.

For Bob was known on the Overland,
A regular old bush wag,

Tramping along in the dust and sand,
Humping his well-worn swag.

He would camp for days in the river-bed,
And loiter and `fish for whales'.

`I'm into the swagman's yard,' he said,
`And I never shall find the rails.'

But he found the rails on that summer night
For a better place -- or worse,

As we watched by turns in the flickering light
With an old black gin for nurse.

The breeze came in with the scent of pine,
The river sounded clear,

When a change came on, and we saw the sign
That told us the end was near.

But he spoke in a cultured voice and low --
`I fancy they've "sent the route";

I once was an army man, you know,
Though now I'm a drunken brute;

But bury me out where the bloodwoods wave,
And if ever you're fairly stuck,

Just take and shovel me out of the grave
And, maybe, I'll bring you luck.

`For I've always heard --' here his voice fell weak,
His strength was well-nigh sped,

He gasped and struggled and tried to speak,
Then fell in a moment -- dead.

Thus ended a wasted life and hard,
Of energies misapplied --

Old Bob was out of the `swagman's yard'
And over the Great Divide.

. . . . .
The drought came down on the field and flock,

And never a raindrop fell,
Though the tortured moans of the starving stock

Might soften a fiend from hell.
And we thought of the hint that the swagman gave

When he went to the Great Unseen --
We shovelled the skeleton out of the grave

To see what his hint might mean.
We dug where the cross and the grave posts were,

We shovelled away the mould,
When sudden a vein of quartz lay bare

All gleaming with yellow gold.
'Twas a reef with never a fault nor baulk

That ran from the range's crest,
And the richest mine on the Eaglehawk

Is known as `The Swagman's Rest'.
[The End.]

• drunken [´drʌŋkən] a.喝醉的；常醉的 (初中英语单词)
• misery [´mizəri] n.痛苦；悲惨；穷困 (初中英语单词)
• breeze [bri:z] n.微风；不费力的事 (初中英语单词)
• soften [´sɔfən] v.使(变)软(柔和) (初中英语单词)
• shovel [´ʃʌvəl] n.铲子；铁锹 (高中英语单词)
• unseen [,ʌn´si:n] a.未看见的 (高中英语单词)
• skeleton [´skelitən] n.骨骼；骷髅 (高中英语单词)
• quartz [kwɔ:ts] n.石英 (高中英语单词)
• drought [draut] n.旱灾；干旱 (英语四级单词)
• loiter [´lɔitə] v.闲逛，消磨时间 (英语六级单词)
• raindrop [´reindrɔp] n.雨滴 (英语六级单词)