Prelude
I have gathered these stories afar,
In the wind and the rain,
In the land where the cattle camps are,
On the edge of the plain.
On the overland routes of the west,
When the watches were long,
I have fashioned in earnest and jest
These fragments of song.
They are just the rude stories one hears
In sadness and mirth,
The records of wandering years,
And scant is their worth
Though their merits indeed are but slight,
I shall not repine,
If they give you one moment’s delight,
Old comrades of mine.
CONTENTS
Preface
Prelude
Contents with First Lines:
THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER AND OTHER VERSES
The Man from Snowy River
Old Pardon, the Son of Reprieve
Clancy of the Overflow
Conroy’s Gap
Our New Horse
An Idyll of Dandaloo
The Geebung Polo Club
The Travelling Post Office
Saltbush Bill
A Mountain Station
Been There Before
The Man Who Was Away
The Man from Ironbark
The Open Steeplechase
The Amateur Rider
On Kiley’s Run
Frying Pan’s Theology
The Two Devines
In the Droving Days
Lost
Over the Range
Only a Jockey
How M’Ginnis Went Missing
A Voice from the Town
A Bunch of Roses
Black Swans
The All Right ’Un
The Boss of the ‘Admiral Lynch’
A Bushman’s Song
How Gilbert Died
The Flying Gang
Shearing at Castlereagh
The Wind’s Message
Johnson’s Antidote
Ambition and Art
The Daylight is Dying
In Defence of the Bush
Last Week
Those Names
A Bush Christening
How the Favourite Beat Us
The Great Calamity
Come-by-Chance
Under the Shadow of Kiley’s Hill
Jim Carew
The Swagman’s Rest
[From the section of Advertisements at the end of the 1911 printing.]