Joe Wilson and His Mates | Page 4

HIS MATES
By Henry Lawson
Author of "While the Billy Boils", "On the Track and Over the
Sliprails", "When the World was Wide, and other verses", "Verses,
Popular and Humorous", "Children of the Bush", "When I was King,

and other verses", etc.

The Author's Farewell to the Bushmen.

Some carry their swags in the Great North-West Where the bravest
battle and die, And a few have gone to their last long rest, And a few
have said "Good-bye!" The coast grows dim, and it may be long Ere
the Gums again I see; So I put my soul in a farewell song To the chaps
who barracked for me.
Their days are hard at the best of times, And their dreams are dreams of
care -- God bless them all for their big soft hearts, And the brave, brave
grins they wear! God keep me straight as a man can go, And true as a
man may be! For the sake of the hearts that were always so, Of the men
who had faith in me!
And a ship-side word I would say, you chaps Of the blood of the
Don't-give-in! The world will call it a boast, perhaps -- But I'll win, if a
man can win! And not for gold nor the world's applause -- Though
ways to the end they be -- I'll win, if a man might win, because Of the
men who believed in me.

Contents.

Prefatory Verses -- The Author's Farewell to the Bushmen.

Part I.
Joe Wilson's Courtship. Brighten's Sister-In-Law. `Water Them
Geraniums'. I. A Lonely Track. II. `Past Carin''. A Double Buggy at

Lahey's Creek. I. Spuds, and a Woman's Obstinacy. II. Joe Wilson's
Luck. III. The Ghost of Mary's Sacrifice. IV. The Buggy Comes Home.

Part II.
The Golden Graveyard. The Chinaman's Ghost. The Loaded Dog.
Poisonous Jimmy Gets Left. I. Dave Regan's Yarn. II. Told by One of
the Other Drovers. The Ghostly Door. A Wild Irishman. The Babies in
the Bush. A Bush Dance. The Buck-Jumper. Jimmy Grimshaw's
Wooing. At Dead Dingo. Telling Mrs Baker. A Hero in Dingo-Scrubs.
The Little World Left Behind.
Concluding Verses -- The Never-Never Country.

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JOE WILSON AND HIS MATES
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Part I.

Joe Wilson's Courtship.

There are many times in this world when a healthy boy is happy. When
he is put into knickerbockers, for instance, and `comes a man to-day,'
as my little Jim used to say. When they're cooking something at home
that he likes. When the `sandy-blight' or measles breaks out amongst

the children, or the teacher or his wife falls dangerously ill -- or dies, it
doesn't matter which -- `and there ain't no school.' When a boy is naked
and in his natural state for a warm climate like Australia, with three or
four of his schoolmates, under the shade of the creek-oaks in the bend
where there's a good clear pool with a sandy bottom. When his father
buys him a gun, and he starts out after kangaroos or 'possums. When he
gets a horse, saddle, and bridle, of his own. When he has his arm in
splints or a stitch in his head -- he's proud then, the proudest boy in the
district.
I wasn't a healthy-minded, average boy: I reckon I was born for a poet
by mistake, and grew up to be a Bushman, and didn't know what was
the matter with me -- or the world -- but that's got nothing to do with it.
There are times when a man is happy. When he finds out that the girl
loves him. When he's just married. When he's a lawful father for the
first time, and everything is going on all right: some men make fools of
themselves then -- I know I did. I'm happy to-night because I'm out of
debt and can see clear ahead, and because I haven't been easy for a long
time.
But I think that the happiest time in a man's life is when he's courting a
girl and finds out for sure that she loves him and hasn't a thought for
any one else. Make the most of your courting days, you young chaps,
and keep them clean, for they're about the only days when there's a
chance of poetry and beauty coming into this life. Make the best of
them and you'll never regret it the longest day you live. They're the
days that the wife will look back to, anyway, in the brightest of times as
well as in the blackest, and there shouldn't be anything in those days
that might hurt her when she looks back. Make the most of your
courting days, you young chaps, for they will never come again.
A married