Rio Grandes Last Race, Etc. | Page 6

sight,?When through the dark the fast express goes flaming by at night.
`I think 'twould comfort him to know there's someone left to care, I'll take some things this very night and hold a banquet there! The hard old fare we've often shared together, him and me,?Some damper and a bite of beef, a pannikin of tea:?We'll do without the bands and flags, the speeches and the fuss, We know who OUGHT to get the cheers and that's enough for us.
`What's that? They wish that I'd come down -- the oldest settler here! Present me to the Governor and that young engineer!?Well, just you tell his Excellence and put the thing polite, I'm sorry, but I can't come down -- I'm dining out to-night!'
Mulga Bill's Bicycle
'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that caught the cycling craze; He turned away the good old horse that served him many days; He dressed himself in cycling clothes, resplendent to be seen; He hurried off to town and bought a shining new machine;?And as he wheeled it through the door, with air of lordly pride, The grinning shop assistant said, `Excuse me, can you ride?'
`See, here, young man,' said Mulga Bill, `from Walgett to the sea, From Conroy's Gap to Castlereagh, there's none can ride like me. I'm good all round at everything, as everybody knows,?Although I'm not the one to talk -- I HATE a man that blows. But riding is my special gift, my chiefest, sole delight;?Just ask a wild duck can it swim, a wild cat can it fight.?There's nothing clothed in hair or hide, or built of flesh or steel, There's nothing walks or jumps, or runs, on axle, hoof, or wheel, But what I'll sit, while hide will hold and girths and straps are tight: I'll ride this here two-wheeled concern right straight away at sight.'
'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that sought his own abode, That perched above the Dead Man's Creek, beside the mountain road. He turned the cycle down the hill and mounted for the fray, But ere he'd gone a dozen yards it bolted clean away.?It left the track, and through the trees, just like a silver streak, It whistled down the awful slope, towards the Dead Man's Creek.
It shaved a stump by half an inch, it dodged a big white-box: The very wallaroos in fright went scrambling up the rocks,?The wombats hiding in their caves dug deeper underground,?As Mulga Bill, as white as chalk, sat tight to every bound. It struck a stone and gave a spring that cleared a fallen tree, It raced beside a precipice as close as close could be;?And then as Mulga Bill let out one last despairing shriek?It made a leap of twenty feet into the Dead Man's Creek.
'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that slowly swam ashore:?He said, `I've had some narrer shaves and lively rides before; I've rode a wild bull round a yard to win a five pound bet, But this was the most awful ride that I've encountered yet. I'll give that two-wheeled outlaw best; it's shaken all my nerve To feel it whistle through the air and plunge and buck and swerve. It's safe at rest in Dead Man's Creek, we'll leave it lying still; A horse's back is good enough henceforth for Mulga Bill.'
The Pearl Diver
Kanzo Makame, the diver, sturdy and small Japanee,?Seeker of pearls and of pearl-shell down in the depths of the sea, Trudged o'er the bed of the ocean, searching industriously.
Over the pearl-grounds, the lugger drifted -- a little white speck: Joe Nagasaki, the `tender', holding the life-line on deck,?Talked through the rope to the diver, knew when to drift or to check.
Kanzo was king of his lugger, master and diver in one,?Diving wherever it pleased him, taking instructions from none; Hither and thither he wandered, steering by stars and by sun.
Fearless he was beyond credence, looking at death eye to eye: This was his formula always, `All man go dead by-and-bye -- S'posing time come no can help it -- s'pose time no come, then no die.'
Dived in the depths of the Darnleys, down twenty fathom and five; Down where by law and by reason, men are forbidden to dive; Down in a pressure so awful that only the strongest survive:
Sweated four men at the air pumps, fast as the handles could go, Forcing the air down that reached him heated, and tainted, and slow -- Kanzo Makame the diver stayed seven minutes below;
Came up on deck like a dead man, paralysed body and brain;?Suffered, while blood was returning, infinite tortures of pain: Sailed once again to the Darnleys -- laughed and descended again!
. . . . .
Scarce grew the shell in the shallows, rarely a patch could they touch; Always the take was so little, always the labour so much;?Always they thought