Page:Backblock Ballads and Later Verses (C.J. Dennis, 1918).djvu/140

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Bland, unfaithful politicians Long had said this bridge should be. Some soared on to high positions. Some sank to obscurity; Still the bridge had been denied it by its unrelenting foes— By the foes of patient Wombat, where the Muddy River flows.

Up at Wombat Peter Dawking Held a meeting in the hall, And he'd spent an hour in talking On the far-flung Empire's Call, When a local greybeard, rising, smote him with this verbal brick: "Are or are yeh not in favour of the bridge across the crick?"

Peter just ignored the question, Proudly patriotic man; Understand a mean suggestion Men like Peter never can, Or that free enlightened voters look on all Great Things as rot, While a Burning Local Question fires each local patriot.