Page:Backblock Ballads and Later Verses (C.J. Dennis, 1918).djvu/20

 12

We were in a glue-pot, certain—red and stiff and most tenacious; Over naves and over axles—waggon sittin' on the road. "'Struth," says I, "they'll never lift her. Take a shot from Hell to shift her.   Nothin' left us but unyoke 'em and sling off the blessed load."

Now, beside our scene of trouble stood a little one-roomed humpy, Home of an enfeebled party by the name of Dad McGee. Daddy was, I pause to mention, livin' on an old-age pension Since he gave up bullock-punchin' at the age of eighty-three.

Startled by our exclamations, Daddy hobbled from the shanty, Gazin' where the stranded waggon looked like some half-foundered ship. When the state o' things he spotted, "Looks," he says, "like you was potted," And he toddles up to Mitchell. "Here," says he, "gimme that whip."

Well! I've heard of transformations ; heard of fellers sort of changin' In the face of sudden danger or some great emergency; Heard the like in song and story and in bush traditions hoary, But I nearly dropped me bundle as I looked at Dad McGee.