Page:Backblock Ballads and Later Verses (C.J. Dennis, 1918).djvu/51

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"Now, this Martin was a farmer with a scientific mind"— (It was thus the bushman started, as his beard blew out behind)— "He farmed the land and, understand, his luck was all tip-top, Till them there little Grimble Grubs got in his tater crop.

"P'raps you have heard of Grimble Grubs; more likely p'raps you've not; When once they taste your taters you can look to lose the lot. An' poor Martin, he was worried till he met a feller who Had read a book about the Swook, the which lives in Peru.

"Now the Swook it is a beetle that inhabits Wuzzle Shrubs, An' it makes a steady diet of the little Grimble Grubs; So Martin he imported some, at very great expense, An' turned 'em loose to play the dooce and teach the Grimbles sense.

"Then he swore by Wuzzle Swooks—                  Friends of cultivators—               Which they et the Grimble Grubs,                    Which they et his taters. "But when the Wuzzle Swooks had et the Grimble Grubs right up, Then they had to change their habits for to find a bite an' sup;