Page:Backblock Ballads and Later Verses (C.J. Dennis, 1918).djvu/65



Once a year we lumber southward with the clip from Yarradee; Spell the bullocks in the township while we run our yearly spree. What's a bullocky to live for? Days of toil are hard and long; And you'd not begrudge him yearly one short week of wine and song. While it lasts he asks no better. When it's over, "Yoke 'em up" And we'll make another promise to reject the brimming cup. When we've done our little cheque in, and the township's at our back, Then we start to think of mending—out along the Homeward Track.

For there comes a time of reck'ning when we're trudging by the team; Back again to work and worry; kind of waking from a dream; We begin to see the folly of a week of wicked fun, Bought with months of weary slaving, punching bullocks on the run.