Page:Backblock Ballads and Later Verses (C.J. Dennis, 1918).djvu/95

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Because some strange, cyclonic thing has happened—God knows where— Men dream again of easy days, of cash to spend and spare. The ring fair Clara coveted, Belinda's furs are nigh, As clerklings watch their increments fall shining from the sky. Rolls the thunder at Eudunda;  Leongatha, Boort, Kapunda  Send a joyous message down;  ''Sorrows, flooded, sink and drown.                 Ninkerloo and Nerim South '' Hail the breaking of the drouth;  From Toolangi's wooded mountains  Sounds the song of plashing fountains;  Sovereign Summer's might is waning;  ''It is raining—raining—raining! ''

Because the breeze blew sou'-by-east across the China Sea ; Or else, because the thing was willed through all eternity By gods that rule the rushing stars, or gods long æons dead, The earth is made to smile again, and living things are fed.

Mile on mile from Mallacoota  Runs the news, and far Baroota  Speeds it over hill and plain,  Till the slogan of the rain  Rolls afar to Yankalilla;  Wallaroo and Wirrawilla