Page:The man from Snowy River and other verses.pdf/112



was shearing-time at the Myall Lake,
 * And there rose the sound thro' the livelong day

Of the constant clash that the shear-blades make
 * When the fastest shearers are making play,

But there wasn't a man in the shearers' lines
 * That could shear a sheep with the two Devines.

They had rung the sheds of the east and west,
 * Had beaten the cracks of the Walgett side,

And the Cooma shearers had giv'n them best—
 * When they saw them shear, they were satisfied.

From the southern slopes to the western pines They were noted men, were the two Devines.

'Twas a wether flock that had come to hand,
 * Great struggling brutes, that the shearers shirk,

For the fleece was filled with the grass and sand,
 * And seventy sheep was a big day's work.

At a pound a hundred it's dashed hard lines To shear such sheep,' said the two Devines. 88