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BACKBLOCK BALLADS AND LATER VERSES - CONTENTS AN OLD MASTER We were cartin laths and palins from the slopes of Mount St. Leonard .... n PAW Haw Aive just obteened a pension for mai Paw .... 15 THE BUILDERS Behold, I built a fowlhouse in my yard .... 19 WHEAT Sowin things an growin things, an watchin of em grow .... 23 THE LOVERS One idle hour she sought to see .... 27 GOT-A-FAG He was tall and tough and stringy, with the shoulders of an axeman, .... 29 THE CHASE OF AGES Light of my lives Is the time not yet .... 34 vi CONTENTS A GUIDE FOR POITS Page I aint no verse-og. When I busts in song .... 37 GRIMBLES AND THE GNAD It was told me by a bushman, bald and bent, and LANGWIDGE very old, .... 42 The flamin cows e sez e did, an worse .... 49 THE JOY RIDE Ah, Gawd It makes me sick to think .... 52 THE HOMEWARD TRACK Once a year we lumber southward with the clip from Yarradee .... 57 SORE THROAT The pale young man he comes to me, .... 59 WHEN THE SUNS BEHIND THE HILL URRY Theres a soft and peaceful feeling .... 63 Now, Ma-til-der Aint chcr dressed yet I declare, the girl aint up .... 66 HOPEFUL HAWKINS CONTENTS vii Page Hawkins wasnt in the swim at all in Dingo Flat, .... 71 TIMBERLAND Tell you tales of pleasant cities, where processions never ending .... 75 WEARY Oh, Im sick of the whole darned human race, .... 78 HYMN OF FUTILITY Lord, Thou hast given unto us a land .... 80 A SONG OF RAIN Because a little vagrant wind veered south from China Sea .... 85 THE BORE Ah, prithee, friend, if thou hast aught .... 89 THE CULTURED CONSTABLE Five nights agone I lay at rest .... 91 MY POOR RELATION I have a poor relation, but .... 97 THE BOON OF DISCONTENT Once an anthropoidal ape .... 99