THE SICK STOCKRIDER 



We led the hunt throughout, Ned, on the 

 chestnut and the grey, 

 And the troopers were three hundred yards 

 behind, 

 While we emptied our six-shooters on the 

 bushrangers at bay, 

 In the creek with stunted box-tree for a 

 blind ! 

 There you grappl'd with the leader, man to 

 man and horse to horse, 

 And you roll'd together when the chestnut 

 rear'd ; 

 He blazed away and missed you in that shallow 

 watercourse — 

 A narrow shave — his powder singed your 

 beard ! 



In these hours when life is ebbing, how those 

 days when life was young 

 Come back to us ; how clearly I recall 

 Even the yarns Jack Hall invented, and the 

 songs Jem Roper sung ! 

 And where are now Jem Roper and Jack 

 Hall ? 



175 



