In the Days When the World Was Wide, and Other Verses

<h2> When the Children Come Home </h2> <p>On a lonely selection far out in the West<br/> An old woman works all the day without rest,<br/> And she croons, as she toils 'neath the sky's glassy dome,<br/> 'Sure I'll keep the ould place till the childer come home.'<br/> <br/> She mends all the fences, she grubs, and she ploughs,<br/> She drives the old horse and she milks all the cows,<br/> And she sings to herself as she thatches the stack,<br/> 'Sure I'll keep the ould place till the childer come back.'<br/> <br/> It is five weary years since her old husband died;<br/> And oft as he lay on his deathbed he sighed<br/> 'Sure one man can bring up ten children, he can,<br/> An' it's strange that ten sons cannot keep one old man.'<br/> <br/> Whenever the scowling old sundowners come,<br/> And cunningly ask if the master's at home,<br/> 'Be off,' she replies, 'with your blarney and cant,<br/> Or I'll call my son Andy; he's workin' beyant.'<br/> <br/> 'Git out,' she replies, though she trembles with fear,<br/> For she lives all alone and no neighbours are near;<br/> But she says to herself, when she's like to despond,<br/> That the boys are at work in the paddock beyond.<br/> <br/> Ah, none of her children need follow the plough,<br/> And some have grown rich in the city ere now;<br/> Yet she says: 'They might come when the shearing is done,<br/> And I'll keep the ould place if it's only for one.'<br/></p> <p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0047" id="link2H_4_0047"></SPAN></p> <br/> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />