Mountain Station

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h2> A Mountain Station </h2> <p> I bought a run a while ago,<br/> On country rough and ridgy,<br/> Where wallaroos and wombats grow &mdash;<br/> The Upper Murrumbidgee.<br/> The grass is rather scant, it's true,<br/> But this a fair exchange is,<br/> The sheep can see a lovely view<br/> By climbing up the ranges.<br/> <br/> And She-oak Flat's the station's name,<br/> I'm not surprised at that, sirs:<br/> The oaks were there before I came,<br/> And I supplied the flat, sirs.<br/> A man would wonder how it's done,<br/> The stock so soon decreases &mdash;<br/> They sometimes tumble off the run<br/> And break themselves to pieces.<br/> <br/> I've tried to make expenses meet,<br/> But wasted all my labours,<br/> The sheep the dingoes didn't eat<br/> Were stolen by the neighbours.<br/> They stole my pears &mdash; my native pears &mdash;<br/> Those thrice-convicted felons,<br/> And ravished from me unawares<br/> My crop of paddy-melons.<br/> <br/> And sometimes under sunny skies,<br/> Without an explanation,<br/> The Murrumbidgee used to rise<br/> And overflow the station.<br/> But this was caused (as now I know)<br/> When summer sunshine glowing<br/> Had melted all Kiandra's snow<br/> And set the river going.<br/> <br/> And in the news, perhaps you read:<br/> 'Stock passings. Puckawidgee,<br/> Fat cattle: Seven hundred head<br/> Swept down the Murrumbidgee;<br/> Their destination's quite obscure,<br/> But, somehow, there's a notion,<br/> Unless the river falls, they're sure<br/> To reach the Southern Ocean.'<br/> <br/> So after that I'll give it best;<br/> No more with Fate I'll battle.<br/> I'll let the river take the rest,<br/> For those were all my cattle.<br/> And with one comprehensive curse<br/> I close my brief narration,<br/> And advertise it in my verse &mdash;<br/> 'For Sale! A Mountain Station.'<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />