In the Days When the World was Wide and Other Verses (2 ed.)
by Henry Lawson [Australian house-painter, author and poet -- 1867-1922.]


First Edition printed February 1896,
Reprinted August 1896, October 1896, March 1898, and November 1898;

Revised Edition, January 1900;
Reprinted May 1903, February 1910, June 1912, and July 1913.

Preface

Most of the verses contained in this volume were first published
in the Sydney `Bulletin'; others in the Brisbane `Boomerang',
Sydney `Freeman's Journal', `Town and Country Journal', `Worker',
and `New Zealand Mail', whose editors and proprietors I desire to thank
for past kindnesses and for present courtesy in granting me
the right of reproduction in book form.

`In the Days When the World was Wide' was written in Maoriland
and some of the other verses in Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia.

The dates of original publication are given in the Table of Contents.
Those undated are now printed for the first time.

                                                  HENRY LAWSON.

To J. F. Archibald

To an Old Mate

     Old Mate!  In the gusty old weather,
     When our hopes and our troubles were new,
     In the years spent in wearing out leather,
     I found you unselfish and true --
     I have gathered these verses together
     For the sake of our friendship and you.

     You may think for awhile, and with reason,
     Though still with a kindly regret,
     That I've left it full late in the season
     To prove I remember you yet;
     But you'll never judge me by their treason
     Who profit by friends -- and forget.

     I remember, Old Man, I remember --
     The tracks that we followed are clear --
     The jovial last nights of December,
     The solemn first days of the year,
     Long tramps through the clearings and timber,
     Short partings on platform and pier.

     I can still feel the spirit that bore us,
     And often the old stars will shine --
     I remember the last spree in chorus
     For the sake of that other Lang Syne,
     When the tracks lay divided before us,
     Your path through the future and mine.

     Through the frost-wind that cut like whip-lashes,
     Through the ever-blind haze of the drought --
     And in fancy at times by the flashes
     Of light in the darkness of doubt --
     I have followed the tent poles and ashes
     Of camps that we moved further out.

     You will find in these pages a trace of
     That side of our past which was bright,
     And recognise sometimes the face of
     A friend who has dropped out of sight --
     I send them along in the place of
     The letters I promised to write.

Contents

To an Old Mate
   Old Mate!  In the gusty old weather,

In the Days When the World was Wide
   The world is narrow and ways are short, and our lives are dull and slow,
[Dec. -- 1894]

Faces in the Street
   They lie, the men who tell us in a loud decisive tone
[July -- 1888]

The Roaring Days
   The night too quickly passes
[Dec. -- 1889]

`For'ard'
   It is stuffy in the steerage where the second-classers sleep,
[Dec. -- 1893]

The Drover's Sweetheart
   An hour before the sun goes down
[June -- 1891]

Out Back
   The old year went, and the new returned,
     in the withering weeks of drought,
[Sept. -- 1893]

The Free-Selector's Daughter
   I met her on the Lachlan Side --
[May -- 1891]

`Sez You'
   When the heavy sand is yielding backward from your blistered feet,
[Mar. -- 1894]

Andy's Gone With Cattle
   Our Andy's gone to battle now
[Oct. -- 1888]

Jack Dunn of Nevertire
   It chanced upon the very day we'd got the shearing done,
[Aug. -- 1892]

Trooper Campbell
   One day old Trooper Campbell
[Apr. -- 1891]

The Sliprails and the Spur
   The colours of the setting sun
[July -- 1899]

Past Carin'
   Now up and down the siding brown
[Aug. -- 1899]

The Glass on the Bar
   Three bushmen one morning rode up to an inn,
[Apr. -- 1890]

The Shanty on the Rise
   When the caravans of wool-teams climbed the ranges from the West,
[Dec. -- 1891]

The Vagabond
   White handkerchiefs wave from the short black pier
[Aug. -- 1895]

Sweeney
   It was somewhere in September, and the sun was going down,
[Dec. -- 1893]

Middleton's Rouseabout
   Tall and freckled and sandy,
[Mar. -- 1890]

The Ballad of the Drover
   Across the stony ridges,
[Mar. -- 1889]

Taking His Chance
   They stood by the door of the Inn on the Rise;
[June -- 1892]

When the `Army' Prays for Watty
   When the kindly hours of darkness, save for light of moon and star,
[May -- 1893]

The Wreck of the `Derry Castle'
   Day of ending for beginnings!
[Dec. -- 1887]

Ben Duggan
   Jack Denver died on Talbragar when Christmas Eve began,
[Dec. -- 1891]

The Star of Australasia
   We boast no more of our bloodless flag, that rose from a nation's slime;

The Great Grey Plain
   Out West, where the stars are brightest,
[Sept. -- 1893]

The Song of Old Joe Swallow
   When I was up the country in the rough and early days,
[May -- 1890]

Corny Bill
   His old clay pipe stuck in his mouth,
[May -- 1892]

Cherry-Tree Inn
   The rafters are open to sun, moon, and star,

Up the Country
   I am back from up the country -- very sorry that I went --
[July -- 1892]

Knocked Up
   I'm lyin' on the barren ground that's baked and cracked with drought,
[Aug. -- 1893]

The Blue Mountains
   Above the ashes straight and tall,
[Dec. -- 1888]