EARLY DAYS
Always dress’d in dungaree: never had new boots!
Lived on pig and pigeon, [1]kaka, fish, and roots.
But, chew, an’ get the full good out of everything you’ve got,
And I guess you’re just as well-off with a little as a lot.
Ay, sunshine: sunshine: freedom, an’ content:
Bless those bare old Bay days—light enough they went!
—But what I was going to tell you, was, when Father’s boat came down
After taking up the timber from the sawpit into Town.
Mother and Aunt was timid when the men-folk were away;
Used to call us young ones in at dimming of the day.
We’d fetch in water and wood, and we’d make the wharé fast,
Snuggle under the blankets, an’ wish the night was past.
But sometimes, sometimes! in the middle of the night,
Round the Northern Head ’ud steal a little lonely light.
“Coo-ee!” ’d come the cry.... Waken all! and hark!....
Oh, it’s father! Father coming in the deadness of the Dark!
- ↑ Kaka (káh-kah): Bush parrot.
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