Early Days.
Want to hear a story? Want to come on Granny’s knee?
None the better for that party and the pastry, I can see!
Tired of all your dollies, and the picture-books? Well, well!
I don’t think we’d have tired....Now, you listen, and I’ll tell.
....Once, there was a blue Bay—years and years ago;—
Cramm’d with red and black pine, thick as they could grow;
Half-a-dozen settlers, with as many children each;
Not a track to anywhere, and Bush to the beach.
We’d no mail, or schoolhouse; there was neither church nor store;
People lived in pine-wood wharés, with pine-sawdust on the floor.
Strangers never came our way, playthings mostly grew,
An’ Town might have been at Home, for all us young ones knew.
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