I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better

  Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago,

He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,

  Just on spec, addressed as follows, Clancy, of The Overflow.

And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected,

  (And I think the same was written with a thumb-nail dipped in tar)

Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it:

  Clancys gone to Queensland droving, and we dont know where he are.

       . . . . .

In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy

  Gone a-droving down the Cooper where the Western drovers go;

As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,

  For the drovers life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know.

And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him

  In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,

And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,

  And at night the wondrous glory of the everlasting stars.

       . . . . .

I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy

  Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,

And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city

  Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all

And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle

  Of the tramways and the buses making hurry down the street,

And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting,

  Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet.

And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me

  As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,

With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,

  For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.

And I somehow rather fancy that Id like to change with Clancy,

  Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go,

While he faced the round eternal of the cash-book and the journal 

  But I doubt hed suit the office, Clancy, of The Overflow.

Cheers

The Hats 

Ron