And a brush with the town-bred folk—

For a bit of a change from my “moated grange”

(A camp by an outback soak):

But drift I still with a flagging will

And a spirit that grows inert—

A sagging jaw and a bleaching paw—

’Neath the curse of a laundried shirt!

I’ve lit my camp with the moon’s soft lamp

And the light of the outback stars,

And drunk my fill of the Out-Back swill,