A DASH FOR LIBERTY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 1 September 1909, Page 70

A DASH FOR LIBERTY.

I The tail, dark gum trees echo to the stockI whip's volley clear — There's a sound of trampling hoofs and clfi'shing horns. The, leadei is a rascal, a big, tough-hided ftaer, And the stinging cuts of Johnson's whip ha scorns. His home is in the ranges at the back of Bungabai ; For freedom once again his spirit yearns! He hate 3 the leagues of mulga where th« billabongs are dry, The miles of stunted timber-, and- where meagre sait-bush burns. He has caught the mountain fragrance on the morning's dewy breath ; He is eager for the big scrub and tho hills ; There's a fierce stampede of bullocks, it it fight for life ox death: The stockwhip's volleyed echoing now th« sombre gum trees fills. Here is Johnson, single-handed, on the gamest little mare That ever stemmed a rush or turned «■ wild, stampeding drove. He's riding hard upon their flank; he does not yet despair; The ferny face ia wild and steep beyond the sombre groveThe leaders leave the timber now, they're heading for the hills, A line of tossing tails and glinting horns, When the smoking laches' sudden shots th» further timber fills, Then to the left the noble leader turns. 'Tis a plunge, a leap for liberty, the rod are sharp below, The forest and the mountain tracts ar* grand and dark before. The mighty bullock plunges, he collapses, groans, for O! He'll tread the wild scrub passes and th« mountain slopes no more. —Charles Oscae Palme*. Kaikoura, May, 1909.