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New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 472, 9 July 1948, Page 19

Kaikoura Portrait OLD Bill Av' summer time Stood like a wall, On the high rock, Straight and solid They'd set uS huntin And Six feet tall: For straggled stock: EIGHTY summers And more, since he 1 MIND 8 day First drank swigs Might be last week Of strong sweet tea: We fetched home more n We thought to seek, WITH 8 long white beard And a bright blue eye, mate and me Hed spin the yarn MYea" climbed up high Of 0 day gone by. To that there saddle Against the sky, "I MIND me, gicl; (like a tune sung) in a hollow SI mind me well ANVhere snow grass lay, When 1 was young; We come on wild dogs, An' them at play. THEY fined uS heavy For taking then A BITCH an' pups The rabbits loosed In the noonday sun; By gentlemen. An' a five pound bounty For each damn onel" MY mother cried When the four was done An' Dad went out With his powder-gun. SUN and rain And winter cold came seldom, Made no odds BOATS An' storms were bad. When Bill Brew old We was often hungry When 1 was a lad " SAILS sighted, A ND every fence They hurried down; And every: tree Thin and wide-eyed, Is standing up Into town; For men to see: DowN to the sea And the shouts and staple and spray. WIRnd willow shoot "It was heavy swags What old Bill planted On the homeward Has taken root. way, PAY me money When money comes; A BAG of sugar, 1 ain't much hand An' nails, an' tea; mud reachin' At countin' sums, An' the swamp Past your knee: BUT that there ditch Wants draining bad, Reckon Pd best OLD Bill Be diggin , lad? Had roved round Many ranges And much ground, OLD Bill Didn't read nor write, He had only thoughts FLOOD or shine To think at night, Or drifted snow , Crossing country YET when my sons Bill would g0. Are men full Brow; 1 1 wish them like him, Heart and bone. 86 THERE wasn t roads An' there wasn t tracks, THIS is the blood An' the fern come That feeds the land. over Plain for all The horses' backs, To understand: Frances Blunt