A Bush Girl

She’s milking in the rain and dark, As did her mother in the past. The wretched shed of poles and bark, Rent by the wind, is leaking fast. She sees the home-roof black and low, Where, balefully, the hut-fire gleams And, like her mother, long ago, She has her dreams; she has her dreams. The daybreak haunts the dreary scene, The brooding ridge, the blue-grey bush, The yard where all her years have been, Is ankle-deep in dung and slush; She shivers as the hour drags on, Her threadbare dress of sackcloth seems But, like her mother, years agone, She has her dreams; she has her dreams. The sullen breakfast where they cut The blackened junk. The lowering face, As though a crime were in the hut, As though a curse was on the place; The muttered question and reply, The tread that shakes the rotting beams, The nagging mother, thin and dry God help the girl! She has her dreams. Then for th’ separator start, Most wretched hour in all her life, With horse and harness, dress and cart, No Chinaman would give his wife; Her heart is sick for light and love, Her face is often fair and sweet, And her intelligence above The minds of all she’s like to meet. She reads, by slush-lamp light, may be, When she has dragged her dreary round, And dreams of cities by the sea (Where butter’s up, so much the pound), Of different men from those she knows, Of shining tides and broad, bright streams; Of theatres and city shows, And her release! She has her dreams. Could I gain her a little rest, A little light, if but for one, I think that it would be the best Of any good I may have done. But, after all, the paths we go Are not so glorious as they seem, And if t’will help her heart to know I’ve had my dream. ’Twas but a dream.