SEND ROUND THE HAT


Now this is the creed from the Book of the Bush--
Should be simple and plain to a dunce:
"If a man's in a hole you must pass round the hat
Were he jail-bird or gentleman once."



"Is it any harm to wake yer?"

It was about nine o'clock in the morning, and, though it was Sunday
morning, it was no harm to wake me; but the shearer had mistaken me
for a deaf jackaroo, who was staying at the shanty and was something
like me, and had good-naturedly shouted almost at the top of his
voice, and he woke the whole shanty. Anyway he woke three or four
others who were sleeping on beds and stretchers, and one on a
shake-down on the floor, in the same room. It had been a wet night,
and the shanty was full of shearers from Big Billabong Shed which had
cut out the day before. My room mates had been drinking and gambling
overnight, and they swore luridly at the intruder for disturbing them.

He was six-foot-three or thereabout. He was loosely built, bony,
sandy-complexioned and grey eyed. He wore a good-humoured grin at