Tambaroora [poem by Bendee]

[Editor: This poem by Bendee was published in The Bulletin Reciter, 1901.]

Tambaroora.

We was playin’ tambaroora for a shandy ;
There was nine of us, an’ Murphy had the hat ;
An’ he shook it with a twist that knocked us bandy,
Sayin’, “Ivery mahn is heads; now luk at that !
Thim noine heads,” says he, “will take a lot o’ batin’ !”
An’ he smiled aloud to think the pool was his ;
But when Doolan yelled, “Hould on! there’s only eight in!”
Consternation spread all over Murphy’s phiz.

Then he shook the hat again, and searched the linin’ :
Doolan took the lamp and looked about the floor,
While the chorus from all hands went, “I put mine in!”
Murphy’s language fairly cracked the cedar door.
“Well,” says Doolan, thinkin’ mighty hard about it,
As he turned the cady inside-out ag’in, —
“Well,” says he, “there’s one too little — divil doubt it!
Now I wonder who the blazes put it in!”

Bendee.

Source:
A.G. Stephens (editor). The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from “The Bulletin” [1880-1901], The Bulletin Newspaper Company, Sydney, 1902 [first published 1901], page 202