The Mustering Day.
(To the tune of “So Early in the Morning”).
The old boss came to the man’s hut door,
And said as he’d often said before
To-morrow will be mustering day,
So boys be up and get away.
Chorus.
So early in the morning,
So early in the morning,
So early in the morning,
For it is mustering day.
Next morn we rose before sunrise,
And off to breakfast each one hies,
Our horses very soon we manned
And on them jumped with our whips in hand.
We found a mob not far away
And started them off without delay,
A poley cow ran off the track,
And the old man went to fetch her back.
Now the horse he rode was rather free,
And ran him against big gum tree,
He threw the old man on his head,
He picked him up and found him dead.
Next morn I went for that big draught horse,
To take away the old man’s corpse,
And in the dim uncertain light,
I got a most tremendous fright.
For there I saw the old man’s ghost,
Sitting on top of a stockyard post,
Smoking the very same old clay,
That he used to smoke on a mustering day.
Where’er I go, where’er I stray
I’ll never forget that mustering day,
I’ll never forget the old man’s ghost,
With his black dudgees on the stockyard post.
Source:
The Townsville Daily Bulletin (Townsville, Qld.), Saturday 15 September 1923, page 10
Editor’s notes:
hies = to hie is to hurry, to go quickly
poley = hornless (especially used regarding cattle); from “polled”, meaning to cut off horns or cut off hair
[Editor: Added closing quotation mark to the end of “So Early in the Morning”.]
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