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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=408582" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Brighten’s Sister-In-Law [or The Carrier's Story]</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">AT A POINT where the old road crosses<br>The river, and turns to the right,<br>I’d camped with the team; and the hosses<br>Was all fixed up for the night.<br>I’d been to the town to carry<br>A load to the Cudgegong;<br>And I’d taken the youngster, Harry,<br>On a trip as I’d promis’d him long.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I had seven more, and another<br>That died at the age of three;<br>But they all took arter the mother,<br>And Harry took arter me.<br>And from the tiniest laddie<br>’Twas always his fondest dream<br>To go on the roads with his daddy,<br>And help him to drive the team.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He was bright at the school and clever,<br>The best of the youngsters there;<br>And the teacher said there was never<br>A lad that promised so fair.<br>And I half forgot life’s battle,<br>An’ its long, hard-beaten road,<br>In the sound of the youngster’s prattle<br>From his perch on top o’ the load.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">An’ when he was tired o’ ridin’<br>I’d lift him down for a walk,<br>And he’d say, at my silence chidin’,<br>“Now, daddy tell me some talk.”<br>And oft by the camp-fire sittin’,<br>When the bush was round us wild,<br>I’d yarn by the hour, forgittin’<br>That Harry was only a child.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But to-day he’d been strange and quiet,<br>An’ lay on the chaff-bags still;<br>An’ though he’d bravely deny it,<br>I know’d as the boy was ill.<br>He said he was “only dosey”,<br>In his queer old-fashioned way;<br>And I fixed him up warm an’ cosey<br>In the hammock under the dray.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I fried him some eggs and some bakin’<br>Which I couldn’t git him to touch;<br>And it set my heart a-achin<br>For he’d always eaten so much.<br>I wandered about half silly,<br>And thought that my heart would stop;<br>And the tea got cold in the billy,<br>For I couldn’t ’a’ tasted a drop.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I’d seen the same sickness of’en;<br>An’ my spirits began to droop,<br>For as soon as he started coughin’<br>I know’d as he’d got the croup.<br>’Twas fifteen mile to the river;<br>An’ Gulgong was twenty-five;<br>An’ I thought ’twas a chance if ever<br>I got him back home alive.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The thought of the loss was horrid<br>If the young ’un was taken away;<br>And I went and leaned my forehead<br>Against the tire o’ the dray.<br>And sudden I started cryin’,<br>And sobbed like a woman too;<br>For I felt that the boy was dyin’,<br>And I didn’t know what to do.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">All helpless I was, and lonely;<br>But I thought ’twas a coward’s cry<br>To call on the Saviour only<br>When trouble or death was nigh.<br>But after a while I lifted<br>My eyes to the steely blue<br>Of the sky where somethin’ drifted<br>Like a great white cockatoo.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">An’ nearer it came, and nearer,<br>Right down to the branch of the tree;<br>And it seemed when its shape grew clearer,<br>Like the form of a woman to me.<br>For a moment it seemed to tarry,<br>An’ p’int away up the road,<br>An’ then seemed pintin’ at Harry,<br>A-coughin’ beneath the load.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I don’t want ter arger; there’s chances<br>The vision was only the sky,<br>Or the smoke outlin’d on the branches,<br>Or a lonely cloud on high.<br>But I says ’twas a message from glory;<br>I sees as yer goin’ to chaff;<br>Just wait till I done my story,<br>An’ laugh if yer want to laugh.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Away went the vision flyin’;<br>Up into the blue it went;<br>And I stood for a minute tryin’<br>To think what its comin’ meant.<br>When it flashed on my brain like lightnin’;<br>An’ arter I thought it strange<br>I’d almost forgotten old Brighten<br>Who lived on the top of the range.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He lived on a small selection,<br>Or used ter live there I know’d;<br>An’ it lay in a west direction,<br>’Bout five miles back from the road.<br>I harnessed the horses quicker<br>Than ever I’d taken ’em out;<br>An’ they must ’a’ thought me in liquor,<br>For the way as I shov’d ’em about.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I’d allers bin fond o’ sneerin’<br>An’ laughin’ at women’s ways;<br>I could see in their lives, I’m fearin’,<br>But little as called for praise;<br>But now when I thought he’d smother<br>With croup in the lonely wild,<br>Good God, how I longed for a mother<br>To save the life of my child!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I seed in a vision each minit<br>The youngster nursed back into life;<br>An’ the hand of a woman was in it;<br>An’ the woman was Brighten’s wife.<br>There’s times when not knowin’ a bliss is,<br>As Harry’s school-teacher ’ud say:<br>And I didn’t know Brighten’s missis<br>Had gone to the town that day.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In a moment I’d lifted Harry<br>To the bags on top of the load;<br>And I flogged the weary horses<br>Along on the dusty road.<br>But ev’rything seem’d to hinder<br>My hopes when I reached the hut;<br>For there wasn’t a light in the winder;<br>And both o’ the doors was shut.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">That moment my heart got hurted;<br>An’ I felt it for many a day;<br>For I thought that the place was deserted,<br>An’ Brighten had gone away.<br>But I called; and the door was opened,<br>An’ I saw that the hut was alight;<br>It hadn’t shone in the winders;<br>For the moon was shinin’ bright.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">An’ there in the door, with a candle,<br>I saw old Brighten stand,<br>With his fingers grasping the handle<br>Of a pistol he held in his hand.<br>“If any one moves,” he shouted,<br>“I’ll fire if I’ve got to hang!”<br>For the moment he never doubted<br>’Twas a visit from Gard’ner’s gang.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I didn’t move in a hurry;<br>For a man in a fright shoots quick.<br>But I told him he needn’t flurry,<br>’Twas only a youngster sick.<br>“Stan’ back,” said old Brighten, snatchin’<br>An’ shuttin’ the door in his fright;<br>“It’s typhoid, maybe, he’s catchin’:<br>An’ I can’t have him here to-night.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But a woman’s voice shouted, “What is it?”<br>I’d never seen her before;<br>She was only there on a visit;<br>’Twas Brighten’s sister-in-law.<br>An’ nothin’ seemed able to frighten<br>This woman so pale an’ thin;<br>She pushed from the door old Brighten,<br>An’ carried the youngster in.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She’d bin hospital nurse in the city,<br>I heard, and had got the sack<br>For havin’ a little pity,<br>An’ exposin’ a doctor quack;<br>Some trumped-up stories agin her<br>All over the town was belled;<br>An’ in spite of the fightin’ in her<br>They got her at last expelled.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">An’, talkin’ o’ fight, I’m fearin‘<br>There’s sudden fightin’ in store<br>For the first as speaks in my hearin’<br>’Gin Brighten’s sister-in-law;<br>For, in spite of old Brighten’s cussin’,<br>She got the youngster to bed;<br>And arter a week’s good nussin’<br>She won him back from the dead.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And then I began to hanker<br>For a speech to tell her the joy<br>I felt in my heart, and to thank her<br>For givin’ me back my boy.<br>The mornin’ I left old Brighten’s,<br>While puttin’ the horses to,<br>I puzzled my brains to make up<br>A speech as I thought would do.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She lifted the youngster and kissed him,<br>And helped him into the dray;<br>An’ I thought of how I’d ’a’ missed him,<br>If he’d only been taken away.<br>An’, “Mum,” I sez; “I oughter—”<br>An’ to finish the speech I tries;<br>But all on a sudden the water<br>Kem bubblin’ up to my eyes.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">An’ down’ard, like water-courses,<br>The tears began to tear;<br>An’ I had to swear at the horses<br>To hide my weakness from her.<br>But the tears was only human<br>An’ they seem’d to ha’ done some good;<br>For she pressed my hand like a woman,<br>An’ said that she understood.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Henry+Lawson">Henry Lawson</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=408582" data-title="Brighten’s Sister-In-Law [or The Carrier's Story] de Henry Lawson" data-description="AT A POINT where the old road crosses
The river, and turns to the right,
I’d camped with the team; and the hosses
Was all fixed up for the night.
I’d been to the town to carry
A load to the Cudgegong;
And I’d taken the youngster, Harry,
On a..."></div>
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