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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=408674" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Marshall's Mate</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">You almost heard the surface bake, and saw the gum-leaves turn -- <br>You could have watched the grass scorch brown had there been grass to burn. <br>In such a drought the strongest heart might well grow faint and weak -- <br>'Twould frighten Satan to his home -- not far from Dingo Creek. <br> <br>The tanks went dry on Ninety Mile, as tanks go dry out back, <br>The Half-Way Spring had failed at last when Marshall missed the track; <br>Beneath a dead tree on the plain we saw a pack-horse reel -- <br>Too blind to see there was no shade, and too done-up to feel. <br>And charcoaled on the canvas bag (`twas written pretty clear) <br>We read the message Marshall wrote. It said: `I'm taken queer -- <br>I'm somewhere off of Deadman's Track, half-blind and nearly dead; <br>Find Crowbar, get him sobered up, and follow back,' it said. <br> <br>`Let Mitchell go to Bandicoot. You'll find him there,' said Mack. <br>`I'll start the chaps from Starving Steers, and take the dry-holes back.' <br>We tramped till dark, and tried to track the pack-horse on the sands, <br>And just at daylight Crowbar came with Milroy's station hands. <br>His cheeks were drawn, his face was white, but he was sober then -- <br>In times of trouble, fire, and flood, 'twas Crowbar led the men. <br>`Spread out as widely as you can each side the track,' said he; <br>`The first to find him make a smoke that all the rest can see.' <br> <br>We took the track and followed back where Crowbar followed fate, <br>We found a dead man in the scrub -- but 'twas not Crowbar's mate. <br>The station hands from Starving Steers were searching all the week -- <br>But never news of Marshall's fate came back to Dingo Creek. <br>And no one, save the spirit of the sand-waste, fierce and lone, <br>Knew where Jack Marshall crawled to die -- but Crowbar might have known. <br> <br>He'd scarcely closed his quiet eyes or drawn a sleeping breath -- <br>They say that Crowbar slept no more until he slept in death. <br>A careless, roving scamp, that loved to laugh and drink and joke, <br>But no man saw him smile again (and no one saw him smoke), <br>And, when we spelled at night, he'd lie with eyes still open wide, <br>And watch the stars as if they'd point the place where Marshall died. <br> <br>The search was made as searches are (and often made in vain), <br>And on the seventh day we saw a smoke across the plain; <br>We left the track and followed back -- 'twas Crowbar still that led, <br>And when his horse gave out at last he walked and ran ahead. <br>We reached the place and turned again -- dragged back and no man spoke -- <br>It was a bush-fire in the scrubs that made the cursed smoke. <br>And when we gave it best at last, he said, `I'LL see it through,' <br>Although he knew we'd done as much as mortal men could do. <br>`I'll not -- I won't give up!' he said, his hand pressed to his brow; <br>`My God! the cursed flies and ants, they might be at him now. <br>I'll see it so in twenty years, 'twill haunt me all my life -- <br>I could not face his sister, and I could not face his wife. <br>It's no use talking to me now -- I'm going back,' he said, <br>`I'm going back to find him, and I will -- alive or dead!' <br> <br> . . . . . <br> <br>He packed his horse with water and provisions for a week, <br>And then, at sunset, crossed the plain, away from Dingo Creek. <br>We watched him tramp beside the horse till we, as it grew late, <br>Could not tell which was Bonypart and which was Marshall's mate. <br>The dam went dry at Dingo Creek, and we were driven back, <br>And none dared face the Ninety Mile when Crowbar took the track. <br> <br>They saw him at Dead Camel and along the Dry Hole Creeks -- <br>There came a day when none had heard of Marshall's mate for weeks; <br>They'd seen him at No Sunday, he called at Starving Steers -- <br>There came a time when none had heard of Marshall's mate for years. <br>They found old Bonypart at last, picked clean by hungry crows, <br>But no one knew how Crowbar died -- the soul of Marshall knows! <br> <br>And now, way out on Dingo Creek, when winter days are late, <br>The bushmen talk of Crowbar's ghost `what's looking for his mate'; <br>For let the fools indulge their mirth, and let the wise men doubt -- <br>The soul of Crowbar and his mate have travelled further out. <br>Beyond the furthest two-rail fence, Colanne and Nevertire -- <br>Beyond the furthest rabbit-proof, barbed wire and common wire -- <br>Beyond the furthest `Gov'ment' tank, and past the furthest bore -- <br>The Never-Never, No Man's Land, No More, and Nevermore -- <br>Beyond the Land o' Break-o'-Day, and Sunset and the Dawn, <br>The soul of Marshall and the soul of Marshall's mate have gone <br>Unto that Loving, Laughing Land where life is fresh and clean -- <br>Where the rivers flow all summer, and the grass is always green.</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=408674" data-title="Marshall's Mate de Henry Lawson" data-description="You almost heard the surface bake, and saw the gum-leaves turn -- 
You could have watched the grass scorch brown had there been grass to burn. 
In such a drought the strongest heart might well grow faint and weak -- 
'Twould frighten Satan to his ..."></div>
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