"LITTLE bush maiden, wondering-eyed, Playing alone in the creek-bed dry,In the small green flat on every side Walled in by the Moonbi Ranges high.
Tell us the tale of your lonely life
Mid the great grey forests that know no change." "I never have left my home," she said.
"I have never been over the Moonbi Range."
"Father and mother are both long dead, And I live with granny in yon wee place.""Where are your father and mother?" we said.
She puzzled awhile with a thoughtful face; Then a light came into the shy, brown eye,And she smiled, for she thought the question strangeOn a thing so certain- "When people die, They go to the country over the range.""And what is this country like, my lass?"
"There are blossoming trees and pretty flowers, And shining creeks where the golden grassIs fresh and sweet from the summer showers. They never need work, nor want, nor weep;No troubles can come their hearts to estrange; Some summer night, I shall fall asleep,And wake in the country over the range."
Drawn by Elsie J. Mckissock
Granny"s "yon wee place."
"Child, you are wise in your simple trust,
For the wisest man knows no more than you. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust;Our views by a range are bounded, too; But we know that God hath this gift in store,That, when we come to the final change,
We shall meet with our loved ones gone before To the beautiful country over the range."-A. B. Paterson
About the Author.-AndreW Barton Paterson, one of the most popular of Australian poets, was born at Narrambla, in New South Wales, in 1864. He was educated at the Sydney Grammar School. He became a lawyer, but was more interested in writing. He was a war correspondent in the Boer War, and later was editor of The Evening News (Sydney), and The Town and Country Journal. Poems contributed from time to time to The Bulletin, over the name of "The Banjo," made him famous. His bright, breezy verses have appeared in book form under the titles The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, Rio Grande"s Last Race and Other Verses, and Selected Poems. He edited also Old Bush Ballads, and wrote a novel, An Outback Marriage. The publishers are Angus and Robertson, Sydney.
About the Poem.-In what season is the creek-bed dry? What does the Range stand for? What unusual word does the little girl use? What tribes picture Heaven as a happy hunting-ground? "Their hearts to estrange" means "to make them unfriendly towards one another".