Bush Verses

The Call of Fate

I remember the hut where I was born, a dreamer whose dreams were light;

Where the sun-beams stole through the slabs by day, and the stars through the roof by night.

The call of Fate through the open door, came stealing as by design,

To find perchance a responsive chord, and the answering call was mine.

I remember the swirling mountain stream, with its hidden golden store;

Where the diggers delved in the long ago, half a hundred years or more.

The dauntless spirits that dared the worst, from forest and flame, or flood,

That stirred ambition in my heart, and the wanderlust in my blood.

I remember the dingo on the range, that howled when the bush was still;

To the monotone of the mopoke's call, and the curlew chorus shrill.

The medley born of the solitudes, of things unfettered and free;

An echo of Nature's wildest moods, yet ever a song to me.

I remember the top-most snow-clad heights, aglow with the morning gleams;

I roamed at will when a wayward boy, and in after years in dreams.

When Morpheus wielding a magic wand, brought wizard-like back to mind,

An old slab hut by a purling stream, with the snow capped hills behind.

I remember the homing wild birds' song, that came like a clarion call;

As when in the midst of the multitude, I heard it high over all.

And when a scout in the desert waste, alone 'neath a foreign sky,

The curlew's wail and the dingo's howl, came back in the jackal's cry.

I remember the lure of the virgin gold, that led like a temptress on;

And gave but little recompense, for the prime of a life-time gone,

But memories come of days that were, and amply remunerate;

The dreamer, who heard through the open door, and answered - "The Call of Fate".

This refers to the hut where I was born on the bank of Morses Creek, Wandilligong, on the 16th of July, 1866.

By Wm Jas Wye