His bag upon his sturdy back, he goes,
Barefooted, down the longest track he knows,
Taking reluct an tly his way t o school;And, loitering there, he laughs to feel the cool,Crisp grasses crunch beneath his careless feet;See bloom on twig and branch hang honey-sweet,And down in every damp, dim- shadowed place,
The fronded ferns lean up like stiffened lace.
And, gaining now the first warm sunlit rise,
He looks far back and sees with fresh surpriseThe sea lit out all azure-pale and still, Looping the edges of each wooded hill;Drawn by John Rowell
"Beneath a silk-smooth gum. "
And wonders, eagerness within his look, Of Hartog and of Tasman and of Cook.-Wonders if Cook, on some still morn like this, Pulled in ashore, shouting above the hissOf spreading surge; but, past the next lagoon, Forgets his dreaming wonder very soon,And, trudging on, pokes little sunburnt toes
Among the grass, where thick and spiked heath grows In red and white, and scarlet runner dipsGlobules of blood among the grasses" tips; And halts a while beneath a silk-smooth gum, Hearing above his head the wild bees" hum; And peels a fresh-torn stick, and whistling sits Watching the finches and the tiny tits.
A round-eyed rabbit stares, then runs, white-tailed; A lizard, in a shining armour mailed,Flicks out its pointed tongue; and, winging by, The wild ducks make a wedge against the sky; And the black swans, crying as they go,Sail out to some far haunt no feet may know; Among the sheeny lilly-pilly leaves,A bronze-winged pigeon in the glooming grieves.
Down in the hollow where the dark pools lie, Hidden in tangled scrub from sun and sky, The lazy cows among the bracken bedsFeed on, with ringing bells, and raise their heads To see the loitering, bare-legged urchin pass, Swishing his white-peeled stick along the grass.
Up the last slope he climbs, and, peeping, sees Beneath the covert of the slim-trunked trees The school-house roof, with chimney all awry, Patching its red against the morning sky;And tiptoes up, and swings the little gate Close latched against the scholar who is late.
And, sitting in his place, held fast inside, He leans upon the desk, his boy"s eyes wide,Wondering if Tasman bold and gallant Cook Sat huddled o"er a thumbed old lesson-book.
Myra Morris
He prayeth well, who loveth well Both man and bird and beast. He prayeth best,who loveth bestAll things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all.
Coleridge
Author.-Myra Morris is a living Melbourne writer, well known as a contributor to various periodicals. Her published works include England and Other Verses and Us Five (prose).
General.-Is this a true picture of a bush schoolboy? Does he go "reluctantly " to school? Does he dream of Hartog (Dirck Hartog, com- mander of the Dutch ship Eendracht, which visited Shark Bay in 1616), Tasman (Dutch discoverer of Tasmania and New Zealand, 1642), and Cook (who took possession of the eastern coast for George III., 1770)? Is he not more concerned with " the finches and the tiny tits "? Can you visualize the successive pictures-fern-gully, warm rise, seascape, lagoon, hollow with pools, hill where the school stands? What plants and animals has the schoolboy seen? Where does the lilly-pilly grow wild? (It is cultivated in the Melbourne Botanic Gardens.)
