Clancy's Reply ============== Gerald Clancy, 1897 In 1897, years after he gave up droving, Thomas Gerald Clancy, better known as "Clancy of the Overflow", penned this verse. Neath the star-spangled dome Of my Austral home, When watching by the camp fire's ruddy glow, Oft in the flickering blaze Is presented to my gaze The sun-drenched kindly faces Of the men of Overflow. Now, though years have passed forever Since I used, with best endeavour Clip the fleeces of the jumbucks Down the Lachlan years ago, Still in memory linger traces Of many cheerful faces, And the well-remembered visage Of the Bulletin's "Banjo". Tired of life upon the stations, With their wretched, scanty rations, I took a sudden notion That a droving I would go; Then a roving fancy took me, Which has never since forsook me, And decided me to travel, And leave the Overflow. So with maiden ewes from Tubbo, I passed en route to Dubbo, And across the Lig'num country 'where the Barwon waters flow; Thence onward o'er the Narran, By scrubby belts of Yarran, To where the landscape changes And the cotton bushes grow. And my path I've often wended Over drought-scourged plains extended, where phantom lakes and forests Forever come and go; And the stock in hundreds dying, Along the road are lying, To count among the 'pleasures" That townsfolk never know. Over arid plains extended My route has often tended, Droving cattle to the Darling, Or along the Warrego; Oft with nightly rest impeded, when the cattle had stampeded, Save I sworn that droving pleasures For the future I'd forego. So of drinking liquid mire I eventually did tire, And gave droving up forever As a life that was too slow. Now, gold digging, in a measure, Affords much greater pleasure To your obedient servant, "Clancy of the Overflow".