The Bush Girl

So you rode from the range where your brothers select

Through the ghostly grey bush in the dawn

You rode slowly at first lest her heart should suspect

That you were so glad to be gone

You had scarcely the courage to glance back at her

By the homestead receding from view

And you breathed with relief as you rounded the spur

For the world was a wide world to you

Grey eyes that grow sadder than sunset or rain

Fond heart that is ever more true

Firm faith that grows firmer for watching in vain

She'll wait by the sliprails for you

Ah the world is a new and a wide one to you

But the world to your sweetheart is shut

For a change never comes to the lonely bush girl

From the stockyard the bush and the hut

And the only relief from its dullness she feels

Is when ridges grow softened and dim

And away in the dusk to the sliprails she steals

To dream of past meetings with him

Grey eyes that grow sadder than sunset or rain

Fond heart that is ever more true

Firm faith that grows firmer for watching in vain

She'll wait by the sliprails for you

Do you think where in place of bare fences dry creeks

Clear streams and green hedges are seen

Where the girls have lily and rose in their cheeks

And the grass in midsummer is green?

Do you think now and then now or then in the whirl

Of the city while London is new

Of the hut in the bush and the freckled-face girl

Who is eating her heart out for you?

Grey eyes that grow sadder than sunset or rain

Fond heart that is ever more true

Firm faith that grows firmer for watching in vain

She'll wait by the sliprails for you

Those grey eyes that are sadder than sunset or rain

Bruised heart that is ever more true

Fond faith that is firmer for trusting in vain

She waits by the sliprails for you

She waits by the sliprails for you

Waits by the sliprails for you

Just for you