Mary Lemaine

Jim Duff was a native,as wild as could be;     A stealer and duffer of cattle was he,     But back in his youth he had stolen a pearl     Or a diamond rather the heart of a girl;     She served with a squatter who lived on the plain,     And the name of the girl it was Mary Lemaine.     Twas a drear, rainy day and the twilight was done,     When four mounted troopers rode up to the run.     They spoke to the squatter he asked them all in.     The homestead was small and the walls they were thin;     And in the next room, with a cold in her head,     Our Mary was sewing on buttons in bed.     She heard a few words, but those words were enough     The troopers were all on the track of Jim Duff.     The super, his rival, was planning a trap     To capture the scamp in Maginniss Gap.     Ive warned him before, and Ill do it again;     Ill save him to-night, whispered Mary Lemaine.     No petticoat job there was no time to waste,     The suit she was mending she slipped on in haste,     And five minutes later they gathered in force,     But Mary was off, on the squatters best horse;     With your hand on your heart, just to deaden the pain,     Ride hard to the ranges, brave Mary Lemaine!     She rode by the ridges all sullen and strange,     And far up long gullies that ran through the range,     Till the rain cleared away, and the tears in her eyes     Caught the beams of the moon from Maginniss Rise.     A fire in the depths of the gums she espied,     Whos there? shouted Jim. It is Mary!she cried.     Next morning the sun rose in splendour again,     And two loving sinners rode out on the plain.     And baffled, and angry, and hungry and damp,     The four mounted troopers rode back to the camp.     But they hushed up the business the reason is plain,     They all had been soft on fair Mary Lemaine.     The squatter got back all he lost from his mob,     And old Sergeant Kennedy winked at the job.     Jim Duff keeps a shanty far out in the west,     And the sundowners call it the Bushrangers Rest.     But the bushranger lives a respectable life,     And the law never troubles Jim Duff or his wife,