<h2> The Man Who Was Away </h2>
<p>The widow sought the lawyer's room with children three in tow,<br/>
She told the lawyer man her tale in tones of deepest woe.<br/>
Said she, 'My husband took to drink for pains in his inside,<br/>
And never drew a sober breath from then until he died.<br/>
<br/>
'He never drew a sober breath, he died without a will,<br/>
And I must sell the bit of land the childer's mouths to fill.<br/>
There's some is grown and gone away, but some is childer yet,<br/>
And times is very bad indeed — a livin's hard to get.<br/>
<br/>
'There's Min and Sis and little Chris, they stops at home with me,<br/>
And Sal has married Greenhide Bill that breaks for Bingeree.<br/>
And Fred is drovin' Conroy's sheep along the Castlereagh,<br/>
And Charley's shearin' down the Bland, and Peter is away.'<br/>
<br/>
The lawyer wrote the details down in ink of legal blue —<br/>
'There's Minnie, Susan, Christopher, they stop at home with you;<br/>
There's Sarah, Frederick, and Charles, I'll write to them to-day,<br/>
But what about the other one — the one who is away?<br/>
<br/>
'You'll have to furnish his consent to sell the bit of land.'<br/>
The widow shuffled in her seat, 'Oh, don't you understand?<br/>
I thought a lawyer ought to know — I don't know what to say —<br/>
You'll have to do without him, boss, for Peter is away.'<br/>
<br/>
But here the little boy spoke up — said he, 'We thought you knew;<br/>
He's done six months in Goulburn gaol — he's got six more to do.'<br/>
Thus in one comprehensive flash he made it clear as day,<br/>
The mystery of Peter's life — the man who was away.<br/></p>
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