THE BUSHMAN BUYS AN AXE.
I met him
in Carlson's hardware store
he came to
buy an axe,
And well I
knew that process would
the shopman's
patience tax;
For Bill and
Jack will take advice
when buying
boots or clothes,
But there are
points about an axe no
city shopman
knows:
It must have
balance, edge, and fall,
be thin of
blade and keen.
But tempered
well for hard grey box,
As well as
timbers green.
May'hap this tall and sun-tanned man
from Gippsland hillsides came,
Where axework plays a major part,
and men must know the game;
For strength and skill, and nerves of
I steel are needed day by day
By those who on the springboard
stand, while forest monarchs sway.
My thoughts were straying back
again to hills that I once knew,
And on the rugged slopes I stood,
where giant Blackbuts grew.
Once more I heard the axes ring, I
saw the bright steel flash.
There came a creak, a groan, a thrill
of some great Mountain Ash,
That, stricken, tottered on its stump,
thundering 'rousing to earth.
It crashed to wake the sleeping bush
and still the birdland mirth.
I heard the maul and wedges thud,
the crosscut biting deep,
While bullock teams were winding,
slow around the hillside steep.
There axe a'shoulder. once I strode,
where youth and strength held sway,
For tasks were lighter then than now.
the hardest work seemed play.
In envy of that bushman tall, I walked the busy street.
Still musing on the timbered slopes,
where trees and skylines meet,
For bush-bred folk will ever dream of
hills and winding tracks.
As I was dreaming there that day the
bushman bought an axe.
-A. R. Summers.
Kapunda.
First published in 1937 in The Kapunda Herald on the 9th of July, 1937. ( http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article108402170 )
A/ Carlson owned 26 Main Street Kapunda, the building was used as a hardware store with the rear premises used to build water tanks. In 1933, Carlson rebuilt the front of the shop., installing the green tiles that are still visible today!
