THE BUSHMAN BUYS AN AXE.

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!