And Fred is drovin' Conroy's sheep along the Castlereagh,
And Charley's shearin' down the Bland, and Peter is away.'

The lawyer wrote the details down in ink of legal blue --
`There's Minnie, Susan, Christopher, they stop at home with you;
There's Sarah, Frederick, and Charles, I'll write to them to-day,
But what about the other one -- the one who is away?

`You'll have to furnish his consent to sell the bit of land.'
The widow shuffled in her seat, `Oh, don't you understand?
I thought a lawyer ought to know -- I don't know what to say --
You'll have to do without him, boss, for Peter is away.'

But here the little boy spoke up -- said he, `We thought you knew;
He's done six months in Goulburn gaol -- he's got six more to do.'
Thus in one comprehensive flash he made it clear as day,
The mystery of Peter's life -- the man who was away.




The Man from Ironbark



It was the man from Ironbark who struck the Sydney town,
He wandered over street and park, he wandered up and down.
He loitered here, he loitered there, till he was like to drop,
Until at last in sheer despair he sought a barber's shop.
`'Ere! shave my beard and whiskers off, I'll be a man of mark,