THE price I paid for Darkey? Well, I'm blowed if I can tell, Becos' I got him dealin'; you see, boss, I was always fond of dealin'—as a boy I'd buy or sell With any other kid I came across. You're a scholar; you can reckon up his figure from the start: I bought a mare at Maffra, bay, bob-tail; She cost me seven sovereigns and was branded with a heart Near shoulder. Well, I rode her down to Sale An' there I met a feller on a big upstandin' roan, I swapped the mare for him. He didn't suit; His owner from his back had twice that very day been thrown; I had to give him three pounds ten to boot. Throw me off? No, not exactly. Though he tried it for a while, But dropped it when he found it was no go; Then I traded for a trotter that could do a level mile In three minutes seven seconds—that ain't slow! But I didn't swap him level; I put a saddle down That cost three notes—receiving thirty bob An' a watch I raffled after—twenty members at a crown; An' then I swapped the trotter for a cob— A natty little chestnut, but I bartered him off quick For a skewbald an' a gun: I let @3her@1 go For a fiery little black horse that had got a nasty trick Of kickin' every time he got a show. That gun was worth a fiver. I travelled round a bit An' got another chestnut for the black, An' a bridle worth ten shillin's; the chestnut was real grit, A well-bred, showy model of a hack. But I traded her for Darkey, an' a prize retriever-pup— But travellin' down to Toora it got lost. I got eight notes for Darkey, so, boss, reckon all that up An' let me know exactly what he cost. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OF ANY OLD MAN by ISAAC ROSENBERG LETTERS TO DEAD IMAGISTS by CARL SANDBURG NURSING HOME: THE VISIT by KAREN SWENSON THEY SAY - . by JEAN STARR UNTERMEYER THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL by WILLIAM BLAKE APRIL, 1885 by ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES |