Two days of droving at our backs Jim gave a great cooee!
We'd reached Balgownie's grid at last and just in time for tea.
I thought the place was looking good, but mostly on my mind
was climbing from this saddle which was killing my behind.
We settled all the cattle in the temp'rary holding yards
and figured since we worked so hard a swim was on the cards.
"I sense you'd like a dip!" cried Jim, "and as you've worked so well
a man had better let you go; you're busting I can tell."
He said he'd even cook the tea, which really wasn't Jim,
but still we never knocked him back and set off for our swim.
I noticed as we walked away Jim looking on the ground
and thought ... what was he looking for ... though didn't hang around.
With two days dust upon our frames the water sure felt great
and knowing Jim was cooking tea we thought ... you beauty mate.
We spent an hour all horsing 'round, then headed back to camp.
Our clothes smelled so much better now, though soaked and rather damp.
We tried to wring them out a bit and hung them on a bough
as Jim cried, "Come and get it boys your tuckers on right now!"
We sure were all a hungry lot and soon were tucking in
while Jim had plastered on his face a silly kind of grin.
The tucker in itself looked great though couldn't make it out;
we'd never seen the likes of it and we had been about.
The texture was all mushy with a rusty coloured look.
A brew we should have realized that only Jim could cook?
Then as we kept on eating you could feel the grit inside,
but no one said a single thing, none dared to hurt his pride.
I then recalled as I had left Jim looking on the ground
and wandered what in fact it was that Uncle Jim had found?
The fireplace then revealed a clue which came as no real shock.
Jim used a rusty plough disc for a flam'in Chinese wok.
He'd thrown the tucker on the thing and as he stirred it 'round
the rust and dirt and God knows what was truly well in ground.
Our bowels were not too good next day and did we do it hard,
though no one said a thing to Jim while branding in the yard.
When tucker time came 'round that night we hinted to old Jim,
"We'll take our turn with tea tonight. You duck down for a swim."
© Merv Webster
From the book Tales of Uncle Jim
