The boy went out in the early dawn,
Laughed as he turned again to call
One "Goodbye" through the golden morn--
"With me a godspeed"--that was all!
The gaunt greyhound that he left behind
Threw back its head in a long drawn wail;
It was borne to the boy on the morning wind,
For he turned and waved from the red sliprail.
Then we saw him go up the stony ridge
Where the brown mud winds to rising sun,
Heard the hoof-beats fall on the wooden bridge
Where the railway goes through M'Kinley's run.
The boy went out with his head held high,
And a happy faith for the years to be,
He feared not to meet his mother's eye;
There was nothing a mother might not see.
His father said, "Let him go to town,"
Make a man of our darling boy;
And I prayed for him when the sun went down,
And dreamed of a future of certain joy.
• • • • • • • •
A man came back in a sultry eve--
A man world-weary and pale and worn;
And a mother's foolish heart would grieve
For the lad who went with the rosy dawn.
First published in The Queenslander, 17 April 1897
