Saltbush Bill's Second Fight

The news came down on the Castlereagh, and went to the world at large, / That twenty thousand travelling sheep, with Saltbush Bill in charge, / Were drifting down from a dried-out run to ravage the Castlereagh; / And the squatters swore when they heard the news, / and wished they were well away: / For the name and the fame of Saltbush Bill were over the country side / For the wonderful way that he fed his sheep, / and the dodges and tricks he tried. / He would lose his way on a Main Stock Route, / and stray to the squatters' grass; / He would come to a run with the boss away, and swear he had leave to pass; / And back of all and behind it all, as well the squatters knew, / If he had to fight, he would fight all day, so long as his sheep got through: / But this is the story of Stingy Smith, the owner of Hard Times Hill, / And the way that he chanced on a fighting man to reckon with Saltbush Bill.

'Twas Stingy Smith on his stockyard sat, and prayed for an early Spring, / When he stared at sight of a clean-shaved tramp, who walked with jaunty swing; / For a clean-shaved tramp with a jaunty walk a-swinging along the track / Is as rare a thing as a feathered frog on the desolate roads out back. / So the tramp he made for the travellers' hut, / and asked could he camp the night; / But Stingy Smith had a bright idea, and he said to him, 'Can you fight?' / 'Why, what's the game?' said the clean-shaved tramp, / as he looked at him up and down -- / 'If you want a battle, get off that fence, and I'll kill you for half-a-crown!