Read "A Ballad of Ducks" by Andrew Barton Paterson online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The railway rattled and roared and swung / With jolting carriage and bumping trucks. / The sun, like a billiard red ball, hung / In the Western sky: and the tireless tongue / Of the wild-eyed man in the corner told / This terrible tale of the days of old, / And the party that ought to have kept the ducks.
"Well, it ain't all joy bein' on the land / With an overdraft that'd knock you flat; / And the rabbits have pretty well took command; / But the hardest thing for a man to stand / Is the feller who says 'Well, I told you so! / You should ha' done this way, don't you know!' -- / I could lay a bait for a man like that.