LESSON 28 WHERE THE PELICAN BUILDS

WHERE THE PELICAN BUILDS

MARY HANNAY FOOTT was a Queensland writer of poetry.

The horses were ready, the rails were down,

But the riders lingered still—

One had a parting word to say,

And one had his pipe to fill.

Then they mounted, one with a granted prayer,

And one with a grief unguessed.

We are going, they said as they rode away,

Where the pelican builds her nest!

They had told us of pastures wide and green,

To be sought past the sunset's glow;

Of rifts [1] in the ranges by opal [2] lit;

And gold 'neath the river's flow.

And thirst and hunger were banished [3] words

When they spoke of that unknown West;

No drought they dreaded, no flood they feared,

Where the pelican builds her nest!

The creek at the ford was but fetlock [4] deep

When we watched them crossing there;

The rains have replenished [5] it thrice since then,

And thrice has the rock lain bare.

But the waters of hope have flowed and fled,

And never from blue hill's breast

Come back—by the sun and the sands devoured [6] —

Where the pelican builds her nest.

—MARY HANNAY FOOTT

* * *

[1] rifts: Openings; clefts.

[2] opal: A precious stone which appears to change in colour from green to blue, yellow, or red.

[3] banished: Driven away.

[4] fetlock: The part of a horse's leg just above the foot.

[5] replenished: Refilled.

[6] devoured: Eaten up; consumed.