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The Fire at Ross’s Farm · Ririro.com - Poetry

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The fire at Ross's farm, the squatter saw his pasture's
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: wide decrease, as one by one the farmers moving to
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the west selected on his run. Selectors took the water
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: up and all the black soil round. The best grassland
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: the squatter had was spoilt by Ross's ground. Now many
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: schemes to shift old Ross had racked the squatter's brains,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: But Sandy had the stubborn blood of Scotland in his veins.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: He held the land and fenced it in. He cleared
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: and plowed the soil, and year by year a richer
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: crop repaid him for his toil between the homes. For
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: many years the devil left his tracks. The squatter pounded
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Ross's stock, and sand pounded blacks. A well upon the
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: lower run was filled with earth and logs, and Black
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: laid baits about the farm to poison Ross's dogs. It
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: was indeed a deadly feud of class and creed and race.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: But yet there was a Romeo and a Juliette in
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: the case, and more than once across the flats beneath
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: the Southern Cross, young Robert Black was seen to ride
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: with pretty specifying Ross one Christmas time, when months of
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: drought had parched the western creeks. The bushfires started in
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: the north and traveled south for weeks. At night along
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: the riverside, the scene was grand and strange. The hill
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: fires looked like light streets of cities in the range.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: The cattle tracks between the trees were like long, dusky aisles,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: and on a sudden breeze, the fire would sweep along
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: for miles, like sounds of distant musketry. It crackled through
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: the breaks and o'er the flat of silver grass. It
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: hissed like angry snakes. It leapt across the flowing streams
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: and raced oer pastures broad It climbed the trees and
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: lit the boughs, and through the scrubs it roared. The
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: bees fell stifled in the smoke, or perished in their hives,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: and with the stalk the kangaroos went flying for their lives.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: The sun had set on Christmas Eve when through the
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: scrublands wide, young Robert Black came riding home as only
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: natives ride. He galloped to the homestead door and gave
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: the first alarm. The fire is past the granite spur
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: and close to Ross's farm. Now Father send the men
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: at once. They won't be wanted here. Poor Ross's wheat
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: is all he has to pull him through the year.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Then let it burn, the squatter said, I'd like to
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  Speaker 1: see it done. I'd bless the fire if it would
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: clear selectors from the run. Go if you will, the
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: squatter said, you shall not take the men. Go out
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: and join your precious friends, and don't come here again.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: I won't come back. Young Robert cried, and reckless in
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: his ire, He sharply turned his horse's head and galloped
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: towards the fire. And there, for three long, weary hours,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: half blind with smoke and heat, Old Ross and Robert
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: fought the flames that neared the ripened wheat. The farmer's
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: hand was nerved by fears of danger and of loss,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: and Robert fought the stubborn foe for the love of
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Jenny Ross. But serpent like the curves and lines slipped
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: past them and between until they reached the boundary where
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: the old coach road had been. The track is now
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: our only hope. There we must stand, cried Ross, for
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: nought on earth can stop the fire if once it
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: gets across. Then came a cruel gust of wind and
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: with a fiendish rush, the flames leapt o'er the narrow
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: path and lit the fence of brush. The crop must burn,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: the farmer cried, we cannot save it now, And down
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: upon the blackened ground he dashed the ragged bow, but wildly,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: in a rush of hope, his heart began to beat
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: for o'er the crackling fire. He heard the sound of
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: horses feet. Here's help at last, young Robert cried, And
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: even as he spoke, the squatter, with a dozen men,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: came racing through the smoke. Down on the ground, the
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: stockmen jumped and bared each brawny arm. They tore green
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: branches from the trees and fought for Ross's farm. And
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: when before the gallant band the beaten flames gave way,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: two grimy hands in friendship joined, And it was Christmas Day,