| From out across the great divide, a story reached my ears
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| About a jackass and a boy; |
| I’d like you all to hear.
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| At daylight in the mornin', his little heart it thrills
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| To the echoes in the valley, from the laughter in the hills.
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| Perched up in a tall gumtree, by the homestead so I hear
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| A happy kookaburra, laughs away his fear
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| He wakes the little feller, who jus' tumbles out of bed
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| As he got dressed he said aloud, «My friend must be fed.»
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| He found some bits and pieces, which he placed upon some bark
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| And soon the jackass he came down as happy as a lark
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| And as the sun peeped o’er the hill, he jumped around so grand,
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| And then he ate a piece of meat out of the younger’s hand
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| Well when that lad went back inside, his father said, «Young man,
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| You’ll have to get rid of that bird as quickly as you can,
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| For lately I’ve been worried, and I miss my morning rest
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| I think that bird of yours, young man, is nothing but a pest.»
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| Next morning see his father up beneath that old gumtree,
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| With red meat full of strychnine, «I'll get that bird», thought he,
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| Then went into the house, he chanced to look around
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| And saw that jackass swoop upon a black snake on the ground
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| He dived down and grabbed that snake, as quick as any cat,
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| He bumped and bashed and banged him and shook him like a rat
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| They tossled there upon the ground and then he flew up high
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| And soon that reptile met his death, from somewhere in the sky.
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| The father scratched his greying head and felt a little ashamed
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| If my son had been poisoned, I’d be the one to blame.
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| So he told his wife and little son, of all that he did see
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| And now trhat jackass is just one of a happy family.
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| From out across the great divide, a story rings so true
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| About a jackass and a boy, I think, of something new
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| At daylight in the mornin', his little herart it thrills
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| To the echoes in the valley, from the laughter in the hills. |