The Horse And Cart Ferry
By Henry Lawson
It was old Jerry Brown,
Whod an office in town,
And he used to get jocular, very;
And hed go to the Shore
When theyd serve him no more,
And, of course, by the passenger ferry,
A sight on the passenger ferry.
Now this is a song of the ferry,
And a lay of the juice of the berry;
Tis the ballad of Brown,
Whod a business in town,
And commenced to go down
Very slow,
Dont you know?
By coming home just a bit merry.
By the Drunks Boat, thats right,
On a Saturday night
He would often be past being merry;
With his back teeth afloat,
On the twelve oclock boat,
And a spectacle there on the ferry
(A picture to all on the ferry).
In the mornings, ashamed,
Twas the last drink he blamed,
Though the first was the matter with Jerry,
With his nerve out of joint,
Hed sneak down to Blues Point,
And hed cross by the horse-and-cart ferry,
Like a thief, by the horse-and-cart ferry.
But long before night
Hed most likely be tight,
And a subject and theme for George Perry;
And hed cross to the Shore,
Somewhat worse than before,
And a nuisance to all on the ferry;
Singing-drunk on the passenger ferry.
And so it went on
Till his reason seemed gone,
And the Law, so it seemed, got a derry
On Brown. He went down,
And they sent him to town
One day, by the trap, on the ferry,
The Government trap on the ferry.
He was sober and sane
When he came back again,
And the past hed determined to bury,
Or, I mean, live it down,
And he crossed from the town
Like a man, on the passenger ferry.
(There were sceptical souls on that ferry.)
They say twas the jaw
Of his mother-in-law
Drove him back to the juice of the berry;
But he soon got afloat
On the passenger boat
Or adrift on the horse-and-cart ferry
(Wrongly called the ve-hic-ular ferry).
The drink had him fast,
And he drank till at last
He dried up, a withered old cherry;
And they thought him no loss
When they sent him across
In a box, on the cart-and-horse ferry,
In a low, covered trap on the ferry.
Which I rise to explain,
If the moral aint plain,
And if youre a cove that gets merry,
Always stick, when afloat,
To the passenger boat;
Or else to the cart-and-horse ferry,
Or youll make matters worse, like old Jerry.
But this is the song of the ferry,
And the lay of the juice of the berry;
And you will not deny,
If you read by-and-bye,
That the casual eye
Of the Tight
At first sight
Misses much in the song of the ferry.