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Title: "Over There" with the Australians

Author: R. Hugh Knyvett

Release Date: December 3, 2005 [eBook #17206]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

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"OVER THERE" WITH THE AUSTRALIANS

by

CAPTAIN R. HUGH KNYVETT

ANZAC Scout
Intelligence Officer, Fifteenth Australian Infantry

[Frontispiece: Captain R. Hugh Knyvett.]

New York
Charles Scribner's Sons
1918
Copyright, 1918, by
Charles Scribner's Sons
Published April, 1918

BILL-JIM'S CHRISTMAS

(Bill-Jim is Australia's name for her soldier)

Here where I sit, mucked-up with Flanders mud,
Wrapped-round with clothes to keep the Winter out,
Ate-up wi' pests a bloke don't care to name
To ears polite,
I'm glad I'm here all right;
A man must fight for freedom and his blood
Against this German rout
An' do his bit,
An' not go growlin' while he's doin' it:
The cove as can't stand cowardice or shame
Must play the game.

Here's Christmas, though, with cold sleet swirlin' down . . .
God! gimme Christmas day in Sydney town!
I long to see the flowers in Martin Place,
To meet the girl I write to face to face,
To hold her close and teach
What in this Hell I'm learning--that a man
Is only half a man without his girl,
That sure as grass is green and God's above
A chap's real happiness,
If he's no churl,
Is home and folks and girl,
And all the comforts that come in with love!

There is a thrill in war, as all must own,
The tramplin' onward rush,
The shriek o' shrapnel and the followin' hush,
The bosker crunch o' bayonet on bone,
The warmth of the dim dug-out at the end,
Th