| I met Jack Ellis in town to-day,
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| Jack Ellis my old mate, Jack,
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| Ten years ago, from the Castlereagh,
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| We carried our swags together away
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| To the Never-Again, Out Back,
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| To the Never-Again, Out Back.
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| He saw me first, and he knew 'twas I,
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| The holiday swell he met.
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| Why have we no faith in each other? |
| oh, why?
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| He made as though he would pass me by,
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| For he thought that I might forget.
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| Thought that I might forget.
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| He ought to have known me better than that,
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| By the tracks we tramped far out,
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| The sweltering scrub and the blazing flat,
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| When the heat came down through each old felt hat,
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| In the hell-born western drought,
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| In the hell-born western drought.
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| I asked him in for a drink with me
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| Jack Ellis, my old mate, Jack,
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| But his manner no longer was careless and free,
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| He followed, but not with the grin that he,
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| Wore always in days Out Back,
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| Wore always in days Out Back.
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| I tried to live in the past once more,
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| Or the present and past combine,
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| But the days between I could not ignore,
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| I couldn’t but notice the clothes he wore,
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| And he couldn’t but notice mine,
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| And he couldn’t but notice mine.
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| He placed his glass on the polished bar,
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| And 'I'll see you again,' said he,
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| Then he hurried away through the crowded street,
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| And the rattle of buses and scrape of feet,
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| Seemed suddenly loud to me,
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| Seemed suddenly loud to me.
|
| I met Jack Ellis in town to-day,
|
| Jack Ellis my old mate, Jack,
|
| Ten years ago, from the Castlereagh,
|
| We carried our swags together away
|
| To the Never-Again, Out Back,
|
| To the Never-Again, Out Back,
|
| To the Never-Again, Out Back,
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| To the Never-Again, Out Back. |