“Non si male nunc et olim
Sic erit.”
YOU farmers, who lately
Have suffered so greatly
From agricultural depression,
Shake off gloom and sorrow,
A brighter to-morrow
Will dawn in the course of the Session.
By no relaxation
Of rates or taxation,
By a certain sure-never-to-fail way,
Through Government’s pleasure
To bring in a measure
For giving some districts a railway:
A tight little, light little railway,
A nice little, light little railway,
O think of the joy
Of that exquisite toy,
A tight little, light little railway.
Your wheat may grow cheaper,
The pay of your reaper
May rise to a figure outrageous;
The weather may lay all
Your crops, and your hay all
Be ruined by tempests rampageous;
Your stock mayn’t grow fatter,
But that does not matter,
Except in a bargain and sale way:
What are these to the blessing
Of really possessing
A tight little, light little railway?
(_Chorus_.)
You may not have a fraction
Of produce for traction,
Not a stone’s weight to put in a wagon,
Not a horse in your stable,
No bread on your table,
Not a shoe to your foot, not a rag on:
All this would be frightful
Were it not so delightful
To see in as-slow-as-a-snail way
The trucks all go gliding
From track into siding,
From siding to track on your railway.
(_Chorus_.)
Then, oh _fortunati_
_Agricolœ_, wait, aye
Wait, for the clouds to roll by you:
Your troubles are over;
To-morrow, in clover,
You’ll laugh at the ills that now try you.
“_Ex machinâ Deus_
Is coming to free us,
Not in an old-fashioned or stale way.”
Let this be your chorus—
“A future’s before us;
Three cheers for the light little railway!”
(_Chorus_.)