Bible Of The Bush

My young wife started something

When our partnership was new

She wrote dear Slim from your loving wife

June thirteenth nineteen fifty two

The Poetical Works of Lawson

Just a plain red bound book

But this since fifty two I've worked right through

My bible of the bush

It's battered now and faded

And it's travelled o'er the years

An I patched it up so many times

An mended the pages with care

Oh there's pencil marks on the pages

Abbreviations where a verse is long

But the ole red book my bible of the bush

Always has just one more song

Whenever I'm down an angry an the world is closing in

Hey I grab my guitar and the old red book

An I find another song to sing

Once again on the track with Andy

Gone with cattle down the Castlereagh

Well I'm lecturing old Sweeney on that pub verandah again

Oh there's truth there's hurt there's pity

For the battler the lonely the old

There is laughter humour and kindness

In the stories of life Lawson told

I hope that you take my meaning

I'm not being irreverent an smart

But when I call this book my bible of the bush

I speak from the depths of my heart

It's battered now and faded

From it's travelled o'er the years

An I patched it so many times

An mended the pages with care

I suppose I should get a new

But I feel that it would be wrong

For this ole red book my bible of the bush

Been my track mate too darn long

Hey this ole red book my bible of the bush

Been my track mate too darn long

Yeah