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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=529367" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>How McDougal Topped The Score</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=529367" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">A peaceful spot is Piper's Flat. The folk that live around -<br>They keep themselves by keeping sheep and turning up the ground;<br>But the climate is erratic, and the consequences are<br>The struggle with the elements is everlasting war.<br>We plough, and sow, and harrow - then sit down and pray for rain;<br>And then we get all flooded out and have to start again.<br>But the folk are now rejoicing as they ne'er rejoiced before,<br>For we've played Molongo cricket, and M'Dougal topped the score!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=529367" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Molongo had a head on it, and challenged us to play<br>A single-innings match for lunch - the losing team to pay.<br>We were not great guns at cricket, but we couldn't well say, "No!"<br>So we all began to practise, and we let the reaping go.<br>We scoured the Flat for ten miles round to muster up our men,<br>But when the list was totalled we could only number ten.<br>Then up spoke big Tim Brady: he was always slow to speak,<br>And he said - "What price M'Dougal, who lives down at Cooper's Creek?"</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=529367" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">So we sent for old M'Dougal, and he stated in reply<br>That he'd never played at cricket, but he'd half a mind to try.<br>He couldn't come to practise - he was getting in his hay,<br>But he guessed he'd show the beggars from Molongo how to play.<br>Now, M'Dougal was a Scotchman, and a canny one at that,<br>So he started in to practise with a pailing for a bat.<br>He got Mrs Mac. to bowl him, but she couldn't run at all,<br>So he trained is sheep-dog, Pincher, how to scout and fetch the ball.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=529367" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Now, Pincher was no puppy; he was old, and worn, and grey;<br>But he understood M'Dougal, and - accustomed to obey -<br>When M'Dougal cried out "Fetch it!" he would fetch it in a trice,<br>But, until the word was "Drop it!" he would grip it like a vice.<br>And each succeeding night they played until the light grew dim:<br>Sometimes M'Dougal struck the ball - and sometimes the ball struck him!<br>Each time he struck, the ball would plough a furrow in the ground,<br>And when he missed the impetus would turn him three times round.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=529367" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The fatal day at length arrived - the day that was to see<br>Molongo bite the dust, or Piper's Flat knocked up a tree!<br>Molongo's captain won the toss, and sent his men to bat,<br>And they gave some leather-hunting to the men from Piper's Flat.<br>When the ball sped where M'Dougal stood, firm planted in his track,<br>He shut his eyes, and turned him round, and stopped it - with his back!<br>The highest score was twenty-two, the total sixty-six,<br>When Brady sent a yorker down which scattered Johnson's sticks.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=529367" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Then Piper's Flat went in to bat, for glory and renown,<br>But, like the grass before the scythe, our wickets tumbled down.<br>"Nine wickets down for seventeen, with fifty more to win!"<br>Our captain heaved a heavy sigh, and sent M'Dougal in.<br>"Ten pounds to one you'll lose it!" cried a barracker from town;<br>But M'Dougal said "I'll tak' it mon!" and planked the money down.<br>Then he girded up his moleskins in a self-reliant style,<br>Threw off his hat and boots, and faced the bowler with a smile.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=529367" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">He held the bat the wrong side out, and Johnson with a grin<br>Stepped lightly to the bowling crease, and sent a "wobbler" in;<br>M'Dougal spooned it softly back, and Johnson waited there,<br>But M'Dougal, crying "Fetch it!" started running like a hare.<br>Molongo shouted "Victory! He's out as sure as eggs,"<br>When Pinched started through the crowd, and ran through Johnson's legs.<br>He seized the ball like lightning; then he ran behind a log,<br>An M'Dougal kept on running, while Molongo chased the dog!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=529367" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">They chased him up, they chased him down, they chased him round, and then<br>He darted through a slip-rail as the scorer shouted "Ten!"<br>M'Dougal puffed; Molongo swore; excitement was intense;<br>As the scorer marked down twenty, Pincher cleared a barbed-wire fence.<br>"Let us head him!" shrieked Molongo. "Brain the mongrel with a bat!"<br>"Run it out! Good old M'Dougal!" yelled the men of Piper's Flat.<br>And M'Dougal kept on jogging, and then Pincher doubled back,<br>And the scorer counted "Forty" as they raced across the track.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=529367" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">M'Dougal's legs were going fast, Molongo's breath was gone -<br>But still Molongo chased the dog - M'Dougal struggled on.<br>When the scorer shouted "Fifty" then they knew the chase would cease;<br>And M'Dougal gasped out "Drop it!" as he dropped within his crease.<br>Then Pincher dropped the ball, and as instinctively he knew<br>Discretion was the wiser plan, he disappeared from view;<br>And as Molongo's beaten men exhausted lay around<br>We raised M'Dougal shoulder high, and bore him from the ground.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=529367" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">We bore him to M'Ginniss's, where lunch was ready laid,<br>And filled him up with whisky-punch, for which Molongo paid.<br>We drank his health in bumpers, and we cheered him three times three,<br>And when Molongo got its breath, Molongo joined the spree.<br>And the critics say they never saw a cricket match like that,<br>When M'Dougal broke the record in the game at Piper's Flat;<br>And the folks were jubilating as they never did before;<br>For we played Molongo cricket - and M'Dougal topped the score!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><a href="http://poems.citatepedia.com/">poem</a> by <strong><a rel="author" href="http://authors.citatepedia.com/by.php?a=Thomas+E.+Spencer">Thomas E. Spencer</a></strong></div>