Oh, never let on to your own true love <br />That ever you drank a drop; <br />That ever you played in a two-up school <br />Or slept in a sly-grog shop; <br />That ever a bad girl nursed you round – <br />That ever you sank so low. <br />But she pulled you through, and it's only you <br />And your old mate Harry know. <br /> <br />"Billy the Link" they called you then, <br />And it makes me sad to think <br />Of the strenuous days when it took three cops <br />And a pimp to couple the Link. <br />"Mister Linkhurst" they call you now, <br />And your kitchen garden grows; <br />And no one knows in your family, <br />But your Uncle Harry knows. <br /> <br />Oh, never let on to your fair young bride <br />How a "straight" girl stabbed your heart <br />With a devilish wire to the Western side <br />Where we were a world apart. <br />With pick and shovel you fought it out <br />Where the red sirocco blows; <br />And no one knew in the gang save you – <br />But your old mate Harry knows. <br /> <br />Oh, never let on to your own good wife, <br />For a tender heart has she, <br />Of the girl that loved and the girl that lies <br />In the graveyard there by the sea! <br />'Twas not for his "manners" she loved the cad, <br />'Twas not for his verse or prose, <br />But the pity she felt for the country lad – <br />And your Uncle Harry knows. <br /> <br />The bad girl went where the bad girls go <br />And I see her dark eyes yet; <br />The good girl left me her broken heart, <br />But I trow that their souls have met. <br />The cry of the heart we send not forth <br />On every wind that blows; <br />You are hiding a sorrow from someone now – <br />But your Uncle Harry knows.<br /><br />Henry Lawson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/uncle-harry/
