Bill In His Days As A Farmworker Poem by Francis Duggan

Bill in his days as a farmworker witnessed many plagues of mice
He said the damage done by the tiny creatures it wasn't very nice
For the farmer to look at some of his grain crop by them destroyed
To the huge dent in his profit he wasn't overjoyed.

Until in his forty fifth year he married Katie his now devoted wife
He was an itinerant farmworker for twenty five years of his life
From shearing to other Seasonal work, horsebreaker and Jackaroo
When it came to farm and ranch work not one thing he could not do.

His stories of the mice plagues in the Fall of the year
Are truly quite amazing good as one could wish to hear
On mostly every ear of wheat in the wheat fields a nibbling mouse to see
They multiplied in millions to the farmers poverty.

A mouse plague in the Autumn is every wheat farmer's fear
But in a span of three to four weeks most of the mice seemed to disappear
Just one of the many stories from his farm working days that old Bill loves to tell
If a publisher would publish them from book sales he'd do well.