The men waited a while and smoked, to let this statement soak well into their systems. At last another rallied and had a final try to get a suggestion in somewhere.

“It's a wonder, then, Billy,” he said, “that your mate didn't come after you and give you a hand to steady the cattle.”
“Well, perhaps it was,” said Billy, “Only that, there was a bigger wonder than that, at the back of it.”
“What was that?”
“My mate never woke all through it!”

His Masterpiece.

Incidentally, even though Paterson is now out of copyright, there's not much in the way of new book's being published either about him or of his work. I think I've seen a new publication of “Happy Despatches” but other than that there doesn't seem to have been much else put out by Angus and Robertson. Perhaps they think it is now all out in the market place. Well thank goodness for second-hand book sales! Personally, I think it would be useful to have some of his short stories and yarns brought together into one volume. I still rely on the two volume box set “Singer of the Bush” and “Song of the Pen” for an anthology of his works.

Another writer and collector who deserves a decent anthology of his work is Bill Wannan. Wannan has written, compiled and edited so many books over the years that you can't fail to find at least one in most second-hand bookshops or sales. I think I have bought pretty much the whole lot and I still have a lot of fun reading them through and picking out what I think is the best of the material. Nearly all of what Bill Wannan has collected, over the years, was sent to him by readers of his weekly column “Come In Spinner!” in the Australasian Post. He's written some yarns and stories himself, researched more and been given selected pieces by such friends as the writer, Ted Sorenson. He's re-worked some collections into new anthologies and his A Dictionary of Australian Folklore, Lore, Legends, Myths and Traditions, published by Viking O'Neill in 1970 remains a most valuable reference book for anyone interested in Australia's rich heritage of Folk and Folklore.

Of Bill Wannan's books of compilations, if I can call them that, are all sorts of snippets of writing from sayings to short poems, recipes, classic Australiana, bush verse, quotations, numerous forms of humour and a collection of stories about Crooked Mick and Speewah. The only thing is that when reading Wannan you have to know your Australian folklore before you can really understand his selections.