[ilingku:073]
[ver:v1.0]
[ti:Clara Waters]
[ar:Slim Dusty]
[al:Coming Home]
[by:]
[offset:0]
[00:00.000]Clara Waters - Slim Dusty
[00:02.575]I was drivin' out through Mitchell
[00:05.660]Heard a lonesome railroad whistle
[00:08.295]So I stopped beside the highway for a spell
[00:13.978]And in this pleasant place
[00:16.435]Was a notice well displayed
[00:19.138]With a story I am now about to tell
[00:25.034]The notice was a roll of those who'd paid the toll
[00:29.889]While working on the railroad to the west
[00:35.536]Wives and workers perished
[00:37.953]With the children that they cherished
[00:40.444]And in lonely graves were gently laid to rest
[00:45.375]Then I found my vision misted
[00:48.381]As among the many listed
[00:51.215]The name of Clara Waters caught my eye
[00:56.595]I imagined my own daughter
[00:59.188]In the place of Clara Waters
[01:01.921]While the busy highway traffic hurtled by
[01:12.718]How short her life had been
[01:15.395]She was only seventeen
[01:18.040]Yet her story may be very simply told
[01:23.949]A doctor might have saved her
[01:26.295]From the fever after labour
[01:29.001]Her baby died when he was four days old
[01:34.510]Then the scene before me shifted
[01:37.164]As back in time I drifted
[01:39.840]As back in time a hundred years I went
[01:45.006]And through my muddled dreaming
[01:47.813]A morning sun came beaming
[01:50.468]On a battered billy steaming by a tent
[01:56.086]For here was pretty Clara
[01:58.575]With her husband there to share a
[02:01.350]Simple meal before their daily task
[02:06.587]I am anxious now to meet her
[02:09.209]So I hurry on to greet her
[02:11.942]With the questions that I feel I have to ask
[02:19.929]And when the day is breaking
[02:22.618]Is there happiness in waking
[02:25.319]Have you had your share of laughter joy and cheer
[02:30.438]You were very young to marry
[02:33.331]And the baby that you carry
[02:35.929]Does it make you wish your mother could be near
[02:41.526]In the coolness of the morning
[02:44.186]In the piccaninnie dawning
[02:46.823]Does your husband tell you often of his love
[02:52.257]While the magpies merry singing
[02:54.854]In the higher branches ringing
[02:57.584]Is bringing morning greetings from above
[03:03.129]Does the gentle evening breeze
[03:05.775]Wave the smoke up through the trees
[03:08.342]Do you see the shafts of sunlight drifting down
[03:13.567]Or has drudgery and duty
[03:16.238]Made you blind to every beauty
[03:18.931]While the camp is turning dusty bare and brown
[03:27.204]With a bed of planks and sacking
[03:29.678]And with every comfort lacking
[03:32.504]Growing heavy as your time is drawing near
[03:37.911]In your shabby tent so dreary
[03:40.810]Are you very often weary
[03:43.188]And do you sometimes shed a silent lonely tear
[03:51.370]And when her son was born
[03:53.913]On a hot December morn
[03:56.562]And the deadly fever started on it's quest
[04:01.698]Was there time for her to hold him
[04:04.661]And in her love enfold him
[04:07.306]Was there time to give him comfort at her breast
[04:12.784]Of course there's no replying
[04:15.287]To my questions and my prying
[04:18.049]And suddenly I know it's time to go
[04:23.406]But I reckon I'll remember
[04:26.095]What happened that December
[04:28.734]In the summertime a hundred years ago
[04:36.887]And then a road train passes
[04:39.537]There's a ripple through the grasses
[04:42.331]As if to wave a fleeting sad goodbye
[04:47.522]To Clara and her son
[04:49.974]Their lives so briefly run
[04:52.706]And the busy highway traffic
[04:55.833]Rushes by