{"product_id":"2940013669062","title":"Romance of the Swag","description":"The Australian swag fashion is the easiest way in the world of carrying a\u003cbr\u003eload. I ought to know something about carrying loads: I've carried\u003cbr\u003ebabies, which are the heaviest and most awkward and heartbreaking loads\u003cbr\u003ein this world for a boy or man to carry, I fancy. God remember mothers\u003cbr\u003ewho slave about the housework (and do sometimes a man's work in addition\u003cbr\u003ein the bush) with a heavy, squalling kid on one arm! I've humped logs on\u003cbr\u003ethe selection, \"burning-off,\" with loads of fencing-posts and rails and\u003cbr\u003epalings out of steep, rugged gullies (and was happier then, perhaps);\u003cbr\u003eI've carried a shovel, crowbar, heavy \"rammer,\" a dozen insulators on an\u003cbr\u003eaverage (strung round my shoulders with raw flax)--to say nothing of\u003cbr\u003esoldiering kit, tucker-bag, billy and climbing spurs--all day on a\u003cbr\u003etelegraph line in rough country in New Zealand, and in places where a man\u003cbr\u003ehad to manage his load with one hand and help himself climb with the\u003cbr\u003eother; and I've helped hump and drag telegraph-poles up cliffs and\u003cbr\u003esidings where the horses couldn't go. I've carried a portmanteau on the\u003cbr\u003ehot dusty roads in green old jackeroo days. Ask any actor who's been\u003cbr\u003estranded and had to count railway sleepers from one town to another!\u003cbr\u003ehe'll tell you what sort of an awkward load a portmanteau is, especially\u003cbr\u003eif there's a broken-hearted man underneath it. I've tried knapsack\u003cbr\u003efashion--one of the least healthy and most likely to give a man sores;\u003cbr\u003eI've carried my belongings in a three-bushel sack slung over my\u003cbr\u003eshoulder--blankets, tucker, spare boots and poetry all lumped together. I\u003cbr\u003etried carrying a load on my head, and got a crick in my neck and spine\u003cbr\u003efor days. I've carried a load on my mind that should have been shared by\u003cbr\u003eeditors and publishers. I've helped hump luggage and furniture up to, and\u003cbr\u003edown from, a top flat in London. And I've carried swag for months out\u003cbr\u003eback in Australia--and it was life, in spite of its \"squalidness\" and\u003cbr\u003emeanness and wretchedness and hardship, and in spite of the fact that the\u003cbr\u003eworld would have regarded us as \"tramps\"--and a free life amongst men\u003cbr\u003efrom all the world\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Australian swag was born of Australia and no other land--of the Great\u003cbr\u003eLone Land of magnificent distances and bright heat; the land of\u003cbr\u003eself-reliance, and never-give-in, and help-your-mate. The grave of many\u003cbr\u003eof the world's tragedies and comedies--royal and otherwise. The land\u003cbr\u003ewhere a man out of employment might shoulder his swag in Adelaide and\u003cbr\u003etake the track, and years later walk into a hut on the Gulf, or never be\u003cbr\u003eheard of any more, or a body be found in the bush and buried by the\u003cbr\u003emounted police, or never found and never buried--what does it matter?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe land I love above all others--not because it was kind to me, but\u003cbr\u003ebecause I was born on Australian soil, and because of the foreign father\u003cbr\u003ewho died at his work in the ranks of Australian pioneers, and because of\u003cbr\u003emany things. Australia! My country! Her very name is music to me. God\u003cbr\u003ebless Australia! for the sake of the great hearts of the heart of her!","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070191026416,"sku":"2940013669062","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013669062_p0.jpg?v=1763583743","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013669062","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}