Roamin’ in the gloamin’ (1928)

242 ROAMIN' IN THE GLOAMIN' collection of prize-winning certainties? They were the sensation of the Easter Show. John Brown had "done it on them again." Meantime Master Brown smiled his enigmatical smile and said nothing. He didn't feel at all called upon to tell either his friends or his enemies that he had imported every proud cock, every hen and chicken, from the pens of Lord Dewar in England, the mightiest poultry genius in the world today ! They tell me that John is the richest man in Australia. He may be. But all I know is that beneath his apparently hard exterior is a warm and kindly heart. He adored his aged mother to whom I often used to sing the "auld Scots sangs" when I went to visit them at their country estate outside Newcastle. She and her husband hailed from Lanarkshire. Last year I met old John — or young John, if you like it better — in London and he was just back from a visit to the scenes of his parents' childhood. There cannot, I always say, be much fundamentally wrong with a man who honours the memory of his father and his mother. John Brown does this — and I pay no attention at all to what some jaundiced folks say about him ! I have always made the return journey to Britain from Australia by way of the United States. To me it seems the natural route "back to the bens and the glens of home." For one thing I never get tired of the trip across the Pacific, with its calls at lovely Samoa or equally lovely Honolulu, and for another I have always known that Will Morris would be waiting at San Francisco or Vancouver with a full west-toeast tour booked up for me. In other words I have consistently "worked my passage" on all my tours with the exception of the time spent on ship-board ! And even on the long days and weeks at sea I have utilized the time to compose new songs and perfect the ground-plans of others ! Two years ago, sailing from India to the Straits Settlements there was a man on board our ship who was always speaking about