A Study in the "Nood"

‘A sailor named Grice was seen by the guard of a goods train lying
close to the railway-line near Warner Town (S. A.) in a nude
condition. He was unconscious, and had lain there three days,
during one of which the glass registed 110 in the shade. _Grice
expressed surprise that the train did not pick him up._' -- Daily
paper. In consequence, the muse: --

He was bare -- we don't want to be rude --
(His condition was owing to drink)
They say his condition was nood,
Which amounts to the same thing, we think
(We mean his _condition_, we think,
'Twas a naked condition, or _nood_,
Which amounts to the same thing, we think)

Uncovered he lay on the grass
That shrivelled and shrunk; and he stayed
Three hot summer days, while the glass
Was one hundred and ten in the shade.
(We nearly remarked that he _laid_,
But that was bad grammar we thought --
It _does_ sound bucolic, we think
It smacks of the barnyard --
Of farming -- of _pullets_ in short.)

Unheeded he lay on the dirt;
Beside him a part of his dress,
A tattered and threadbare old shirt
Was raised as a flag of distress.
(On a stick, like a flag of distress --
Reversed -- we mean that the tail-end was up
_Half-mast_ -- on a stick -- an evident flag of distress.)

Perhaps in his dreams he persood
Bright visions of heav'nly bliss;
And artists who study the nood
Never saw such a study as this.
The ‘luggage' went by and the guard
Looked out and his eyes fell on Grice --
We fancy he looked at him hard,
We think that he looked at him twice.

They say (if the telegram's true)
When he woke up he wondered (good Lord! )
‘Why the engine-man didn't heave to --
Why the train didn't take him aboard. '
And now, by the case of poor Grice,
We think that a daily express
Should travel with sunshades and ice,
And a lookout for flags of distress.

End of title

A Study in the "Nood"

Henry Lawson

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