6/23 Five miles from Gundagai
One of the interesting points today was seeing "Dog on the tucker box, 5 miles from Gundagai." I had heard the background of the story as, "A fellow in the outback was down on his luck, had no money or work and did not even have food. So he left his tucker box, being too weak to take it, and his dog, who sat on it to guard it, and walked farther on. He subsequently died, and those who found his tucker box found the dog faithfully guarding it." At least this is my memory of the telling. The poem tells another story. Apparently the fellow owning the dog had his laden wagon pulled by oxen, and the wagon and oxen were mired in the mud. He tried to get them out only to have the harness broken by an ox. Frustrated he walked out of the muck, sick of the harship and ready to give up. The ultimate insult was that as he walked up the bank to his tucker box, his dog had "shat" on it; adding insult to injury. That the dog "sat" on the tucker box is a s...
