D                              A
    It was somewhere in September and the sun was goin' down,
                                         A7           D
    when I came in search of copy, to a Darling River town.
                                                 A
     Come-And-Have-A-Drink we'll call it, 'tis a fitting name I think,
                                           A7              D
    and 'twas raining, for a wonder, up at Come-And-Have-A-Drink.

       G                                           D
    Underneath the pub verandah I was resting on a bunk,
           E                                         A      - A7
    when a stranger rose before me, and he said that he was drunk.
        D                                 A
    He apologised for speaking, there was no offence, he swore,
                                             A7            D
    but he somehow seemed to fancy that he'd seen my face before.


[Verse 2]
        D                                A
    He agreed you can't remember all the chaps you chance to meet,
                                              A7              D
    and he said his name was Sweeney, people lived in Sussex Street.
                                        A
    He was camping in a stable, that he swore that he was right,
                                        A7           D
    only for the blanky horses walkin' over him all night.

          G                                                   D
    He'd apparently been fighting, for his face was black and blue,
           E                                                A - A7
    and it looked as though the horses had been treading on him too.
             D                          A
    But an honest genial twinkle in the eye that wasn't hurt
                                                 A7                 D
    seemed to hint of something better, spite of drink and rags and dirt.


[Verse 3]
           D                                   A
    He was born in Parramatta and he said with humour grim,
                                              A7             D
    that he'd like to see the city, 'ere the liquor finished him.
                                            A
    But he couldn't raise the money, he was damned if he could think,
                                           A7           D
    what the government was doing here, he offered me a drink.


[Verse 4]
       D                                 A
    I declined, 'twas self-denial, and I lectured him on booze,
                                            A7              D
    using all the hackneyed arguments that preachers mostly use.
                                                   A
    Things I'd heard in temperance lectures, I was young and rather green,
                                    A7                D
    and I ended by referring to the man he might have been.

           G                                               D
    But he couldn't stay to argue, for his beer was nearly gone,
           E                                                A     - A7
    he was glad, he said, to meet me, and he'd see me later on.
           D                                   A
    But he guessed he'd have to go and get his bottle filled again,
                                            A7               D
    and he gave a lurch and vanished in the darkness and the rain.
            D                             A
    And of afternoons in cities, when the rain is on the land,
                                           A7            D     G   D
    visions come to me of Sweeney with his bottle in his hand.