Saltbush Bill's Second Fight is a humorous poem by Australian writer and poet Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson. It was first published in The Antipodean in 1897.[1]
Saltbush Bill was one of Paterson's best known characters who appeared in 5 poems: "Saltbush Bill" (1894), "Saltbush Bill's Second Fight" (1897), "Saltbush Bill's Gamecock" (1898), "Saltbush Bill on the Patriarchs" (1903), and "Saltbush Bill, J.P." (1905).[2]
Saltbush Bill is droving his sheep towards Castlereagh and Stingy Smith, the owner of Hard Times Hill station is worried that Bill's sheep will ruin his run. He chances on a travelling tramp, and finding out the man is a fighter, arranges for him to get Bill into a fight and tells him it's "a five-pound job if you belt him well -- do anything short of kill". When Bill arrives at the station, the tramp kicks his dog, starts a fight and beats Bill senseless. Bill has to recuperate for a week from his injuries, after which he and his sheep move on. It is only later that Stingy Smith comes to realise that he has been duped, and that Bill had arranged it all.