Such Is Life

ld disclose the approximate percentage of happiness, virtue, &c., in Life. But whilst writing the annotations on Sept. 9th (which, by the way, gratuitously overlap on the following day), I saw an

it, Parson, Bottler, Dingo, and Hairy-toothed Ike, will agree with me as to the impossibility of getting the dialogue of such dr

f that ageless enigma, the true solution of which forms our all-embracing and only responsibility. I therefore

ing not too long in one tune, but a snip and away. This will prospect the gutter of Life (gutter is go

ous reader and the no less judicious writer; for the former is thereby tacitly warned against any expectation of plot or denouement, and so secured against disappointment, wh

. Goolumbull

hundred miles northward from the scene sketched in Chap.I, thus unveiling a territory b

ides the country between those rivers into two unequal parts. Roughly speaking- the black-soil plains (which are chiefly light red) lie to the south of this almost imperceptible depression, whil

ked by their indigenous growths. A tract of country until yesterday bare of surface water for lack of occupation, and lacking oc

from the Lachlan, here and there touched the line creeping southward from the Darling,- I was standing in the vera

ated deponent with some severity, driving him down, down, to three hundred yards' range, where he made a final stand. But the two junior narangies supported Ward in the endowment of cattle with the faculty

de with Andrews; and it was thus that I came to quote a case in point, with all th

e to sling it off. I objected to the mileage agreement, inasmuch as carting over raw ground was a very different thing from travelling on a track. I wanted ?1 a day for the extra time-a fair current rate, and easily counted. Mr. Spanker, in reply, had no objection to paying by the day; but, as my account came to ?42, and as it had taken me twelve weeks to do the two hundred and thir

) Early next morning, Dan O'Connell joined me, and we crawled along for another five or six miles, on a still fainter track, marked only by a few trips of the contractor's wagonette. In the afternoon we struck a line of bored posts,

n and again his directions for finding a gilgie, which he knew to be full of first-class water, and which I ought to strike a

for something not unfamiliar in his voice and bearing. A man of average stature, with a vast black beard, and guileless blue eyes, set off by a powerful Armagh accent. Evidently unobservant, uncritical, and utterly destitute of devil in any form, it seemed that the

of each President, from Washington to Van Buren; and again, when he spoke of the Massacre of Cawnpore, almost as if he had been there at the time. A

fur ye. Me father hed consitherable mains, so he hed; an' A har'ly ivver done a han's turn, furbye divarsion, to A come out

in the scrub-and still I objurgated round, and purposely scattered the bullocks to search for themselves, and anathematised in all directions, and consigned the whole vicinity to the Evil One, for lack of that clump of mallee. Hour after hour passed; the bullocks from time to time trying to clear off for the distant Lachlan, and I spending half my time in us

last camp. I was absently observing one white bullock close by, when, with a low bellow, he suddenly darted forward eight or ten yards, and began drinking at the gilgie. That bellow was answered from all sides; and in two minutes his nineteen mates were sharing the

standing, and there saw the stars reflected in the water. Of course, if it had been anything like a permanent supply, the sound of frogs or yabbies would have guided the beasts to it at once. But even wild cattle can no more scent water than w

mp of yarran where it should have been. A stately beefwood, sixty feet high, with swarthy column furrowed a hand-breadth deep, and heavy tufts of foliage like bundles of long leeks in colour and configuration-the first beefwood I had seen since leavin

a fool and a well-info

wo?" asked Broome. "My

ess," obsened Williamson. "No

o the late Libe

name," replied Andrews. "His p

I had met him before, but could n't plac

but she stayed at Moogoojinna for her confinement, and only came up four years ago, after Dan was settled in the Utopia paddock. Good woman in her way; but she spends her time in a sort of steady fury, for she came to Moogoojinna with the idea of collaring something worth while. So Spanker says; and he was there at the time. Seems she did n't want Dan, and Dan did n't want her, but somehow they we

he letter, for I was that land-cormorant." And I straightway u

resources, on new selections. The local storekeeper, however, was keeping me supplied with the luxuries of life-such as flour, spuds, tea, sugar, tobacco-whilst turkeys and ducks were to be had for the shooting, and kangaroos for

y, as well as homesick and despondent to the verge of tears. In one hand he carried a carpet bag, and in the other a large bundle, tied up in a coloured handkerchief. In his conversation he employ

twenty-mile walk from Melbourne, I constrained him to rest for a few days. But the poor fellow had a painfully outspoken scruple against eating t

the youngest of eleven, all surviving at latest advices (praise God). Seven of these had swarmed to America, and were doing well (glory be); two remaine

pheasants, and catching salmon, with the other gentlemen. But just before Rory left home, his father and mother had withdrawn

ier by passage warrant; but seemed to have made no provision for further intercourse. And Rory, having walked the streets of Melbourne for two whole days without finding any

was a penalty adherent to people who, by reason of their social-economic position, are emancipated from manual labour. But when a heavy, soaking pour of summ

peculated, one evening, struck by the simp

respecting certain of his Church's usages and tenets, which I knew to be garbled and falsified by Protestant bigotry. But it was evident that throughout every fibre of his moral nature there ran a convic

ture and origin of this gulf-not merely for the sake of information, but

nal folly, would scourge the country with a legacy of foxes, rabbits, sparrows, &c. But a second and clearer-sighted Jeremiah could never have prophesied the deliberate introduction of hydrophobia for dogs, glanders for horses, or Orangeism for me

he English Reformation was the confiscation of Church property. Afterward, a Protestant England submitted peaceably to the Inquisition; but when Mary proposed restitution of the abbey tenures- whoop! to your tents, O Israel! The noble army of prospective martyrs could n't conform to that heresy; and the

n is plain. Devil-worship- the cult of Fear-was the territorial religion of Ireland; and, in this bitter fellowship, native Catholic and acclimatised Protestant sank their small se

as he could get, with an occasional charge of slugs thrown in gratis: and the finest peasantry in the world slaved, starved, lied, stole, attended the means of grace, got drunk as often as possible, married and gave in marriage, harnessed itself to the landlord's carriage whenever that three-bottle divinity deigned

ost contumacious brood at that tirne in Western Europe, namely, the so-called Anglo-Saxon-a people unpleasantly apt in drawing a limit-line to aggression on its pocket, and by no means likely to content itself with an appeal

n, as Christians, and as Protestants, we rejoice in the relaxation of the penal laws against our Roman Catholic fellow-s

oreign invasion; all Protestants, of course, inasmuch as the possession of arms, except by special license, was prohibited to Catholics;-though at this time (the American War being then in progress) the feeling of the Irish Protestant was strongly revolutionary, while the Irish Catholic, true to his fatal instinct of

ncies as during the Pontificates of Benedict XIV and his three successors.' This covers a period extending from 1740 to 1775; and we know that cycles of ecclesias

ropose reforms in parliamentary representation, amendments in internal legislation, a relaxation of trade

om the lips of Greed. In 1785 the spark was first fanned into flame, with the best results; then, the satisfactory working of the experiment being assured, the first Orange Lo

the highest sentiments (which is saying extremely little) of a Protestant half-population forced into servility by agrarian conditio

ism of a dependent class, per medium of that moral kink in human nature which makes sectarian persecution an act of worship, g

ial blood-feud; the savage fostering of hate for hate's own sake; the thousand squalid details of affray, ambuscade, murder, maltreatment, malicious injury to property-these, happily or unhappily, rest on fast-peris

some Catholic, some Protestant, some mixed; but each representing an inarticulate protest against agrarian or ecclesiastical aggression. Notice, however, that the customary dragging in of these irrelevancies, to confus

for your Ananus, your John of Giscala, your Simon of Bargioras; and fighting amongst yourselves, whilst the invinc

d by our own immediate forefathers. Strictly speaking, mind you, neither party cracked the egg-that too-dainty product being taboo for rent-but they compromised by cracking each other's domes of thought. Rory could n't get away from the strong probabi

any private title to land in Ireland, traced back through inheritance, purchase, or what not, must lead to a Royal grant as its source; the authority for such grant being the Papal bull aforesaid, and the validity of the bull resting on the Pope's temporal power. Now, the Orangeman is prepared to die in his last hidin

race; and there was a painfully parsimonious Rory, trained down to the standard of a model wealth-producer. The first was of imagination all compact, living in an atmosphe

home-made key, projecting about two inches beyond the end of the shaft; and as this was close beside where Rory was kneeling at his work, I pointed it out to him as a thing that meant mischief to the unwary. Half an hour afterward, there was a yell from the vicinity of the fan, and I knew that the key had found Rory. The engine driver shut off at once, and I made for the fan, whipping out my pocket

don't! Can't ye take the shurt

on at finding the garment almost uninjured was but slightly dashed by the bruise on his arm. The latt

be commended than the converse custom, practised by English coal-miners, of turning into the blankets and out again fully dressed, till

ough the side of the log chimney, and caught a couple of hundred two-foot shingles, stacked in the angle outside. It was about half-past ten when Rory was awaken

in the panic of the moment, it escaped his observation that he was affording a scandalous spectacle to two spring-cartloads of assorted Cornish people, on their way to the local tabernacle. In fact, he had swooped up a bucket of water and turned back with it before he was aware that they had been close behind him all the time. His first thought was to squat down, taking cover behind the bucket; but, remembering the exigency of his errand, he girded up his

their unavoidable inference placed the Irish Catholics on a lower moral plane than the Aborigines, by reason of their priests keeping them in ignorance. This misconception had acquired all the

could be no wages forthcoming. I had absolutely no money, nor was I likely to have such a thing in my possession till the forty-acre paddock was fenced, ploughed and sowed, and the crop (if an

body hed twenty English acres o' good lay lan', at a raisonable rent-let alone a graat farrum like thon-he needn't do a han's turn the year roun', beyant givin' or

the more reluctant to tear himself away from his present asylum-though its

iry tales and profitless ghost stories for the most part, with another class of legend, equally fatuous; but ah! how legitimately born of that auroral fancy which ceases not to play above the grave of homely ambition, penury-crushed and dead! Legends wherein the unvarying motif was a dazzling cash advance made by Satan in pre-payment for

have been some mistake about the remittance, that draft was cashed before the postmaster had missed me from the window, and I was on the way home before the bank manager thought I was c

a knitted purse, which might have belonged to his grandfather-or to Brian Boru's grandfather, for that matter- and disclosing a hidden treasure of seven shillings, two sixpe

his way northward, in renewed search of his brother Larry; and, as I watched his diminishing figure, I prayed that he might be enticed into the most shocking company in Echuca, and be made fightably drunk, and fall in for a remembersome hammering, and get

ead the communication with any address, and as he referred to the place where he was working as "the station," ment

ent sorts of people to

ing to the hero of

that people's as much alike as sheep; and Dan's just on

"But there's greater fools than Dan- if

ws, who was five years older than any of the

torical subjects as he does about Cawnpore and the American Presidents, he must have ripened into an extraordinary man. But the

man says 'mallee', he means any sort of scrub except lignum; and when he says 'mulga', he means any tree except pine or currajong. Same mental slovenliness in women. A woman will tell a yarn that no man can make head or tail of, but it's as clear as day to an

nds me that Dan's a bit

as in his place, and he

of evenings. And, my wo

da into a

observed. "Useful sort of man on t

brilliant, but careful and trustworthy. Revolv

ggested. "How far is

t mile north-west of where you drop

him on the w

u'll reach Mulppa in good time to-morrow evening. And look out for that dog of yours when you get in range of Dan's place. He's great on

s the combined topographical knowledge of the young fell

me another couple of hours nearer the final reward of my orthodox upbringing. In another hour,

the contract. I had made a rule of backing him only on loose sand-hills, or in soft swamps, for the first fortnight. By that time, an amicable understanding had been established between us, at an expense of only three spills-once through an unexpected

h the wire, nearly three years before. Here and there the marks of the wagon were still

ll-pervading scrub. Then the faint track became suddenly fainter, where half th

; so alien to the genial appeal of more winsome landscape, or the assertive grandeur of mountain and gorge. To me this wayward diversity of spontaneous plant life bespeaks an unconfined, ungauged potentiality of resource; it unveils an ideographic prophecy, painted by Nature in her Impressionist mood, to be deciphered aright only by those willing

by step, from paleolithic silence into the uncertain record of Tradition's earliest fable-waited still through the long eras of successive empires, while the hard-won light, broadening little by little, moved westward, westward, round the circumference of the planet, at last to overtake and dominate the fixed twilight of its primitive home- waited, ageless, tireless, acquies

racial impress. She is committed to no usages of petrified injustice; she is clogged by no fealty to shadowy idols, enshrined by Ignorance, and upheld by misplaced

by day, year by year, our own fluid Present congeals into a fixed Past, we shall do well to take heed that, in time to come, our own memory may not be justly held accursed. For though history is a thing that never repeats itself-since no two historical propositions are alike-one perennial truth holds g

triking the corner of the paddock, I went through a gate, and was closing and securing it behind Bunyip and Pup, wh

aid I inq

" exclaimed the evergreen, grasping my proffered h

he patriarchs of old-that I did n't know you when I brought that wire. But

s a purty common name, so it is; an' A did n't hear yer Chris'n name at all at al

oking forward to, Rory. Wh

back wi' ye, an' we'll git ho

o the thirteen preceding years of my life, I yielded myself to the lulling influence of his own history during the same period. As you might expect, he glanced lightly over all points of real interest, and dwelt interminab

er occurred to him that a physical revolution was already in progress; that the introduction of sheep meant the ultimate extirpation of all trees and scrubs, except the inedible pine; and that the perpetual trampling of those sharp lit

in had become a pastoral paradise, with a possible future which no man could conjecture. Then I was going on to cite instances, within my own knowledge and memory, of permanent lakes formed in Northern Victoria, and a climate altered for

Bight was the ablest achievement of its kind on record; and he forthwith proceeded to substantiate his contention by a consecutive account of the diffic

tlantic cable, in '65; and he dwelt on that epoch-marking work with such minuteness of detail, and such confident mastery of names, dates, and so forth, that I half-resented-not his disconcerting fund of information, but his modest reticence on other subj

anner, despite his efforts towards a free-and-

avin' ye yer lone. Jist go sthraight on an' ye'll come till the horse-paddock fence, wi' a wee gat

nce. Knowing that this abnormal deviation in colour, if not forthwith inquired into, would harass me exceedingly in after years, I turned aside to inspect the tree. It was worth the trouble. The pine had been dead for years, but every leafless twig, right up to its spiry summit, was re-c

A tall, athletic man, apparently, with a billy and water-bag beside him, and nothing more to wish for. When I caught s

the wilga shade was more to be desired than the activity of the wood-heap. To everything there is a time and a season; and the tactical moment for weary approach to a dwelling is just when fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, and all the air a solemn stillness holds. So, after a moment's hesitation, my inst

line of inaction, appear equally efficacious, he can select the one which appears to be of least resistance. But subsequent to that point of time, he is no longer the arbiter of his own situation, but rather the puppet of circumstances. There are no more divergent roads; if he desires to leave the one he has chosen, he must break blindly through a hedge of moral antagonisms. His alternatives have become so lopsided that practi

the Shakespearian "tide in the affairs of men," often recognised, though not formulated. In any case, each alternative brings into immediate play a flash of Free-will, pure and simple, which instantly gives place- as far as that particular section of life is concerned-to the dominion of what we ca

ht, and then-Pu

hee, thou fla

thy former l

me;-but once p

t pattern of e

ere is the Pr

relume. When I ha

e it vital g

s must

ts this with the supposititious minor-alternative of extinguishing the lamp. But how

en action and non-action, and the absolute free-will of election. But that election once made, we see-and the h

les, the healing of wounds. In the axiom that "Nature reverts to the norm," there is a recognition of this restorative tendency; and the religious aspect of the same truth is expressed in the proverb that "God is Love." For the grass will grow where Attila's horse has trod, while that objectionable Hun himself is represented by a barrow-load of useful fertiliser. But say that this always comes about by law of Cause (which is Human Free-will) and Effect (which is Destiny)-never by

as are inevitable on the initial option. In due time, another alternative presents itself, and the poise of incentive recurs. The Prodigal spits on a chip, and tosses it. "Wet-I crawl back home; dry-I see it out. Wet it is." So he goes, to meet the ring, and the robe, a

here is no stopping or turning back; and until you have passed the current section there is no divergence, except by voluntary catastrophe. Another junction flashes into sight, and again your choice is made; negligently enough, perhaps, but still with a view to what you consider the greatest good, present or prospective. One

ies of life as felicity or misery, peace or tribulation, honour or ignominy, found on the permanent way. For others, remember, a

ine to the next junction, or double line to the terminus? A major-alternative, my boy! "Double line!" you say. I thought so. Now you'll soon have a long train of empty I's to pull up the gradients; and while you snort and bark under a heavy draught, your disgusted consort will occasionally stimulate you with a "flying-kick"; and when this comes to pass, say Pompey told you so.

ses, the irresistible momentum of the Destiny called into being by Its short-sighted choice drives It helplessly along a line of the greatest conceivable resistance. Is n't history a mere record of blundering option, followed by iron servitude to the irremediable suffering thereby entailed? Applied to the flying alternative, the "l

ood rough guess. A neatly-dressed child, in a vast, white sun-bonnet, ran toward me as I came in sight, but presently paused, and returned at the

s," replied the woman drily.

itality," I replied, pulling the pack-saddle off Bunyip.

ail-time. An' a purty house he's g

plied, as I set Cleopatra at liberty. "And the way that the place is kept reflects the very

ver been used till betther. There

you can grow the right sort of children here! How old is the little girl?" My

She was five on the th

iously, Mrs.

urteous the impervious woman retired into her house, while I seated mys

irl, approaching me with instinctive courtesy. "We kee

along," I replied. "T

u've got som

er, an' it's nat hailed up yit. Daddy rides the other wans. E-e-e! can't my Daddy

ew him long, long ago, when there w

ar

f the house. And the mild, apologetic glance of the child in my

tence in a moment, and raced toward him, opening a conversation at the top of her voice while he was still a quarter of a mile distant. When they met,

side Rory at the tea-table, glancing from time to time at me for the t

birth, there was something almost amusing in the strong racial index of her pure Irish face. The black hair and eye-brows were there, with eyes of indescribab

wn impulsive love, yet a broken reed to lean upon. It is not the Celt who has made Irish history an unexampled record of patience and insubordination, of devotion and treachery. The Celt,

orced westward by Celtic invaders, of more virile type, and more capable of organisation, that immemorial race is represented by the true Irish of to-day. The black hair, associated with deep-blue eyes and a skin of extreme whiteness, found abundantly in Ireland, and amongst the offspring of Irish emigrants, are, in all probability, tokens of descent from this appallingly ancient people. The type appears occasionally in the Basque provinces, and on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, but nowhere else. Few civilised races inhabit the land where the fossil relics of their own lineal anc

f the tapering pine; the clean-spotted column of the leopard tree, creamy white on slate, from base to topmost twig. She pitied the unlovely belar, when the wind sighed through its coarse, scanty, grey-green tresses; and she loved to contemplate the silvery plumage of the two drooping myalls which, because of their rarity here, had been allowed to remain in the horse-paddock. For the last two or three springs of her vivacious existence, she had watched the deepening crimson of the quondong, amidst its thick contexture of Nile-green leaves; she had marked the unfolding bloom of the scrub, in its many

overwhelming ideal of power, wisdom, and goodness; he was her help in ages past, her hope for years to come (no irreverence intended here; quite the reverse, for if tru

a love-hungered soul. The whole current of his affections, thwarted

h respect which Rory's principles and abilities had always commanded. But she was past all that; and I had to give it up. When a woman can listen with genuine contempt to the spontane

ile Rory and I seated ourselves on the bucket-stool outside. Presently a lighted lamp was placed on the table, when we removed indoors. Then Mary, in a long, white garment, with

," observed the mother, as she seated h

long as she can, Mrs. O

d n't wish any a

heration fur the betther,"

here is iv hur, consithe

r o' rairin' childhe

hey wa

to bay on the most salient of the three or four pleas whic

en A was lek hur; an' iv A did n't desarve it then,

ht. He knew that his own contumacy in this respect would land his soul in perdition, and he deliberately let it go at that. Brave old Rory! Never does erratic m

your living, instead of finding somebody eager to support you in luxury for the pleasure of your society; unless, instead of marrying some squatter

s. As she did so, I casually noticed that the bed-room

re, Rory?" I presently asked, r

ns on han'. A thought mebbe"-and his glance rested on the angelface of the sleeping child-"well, A thought mebbe it would do hur no harrum fur people till know that hur

returning, placed before me about twenty quarto sheets of manuscript, written on bo

over at once, to get the gist of the argument, and then read it leisurely, to enjoy the style. And that re

tion in the value of evidence. It was all synthesis, and no analysis. A certain hypothesis had to be established, and it was established. The style was directly antithetical to that curt, blunt, and simple pronouncement a

t let me take

lazes ye; right glad, so A a

n the public

is

print-which is most unlikely-I'll refer to this essay in such a way as to whet public curiosity to

God bless ye, take a co

in the world's history, the character of woman had undergone a

infallible authorities our race has

evidence has the guarantee of Holy Writ; moreover, it is fully borne out by the testimony of ancient history,

eating of the apple, when Eve, being the more culpable, was justly burdened wi

valuation is conclusively endorsed by modern history. Examples again quoted, in conv

imply by tracing the Solomon-woman forward, and the Shakespear-woman backward, to their po

my Saviour. For He hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden;

s pointing to the speaker herself, but a transitive and general

iest of them accepted in childlike faith. Integrally, that essay conveyed the idea of two mighty glaciers of theory, each impelling its own moraine of facts toward a stated point of confluence-represented by a magnificent postulate-where one section, at least, of the Universal Plan would attain fulfilment, and the Eternal Unities would be so far satisfied. There was something in it that was more like an elusive glimmer of genius than an evidence of understanding

espear, with the added interest of marginal marks, in ink of three colours, neatly ordered, and as the sand by the sea-shore innumerable. I put it back with the impression that no book had ever been better placed. The next volume was a Bible, presented by the Reverend Miles Barton, M.A., Rector of Tanderagee, County Arm

d 'A Gallery of American Presidents.' The next item of interest was an account of the Massacre of Cawnpore. And toward the end of the volume was a narrative of the Atla

poke's Irish love of knowledge was backed by one spark of mental enterprise, he might have half a ton

ightgown. After putting on the kettle, he dressed the little girl, and helped her to wash her face. By thi

u learn to write

, jewel," he continued, handing her a pencil from the mantelpiece-

r a full minute, then diffidently pushed it across to me; and I read, in strong Roman capitals, th

emarked her father merrily; "an' t

, Mary, I'll keep this paper, and show it to you again when

this nonsense; and Rory went out to milk t

oward where the five horses were feeding together,

to be thankful f

continued, "You must make up your mind to send

," replied

e of your common boarding sc

de. My stern admonition would be a moral

ther literary work th

ked inq

ays. Now, Tammas-where was the

on the lost continent of Atlantis; another, that it was in the Valley of Cashmere. There are many other localities suggested, b

e that, Tammas

, whilst Rory kidnapped the geographical names, and imprison

yre lone. An' afther consitherin' the matter over, A take this iday fur a foundation: The furst Adam was created in a sartin place; then he sinned in a sartin place. An' when the Saviour (blessed be His Name!) come fur till clane the wurrl

y six

th, fram the blood iv righteous Abel'-and so on? Well, 'earth' manes 'land'; an' it's all as wan as if He said, 'shed on the l

I would certainly advise you to do the same, if you can find a Bible. Th

n of Art-if the Artist soars to truth by the path which no fowl knoweth-your theory may find some support i

ote-book was out again.

bert Dürer-beginning of 16th century-in more than one of his engravings. However, you ca

e at all at all fur ye till stap to the mo

ll-

at men 'on't do; an' divils is marcifully put in the flesh an' blood fur till do them sins. 'Wan iv you is a divil,' says the Saviour (blessed be His Name!). 'He went to his own place,' s

e happened to fall on the creeper-laden pine, a quarter of a mile away. Suddenly a strange m

he stapped all day in a dark skillion, an' started again at night. He was makin' fur Ivanhoe, fur till ketch the coach; but it's a sore ondhertakin' fur a blin' man till thravel the counthry his lone, at this saison o' the year. An' it's quare where sthrangers gits t

is when you came home last night. Never mind the horses

er the tree; and Rory nodded forgivingly when I explained the

Rory; "or it would be mighty quare fur me till nat see him, co

d turned off from the fence to see that

pine, T

of the three that you see above the scr

Tammas; it's har'ly likely there's much w

on which grew upon me as we neared the f

e back in half a minute." Then I

ace was fully exposed-the face of a worker, in the prime of manhood, with a heavy moustache and three or four weeks' growth of beard. So much only had I noted at first g

abour, and sharply attenuated by recent hardship. The skin was cold, but the rigidity of death was yet scarcely apparent. Evidently he had not died of thirst alone, but of mere physical exhaustion, sealed by the final collapse of hope. And it seemed so str

I rejoined him, and breathed one of

an indifferent tone. "Stay with me, Mary, dear," I continued,

pine wi' the big santipede on it

ine when we've lavin's o' time; but we're in a hurry now. Stap h

op-bush. Then she turned her unfathomable eyes r

eathed themselves together in the distress of her soul-"A don't want till go to school, an' lave

whether she went to school or not; and that, at worst, her Dadd

Mary shot off at full speed; and he continued gravely, "Dhrapped aff at the dead

ly he had heard the cocks crowing at your place before daylight, and was making for

ss craythurs, Tammas! B

Spanker

tay and do what you can

is it to where that s

ut seven mile, a

Now we'll catch the

back, Rory; we mu

dressed to George Murdoch, Mooltunya Station, from Malmsbury, Victoria; and all were signed by his loving wife, Eliza H. Murdoch. Two of the letters acknowledged receipt of cheques; and there was another cheque (for ?12 15s., if I remember rightly) in his pocket-b