Such Is Life

ley's Paddock. Bi

age have undeniably been, the 9th of November, '83, is one of those which I feel least satisfaction in recalling. Moreover, I incur a certain risk in thus unbosoming myself, as will become apparent to the perfidious reader who hungrily shadows me through this compromising

dient to conceal the exact locality of the unhappy experience now about to be disclosed; but I th

the -- Express may find, on the second page of the i

IC AT

to divest himself of part of his own clothing for the benefit of his prisoner. The latter, when Mr. K-- attempted to force the clothing upon him, rent the air with horrible shrieks heard by many others of the party, and by exertion of the unnatural strength which insanity confers, broke from his captor and escaped. Mr. K-- humorously comments on the difficulty of holding a nude antagonist. If we were inclined to be facetious on the subject we might suggest that mens sana in corpore sano is not an infallible rule. Late in the evening the maniac horresco referrens made a furious attack on the residence of Mr. G-- who was unfortunately absent at the time. Mrs. G-- with the splendid courage which distinguishes the farmer's wife, kept him at bay till some wild impulse drove him to seek "fresh fields and pastures new." The black trackers (who were brought on the scene on Saturday afternoon) have found his tracks in Mr. A--'s flower garden close to the parlour window, and also around Mr. H--'s homestead. The trackers ave

e chain of fatalities which has headed this story with the entry of Nov

oted will be also found to contain, in a

e "devouring element." It might be reasonably expected that Mr. Q--'s well-deserved popularity would be a sufficient safeguard against such barbarous incendiarism, but of a truth there are people now at large who ought to be i

temporary sanctum, inviting them to come on with what is left of their clue-though at the same time keeping, like Sir Andrew, o' the windy side o' the law, by p

nd myself on the same station; respectively, in the hut of a stock-keeper, and in the hut of a petty overseer. Together, as the seasons passed, we had looked forward to the shearing, the foot-rotting, and the lambing; and together we had wat

o Charley. When the place changes hands, he is valued and sold as part of the working plant, without his concern, and almost without his knowledge; owners may come, and owners may go, but he virtually goes on for ever. His little hut, three or four miles north from the Murray, is the very headquarters of hospitality. He has some hundreds of po

labongs, reed-beds, dense scrub, and steep ridges of loose sand. At the time I write of, it was impossible to ride to this island of verdure, and no white man could tr

other impedimenta, was lying about. A small damper was maturing under the handful of fire, and a quart pot of tea was slowly collecting a scum of dirt which made it nothing the worse to a man of my nurture. Pup was reposing on my possum rug, and Cleopatra and Bunyip were i

private property; but a short cut, impassable during the winter, and impracticable at any time to wheeled vehicles

n-and now, half-stifled by the laborious blasphemy of the work, I was seeking deliverance from the sin of reading it

m again as he came in sight, tramping wearily along in the roasting sun. That swagman had a history, highly important, at all events, to himself. He had been born; he lived; he would probably die-and if any human being wants a higher record than that, he must work for it. This man'

ssayed a forecast of his future destiny, in order to get at the valuation presumably placed upon him by his Maker. But the pipe, being now master of the position, gently seduced my mind to a wider consideration, merely using the swagman as a convenient spring

mentary and garbled form. Little wonder, then, that such a plea is received with felicitous self-gratulation, or passed with pharisaical disregard, by the silly old world that has still so many lessons to learn- so many lessons which none but that unresisting butt of slender-witted jokers can fitly teach, and w

pion of the Order whose bitter johnny-cake he has eaten. You must n't be surprised to find him reticent, not to say mendacious, respecting details which he may regard as humiliating. A sort of Irish pride will probably lead him to represent that he had abundant, though unavailable, resources during the period of his

he precious ores; whose heavy footprints mark the waterless mulga, the wind-swept plains, and the scorching sand; who leaves intaglio impressions of his mortal coil on the wet ground, at every camp from the Murray to the Gulf; and whose only satisfaction in the cold which curls him up like cinnamon bark-making him nearly break his back in the effort to hold his should

often ophthalmic, the latter always brown and wrinkled, and generally dirty. Life is too short to admit of repeated blunders in the numeration of beans, and this being his one weak point, the dram of ale does its work. And so, neither as pharisee nor publican, but rather as the pharisee's shocking example, and the publican's working bee, he toi

blasphemously evading the completion of a sentence charged with the grave truth, that the Light of the world, the God-in-Man, the only God we can ever know, is by His own authority represented for all time by the poorest of the poor. Yet whosoever fails to recognise in the marred visage of any social derelict the image of Him who was despised and rejected of men-

rdship, along with disfranchisement, social outlawry, proud man's contumely, and so forth; entirely without reference to the moral worth of the person most concerned. In a

g fairly well in its object. Touching the contented sub-variety-well, possibly the Hindoo language might do justice to its vileness; the English falls entirely short. Compulsory-contented poverty is utterly, irredeemably despicable, and, by necessity, ignorantly blasphemous-not because its style of glorifying God is to place His conceded image exactly at the plough-horse level, but because it teaches its babies, from the cradle upward, that a capricious Mumbo-Jumbo has made pollard-bread for them, and something with a French name for its white-headed boy; moleskins, tied below the knee, for them, and a belltopper for the favourite of the family; the three R's for them, and the classics, ancient and modern, for the vessel chosen to honour;

for an idea; in view of the zeal which fires the martyr-spirit to endure all that equal zeal can inflict; in contemplation of the ever-raging enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, the Ormuzd and the Ahriman in man; in view even of that dismal experiment indifferently termed "making the best of both worlds," and "serving God and Mammon "-in view of all these things

accepted as good enough to initiate a development which, according to your own showing, goes on through changing cycles till some transcendent purpose is fulfilled. The "love of equality"-that meanest and falsest of equivocations-sickens and dies, and the inflated lie of a social privilege based on extraneous condi

ind across the sharp-edged Bridge, which the righteous only cross in safety, while wicked caliph and wicked slave together reel into the abyss below. The apotheosis of pagan heroes rested on personal merit alone. No eschatology but that of High Calvinism anticipates, in the unseen world, anything resembling the injustice of a civilisation which, of set purpose, excludes from the only redemption flesh and blood can inherit, that sad rear-guard whose besetting sin is poverty. Yet John Knox's wildest tra

orfeitable only by individual worthlessness or deliberate refusal. Why is your idea of earthly justice so widely different-since the principle of justice must be absolute and immutable? Yet while the Church teaches you to pray, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven," she tacitly countenances widening disparity in condition, and openly sanctions that fearful abuse which dooms the poor man's unborn children to

on earth. Chorasin and Bethsaida have no lack of antitypes amongst you. Again has man overruled his Creator's design. The mustard seed has become a great tree, but the unclean fowls lodge in its branches. The symbol of deepest ignominy has become the proudest insignia of Court-moths and professional assassins, but it is no longer the cross of Christ. Eighteen-and-a-half centuries of purblind groping for the Kingdom of God finds an idealised Messiah shrined in

Johnson; anything-anything-but Christ's brutal "rich man") hungry for the promised penalty, will not touch with one of his fingers. The Church quibbles well, and palters well, and, in her own pusillanimous way, means well, by her silky loyalty to the law and the profits, and by her steady hostility to some unresisting personification known as the Common Enemy.

es for Individualistic force and cunning, were in all respects like ourselves- delivered, moreover, by One who knew exactly the potentialities and aspirations of man. And, in the unerring harmony of the Original Idea, the outcome of that inimitable teaching is merely the consummation of prophetic forecast in earlier ages. First, the slenderest crescent, seen by eyes that

touch, even though blindly and erratically, and so from generation to generation the multitudes stand waiting to welcome the Gospel of Humanity with palms and hosannas, as of old; while from generation to generation phylactered exclusiveness takes counsel against the revoluti

to the roll-call of the New Order, and falling into line on the side championed by every prophet, from Moses to the "agitator" that died o' Wednesday. Inconceivably long and cruel has the bondage been, hideous beyond measure the degradation of the disinherited; but I think the cycle of soul-slay

lt constrained to weave into his exquisite Elegy an undulating thread of modest apology for bringing under notice the short and simple annals of the Vaisya caste. Later, Cowper thought poverty, humility, industry, and piety a beautiful combination for the wearer of the smock frock. Even Crabbe blindly accepted the sanctified lie of social inequality. And this assumption was religiously acquiesced in by the lower animal himself-who doubtless glorified God for the distinctly unsearchable wisdom and loving-kindness manifested in those workhouse regulations which separated his own toil-worn age from the equal feebleness of the wife whose human rights he should have died fighting f

is shoulder, horse-shoe fashion, his forty years' gathering; and in his patient face his forty years' history, c

? Come and have a drink of t

ed Hamlet, still pu

hy should the spirit

stopped, an

ave a feed!

ing his fardel down in the shade, and sea

saddle-cloth, and placed it before my guest, together with a large wed

nterest to me-the bent and haggard wreck of what should have been a fine soldierly man; the honest face sunken and furrowed; the neglected hair and matted beard thickly strewn wi

ama?" I conject

day afternoon. Course, you of'en go short when you're travellin

tter show for work on the

E

side the best for

an' I know the two fellers that owns it- two brothers, the name o' H--. Fact, I got my eyes cooked workin' at a

etter to look out for so

angin' about. We'll have rain before this moon goes out for a c

ou find this kind of weath

arryin' a swag close on twenty year," he resumed; "but I never got sich a divil of a blaggardin' as I got this mornin'. Course, I'm wrong to swear about it, but that's a thing I ain't in the habit o' doin'. It was at a place eight or ten mile down the river, on the Vic. side. I wasn't cadging, nyther. I jist merely ast for work-not havin' heard about the H--s till after- an' I thought the bloke was goin' to jump down my throat. I didn't ketch the most o' what he said, but I

You have no remedy and no appe

c. side-I foun' a couple o' swells goin' to a picnic in a boat; an' I told them I wa

. "When did you hear about t

in'. Most people notices it on me, but I was thinkin' p'r'aps you did n't remark it. It come t

orry f

ther you might n't know him; he's superintender o' the E-- Sunday School. Fact, I'd bin roun' with the H--'s thresher at his ole man's place four years runnin'; so when he seen me this mornin', it was, 'Hello, Andy!-lookin' for work?' An' the next word was, 'Well, I'm sorry we ain't got no work for you'- or words t

you'll get o

ins, an' we was on for savin', so we on'y drawed tucker-money; an' beggar me if this Joe Collins did n't git paid up on the sly, an' travelled. So we fell in. Can't be too careful when you're workin' for a workin' man. But I would n't like to be in Mr. Joe Collins's boots when Tom ketche

most unhappy combination. Joseph denotes sneaking hypocrisy, whilst Collins is a guarantee of

shin' on. I on'y got a sort o' rough idear where this mill is; an' there ain't many people this s

sked, replenishing my o

ght try a plug

ne, yet the magic word vibrated accurately and unmistakably on the

e a man's got in this world; an' I jist used up the dust out o' my pockets this mornin'; so

ompanion, so do I find food for reflection in thy casual courtesy, my friend. Possibly I have reached the highest point of all my greatness, and from that full meridian of my glory, I haste now to my setting. Fr

very restricted stream of Sacred History than the date of the typical Lazarus. Continually impending calamities menace with utter destitution any given man, though he may bury his foolish head in the sand, and think himself safe. There lives no one on earth to day who holds even the flimsiest gossamer of security against a pauper's death, and a pauper's grave. If he be as rich as Croesus, let him remember Solon's warning, with its fulfilment-and the change since 550 B.C. has by no means been in the direction of fixity of tenure. Where are one-half of the fortunes of twenty years ago?-and where will the other half be in twenty years more? Though I am, like Sir John, old only in judgment and understanding, I have again and again seen the wealthy emir of

od and my soldiership aside, I can imagine a combination that would have quartered me in that airy colonnade-nay, that may do so before this day week; and my view of the matter is, that if I be

ic Paradise-idyll, at least of a Divine intention and human ideal. Vicissitude of fortune is the very hand of "the Eternal, not ourselves, that maketh for righteousness," the manifestation of the Power behind moral evolution; and we may safely trust the harmony of Universal legislation for this antidote to a grievous dise

he process of the seasons; for see how, in the great human family, the innocent suffer for the guilty; and not only are the sins of the fathers visited upon the children, but my sins are visited upon your children, and your sins upon some one else's children; so that, if we decline a brotherhood of mutual blessing and honour, we alternatively accept one of mutual injury and ignominy. Eternal justice is in no hurry for rec

eak like a true man, I linger shivering on the brink of the disclosures to which I am pledged. I feel something like the doomed Nero, when he stood holding the dagger n

seemed to fit each other like tenon and mortice; though when the opportunity of making the joint had existed, a sort of moral laziness, together with our artificial, yet not unpraiseworthy, repugnance to offering a money gift, had brought me out rather a Levite than a Samaritan. In mere self-defence, I would have been constrained to keep up a series of general and impersonal reflections till the sw

r. B--,"

ght you were way back.

t you give

e river without sacrific

but I'll be back toward sundown. I'll tell you how you'll manage: Follow straight down the road till you

get away to-morrow; and you

bout that. But you

things I want yo

as a referee, Mr. B--, but I must still decline.

he-by, Dick L-- has turned up again. He's at our

he been thi

en in the Holy Land. Poked ab

erusa

d in Jericho for a month; but he spent most of hi

Scotchmen wanderin

a good many anywhere-bu

hat on Jordan's banks t

n't t

do I, M

ught you would like to have a yarn with Dick. His de

onour b

y, Collins-did you ever ha

demoralised out back

t across t

remark to his companion. And he was right. It would

spect, seem to invite confidence; others, insult; others, imposition; but Dick seemed only to invite arrest. When well-groomed, he used to be arrested in mistake for some bank defaulter; when ragged, he was sure to be copped for shoplifting, pocket-picking, lack of lawful visible, or for having in his possession property reasonably supposed to have been stolen. Therefore, honest as he was, he had been, like Paul, in prisons frequent. But, thanks to his forensic training, these interviews with the majesty of the law seemed homely and grateful to him. He could converse with a Bench in such terms of respectful camara

ng I could get acros

en you haul the wire up out of the water, you'll find the other end tied to a tree on this bank. Very complete rig. And, I say, Collins; mind you slacken the wire down from this end after you get across, on account of steamers, and snags, and so forth, The canoe's

. About half-way to the horse-paddock, I was overtaken and passed by Arthur H--, one of the two brothers reported to be starting the sawmill; and I afterward remembered that, though we saluted each other, an

e bed of the river, and made all fast. Then it occurred to me that I might have a smoke whilst pulling across. My next thought was that I could economise time by deferring

son's life is directed by his ever-recurring option, or election. Now let me glance at two of

ntly switched my loco. on to the line I am now faithfully, though reluctantly, following. The doom-laden point of time was that which marked the pennin

oved an old-man alternative before it ran itself out. The filling and lighting of my pipe would have occupied three or four minutes, and I should have seen an impending danger in time to guard against it. But I shun

ubmerged, and having no branches on the upper side, it would have passed under the wire but for a stump of a root, as thick as your body, standing about five feet above the surface of the water, on its forward end. In remarking that the

e log approached, I carefully rose to my feet, and held the wire high enough to clear the root. Nearer it came; it wo

gauged the height of the root, and meanwhile balanced the unsteady bark under my feet. When the root was within six inches of the wire, Pup's chin and forepaws were on the gunwale; in three seconds more, I was clinging with one hand to the root, the ot

meantime, though I was well splashed, all the things in my pockets were dry. I particularly congratulated myself on the good fortune of having been so close to the root at the Royal George

elastic belt, holding the latter in my teeth. You must often have noticed that the chief difficulty of swimming with your clothes on your head arises from the fore-and-aft su

n, now left alone on the log, raised his voice in

ext moment I felt as if a big kangaroo dog had catapulted h

and stood on it to get a better view. Good! there was the white, rounded top, an inch above the water, ten yards away. As I swam toward it, a whirlpool took it under. I dived aft

g-place; and time had been passing, for there was the setting sun, blazing through a gap in the timber, an

in the pockets, including a fairly trustworthy watch-if, in addition to this, the patient face of the spratless swagman was rising before you till you involuntarily muttered "O Julius Caesar! thou art mighty yet!" and the nasty part of your moral nature was reminding you that you might have had anything up to four-pounds-odd worth of heavenly debentures; whereas, having failed to put your mammon of unrighteousness into celestial scrip, to await you at th

he south, and supposedly Victorian, bank, opposite where I had landed. By the time I had induced him to take the wa

t had such experience, no illustration could convey any adequate notion. Hyperbolically, however: In the localities I have mentioned, the severity of the periodical plague goads the instinct of animals almost to the standard of reason. Not o

nd I felt cheerful enough as I welcomed my dripping companion, and, taking a leafy twig in each hand to switch myself withal, started northward for the river road, which I purposed following eastw

ogs, and the interminable "r-r-r-r-r" of yabbies, I found the river on my right, with a well-beaten cattle-track along the bank. Here was something definite to go upon. B

r on my right, I was unconsciously travelling westward on the Victorian side, instead of eastward on the New South Wa

on the right, and a wire fence on the left-as I found by running into it. Everything seemed unfamiliar and

for the sounds, and, after running against a loose horse, feeding leisurely on the grass, I dis

a colt that one of the fellows was riding suddenly shied at me and followed up the action by bucking his best. Upon this, the loose horse presen

his ears, and sometimes on his tail. But this sort of thing could n't last-it never does last-so, after hanging on for about twenty seconds by one heel the fellow dismounted like a barrow-load of sludge. During t

in the dark; and away shot the colt in on

s off," said a voic

twenty," responded another v

gar against the fence, or he'll be off to glory." And away clatter

oduction to Jack by restoring the animal; but in a few minutes I lost the sounds, and abandoned t

e from some vehicle travelling at a slow walk along the edge of the timber, I

ocrisy as you can stick. Six of one, and half-a-dozen of the other. I would n't have believed it if I had n't seen it with my own eyes. You've disg

t asking you to marry us

ay, I heard your two mothers flattering themselves about the C-- girls knowing too much; and I

your own self," retorted

if butter would n't melt in my mouth. You're just the reverse; you're hypocrites. 'Woe unto you hypocrites!' the Bible sa

enough to tell?" interrupt

o honourable to do such a thi

. But this is not a question of

with your duty! You'r

nother hour's over. Go on, Jerry;

y-don't tell. I'll neve

Mabel

o you to tell?" plea

ry, and let's get home. This is pa

an interview with Harry, I had retreated in front of the buggy till a second tree offered its friendly cover. Jerry's hea

ach of you gives me a kiss, of her own good will, I'll promise not to tel

, Mabel?" murmured

t no-- But wha

thing we can do. We would n

, and the near front wheel of the buggy was almost against it. Not

d one of the v

the agreement is that each of you is to give me a

Do you think we're go

ty mistaken

y." And the

rolled like a liberated horse. "If you dare to say one single word, we'll just expose your shameful proposal. You mea

at I made that proposal just to try you, and you consented on condition of me keeping quiet. You're both up a tree

asked one of the voices, whi

that ever breathed," repl

hought men was

," rejoined the

oice, "I seen a white th

cronk, like you, she must expect to see white thing

er," suggested o

else for it," a

e darkness. I heard it stop; then followed, w

d Harry calmly. "

ds were

ur hand a bit-both of you-or we'll b

rry's voice died away in the distance to an indistinct murmur, as

ploughed fallow paddock, and then a two-rail fence; wondering all the while that I had never noticed the place when passing it in daylight. At last, a quarter of a mile from the

rown girl, in holiday attire, with her elbows on the table and her fingers in her hair, reading some illustrat

ore regaining the gate, I trod on a porcupine cactus, and forgot everything else for the time. Then, as I lay on the ground outside the gate, caressing the sole of my foot, and comforting myself with the though

und that one of these duties demanded a many-sided efficiency with which Nature had omitted to endow him. He found that, though the stereotyped tactics of worrying, and freezing, and chawing, were good enough as opposed to similar procedure, they became mere bookis

im it at the war-clouds, rolling dun. I was crouching some yards away to one side, but the clod crumbled against my ear. Then the storm of one-sided battle went raging round the back premises, as the farm dog returned to tell Egypt the story. Mam retreated from the gate in haste, and for a min

waited for Pup whilst he ate his fowl, and then again pressed forward, alert and vigilant, as beseemed a man scudding under bare po

and passed me at a canter, singing one of Sankey's Melodies. I made a modest appea

, the trampling of horses, and voices raised in careless glee. I headed straight for the horses. As I neared the

t white thing t

receding into the darkness, like a comet into space. The party st

iders presenting an indistinct outline of two individuals rolled into one; and it was from this amalgamation that the low, pigeon-like murmurs proceeded. An instinct of delicacy prompted me to pause, and let the Siamese twins pass in peace; but, unfortunately, I happened to be straight in the way, and just as I started to creep aside, one of the horses extended his neck, and, with a low, protracted snore, touched me on th

hicle, I made a circuit, and got round to the rear. It was a single-seated buggy, with a white horse, travelling at a walk; and, in the

hie; I'll

n swee

O,youwon

ss of people! I had never seen anything like it, exc

darling! My

lmotherI

est, my b

r! Idon'tloveyounow!

, sweetest.

ie, my pre

many people, and all going in the same direction. They were the sediment of the pic-nic party, returning from their orgy. Here was the lost chord. The whole truth flashed upon me. Now, the solid earth wheeled rig

you struck a place you knew, error was suddenly superseded by a flash of truth; this without volition of judgment on your part, and entirely by force of a presentation of fact which your own personal error-however sincere and stubborn-had never affected, and which yo

spoils of the street gutter; that fashion will be as the gilded fly which infests carrion; that "sport" will seem folly that would disgrace an idiot; that military force, embattled on behalf of Royalty, or Aristocracy, or Capital, will seem like-- Well, what will it seem like? Already, looking, or rather, squinting, back along our rugged and random track, we perceive that the bloodiest battle ever fought by our badly-bushed forefathers on British soil-and that only one of a series of twelve, in which fathers, sons, brothe

he Victorian side, it was a thousand to one against striking my camp on such a night. Of course, I might have groped my way to B--'s place; but if you knew Mrs. B--'s fatuous appreciation of dilemmas like mine, you would understand tha

id I, in a firm,

pped. I repea

lied Archie. "Wh

re; I wa

wept round as the young

I shouted, careering in a circular o

whoever you are," remarked Archie, stoppi

he damsel, with appr

nds like the voice of one

d on him as he felt

o!" she

ie!" I called out. "S

h you?" asked Archie, addressin

ion. Can't explain furth

rchie!" And in the brigh

er part of his coat as h

go, sw

d!" I ex

n a minute. Let

ie. I'm frightened. J

te thing gl

lacks, thirty years ago, and they say he walks occasionally. But he can't hurt

you. Don't leave me. Fn-n-n, ehn-n

ep you a minute. The mountain can't go to Mahomet; and to state

sobbed the wretched obstruction. "Do what I ask you t

ie, resuming his seat. "That poor beggar has something on his mind

e that of Pompey's statue, 'th' austerest form of naked majesty'-a dignity I would gla

tching myself desperately, for the night was getting hotter and darker, and

esdrop. Good! One fellow was relating an anecdote suited to gentlemen only. Thanking Providence for the tendency of the yarn, I darted diagonally across the clearing to intercept these brethren, and was rapidly nearing the party, when Pup, thinking I was after somethi

p and dismounted. Then he struck a match, and began looking on the ground for something he had dropped. The horse shied at the light, and refused to lead; whereupon, after giving the animal a few kicks, he threw the reins over

g, sir," sai

provokes me most, he flashed a match on

y, switching myself the while, and still

ut before he reached the bridl

ou want?"

was lying on his back. "And seeing that I may as well be hanged for a whole suit as for a pair of --, I'll just take the complete outer ply while my hand's in; leaving you whatever may be underneath. Let me impress upon you that I don't attempt to defend this action on strictly moral grounds," I continued, peeling off his coat and waistcoat with the celerity

ing, suddenly splintered the firmament with a double-barrelled screech, the thought flashed on my mind that he was one of those De Lacy Evanses we often read of in novels; and in two seconds I was fifty yards away, trying to choose between the opposing anomalies of the case. A little reflection showed the balance of probability strongly against a disgu

er, of course, as I could only judge by sound, but there might have been half a dozen. A good deal of animated conversation followed-som

this impracticable generation no longer. I would follow the river road for eight or ten miles, and then wait in some secluded spot for the first peep of daylight. I began to blame myself for not having

human homes, that pathetic fascination for the neighbourhood of man, which so long refused to accept rebuff. With --, man is whole as the marble, founded as the rock, as broad and general as the casing air. Without --, unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art. The -- standard is the Labarum of modern civilisation. By this sign shall we conquer. Since that night by the Murray, methinks each pair of -- I see hanging in front of a draper's shop seems to bear aright, IN HOC SIGNO VINCES! scrolled in haughty bl

window curtains that the light was in a bedroo

inquired a disc

tame by Fortune's blo

boss a

laimed, in a h

nd enough to tel

'll be worse for

ma'am. Will you please

hat I'll do! I got him here in th

, ma'am. Will you please

! There's plenty of yo

I went round to the back yard, in hope of finding some

enough. As a rule, farmers' families spend their evenings in the back dining room; and the front of the house remai

wheat, the light was gone. However, I found the house, and went prowling round the back yard till I roused two watch-dogs. These faithful animals

or the night, and his help in the morning. If he had any spare --, I would borrow them; if not, I would, first thing in the morning, send him cadging round the neighbourhood for cast-off clothes, while I sought ease-with-dignity in his blanke

the Hebrew Tophet. So intense was the darkness in the bush that I simply saw nothing except, at irregular intervals, the spark of red fire, often away to right or left, when I had lost my dead reckoning through groping round the slimy, rotten ma

how the symbolism permeates our language, from the loftiest poetry to the most trifling colloquialism. "There is no darkness but ignorance," says the pleasantest of stage fools; "in which thou art more puzzled than the Egyptians in their fog." And

but man, however capable, will blunder therein, if he walks in darkness; nay, the more resolute and conscientious he is, the more certainly will he stub hi

the momentum of Light, having overborne the Conservatism of the Paleolithic, Neolithic, and other unpronounceable ages, has, in this 19th century, produced a distinct paling of the stars, with an opaline tint in the east. And, as a penny for the first nail, twopence for the second, fourpence for the third, and so on, amounts to something like a

onour to my philosophy; thinking, to confess the truth, what an advantage it would be if man, figuratively a mopoke, could become one in reality when all the advantage lay in that direction; also, feeling prepared to wager my official dignity against a pair of -- that Longfellow would never hav

after all, and nearly burnt out; but I soon raised a good smoke, and had relief from the mosquitos. The passage from the road had given me enough of exploring for th

ughout the trying incidents of the evening I have recalled, the hope of waking up had never been entirely absent from my mind; and now, as I lay drowsing, with Pup beside me, and not a mosquito within three yards, it occurred to me that if I did n't get out of the difficulty by waking up, I would get out of it some other way. Philosophy whispered that all earth-born cares were not only wrong,

lled, leaving the reader to conclude that I woke up at my camp, and found the whole thing a dream. The dream expedient is the mere romancist's transparent shift-and he is fortunate in always having one at command, though transparency should, of course, be avoided. The dream-expedient vies in puer

r herring, the foolish reader will be instructed, the integrity of narrative preserved, and the linked sacrifice long drawn-out. And if, in the writing of annotations yet to come, the exigencies of annalism should d

, lay about three-quarters of a mile to the south. North and west, I could see nothing but heavy timber and undergrowth. The eastern prospect was more interesting. Within twenty yards of my lair, a long, deep lagoon lay north and south, the intervening grou

ace between the house and the lagoon. At the north side of the garden, the lagoon was divided by a dry isthmus. The nearer boundary fence of the farm, half-buried in whipstick s

Duke-of-Argyle friction of cattle to the similitude of a monstrous, black-topped mushroom. The stack was situated close to the drain, something over a hundred yards from the house, and about the same distance from my camp. The pa

e F--'s Arms Hotel. B--'s place lay beyond, and to the right, but shut out of view by a paddock of green timber. The

muttered, "If I only had a handful of corks!" Ay, if! My prototype wanted the men to abet him in maintaining his Imperial dignity, whilst I wanted the corks to assist me in carrying-out an enterprise attempted by a good many pe

has stripped him of every other prerogative; but there its stripping-power ends, and his own begins. European monarchs will do well to paste a memorandum of this inside their diadems, for, let them paint an inch thick, to this favour they must come at last. Howevers that is their business. My own Royal master can still do

still morning air. At last I saw a woman advance toward the edge of the fallow, and stand for a minute faci

hat horse? Father'll be ready in a mi

he garden fence, and s

min' ye

ed to the simplest plan of campaign that it may suggest to the suspicious reader a romancist's shift, diaphanous as the "woven w

nt recess on the side of the stack farthest from the house. Sure enough, there was a cattle-track across the fallow and a culvert on the drain close to my refuge. Jim would soon be coming down that track toward the house. And, as my unhappy conditio

im" was a magnificent young woman, riding barebacked, á la clothes-peg; the fine contour of her figure displayed with an amazonian audacity which seemed to make her nearly as horrid as myself. My brow was wet with honest sweat whilst, from the poor concealment already described, I watched her swing the horse aside from the culvert, and send him at the drain: and, with that danger-begotten fascination by trif

ad, was taking up the slack of the girth with her teeth, whilst her left hand, grasping the rein close to the horse's mouth, prevented the animal from taking a piece out of her. Presently Dad trotted out of the house and took possess

that he would n't delay long, and that he would come my way when he started.

th a gun; speaking over his shoulder to Jim as he bustled past. Even in the distance, I fancied her

something, and beyond doubt he meant mischief. I glanced behind me, and round the expanse of bare fallow, but there was n't even a magpie in sight. At the same time, the sportsman's general bearing, his depressed head and downward vigilance, showed that he was stalking ground game, and was n't interested in anything perched on the stac

om his grasp, and broken it across your knee; you would have despoiled h

oticed a deep, narrow, miniature ravine, eaten into one side of the drain by a tributary channel, and well sheltered by the foliage of large docks, now run up to seed. In thirty sec

peered under the culvert, and cast his eye across the fallow in every direction. Apparently satisfied, he threw the gun on his shoulder, and started o

dvantage that might offer itself, either about the house or across the lagoon. And, logically, the stack ought now to be one of

oon; and presently I saw him go up the opposite bank, and disappear in the scrub. Another instance of erratic shunting on my part. If I had stayed at my camp, I might have accosted hi

scene flashed into many-tinted loveliness under the magic pencils of golden light; and, against the sombre background of river tim

something is an ingredient in our moral constitution; and the more vague the object, the more rabid will be our devotion to the symbol. Any badge is good enough to adore, provided the worshipper ha

ow-worms, dwindles into parochial insignificance beside that forky pennon on the farmer's clothes-line, which latter covers, in a far more essential manner, one-half of civilised humanity. Rightly viewed, I say, th

-manger guard over their alien flag. The -- to him who can wear them, thought I. I must give this garrison an alerte, though I should have to sacrifice the old straw-stack. 'Tis dangero

the grass off half the county. The origin of that fire still remains a mystery, though all manner of investigation was made at the time; one of the most dilligent inquirers being a boy

ware, of course, that the Law takes no cognisance of dilemmas like mine, and has no manly scruple agains

ting detail. The details of a death-penalty, for instance, are revolting enough; and here you must judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. You must perceive that the white hands of the ultra-respectable judge are the hands which reeve the noose; which adjust the same round the neck of the man (or woman); which pull down the night-cap; w

tness, even whilst speciously justifying the enterprise as a whole. Further provocation was require

overed myself, a few minutes later, I was in the lagoon. I daren't swim across, for I would have been in full view from the stack. A cluster of leafy reeds, growing in two feet of water, and the same depth of slimy, bubble-charged mud, was the nearest cover; and in the midst of this I cower

white -- off the line, with, perhaps, a supplementary garment or so, and modestly left them in the drain, instead of thus seeking further occasion against me. She looked under the culvert, across the paddock, and toward the

respond with the countersign. Not without practical protest shall I die a nude fugitive on their p

re I selected a piece of thick bark, about the size of your open hand, and solid fire for half its length. I swam the lagoon with this in my teeth, and in a few minutes more had buried it in the broken, half-decayed straw

t from my post; and I began to think I should have to get anot

ole straw-st

den, and into the back yard. Before the enemy's vanguard reached the stack, I had captured the flag that braved a thousand years, and applied it to its proper use

the top; and from three pairs of boots under the sofa, I chose the shabbiest. Astonished, like Clive, at my own moderation, I next rummaged all the most likely places in search of a pipe and tobacco, but without avail. I even ex

girl, and a little boy. Three of the women, to judge by their gestures, were laughing and joking, whilst the

ff the boiler under the safe, in search of the cake which ought to be kept there. But the house was afflicted with cake-famine too. However, having no time to fool-away, and being constitutionally

han the beginning of a quarrel; and pervaded by a spirit of thankfulness which can be conceived only by those who have undergon

ncern down twelve rifle-barrels, all in radial alignment on his heart of oak. Twelve foreign eyes were drawing beads on the dauntless captive, and twelve foreign fingers were pressing with increasing force on the triggers, when a majestic form appeared on the scene, and, with the motion of a woman launch

his integrity to heaven were all he dared now call his own. The effect was a peace above all earthly dignities. So with me, but in larger

to get a puris naturalibus lunatic clothed and in his right mind by the sacrifice of a mere eyesore on a farm. The old straw-stack was n't worth eighteen pence, but I would gladly have p

tly happy; having taken degrees in philosophy which place me above a state fit only for girls-I should have been without a ripple on my mirrored surface, but I was n't. Serenely sufficient as I felt, and fit for anything, some ingre

knew he had followed me on my first journey up the drain, but I had n't seen him since, and had been too busy

, as you may remember, I had last seen him on the New South Wales side, eight or ten miles away, and going in the opposite direction-I went on without exchange of greeting. Shortly afterwards, I came plump upon Abraham, sitting on

o the river, I found a tilted spring-cart, near which an elderly man, with tattooed arms, sat on a

espect; thus assuring myself that I had attained Carlyle's definition of a man: "An omnivorous biped that wears --." Meanwhile, in response to my host's invitation to tell him what I

People needn't be so particular, for there was ole Q-- had been warning and threatening him yesterday, and here was the two young Q--s out this morning at the skreek of daylight, falling red-gum spars to build a big shed, and th

on his way to a new saw-mill, the day before, but had met one of the owners, who told him the mill would n't start till after harvest, and promised him work on the farm in the meantime. So Andy, on his return journey, had seen the outlaw's fire in the dusk; and, after some on

to return by-and-by to look after a dog I had lost when I was bush

sly in the sand-bed where I had mounted. In an hour and a half more, I had unsaddled and hobbled both horses on a patch of good grass, nearly opposite where the spring-cart stood. My persecuted acq

f the kitchen. A modest-looking and singularly handsome girl had just filled a bucket of water at the water-slide,

m," said I affably. "S

blue kangaroo dog, wit

the name

. "You better see my f

ome this w

my boots-was disposing the crockery on the dresser. In the parlour, Mr. Q--, a man of overpowering dignity, redolent of the Bench, and, as I think, his age

respectful salaam. "Have I the

he replied, surveyin

last night, or this morning; a

sure he's

ly sure,

come in posse

ago. Am I right in assumi

man. Who are you?

first. My name is Collins- of the New South Wale

ou to imply that

ation r

"-he drank half the wine, set the glass on the table, and leisurely wiped his mouth with his serviette-"I want to ask you"-he paused again, pursed his lips, and placed his forefinger aga

m a man who saw the dog o

t what time did he se

Punctuality i

unrise,

nk! Are

yes; I'

our informe

dam," I replied sharply, and withal truthfully. "Is my dog here, Mr. Q--? If he is,

Was your informer a

ea of your he

our own height? We'll

ould say you've struck his height

lking, fugitive app

orrect, Mr. Q--. You might, witho

in these matters.

hority, so far as I re

I'm thinking about a valuable stack of hay I had burnt this morning; and you've give me a clue to the incendiary." He paused, to let h

es about the house, and the irregular ticking of two clocks; while the

your loss, Mr. Q--,"

though it might break a poorer man. I been burnt out, r-

ally, but my sympathy wa

ndred notes for the apprehension of th

ch for instance? I think you ought to make strict inquiries as to whether any hor

ess, Mr. O'Connor,"

n of bringing more off

, to justice than anybod

tamp out the lawless

ount upon my assistance in this matter. By-the-wa

to show how circumstantial evidence sort of hems in a suspected party-why, here I can lay my hand on the very man; and, what's more, he can't get out of it. I can point out the very mark of his body, where he slep' at a fire among the whipstick scrub, just across that lagoon. And a party I'm acquainted with seen him yesterday afternoon, some distance up the river, on the other side; and I seen him this mor

certain interest in this matter. Would it be impertinent in me to ask who the p

matter. In fact, I'll require to know something of your whereabouts after you leave my premises. I think y

H--?" I inqui

hens clucked in the yard; also, the magpies tootled beyond the lagoon, and a couple of axes sounded faintly across the flat; and I even heard, through the open window, the noise of som

, and laid the paper on the table beside the magnate. It reminded me of old times, when my Dad used to send

rosecution is a Pyrrhic victory at best. At worst-that is, if you fail to prove your case; and, mind you, it's no easy matter to prove a case against a well-informed man by circumstantial evidence alone-if you fail to prove your case; then it's his turn, for malicious prosecution; and you can't expect any mercy from him. When you think your case is complete,

the waywode, almost deferentially. "Same time, this case ought to be followed up, for the sake of the p

for false imprisonment. These roving characters can always get up an alibi, if they're clever. Excuse my meddling in this case, Mr. Q--, but you've interested me strongly. You have evidence that this suspected incendiary was seen somewhere down the river yesterday-or up the river was it?-and you saw him somewhere here, this morning. Very well. Woul

t for a vagabone without a shirt to his back"

, 'Seek whom the crime p

to such a scoundrel to d

mercy of the thriftless classes,

n modest protest. "Why, the whole coun

affair. Your business keeps you on the move," he continued,\ looking at the paper beside him; "and it might be difficult to effect service.

, Mr. Q--.

ard, acknowledging my obeis

all. You can't beat the pocket-stroke. Passin

sked, in the tone you shou

each beautiful cheek

ses Miss Jemima to giv

and he was chained to the manger by a hame-strap. Of course, I did n't blame the franklin, nor do I blame him now; rather the reverse. There seems something touching and beautiful in the thought that respectability, at best, is merely poised-never hard home; and that our clay will assert itself when a dog like Pup throws himself into the other scale. But I could feel the vicarious crimson spreadin

observed the girl girl

he Eton Boy'," replied

ould see anything i

a thunderstorm seemed to be hanging about. Still a new embarrassment was growing in th

u haven't ha

at trouble yo

been at him to burn it out of the way this years back, for it was right between the house and the road; and it was '78 straw, rotten with r

t to me," I replied,

seems a most unlikely th

horses or cattle trod o

dropped the

t the place, only them safety ones that strikes on the box.

rish people abou

ys; and they're the b

near the stack before

ver thinking, I told him it was there; and he got his gun and went after it; and us in a fright for fear he would find it, but he did n't. Then when we seen him well out of sight, I went over to the stack quietly, to shoo the pig home, but it was gone; and there was no sign of fire then, and nobody in sight. Then my sisters and me was just starting out to t

rse was sho

e of a brick, near the corner of the garden; but the fi

lly strong this morning, I noticed; and it's a well-known scientific fact that the action of the solar rays, focussed by such a m

sir," she rep

e," I continued gently, "we may assume spontaneous ignition, produced by chemical combination. Nor are we confined to this supposition. Silex is an element which enters largely into the composition of wheaten straw; and it is worthy of remark tha

ed. "Anyway, I'm glad the old stack's out o

you out in the sun,"

-. And I'm very mu

e we're very happy to"-- she h

d-bye, Mis

murmured, half-e

time," I remarked, almost unc

so," she

said I, slowly re

like a breath of evening air,

an nationality on her upper lip, returned to her simple duties. And the remembr

had happened to be a stray half-crown in the pocket of the spare oriflamme I had unfurled at my camp. Should I push on to Hay on the strength of that half-crown, draw my ?8 6s. 8d., and send my clothier a guileful letter, containing a money-ord

y uncompromised, and a nonchalance unruffled, in the face of Dick's really interesting descriptions of South-eastern Tasmania. Conc

ea of a wind-mill pump; Dick handing me things, and holding the other end. On the first afternoon, a couple of hours after my arrival, I drove into

ied me through this trying disclosure, you will surely condone the obs