The Crooked Stick

ding out his men for the day. 'Of course I know nothing of this sort of thing,' he said; 'but I have come here to learn, with a view to investing a few thousands I h

ngs that other people can. Of course I can't pick up the whole drill at once, but I don

as much in six months as most of the people know that own stations. It's a bad year now, and we're all in the doldrums, as the sailors say. But it's

rd, looking at the steady eye and short, proud upper lip of the speaker)-'and early or late, wet or dry (if it ever is wet here), ho

help a gentleman like you to a knowledge of things, th

very young when he left home, but I always heard that he

that jolly and kind in his ways, nobody could help liking him. If he hadn't been cut off in his prime by that infernal

inquired Devereux; 'what you call a

He belonged to a mob of cattle-stealers that used to duff cattle in the back country, and pass them over to Queensland. Well, Mr. Tracknell, one of the squatters in the back blocks,

sticki

s, it is what used to be called "stopp

o grudge against

d cleared. But they heard there was a gentleman with a big beard going down the country, and made sure it was him. When they came up and saw their mistake, they'd have rode off again, only the Captain was that hot-tempered and angry at their stopping him, that he fired

the Doctor, as

rse-stealing of seven years; but he's wanted again, and there's a warrant out for him. He's a desperate

ck on that day,' said Bertram; 'scoundrels of tha

The only thing is, now he's hunted from pillar to post so, and he ain't got half a chance

could it be winter, Bertram thought, when the skies were still cloudless and untroubled, the mid-day warm, the plains dusty, the air soft, the river low; when the flowers in the garden bloomed and budded as usual; when no leaf fell from the forest; when, save the great acacias in the backyard and the white cedars in the garden, all the trees at Corindah were gre

ered much, but did not ask questions. 'Everything come

erity would not be here. A change will come sometime, but I cannot hasten it by ignora

to time, as is the way of women. At the evening meal, when after the day's duties the two young people and herself met with an affectat

rs between. Now the seasons seemed to have changed. The year before last was a drought, and now-this was the mo

ctually ruined-lose all her property, th

ces would remain. But twenty or thirty thousand pounds would be an immense sum to make up. The very thought made her shudder. To think of th

buy a station in the mountains last year, where there's beautiful green grass and running water i

ht he could get some country cheaper, and in the meantime it was snapped up

for the world. But he's too slow and cautious in matters like this, which need decision. Think of all the poor weak sheep, wi

course I know nothing as yet, but could not som

irty thousand of Mr. Haller's that passed here last week, and gave you so much trouble, had just come from there. And how nice and stro

y, that our country's too dry to hold us, and hi

a few months, this year, next year, not at all. So we'r

aking vows to the saints, and what not! This is a wonderful country,

ong-run they prove favourable, though the exceptional years are hard. And we strive to hav

eux to Miss Clara Thornton,

you can inhale the strong sweet ocean breath, and dream of far-away tropic isles and palm groves, coral reefs, pirates too, and all the delightful denizens of the world of romance. How you ought to pity me, shut up in poor, dry, dusty Corindah!-the weath

olation of your poor friend in this famine year. He is not handsome, nor tall, nor clever-that is, brilliantly so. Not a particular admirer of his poor Australian cousin either. He is very cool and undemonstrative; lets you find out his talents and strong points by degrees, accidentally, a

te a little thing being far more interested in books of travel than any other reading. I really believe that if anything led to the station being sold, and we have any money left after these frightful droughts, that I should persuade mother to take me 'home,' as we Australians always say, and then have a good, satisfactory, leisurely prowl over Europe. Now, do you see

ly see the dust as it rises on the plain, midwinter though it is supposed to be. I couldn't live here all my life, now could I? Not for all the cattle

ll

ircle died away. Of this last attribute of the neophyte Mr. Devereux had incurred but little. Studiously careful of speech, habitually courteous in bearing, and wholly indifferent to general opinion, but few men of those with whom he was brought into contact could find anything upon which to found

the lot of us as if we were small farmers or country bumpkins? Suppose he was in the Guards, there's nothing so wonderful about that. I know

atters, magistrates, and others, a select party of whom, this being Cour

a native-born Australian, with a slow, monotonous intonation which did injustice to a shrewd intellect and keen sense of humour. 'You know we are rather rusty, some of us. We've been

ke my position in society to-morrow as if I had never left.

ired the other squatter; 'or-what-

of. And then, when we were playing whist, Atherstone and I with Miss Devereux and the old lady, he looked on until I asked if he was approved of our play. He

or, who now appeared honestly desirous of extracting info

sh people, he thinks we never hear anything or read anything, and have never seen any society men for a century but himself. Why, wasn't General Burstall here th

, 'if-it-doesn't-break-up-soon. I've-lost-six-thousand-pounds-worth-of-c

racter of his run, and by implication his probable solvency, appeared so overpoweringly ludicrous to the company, that

ereux to Captain Goodwo

uth Wales, Austr

hen I said good-bye after that fatal Derby that proved such a smasher, partly because one has such enormous quantities of spare time in the

two exceptions there was no gleaning any information from their friends. Either the fellows didn't write or had done indifferently, and so the less said the better, or else the friends hardly could tell whether they lived in Victoria, Western Australia, New South Wales, or Tasmania, which is much as if the whereabouts of a continental traveller should be described as indifferently as in Belgium, Berl

s brings a good price, is as negotiable as gold, and the fortunes of the returned colonists that we used to see in London society are thus compiled. Of course there are details, the which I am setting my mind to master. But they would hardly interest you. One trifling fact I may mention, lest you may imagine the progress of fortune-constructing too ridiculously easy. It is, that there has been next to no rain for more tha

esn't he tell me about her?-for of course there is a woman somewhere within the or

ronted by a plain unvarnished robbery like the doing to death of the favou

e is a she. How strange it s

igris ubi

a recreatur

tempestuous motives of those who are doomed to be 'the prey of the gods' in this peculiar fashion. How much more so the perfect human form, 'ripe and real,' when it comes before your eyes in all the unconscious temptation of virgin youth and bea

ouring, passionate love of my life had disappeared, and it was like the last scene of a tragedy, when nothing is left for the spectators but to wrap their

w material. How I am shut up with a magnificent young creature, with a face like Egeria, and a figure like the huntress maid, burning with enthusiasm, talented, cultured, full of

ed-not so many-but what Dead-Sea fruits have I not tasted during their stormy course? What a burnt-ou

page who

heart and hi

shall be the favoured suitor, despite of the opposition of a good-looking, stalwart, provincial rival, my experience assures me. With women l'inconnu is always the interesting, the romantic, the irresistible. In despite of myself, I

shooting, no hunting, no fishing. We dress for dinner, and live much as at a shooting-lodge in the Highlands, with stock-riders for gillies. So we are

am De

llie was capable of producing

curious with a child's hungering, insatiable appetite for the knowledge of wondrous lands, cities, peoples; hating the daily monotone to which the woman's household duties are necessarily attuned. Capable of the strongest, the most passionate attachments, yet all-ignorant

ore incongruously provided with food and shelter. Day after day a growing discontent, a hopeless despair of life, seemed to weigh her down, to take the savour from exist

from her window across the wide star-lit plain, in which groups of melancholy, swaying, pale-hued

s I see around me? Ignorant, incurious, narrow, with an intelligence gradually shrivelling up to the dimensions of a childhood with which they have nothing else in common! What a hateful prospect! What a death in

ld's page will perceive nothing more than the instinctive, unwarranted impatien

, the ?ons, as the sands of the sea, that intervene between promise and fulfilment? Hast thou not enjoyed ease, love unwearying, anxious tendance, fr

t; doubts whether it would ever rain again, by the scoffers and unbelievers; assertions that the seasons had changed, by the prophets of evil; superficial, sanguine predictions that it would rain some day, by the light-minded; hope and trusting confidence in the Great Ruler, by the devout, that He would not suffer his people to be utterly cast down and forsaken, that the dumb creatur

ey sat at breakfast one gusty, unsettled, red-clouded morning. He

ie? Would all the watercourses dry up? Would they all be forced to abandon

unless the weather changes, it will be what you call a "blue look-out." Poor mother is more anxious

aid he gravely. 'The loss of the labour of

l the solemn-faced people who despair of God's goodness. Of course, it will rain some time or other. It m

little thought, when I grumbled at a rainy week in England, what blessings in disg

usand miles square, would be one luxuriant prairie of grass nearly as high as your head. Mr. Gateward would sing for joy as far as his music

the s

would kill them, being weak. All the rest w

r word literally, but really I sh

es fixed steadfastly upon his, and almost emitting a flash, it seemed to him, from their steady glow. 'Promise me that every word I sa

nd reverently bowing over it; 'and now I am going

e said. 'Why did not you make an earl

is a wonderful goer, and s

r make him quiet. Besides, I think there's some break of weather coming on. The wind has changed for

t of all things. The climate here does not seem t

rm, or a flood, or a bush-fire, or anything. Take my advice and ride a steady

ering roll of thunder seemed to accentuate her appeal. The young man smiled, as he answered, 'My dearest Pollie, I should be sorry to refus

dark bay horse, whose elastic stride and powerful frame showed him to be one of those rare combinatio

to-day. It surely cannot be going to rain, or is there an earthquake imminent? I believe in presentiments, and if

, so inconsistent with her mother's fixed principles on the score of regular employment

ing. Can you not sit down to your work, or practise, or go on with some historical reading, or y

, you good old mother, I think you would, and thread your needle till the Roundheads marched in at the outer gate, as they did in "The Lay of Britomart," or took down the slip-rails, as it would be in our case

away with you? What can happen? There may be a little wind and rai

a dramatic attitude. 'See how dark it is growing! Look at the lightning!

the benefit of it-though that certainly is a heavy shower. Early in the season too; this is only t

said Pollie, pityingly. 'He sa