The Crooked Stick

that in Australia few people are weather-wise. No one can tell, for instance, with any certainty, when it will rain. No one can say with precision when it will not rain. All other forms of wea

h no particular indication of change from the long, warm days and still, cloudless nights that seemed as if they would never end, that earth

banks, on the surface of which tree-stems and branches,

he fury of the storm, in which the wind had arisen, and raged with tempestuous fury

all the years I have been here I have never seen such a storm. Poor Bertram! I hope he has taken shelter somewhere. This cold rain i

dry. Those were his last words, and he's rathe

igh. 'But there will be no danger unless the Wawanoo Creek is up. It ne

l, shuddering. 'Hark! how it is pouring down now. It

rarely filled except in flood time, when it acted as a canal for the purpose of carrying off the superfluous water. Now it wa

w. 'What a wonder of wonders!' she said; 'the Wawanoo is comi

reek. An unusual body of rain, falling apparently during one of the thunder-showers, had completely submerged the valley, which, narrowin

e comes to it he will have to swim. He will never think of its being so deep, and he m

ed as a sepia-coloured, brown line winding through the grassless, herbless, grey levels of the drought-stricken w

rt behind him! I wouldn't mind the ride myself if I had an old habit on. It must be great fun to be a

Mrs. Devereux. 'Very likely he thinks it can't

Mr. Gateward told me he saw him in the last flood, when he was only a colt. I can see his head; how he shakes it! Gallant old fellow! And there is Bertram sitting as quietly as if he wa

ripping like a sea-horse bestridden by a merman, he saw a feminine figure in the veran

nge your clothes and take something hot, and not

iet voice, in which not the slightest inflection betrayed any hint of unusual risk. 'I rea

e presented himself at dinner. 'Could not have imagined such a transformation scene of earth and sky. The plain has become a gigantic batter puddi

ghed at,' answered Pollie, with a heightened colour. 'But mother and I are to

smile which was rarely bestowed with so much kin

ious to get to the Bindera station, where they were having a party; he was told the creek was dangerous, but would try. His horse

d then. There would be too many of us fellows else "

but of course you really do not think so. Think o

t light. After all it's quite a lottery like other games of pitch and toss. Sometimes the backer

lie, with a shocked expression of countenance-'at the end of which one man is borne in a shining hero, aglow with triumph, while

f merriment broke over his features, and a rarely seen expression of frank admiration

vinity that s

them how

ve found myself in Australia was at one time so unlikely, so all but impo

but little here below' is comparatively true; but a short supply of the aqueous fluid on land parallels in its destructive effects the over abundance at sea. When the rain is withheld for a year or two

n for many years,' was remarked

t equal to that of 1

you th

f cattle on our run on the Darwin. When it broke up we mustered sixteen hun

tors like Mr. Jack Charteris had swept up the supply of saleable sheep, and left their more cautious comrades lamenting their inability to purchase except at prices which 'left no margin,' the alternative being to have tens of thousands of acres of waving prairie 'going to waste' for want of stock to eat it. The face of Nature had indeed changed. Within a fortnight the arid dusty plains, so barren of aspect, were carpeted with a green mantle, wondrously vivid of hue and rapid of growth. The creek ran musically murmuring towards the river, whi

rved his ordinary incurious, impassive immobility, and after casually remarking that this was evidently one of the lands known to the author of the Arabian Nights, and that somebody had been rubbing the magic lamp, and commanded a genie to fetch a few million tons of water from Ireland or Upper India, where it was superfluous, and deliver it here

vil of a twofold ruin, that numbers of owners were found willing to sell their advertised sheep at a very slight advance upon the pre-pluvial prices. So might they be assured of the solvency and security which they had dreaded would never be theirs again. So might they again lay their heads on their pillow at night, thanking God for all His mercies, and for the saf

r a month's absence, he had as many sheep on the road, at highly paying prices, as would keep that 'well-known fattening station' and Corindah besides in grass-eaters for many a month to come. Mrs. Devereux was full of gratitude towards him for managing her delegated business so safely and promptly, and again and

ion this effusive statement was made, 'in short, he is perfection-a man

'misleading lights of feeling apart from reason, which are a

ade at least a bi-monthly call, was t

colonies, or indeed wheresoever he listed-sometimes even in Tasmania, where he was famed for his picnics, four-in-hand driving, and liberality in entertaining. In that favoured isle, where maidens fair do so greatly prepon

terraces, the geysers, the paradisiacal gardens, the Eves that flitted through the 'rata' thickets, the fountains that dripped and flashed through the hush of midnight. Someth

h, which had so often drawn back and d

ons of men older than themselves. It flatters their vanity or gratifies their self-esteem to discover that their callow charms and undeveloped intellects, so lately emancipated from the prosaic thraldom of the schoolroom, suffice to attract men who have seen the world-have, perhaps, borne themselves 'manful under shield' in the battlefield of life, have struck hard in grim conflicts where quarter is neither given nor received, and been a portion of the great 'passion-play' of the universe. They look down upon their youthful admirers as comparatively raw and inexperienced, like themselves. Theirs is a

fe 'at home.' Others averred that he was pleasure-loving, of epicurean, self-indulgent tastes, having neither high ambition nor religious views. They would be sorry to trust Angelina or Frederica to such a guardianship. Besides, he was getting quite old. In a few years there would be

Honourable Hector, a man of wide and varied experience, of a bearing and general tournure which left little to be desired. In the matter of courtship he knew sufficiently well that it was injudicious to force the running; that a waiting race was his best chance. He took care never to prolong his visit; always to encircle himself with some surrounding of interest during his stay at Corindah. He pleased Pollie and her mother by being in possession of the newest information on all subjects in which he knew they were interested. He was good-natured a

ail-phaeton and high-bred horses which that gentleman always affected, disappearing in the distance. 'He's most amusing

s how he was going to lay out the garden at the new house at Wanwondah. Really,

winter and spring. He always spends the summer in some other colony. This year he will go to the hot springs of Waiwera,

ion. 'You've to say "yes" to the Honourable Hector's unspoken prayer, and he'll take you there, or to the moon

iled during the long dismal summer? Poor things! what would you do without me to tease you all? But it's a strange peculiarity of society, I believe, that a girl can never make any persona

away by dreams of luxury and unlimited power of travel, which is mor

to Tasmania, or even New Zealand, though it's dreadfully rough-anywhere, rather than you should be tempted to

cs-not only of these colonies either. Most other girls would-perhaps the phrase is vulgar-"jump at him." Besides, he is most amusing. Not a mere talker, but

y. But that's not my affair. If age and experience are the valued qualities, I'm sorry I was not born a generation ear

aid the young lady, with a solemn and tragi

up. All the sheep have to come in. There are no shepherds to be got

l,-'rain or shine-rheumatism or not-this day

vanhoe: "Gurth, the son of Beowulf, is the born thrall of Cedric of Rotherwood"? Seems

lined damsel. 'The feudal system had an amazing deal of goo

e, Mrs. Devereux. Fortunately the rain's general, so we

man's fancy lightly tur

llel is sound. Of course it alw

t differently. The 'wanton lapwing' would not get himself another cr

wise, even with the dumb and feathered tribes. The wild-fowl do come down i

t will be a dry spring. That being the case, we are not going to pair, or build, or lay eggs, or going through

y do no

eaches the birds of the air? How d

family to provide for, no presents, no trousseaux-

ottage at the Bree Bree station, which he had managed for him successfully for several years, after which Dick's marriage with Mary Newcome was to take place, they having been engaged, as was well known to the neighbours here,

h 'ran' Wawanoo Creek in half an hour, and narrowly escaped devoting Bertram Devereux to the unappeased deities of the waste as a befit

laced by a team of brown horses, admirably matched, thorough-bred, and said to be the most valuable turn-out in work on this side of the line. Acidulated persons, as usual, made exclamation to the effect that 'they never could see what there was in that girl; some people had wonderful luck; boldness and assurance seemed to take better than any other qualities with the men nowadays,' and so on. But when gradually it oozed out that there was no triumphant proclamation of engagement after all, that Mr. MacCallum was going to England, could not be back for two or three years, etc.-all of which certainly pointed to the fact of his proposals having been declined, imposs

But in vain. Under other conditions, men of his age and attributes have been frequently successful, to the wrath and astonishment of younger rivals. But circumstances have been in their favour. Poverty, ignorance of the world,

that she would never marry any one unless she was in love with him ardently, passionately, romantically, without any manner of doubt. People might come and tr

ank from the idea of giving him so much pain. Mr. MacCallum exaggerated his probable agonies in such a way that a weaker woman might probab

hness for many a day. Drought, debts, dingoes, travelling sheep, were all as nothing to this crowning disaster. Everything e

mes and frets for a week or two, and probably says, 'Confound the girl! I thought she really liked me.' Then he falls back upon the time-honoured calculation-a most arithmetically correct one-of those 'other fish in the sea.' Claret has

aring within two years with an exceedingly handsome and lady-like wife, who did full justice to his many