The Crooked Stick

n by Mrs. Devereux. Both ladies were heartily glad when the wooded heights of the Britain of the South rose

the Gate Pah, and had in his day killed (and eaten) many a tribal foe. Upon the brilliant verdure of the pasture refreshed by the perennial moisture of a sea-girdled isle, the hawthorn hedges, the roadside ditches, the old-world English look of so many things and people, she was nev

incredible. Fancy a country without crows! There must be something wrong about it. What would Mr. Gateward say? And such grass! If we only could have "travelled" over here

he mother. 'I don't like to hear you talk lightly about such things. Se

s little New Zealand dot, there is no habitable land between us and the South Pole. Oh! I forgot the Crozets-those islands where the ship was wrecked,

ven, and the party with which they had amalgamated proce

adequately, who depict with a tithe of the fresh brilliant col

ches, neuralgia, nervous systems, toothaches, and shortened lives. These noble Maoris never have headaches, except from too much rum-which is only a transient, not a chronic ailment-but unfailing appetite, health, strength a

afraid you are going out of your mind. It will never do for you to go

is; I don't want to be "bonneted" metaphorically (that's rather neat, dear, between ourselves) because my headgear is not up to the fashionable cousins' standard.

road. I don't wish my pet to affect anything, either below or above her. You have great natural gifts, a fairly good education, and what experience you are defic

o clever too-if you were not so unreasonably diffident about yourself. However, I will educate

our gay companions would undergo a terrible alteration. The dread messenger had arrived who was to exact 'the teind for hell.' Thus it ran in the old ballad. So Tru

ie-like 'ancient thrones'-in the workrooms of scientists and positivists. Yet still is there a flavour of the old-world belief which clings about us. Remorse and regret, passion and despair, survive. And even as we return from the land of pleasure al

one of indefinable regret. 'I could almost wish we had never left home, mother,' she said; 'everything will look so quiet and dull till we regain our eyesight. It looks mean and ungrateful to the dear old place

rden will be looking so well, as I see that they have had rain. I quite p

ient groves of totara and kauri, the ferny dells of Waitaki! It seems like growing mustard and cress upon a yard of

on every side-the gates all of the same pattern-the hundreds of thousands of merino sheep, each unit undistinguishable from another save by the eye of experience-the blue heaven-the mirage-the boundar

meet the home-returning travellers. The evident pleasure in each face touched the girl's heart, and she pressed the gnarled hand of the oversee

said Mr. Devereux, with his usual calmness of intonation, though a flush on his ordinar

e for travel, once acquired, is never shaken off-by women at any rate.

is too glad to see us to make rude speeches. Don't we enjoy coming home lik

tretching her neck to look over the garden paling. 'I want rest, an

Mrs. Devereux,' said Bertram. 'Anything more uniform, not to say monotonous, than our lives here in you

old, 'which is likely to cause a stir in the district. It's

ything is better than the dead level of dulne

rs are "out." They shot dead one of the escort troopers from Denman Gaol to Berrima

htened; but now that they have shed blood, and must suffer if taken, they ar

course, all over the district. Sergeant Herne passed Maroobil in an old slouched hat and plain clothes, but on

'The outlaws are miles away by this time, and can easily cross the bo

. The police force of this colony is well organised. Mossthorne is a horseman, a bushm

with his quiet sneer, 'one would be saved the bother of think

if they got away to the "Never Never country," and were not heard of again. Mossthorne worked for me once. He was a fine manly young fellow, and I have always regretted deeply that he g

eux. 'The sooner they are hanged or shot the better, and I should

crimmage,' said the other; 'but I can't help mourning over a good man s

he sad memories of the past were awakened. She took the first opportunit

st next morning. 'It does seem so hard to have been shut up here while we were in Fairy-land-were we n

t? I was just thinking that we need not have hurried back. Did

ere was more sarcasm than merriment. 'I was afraid to trust myself within

inquired Pollie, with mock humility. 'Did Yo

The men were better than I expected. Rather fast, perhaps. Their manners lacked repose. They took care no one else should have any, as they kept it up all nigh

antry,' said Pollie; 'he must have been

r necks broken and the smash general; but all came right by a mira

red?' queried Pollie, with a disdainful and disappro

Thoresby, a Suffolk man, whose cousin I was quartered with once. They had just been investing in a sugar plantation, and were going to make a fortune in three years. On

saucily, 'that any one should have a decent establishme

ne disposition, I own. I didn't expect anything when I came here. But perh

o ourselves. But what always entertains me about you recent importations is the mild air of surprise with which you regard the smallest evidence that th

t, surely? That m

ation: how else would the miraculous progress have been effected? The

rnings when tranquil Nature seemed assured against change, disturbance, or decay-the dreamy afternoons-the long, quiet evenings divided between books, music, and an occasional game of whist for Mrs. Devereux's entertainment when Harol

feelings towards him. With his accustomed patience he had accepted the position, and merely set himself to overcome her

he is thrown away. The type is more common than with us, and he has the fatal drawback, in the eyes of our prima donna, of too early, too familiar, too brotherly an intimacy. She knows him like a book. With the perverse instinct of her sex, she despises the well-read, dog's-eared volume, full of high thought and purpose, and longs for a newer work-inferior, possibly, as it may be, but with uncut pages. I shall win this game, I

anner, or one so trifling that it could hardly be perceived, had taken place. Still, like the swimmer on the smoothly gliding tide whi

have laughed the prophecy to scorn. But now, when with pensive brow and thoughtful air she searched its recesses, and examined the feelings which held possession of h

he knew that Bertram Devereux had lived much in society in early life; had been of the haute volée of the great world both in England and abroad. Was it possible that he

d not be hers, she told herself. He who for gold or light love forfeited his pledged word was a forsworn coward. She could not for an instant brook the idea of being mentally compared with the former occupant of a heart every pulse of which should beat for her and her alone. She knew that every thought, every aspiration, every fibre of her being would be blended in the existence of her lover. Proud, sensitive, unconsciously exacting, even j

rld of West Logan was apparently stationary. The vast green prairies were commencing to grow yellow before the warm breezes of the early summer; the days were lengthening; the dark-blue gold-fretted nights were sh

r various reasons, marched from one end of the territory to the other, or to the borders of other colonies. But one evening a shabbily-dre

im. He had been reading aloud to his cousin. Her work lay unheeded on the Pembroke table. 'Another of those confounded sheep "r

' said the girl. 'He does not lo

g over the lemon hedge which bounded the garden, exa

pur. He stoops as he sits in his saddle. Mr. Gateward is looking very serious. W

ur boundary gate to-night. Wants to go the inner track, whe

looking man is Miles Herne, one of the smartest sergeants in the police force. He has been on the track of the two bushrangers. I saw him

rprised out of his usual equanimity. 'You must surely

There is a good deal of talent among our New South Wales troopers. There was Senior-Constable Ross, who used to be told off to catch sly grog-sellers. His get-up was wonderful. Once,