Part 6 (1/2)
”What's a shi+p-chandler?” demanded Mosey
”A man that supplies candles to shi+ps,” I replied
”This uncle he'd had a saw-ive the saw- feller on sort o' tiot on splendid for a couple or three year; an' his wife had one picaninny--so we come to hear--an' suddenly he balled her out with soot hearsay for it, ht to happen Anyhow, the hand of God was on hiot it hot an' heavy
Accordin' to accounts, he sold out, an' give her the bulk o' the cash, an' then he travelled Last year, out on the Namoi, a man told me he seen hiht be hiht n't I don't know, an' I don't want to know; for he's done all the harot to thank him for all my troubles On'y for him, I'd 'a' been livin' cos not once every three year on a average; but sometimes when you think I'm pleasant an' cheerful, I'm fair ith thinkin' about that blasted cur; an' you chaps fetched hiirl--is she still at home?” asked Thompson
”No,” replied Cooper hoarsely; ”she's somewhere at the bottom o' the Hawkesbury river; an' there's no more home About three or four year after her accident, I ay in Sydney one time, on soone She'd left a letter forto live for; an' we'd rave; an' I must always think kind of her; an' to remember ole times, when there was on'y the two of us; an' prayin' God to bless ood to her--Why it knocked me stiff, for I'd always been a selfish, unfeelin'”----He stopped abruptly; he had uttered the last sentences only by a strong effort
Presently Dixon, pitying his eratuitously lively tone, and with diction too florid for exact reproduction,
”Say--was I tellin' you I seen that white bullock you swapped to Cartwright las' year? I think he's gittin' a cancer; ht; I would n't say An' that lyin' (individual), Ike Cunninghaht got him”
”Ah!” replied Thompson absently
”What beco to Cooper
”I'll answer that question, but not to satisfy you,” replied Cooper coldly
”Well, chaps, when pore Molly's day was fixed, I scraped up a hundred notes, an' borrered two hundred on the place, to give her a start when the thing took place My ole dad he left everything to h He did n't want towas squashed--me, like a fool, I was advised to lay the money out in minin' shares for Molly; an' then I kep' risin' ot sort o'story short, the whole (adj) thing went to (sheol)
It was goin' that road when I seen the last o' pore Molly; an' when I lost her, I jist roused round an' got a tea the lyin', cheatin' (financiers) told ittin' on for--let's see--Molly enty-three when she got her accident, an' it was three year after when she o, so she'd be thirty-five if she was alive now
She need n't 'a' done it! O, she should n't 'a' done it!-- for she'd the satisfaction o' knowin' the curse that co!
I told her all the particulars I got, thinkin' to satisfy her; but I believe it on'y done her harm, for the end coe, lookin' back at it, to think how siran'father's old hoot a trace of your sister?” asked Thoone to Ao? Me an' the Ryans-- that was the married couple we had--we knowed most about it, an' we cared h we done everything that could be done
She went away at night, an' took nothing with her--not a single iteive what little I got, an' walk a thousand mile on to the back of it, to see her pore bones buried safe, an' then I'd be satisfied”
Cooper sighed deeply, and lit his pipe; then, for a tiht was broken only by the faint jingle of the horses' hobble-chains, and the sound of sorass
”The rath
”Mind you, it was friendly of Nu I ever knowed him to do He ain't the clean spud”
”He's ill-natured, certainly,” observed Thoeneral rule, the ht down to the level of the blackfellow, the better bushamybob, that he comes as near the blackfellow”----
”Hold on,” interrupted Dixon, whose private conversation with bum had caused him to lose step in the amybob--bar sells?”
”I wish somebody would fetchhis subject in pointed rebuke of Dixon's behaviour
”I'd rather perish than go for it et it It's Cooper's fault When he keeps the meat fresh, it walks away; and when he packs it in salt, and then roasts it in the pan-- like this evening--you can see the salt all over it like frost