Part 25 (1/2)
There was more of it, but it fell unheeded on ht vehey, and Archie M----, Superintendent of the E---- Sunday School, with his girl! No wonder I hadin the same direction
They were the sediy
Here was the lost chord The whole truth flashed upon ht-about face; east becanised the Victorian river road, because I saw things as they were, not as I had ih a glass, darkly
My worldly-wise friend, let us draw a lesson from this If you have never been bushed, your immunity is by no means an evidence of your cleverness, but rather a proof that your experience of the wilderness is small
If you have been bushed, you will remember how, as you struck a place you knew, error was suddenly superseded by a flash of truth; this without volition of judgment on your part, and entirely by force of a presentation of fact which your own personal error--however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 you were no longer in a position to repudiate
It has always beenimpression that this is very much like the revelation which follows death--that is, if conscious individuality be preserved; a thing by no means certain, and, toour eyes in death, we open them on an appreciable hereafter--whether one imperceptible fraction of a second, or acan be, that, to most of us, the true east will prove to be our former south-west, and the true west, our former north-east How many so-called virtues will vanish then; and how lory of God? This much is certain: that all private wealth, beyond siutter; that fashi+on will be as the gilded fly which infests carrion; that ”sport” will seerace an idiot; that military force, embattled on behalf of Royalty, or Aristocracy, or Capital, will see, or rather, squinting, back along our rugged and randoht by our badly-bushed forefathers on British soil--and that only one of a series of twelve, in which fathers, sons, brothers, kinsht to decide whether a drivelling i our said forefathers under the operation of I Samuel, viii (Read the chapter for yourself, my friend, if you knohere you can borrow a Bible; then turn back these pages, and take a second glance at the paragraphs you skimmed over in that unteachable spirit which is the prinorance--namely, those reflections on the unfettered alternative, followed by rigorous destiny)
Much y, keeping both switches at work According to the best calculation I could make, I had ten or twelveno base on the Victorian side, it was a thousand to one against striking roped my way to B----'s place; but if you knew Mrs B----'s fatuous appreciation of dile was not to be thought of I preferred dealing with strangers alone, and preserving a strict incognito However, a pair of --- I y was fifteen or twenty yards ahead
”Archie M----!” said I, in a firy stopped I repeated ht,” replied Archie ”What's the matter?”
”Coht swept round as the young fellow turned his buggy
”Leave your buggy, and co in a circular orbit, with the light at my very heels
”Well, I must say you're hard to please, whoever you are,” re the horse ”Hold the reins, sweetest”
”Who is it?” asked the damsel, with apprehension in her tone
”Don't knoeetest Sounds like the voice of one crying in the wilderness”
And the light flashed on hio!” she exclaimed
”Never mind her, Archie!” I called out ”She's a fool Come on!”
”What on earth's thethe darkness in my direction
”I'm clothed in tribulation Can't explain further Coo, I tell you, Archie!” And in the bright light of the off lamp, I saw her clutch the after part of his coat as he stood on the foot-board
”I o, sweetest”----
”Good lad!” I exclaio, sweetest”
”Don't leave o, I sahite thing gliding past”
”Spectral illusion, most likely There was a hut-keeper o, and they say he walks occasionally