Part 26 (2/2)

Sufficient unto the day---- And I dropped asleep

Here the record properly ends I have faithfully recounted the events of the 9th of November, at what cost to my own sensibilities none but myself can ever know But the one foible of my life is a off abruptly whenthe reader to conclude that I woke up ata dream The dream expedient is the mere romancist's transparent shi+ft--and he is fortunate in always having one at coh transparency should, of course, be avoided

The dream-expedient vies in puerility with the hero's rescue of the heroine fro that has actually happened about twice since the happily-named, and no less happily extinct, helladotherium disported itself on the future site of Eden I am no romancist

I repudiate shi+fts, and stand or fall by the naked truth

Therefore, though legal risk here takes the place of outraged sensibility, I shall proceed with the record of the next day, till e-hearted order of another herring, the foolish reader will be instructed, the integrity of narrative preserved, and the linked sacrifice long drawn-out And if, in the writing of annotations yet to coencies of annalism should demand a repetition of this rather irant it without fishi+ng for co the recipient of hisfairer than that

It was good daylight when I woke, a little chilled and s the worse Let me endeavour to describe the scene which I stealthily, but carefully, surveyed during the next feweast and west, lay about three-quarters of abut heavy tirowth The eastern prospect was , deep lagoon lay north and south, the intervening ground being covered hipstick scrub Beyond the lagoon, a large proed, projected northward from the road into the State Forest Beyond this, still eastward, the river tiain came out to the road

A roo from one of the chimneys, stood almost opposite my point of observation, and about a hundred yards distant, whilst a garden occupied the space between the house and the lagoon

At the north side of the garden, the lagoon was divided by a dry isthmus

The nearer boundary fence of the far the edge of the lagoon, the lower line of garden-fence forress to the river frontage

Again, opposite ht, a deep, orn drain caoon; and between this drain and the house stood a little, old, sooty-looking straw-stack, worn aith the Duke-of-Argyle friction of cattle to the similitude of a monstrous, black-toppedover a hundred yards from the house, and about the same distance from my camp The paddock intersected by the drain was bare fallow--that is, land ploughed in readiness for the next year's sowing There were several other old straw-stacks on different parts of the far to do with this record

Away beyond the farht of the river tinised the F----'s Arht, but shut out of view by a paddock of green tiht of the pub--a white speck in the distance-- suggested to my mind an expedient, which, however, I had to disning his first abdication, walked restlessly about, with his hands behind his back, , ”If I only had a hundred thousand men!” Similarly, as I contemplated that pub, I muttered, ”If I only had a handful of corks!” Ay, if! My prototype wanted the nity, whilst I wanted the corks to assist ood many people, from Smerdis to Perkin Warbeck, na similar, you see, even apart from the fact that neither of us found any truth in Touchstone's statement, that ”there is reat kings Jacky XLVIII, under whose mild sway I have spent many peaceful years, wears clothes exactly when it suits his comfort When his royal pleasure is to eoes that way; thus literally excelling Soloence has stripped hi-power ends, and his own begins European monarchs will do well to paste a memorandum of this inside their diadems, for, let them paint an inch thick, to this favour they must come at last

Howevers that is their business My own Royalhies of attire--the put-on, the take-off, or the go-naked--and if I could only counterfeit his colour for a few hours, I would stalk alia, and protected by the divinity that doth hedge a king But I had no corks

The homestead was cheerful with voices which reached h the still e of the fallow, and stand for athe direction of the old straw-stack; then she looked over her shoulder toward the house, and called out,

”Can any of you see Jim comin' with that horse? Father'll be ready in a minute, and then there'll be ructions”

A little boy cliarden fence, and stood on the corner post

”Not comin' yet, Mam”

Mam went back to the house, and the boy followed her Here was raphy of the place was so perfectly suited to the siest to the suspicious reader a romancist's shi+ft, diaphanous as the ”woven wind” of Dacca Letis entirely out of my line, and would have been so even at that ti myself of the abundant cover of whipstick scrub, I oon, swa position, till I could ”moon” the house with the old stack, and finally took my post in a convenient recess on the side of the stack farthest froh, there was a cattle-track across the fallow and a culvert on the drain close todown that track toward the house And, as ht appear more compatible with the nature of an alien than of a Britisher, I would accost hin accent, statejoor

I sat doith ainst the stack to recover breath, for already Jiallop, and in two minutes ithin fifty yards Then hope for a season bade the world farewell, and a cold shi+ver ran downfrom my niche, I desperately tore down handfuls of Irish feathers fro eave, to for wo; the fine contour of her figure displayed with an amazonian audacity which seemed to make her nearly as horrid as myself My broet with honest shilst, fro the horse aside froer-begotten fascination by trifles which, in situations like mine, youin easy undulation to the horse's flying leap

And so, with that thick cable of platted hair flapping and surging down her back, she vanished frolea was one of the quickest and fullest I ever experienced

It was soain

Then I crept to the corner of the stack, and reconnoitred the homestead

Near the back-door, Ji on her head, was taking up the slack of the girth with her teeth, whilst her left hand, grasping the rein close to the horse'sa piece out of her Presently Dad trotted out of the house and took possession of the horse, while she stepped back a pace Then she seereat pith andher At last he returned hastily into the house, leaving the horse again in her charge