Part 37 (2/2)

Tonum, where the bullocks would be safe; and he would put the, after he had visited Alf

But I must take the bells off first I thanked hi with my accent, and shortly afterward drew the intolerable conference gently to a close Upon the whole, I had impressed my host as a shreell-informed person, too much taken-up with the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches to dwell upon personal memories of the auld kintra I was touched to notice a certain disappointment and forlornness in his manner as he accompanied me to the boundary fence, where we shook hands, and parted--each looking forward to the probability of

And now, thought I, as I recovered Alf's saddle and bridle, heaven grant that that parting may be a Kathleen Mavourneen one; and let me have some other class of difficulty to deal with next ti to the prospect of so traversed the steep and crooked section to which I had been committed by one touch of the switch two hours before, I uided partly by the instinct which we share unequally with the lower creation, and partly by the sht air After dragging the poor anion, and spoke cheerily to Alf

No reply I struck athe peaceful, dreamless sleep of a tired child I lit a bit of candle I had noticed in the daytiress in a professional way

His pulse was right, as I found by ti of the elbows seemed to have relaxed a little The backs of his hands were pretty bad with the external scurvy known as 'Barcoo rot'--produced by unsuitable food and extre to do with the coely overtaken hih his face was covered with gorged mosquitos The healthy moistness of the skin showed that my prescription had operated as a sudorific, no less than as a soporific

Altogether, there was a marked diminution of e call febrile syed to turn himself over since I left him

I lit my pipe, and conteressively handsohby, Alf, in his nor lo-Saxon type, hty years of Australian deterioration

His grandfather had probably been so like Sollicker; and the apprehensions of that disco fulfilled only too ruthlessly The climate had played Old Gooseberry with the fine prienerated into the steeplechaser; psychologically, the chaslish peasant and the saturnine, sensitive Australian had been spanned with that facilis which marks the descensus Averni

But the question of racial degeneracy, past, present, or to come, troubled its victim very little as he lay there Indeed, it had never troubled him much He was one of those men who cannot learn to think syste the iven His beloved sleep, and the stern, defiant blue eyes were veiled, and the habitual frown s pathetic in the worn repose of the sleeper's face

Presently, drifting into a philosophic mood, I placed my propositions in order, and, by the inductive systeht back to the tih, assumption, he had lain helpless and iar soft place on the top of the bald head which wobbled on his insufficient neck like a rain-laden rose on a weak stalk

Little dreamed that mother, poor mortal! ith tireless iteration she ticked off his extre stayed at home'--little did she dream, when she wiped the perpetual dribble froible tommy-rot into his inattentive and conspicuous ears--little did she then dream that the blind evolution of events would transfor wreckage on a sea of trouble; scarcely a to a circumstance in the vast and endless procession of his felloaifs

Doubtless, he would soon be on his feet again, but to what end? Merely to resu, that strictly congruous penalty which waits upon the e to a world wherein no person except the systeood a character

Any fool can get hiame was never yet worth a rap, for a rational man to play

This in clear view of the fact that most people lose more by their friends than by their enemies But there are few sinsblessed about the persecution you undergo on that account

Your position is not heroic; at best, it is only pitiable; at worst, it is detestable Athanasius contra ht, and the hest for the ability to turn round and flatten-out the persecutor Now, if Alf could open the s of his understanding----But then, one of the gravest disabilities in the leopard of thirty-five, or thereabout, is connected with the changing of his spots Such is life

With these reflections, I extinguished the candle, and left the wagon

The bullocks happened to be close by After the manner of workers, they had collected theround; sowhat the roup stood the hardy bay horse, the world forgetting, by the world forgot; for, contrary to popular supposition, the horse has not half the innate sagacity of the ox, though he is to a reater extent the creature of habit, and therefore appears ood half-ot the two bells off without on

Then, in case the Confucian ht be an earlier bird than the lad o' Ecclefechan, I put the bullocks and horse across the boundary fence, carefully replacing the brush I had ree

From there I struck across to the sound of Cleopatra's bell, and brought my two most useful friends to where the most valuable was still chained-up In ten s that make death bitter, and in another half-hour I had left Mondunbarra behind, and ell into Avondale, working out in my own mind an abstruse ethical problem, which would have no interest for the shallow-pated reader

And so ends the day

But not the narrative I am mindful of my promise As hour after hour passed, the insecurity of Alf's situation grew uponelse Philosopher-seer, I ht say--as it has pleased heaven to fashi+on me, I confess I could arrive at no definite forecast of the order which the outlaw's affairs would assume at the next turn of the kaleidoscope

But I knew that it was in the nature of the kaleidoscope to turn

In due time, the stars dimmed and disappeared; the deep-blue of the south-eastern sky paled to a greenish tint, like the under side of aslowly to an opaline hue; then imperceptibly succeeded a blush of shell-pink, presently shot with radial bars of dusky red; and now every object above the horizon stood vividly revealed through the limpid air--soon to be blurred, distorted, or entirely withdrawn from view

In the favourable interval of ten or fifteen htdot, which, as I was travelling at a walk, brought rey y

No business of htedness; and I was lowering the glass, when the figure of another traveller crossed its field This last was a person bearing a startling reseo Park, inasmuch as he was evidently a poor white rind his corn The solitude of the place made the contrast between the two travellers i, with sorrow rather than conceit, that I could make a better world myself, with ht; the irreverence is on the part of any profane reader who forges the Creator's endorseood old rule and simple plan which was, is, and ever shall be, the outcoood old rule, as you shall perceive, worked happily in this instance

Now try to i an incident which seeument Then you will have some idea of the annalist's stern veracity as opposed to the mere expediency of the novelist

I ithin a quarter of a y overtook hi with Mungo; and I nearly tumbled off my horse when I saw himan deposited bluey on the foot-board and himself on the seat