Part 1 (1/2)

Colonial Born

by G Firth Scott

CHAPTER I

THE ROMANCE OF TAYLOR'S FLAT

Where the road to the west fro dips down to the valley of Boulder Creek, a selection stretches out on the left-hand side, well cleared and fenced, and with the selector's ho back a couple of hundred yards froateway, open on to the half-worn track which runs from the roadway to the house; and on either side of it there are cultivation paddocks, the one verdant with lucerne, and the other picturesque with the grey sheen of iron-bark purowing vines

The house, unpretentious and substantial, has long since taken to itself the nondescript hue to which the Australian sun soon reduces the unpainted surface of hard-wood slabs and shi+ngles A square, heavy chimney, s roof at one end, and a roughly fashi+oned verandah runs along the front of the house, the opposite end to where the chi occupied by an odd collection of water-tanks By the side of the door, and under shelter of the verandah, a saddle is standing on end, while a bridle hangs fros is near the water-tanks, with a short-handled axe stuck in an upturned stu-block

Behind the house a few gum trees in the paddocks lead the eye to where the untouched bush grows thick and soth of crowded ti-barked trees, where the sunlight plays upon theainst the dark purple-blue of the distant foliage Towards the valley of the creek the land slopes away, and over the course of the streas in the hot air, beyond which the high table-land on the other side rises like a ridge, the deep tones of its shadows so strongly iainst the clear transparency of the sky that it seems to be wonderfully near, until the stretch of vapoury haze below corrects the trick of vision The roadway, as it passes the boundary fence of the selection, glea behind the clustering trees and bushes, it disappears

It is a scene fair to look upon, either to one in search of change and contrast, or to one whose perceptions are softened by the glamour and charm of Australian association; but especially to the y and toil made the bush yield at that one point to the needs of civilization He, stolid, hard-working bush beyond what he terraft and square meals,” leaned over his slip-rails and looked up and down the road, wondering what else a man wants for contentment beyond work, food, and sleep

For years he had been a lonelyby himself in solitary bachelor simplicity, but withal contentedly, peacefully, happily

Fifteen miles down the creek there was a cattle station, but none of the station hands ever came round by the selection; and Taylor was never disposed, for the sake of a brief yarn, to ride the score of et to the men's huts A dozen miles to the east, over a stretch of timbered table-land, the nucleus of a bush townshi+p was struggling to assert itself, and thrive, in spite of the weighty handicap of the na, and the fact that, after five years'

existence, it had not succeeded in passing the prelie when a ”pub,” a store, a constable's cottage, and a post-officewith his own the offices of post both the branches of distributing industry, or, in bush parlance, ”running both the shanty and the store” There were other residents in the townshi+p besides these two;the road from the east to the west, some with business and some in search for it; some with a record they wanted to leave behind, and some with an empty past they hoped to turn into a well-filled future in the in western country; men of all qualities and shades of vice and virtue; stockold-seekers, fossickers, or prospectors; swagssmen who, as sundowners, only arrived at a station or a townshi+p too late in the day to be given work, but not too late to participate in the open hospitality of the bush; shepherds, selectors seeking land, and ti on to the scrubs of the table-land beyond the creek; but ht the population of the townshi+p up to tens, but never yet to hundreds, and who in a few days had gone further west--mostly--and whose places were taken by others

But to that townshi+p in the early days of its existence Taylor rarely went, for even a jests, and the man at whose expense they are made does not learn to appreciate the the them alive To the men of the townshi+p his selection, which he had proudly named Taylor's Flat, was known as Taylor's Folly; and the owner of it, dull-witted and slow of speech, was loth to face the raillery his presence always called forth

Away to the south, forty miles from the Flat, was another townshi+p, whither Taylor, when he first took up the land, was coo to pay the instalments of the purchase money to the local Government official On the occasion of the visit when the last instalment was paid, Taylor saw at the hotel, where he stayed the night, a fresh-faced ih in the country to lose the fresh, ruddy hue froh to be wearied by the heat and the worry, of which, experience taught, the ideal life she had dreamed about was really composed

Perhaps it was the colour on her cheeks; perhaps it was the winsome look which came into her eyes as he told her, in an unprecedented burst of confidence, of the quiet contentment of his life on the selection; but until he returned to it, in all the natural pride of actual proprietorshi+p, Taylor was unaware that anything had occurred to interfere with the even tenor of his existence As it was, everything see bulk of the largest puht enthusias, when the sun was nearing the horizon, with his pipe between his lips, and his legs stretched out in front of him, in well-earned rest, under the shelter of his verandah, was no longer manifest; his own society and the coht no coely restless and uneasy It was not in the nature of the man to reason it out, but dimly into his mind there came a connection between the state of affairs and his visit to the southern townshi+p There had been a light spring-cart in the place which had attracted his fancy and roused as , and to that he attributed his dissatisfaction, persuading hi back all the old lethargic content of his life

He returned to the townshi+p, and peace ca, bare table which occupied the centre of the living-rooirl brought to hiuely the idea cairl at his homestead would be a decided improvement to the loneliness he had for the first time experienced on his return from his former visit to the townshi+p, and with characteristic brevity he estion to her that if she were in want of another place, he was prepared to offer her one at his selection, where she would have no mistress but herself, and none to attend to but him She jumped at the chance of peace and quiet in the bush, and closed upon his offer there and then

Two days later, Taylor, peaceful and contented, was returning to the selection, driving the spring-cart which had roused his fancy, and in which there also travelled his wife--the red-cheeked girl--and her few belongings

For a ti ell, and both yielded to the conviction that they had obtained all that was necessary to insure their earthly happiness Then the life began to pall

She was the first to feel it Brisk and energetic, she was through with her house-work before the day wasterribly on her hands, for the peace and calrow very oing all the day out on his land, but she had nothing when the work round the house was done He, moreover, had the chance of an occasional chat with a passing traveller along the road; but she never sao her first year at the Flat, and however much a woman may scorn the companionshi+p of her sisters when she is surrounded by the when she is cut off froether

As the months passed on into the year, and his wife coman to wonder to hie business”

At the end of the first year, on his visit to the southern townshi+p for his stores, he took his ith hi-cart, and they spent a few days at the hotel where she had previously been eed hands in the mean ti the stay, and on the return journey, there was no sign of the acrid temper his wife had displayed at the selection; but as soon as they were hoain it broke out When he was in the house she railed at hirumbled, as soon as he returned, at his absence

He left the house before a furious outburst which he was quite unable to understand, and, passing down the track to the slip-rails, leaned upon the the riddle An old sundowner, chancing to pass along the road, stopped in the hopes of a yarn But Taylor was in nohily poured out his tale to the old ested that perhaps the cause of it all lay in the worry and trouble of the children, or, as he termed them, kids ”There ain't no kids,”