The Book of the Bush, George Dunderdale [top 100 books to read .TXT] 📗

branch will snap, and he will fall and break his neck, the wretch. Oh, I assure you we thought of everything beforehand; for I know you keep a lot of boys bad enough to steal anything."

"And what sort of a mate-husband, I mean-have you got?"

"Oh, he is a perfect gentleman, and so attentive to me. Latterly he has been a little crusty, I must admit; but you must not say a word against him. If you do, I'll peck your eyes out. A family, you know, is so troublesome, and it takes all your time to feed them. There are two of them, the duckiest little fluffy darlings you ever saw. They were very hungry this morning, so when I saw you digging I knew you wouldn't begrudge them a breakfast, and I just flew down here for it. But bless my soul, the little darlings will be screaming their hearts out with hunger while I am talking to you, and himself will be swearing like a Derviner. So, by-by."

Philip found Maggie's mansion easily enough; for, in spite of all her chatter, she had no depth of mind. The tallest gum-tree was on Barlow's farm which adjoined the forty-acre on the east. Barlow had been a stockman for several years on Calvert's run, and had saved money. He invested his money in the Bank of Love, and the bank broke. It happened in this way.

A new shepherd from the other side was living with his wife and daughter near the Rises, and one day when Barlow was riding over the run, he heard some strange sounds, and stopped his horse to listen. There was nobody in sight in any direction, and Barlow said, "There's something the matter at the new shepherd's hut," and he rode swiftly towards it. As he approached the hut, he heard the screams of women and the voice of a blackfellow, who was hammering on the door with his waddy. He was a tame blackfellow who had been educated at the Missionary Station. He could write English, say prayers, sing hymns, read the Bible, and was therefore named Parson Bedford by the Derviners, after the Tasmanian Missionary. He could box and wrestle so well that few white men could throw him. He could also drink rum; so whenever he got any white money he knew how to spend it. He was the best thief and the worst bully of all the blacks about Nyalong, because he had been so well educated. I knew him well, and attended his funeral, walking in the procession with the doctor and twenty blackfellows. He had a white man's funeral, but there was no live parson present, so king Coco Quine made an oration, waving his hands over the coffin, "All same as whitefellow parson," then we all threw clods on the lid.

So much noise was made by the women screaming and the Parson hammering, that the stockman was able to launch one crack of his stock-whip on the Parson's back before his arrival was observed. The Parson sprang up into the air like a shot deer, and then took to his heels. He did not run towards the open plains, but made a straight line for the nearest part of the Rises. As he ran, Frank followed at an easy canter, and over and over again he landed his lash with a crack like a pistol on the behind of the black, who sprang among the rough rocks which the horse could not cross, and where the lash could not reach him.

[ILLUSTRATION 3.]

Then there was a parley. The Parson was smarting and furious. He had learned the colonial art of blowing along with the language. He threw down his waddy and said:

"You stockman, Frank, come off that horse, drop your whip, and I'll fight you fair, same as whitefellow. I am as good a man as you any day."

"Do you take me for a blooming fool, Parson? No fear. If ever I see you at that hut again, or anywhere on the run, I'll cut the shirt off your back. I shall tell Mr. Calvert what you have been after, and you'll soon find yourself in chokey with a rope round your neck."

The Parson left Nyalong, and when he returned he was dying of rum and rheumatism.

Frank rode back to the hut. The mother and daughter had stood at the door watching him flog the Parson. He was in their eyes a hero; he had scourged their savage enemy, and had driven him to the rocks. They were weeping beauties-at least the daughter was a beauty in Frank's eyes-but now they wiped away their tears, smoothed their hair, and thanked their gallant knight over and over again. Two at a time they repeated their story, how they saw the blackfellow coming, how they bolted the door, and how he battered it with his club, threatening to kill them if they did not open it.

Frank had never before been so much praised and flattered, at least not since his mother weaned him; but he pretended not to care. He said:

"Tut, tut, it's not worth mentioning. Say no more about it. I would of course have done as much for anybody."

Of course he could not leave the ladies again to the mercy of the Parson, so he waited until the shepherd returned with his flock.

Then Frank rode away with a new sensation, a something as near akin to love as a rough stockman could be expected to feel.

Neddy, the shepherd, asked Mr. Calvert for the loan of arms, and he taught his wife and daughter the use of old Tower muskets. He said, "If ever that Parson comes to the hut again, put a couple of bullets through him."

After that Frank called at the hut nearly every day, enquiring if the Parson had been seen anywhere abroad.

"No," said Cecily, "we haven't seen him any more;" and she smiled so sweetly, and lowered her eyes, and spoke low, with a bewitching Tasmanian accent.

Frank was in the mud, and sinking daily deeper and deeper. At last he resolved to turn farmer and leave the run, so he rented the land adjoining Philip's garden and the forty-acre. There was on it a four-roomed, weather-board house and outbuildings, quite a bush palace. Farming was then profitable. Frank ploughed a large paddock and sowed it with wheat and oats. Then while the grain was ripening he resolved to ask Cecily a very important question. One Sunday he rode to the hut with a spare horse and side saddle. Both horses were well groomed, the side saddle was new, the bits, buckles, and stirrup-irons were like burnished silver. Cecily could ride well even without a saddle, but had never owned one. She yielded to temptation, but with becoming coyness and modesty. Frank put one hand on his knee, holding the bridle with the other; then Cicely raised one of her little feet, was lifted lightly on to the saddle, and the happy pair cantered gaily over the plain to their future home.

Frank showed his bride-elect the land and the crops, the cows and the horses, the garden and the house. Cecily looked at everything, but said next to nothing. "She is shy," Frank thought, "and I must treat her gently." But the opportunity must not be thrown away, and on their way over the plains Frank told his tale of love. I don't know precisely what he said or how he said it, not having been present, but he did not hook his fish that day, and he took home with him the bait, the horse, and the empty side-saddle. But he persevered with his suit, and before the wheat was ripe, Cecily consented to be his bride.

He was so overjoyed with his success that instead of waiting for the happy day when he had to say "With this ring I thee wed, with all my worldly goods I thee endow," he gave Cecily the worldly goods beforehand-the horse, with the beautiful new side saddle and bridle-and nearly all his cash, reserving only sufficient to purchase the magic ring and a few other necessaries.

The evening before the happy day the pair were seen walking together before sundown on a vacant lot in the township, discussing, it was supposed, the arrangements for the morrow.

It was the time of the harvest, and Philip had been engaged to measure the work of the reapers on a number of farms. I am aware that he asked and received 1 pound for each paddock, irrespective of area. On the bridal morn he walked over Frank's farm with his chain and began the measurement, the reapers, most of them broken down diggers, following him and watching him. Old Jimmy Gillon took one end of the chain; he said he had been a chainman when the railway mania first broke out in Scotland, so he knew all about land surveying. Frank was absent, but he returned while Philip was calculating the wages payable to each reaper, and he said: "Here's the money, master; pay the men what's coming to 'em and send 'em away."

Frank looked very sulky, and Philip was puzzled. He knew the blissful ceremony was to take place that day, but there was no sign of it, nor of any bliss whatever; no wedding garments, no parson, no bride.

The bare matter of fact was, the bride had eloped during the night.

"For young Lochinvar had come out of the West, And an underbred, fine-spoken fellow was he."

He was a bullock-driver of superior manners and attractive personality, and was the only man in Australia who waxed and curled his moustaches. Cecily had for some time been listening to Lochinvar, who was known to have been endeavouring to "cut out" Frank. She was staying in the township with her mother preparing for matrimony, and her horse was in the stable at Howell's Hotel.

When Frank rode away to his farm on that fateful evening, Lochinvar was watching him. He saw Cecily going home to her mother for the last night, and while he was looking after her wistfully, and the pangs of despairing love were in his heart, Bill the Butcher came up and said:

"Well, Lock, what are you going to do?"

"Why, what can I do? She is going to marry Frank in the morning."

"I don't believe it: not if you are half the man you ought to be."

"But how can I help it?"

"Help it? Just go and take her. Saddle your horse and her own, take 'em up to the cottage, and ask her just to come outside for a minute. And if you don't persuade her in five minutes to ride away with you to Ballarat, I'll eat my head off. I know she don't want to marry Frank; all she wants is an excuse not to, and it will be excuse enough when she has married you."

These two worthy men went to the Hotel and talked the matter over with Howell. The jolly landlord slapped his knee and laughed. He said: "You are right, Bill. She'll go, I'll bet a fiver, and here it is, Lock; you take it to help you along."

This base conspiracy was successful,