struck her, and she had to laugh, and a rum laugh it was,
with both eyes bunged up. Then she got hysterical, and started to cry,
and father put his arm round her shoulder and ordered us out of the house.

"They were very fond of each other, the old people were, under it all --
right up to the end. . . . Ah, well!"

Mitchell pulled the swags out of a bunk, and started to fasten
the nose-bags on.




Andy Page's Rival



Tall and freckled and sandy,
Face of a country lout;
That was the picture of Andy --
Middleton's rouseabout.
On Middleton's wide dominions
Plied the stock-whip and shears;
Hadn't any opinions ------

And he hadn't any "ideers" -- at least, he said so himself --
except as regarded anything that looked to him like what he called
"funny business", under which heading he catalogued tyranny, treachery,
interference with the liberty of the subject by the subject,
"blanky" lies, or swindles -- all things, in short,