Good Lord, how the poor fellow groaned when he begun to get warm! I
gave him a pannikin full o' hot tea, with a drop o' grog in it, and
that seemed to make him awful bad. At last he said, with the sweat
from sheer agony pouring down his face, "Look here, matey: couldn't
you hump me out in the snow again? for it aint nigh so bad to bear
it cold as it is to bear it hot." Not a bad word did he say, ma'am,
and he tried not to give in more nor he could help; but he was clean
druv wild with the hanguish in his legs.

"Presently I remembers, quite sudden like, that a bush doctor, name
of Tomkins, was likely to be round by Simmons, cos' o' his missus.
So I got on my 'oss in a minnit, and I rides off and fetches him,
for sure enough he was there; and though Simmons' missis wasn't to
say over her troubles, she spoke up from behind the curtain of red
blanket she had put up in her tidy little hut, and bade old Tomkins
go with me. May God bless her and hers for that same, say I! Well,
ma'am, when Tomkins come back with me and saw the poor fellow (he
was fair shoutin' with the pain in his legs by then), he said
nothin' could be done. "They'll mortify by morrow mornin'," says
he, "and then he'll die easy." So with that he goes back with the
first light next day, to Simmons. Sure enough, the poor fellow did
get a bit easier next day, and I felt clear mad to think he was
goin' to die before my very eyes. "Not if I can help it!" I cries,
quite savage like. But he only smiled a patient smile, and said,
"God's will be done, mate. He knows best, and I aint in any pain to
speak of, now."

"By and bye I hears a rumbling and a creaking, and cracking of
whips; and when I looks out, what do I see but the bullock-dray from
Simmons' coming up the flat. It was the only thing on wheels within