Gordon Stables

“ Only damper and beef, washed down by a billyful of the clear water, which, strange to say, was wonderfully cool.
When the sun was sinking low on the forest-clad horizon, there was a joyful but half-suppressed shout from Craig and his men. Part of the herd was in sight, quietly browsing up a creek.
Gentleman Craig pointed them out to Archie; but he had to gaze a considerable time before he could really distinguish anything that had the faintest resemblance to cattle.
"Your eye is young yet to the Bush," said Craig, laughing, but not in any unmannerly way. ”

“ Yes, Archie, I'm sure of it. A better-hearted man doesn't live, rough and all as he is; and he has set his mind to doing the right thing for us all for your sake, lad, and so I say, think twice before you throw cold water over that big, warm heart of his."
"Well," said Archie, "when you put it in that light, I can see matters clearly. I wouldn't offend my good old Uncle Ramsay's friend for all the world. I'm sorry I ever appeared bluff with him. So you can let him do as he pleases."
And so Winslow did to a great extent.
Nor do I blame Bob and Harry for accepting his friendly assistance. ”

“ None more so than Elsie. She always gave promise of beauty; but now that Archie held her at arms' length, to look at and criticise, he could not help exclaiming right truthfully:
"Why, Elsie, you're almost as beautiful as Etheldene!"
"Oh, what a compliment!" cried Rupert. "I wouldn't have it, Elsie. That 'almost' spoils it."
"Just you wait till you see Etheldene, young man," said Archie, nodding his head. "You'll fall in love at once. I only hope she won't marry Gentleman Craig. And how is mother and father?" ”

“ Gentleman Craig had many stories and anecdotes to relate of the wild life he had had, that both Archie and Bob listened to with delight.
"I'll take one more walk around," said Craig, "then stretch myself on my downy bed. Will you come with me, Mr. Broadbent?"
"With pleasure," said Archie.
"Mind how you step then. Keep your whip in your hand, but on no account crack it. We have to use our intellect versus brute force. If the brute force became alarmed and combined, then our intellect would go to the wall, there would be another stampede, and another long ride to-morrow." ”

“ Rupert repeated the burial-service, or as much of it as he could remember; then the rude grave was filled, and as the earth fell over the chest of poor old-fashioned Findlayson, and Archie thought of all his droll and innocent ways, tears trickled over his face that he made no attempt to hide.
The men hauled the gates of a paddock off its hinges, and piled wood upon that, so that the wandering dingoes, with their friends the rooks, should be baulked in their attempts to gorge upon the dead. ”

“ Archie happened to be out in the forest when it first came on.
It had been a hot, still, sulphurous morning, which caused even the pet kangaroo to lie panting on his side. Then a wind came puffing and roaring through the trees in uncertain gusts, shaking the hanging curtains of climbing plants, rustling and rasping among the side-long leaved giant gums, tearing down tree ferns and lovely orchids, and scattering the scented bloom of the wattle in every direction.
With the wind came the clouds, and a darkness that could be felt. ”

“ Yes, Archie's hunt had been unsuccessful, though the day had not ended without adventure, and he had enjoyed the pleasures of the chase.
Bounder, the big Newfoundland, first took up the scent, and away he went with Fuss and Tackler at his heels, the others following as well as they could, restraining the dogs by voice and gesture. Through the spruce woods, through a patch of pine forest, through a wild tangle of tall, snow-laden furze, out into the open, over a stream, and across a wide stretch of heathery moorland, round quarries and rocks, and once more into a wood. ”

“ It put Archie in mind of a man going to sleep in the middle of his work, which is not at all the correct thing to do.
Well, there is nothing like a sailing ship after all for teaching one the virtue of patience; and at last Archie settled down to his sea life. He was becoming quite a sailor—as hard as the wheel-spokes, as brown as the binnacle. He was quite a favourite with the captain and officers, and with all hands fore and aft. Indeed he was very often in the forecastle or galley of an evening listening to the men's yarns or songs, and sometimes singing a verse or two himself. ”

“ Archie was unusually thoughtful one night while the family sat, as of yore, round the low fire in the green parlour, Elsie and Rupert being busy in their corner over a game of chess.
"In a brown study, Archie?" said his mother.
"No, mummie; that is, Yes, I was thinking——"
"Wonders will never cease," said Rupert, without looking up. Archie looked towards him, but his brother only smiled at the chessmen. The boy was well enough now to joke and laugh. Best of signs and most hopeful.
"I was thinking that my legs are almost too long now to go to the meet on poor Scallowa. ”

“ Alas! they seldom get farther than the cities. It is only the very best and boldest of them that reach the Bush, and there you may find them building fences or shearing sheep. If any kind of labour at all is going to make men of them, it is this.
Two minutes after Craig had been talking to Archie, the sweet, clear, ringing notes of his manly voice were awaking echoes far a-down the dark forest.
Parrots and parrakeets, of lovely plumage, fluttered nearer, holding low their wise, old-fashioned heads to look and listen. ”

“ This sable gentleman had enjoyed a good run, which made him hungry, and as happy as only a fox can be who knows the road through the woods and wilds to a distant burrow, where a bed of withered weeds awaits him, and where a nice fat hen is hidden. When Reynard had eaten his dinner and licked his chops, he laid down to sleep, no doubt laughing in his paw at the boy's futile efforts to capture or kill him, and promising himself the pleasure of a future moonlight visit to Burley Old Farm, from which he should return with the Ann hen herself on his shoulder. ”

“ Who is to be the commander of this little force?"
"Yourself," said Gentleman Craig, lifting his hat "You are boss of Burley Farm, and Mr. Cooper's dearest friend."
"Hear, hear!" cried several of the others.
"Perhaps it is best," said Archie, after a moment's thoughtful pause, "that I should take the leadership under the circumstances. But, Craig, I choose you as my second in command, and one whose counsel I will respect and be guided by."
"Thank you," said Craig; "and to begin with, I move we go straight back to Findlayson's farm. We are not too well armed, nor too well provisioned." ”

“ Archie really was what his father's friends called him, "a chip of the old block."
He was a kind of a lad, too, that grown-up men folks could not help having a good, romping lark with. Not a young farmer that ever came to the place could have beaten Archie at a race; but when some of them did get hold of him out on the lawn of an evening, then there would be a bit of fun, and Archie was in it.
These burly Northumbrians would positively play a kind of pitch and toss with him, standing in a square or triangle and throwing him hack and fore as if he had been a cricket ball. ”

“ You'll settle up. Well, we're all going to be settlers. Eh? See the joke?"
"Bob doesn't often say funny things," said Harry; "so it must be a fine thing to be going to get married."
"Ay, lad, and I'm going to do it properly. Worst of it is, Archie, I don't know anybody to invite. Oh, we must have a dinner! Bother breakfasts, and hang honeymoons. No, no; a run round Sydney will suit Sarah better than a year o' honeymooning nonsense. Then we'll all go off in the boat to Brisbane. That'll be a honeymoon and a half in itself. Hurrah! Won't we all be so happy! I feel sure Sarah's a jewel." ”

“ One day, while Archie was taking a farewell walk along Queen Street, glancing in here and there at the windows, and now and then entering to buy something pretty for Sarah, something red—dazzling—for her black servant-maid, and toys for Di, he received a slap on the back that made him think for a moment a kangaroo had kicked him.
"What!" he cried, "Captain Vesey?"
"Aye, lad, didn't I say we would meet again?"
"Well, wonders will never cease! Where have you been? and what have you been doing?" ”

“ Glorie he might starve.
Poor Archie! He certainly did not share his employer's enthusiasm, and on this particular evening he did not walk home on feathers, and when he sat down to supper his face must have appeared to Sarah quite as long and lugubrious as Mr. Glorie's; for she raised her hands and said:
"Lawk-a-doodle, sir! What's the matter? Have ye killed anybody?"
"Not yet," answered Archie; "but I almost feel I could."
He stuck to his work, however, like a man; but that work became more and more allied to soap, and the front shop hardly knew him any more. ”

“ You had better go, Archie."
"I would like to, if—if I could afford it."
"Now, just look here, young man, you stick that eternal English pride of yours in your pocket. I ask you to come with me as a guest, and if you refuse I'll throw you overboard. And if, during our journey, I catch you taking your pride, or your purse either, out of your pocket, I'll never speak another word to you as long as I live."
"All right," said Archie, laughing; "that settles it. Is Etheldene going too?"
"Yes, the child is going. She won't stay away from her old dad. She hasn't a mother, poor thing." ”

“ I'll tell you what it is, Archie lad, Harry is a little gentleman, Cockney here or Cockney there; and deep down below that white, thin face o' his, which three years and over of Australian sunshine hasn't made much browner, Harry carries a heart, look, see! that wouldn't disgrace an English Squire."
"Bravo, Bob! I like to hear you speak in that way about our friend."
"Well, that night I said to Harry, 'Isn't it hard, Harry,' I says, 'that in this free and enlightened land a man is put into gaol if he snares a rabbit?'
"'Free and enlightened fiddlestick!' that was Harry's words. ”

“ Archie knew every yard of country, and he rather liked heading his Lilliputian nag right away for a knoll or precipice, and bounding off it like a roebuck or Scottish deerhound. The first time he was observed going straight for a bank of this kind he created quite a sensation. "The boy will be killed!" was the cry, and every lady then drew rein and held her breath.
Away went Scallowa, and they were on the bank in the air, and landed safely, and away again in less time that it takes me to tell of the exploit. ”

“ Archie is on shore. It is the forenoon of another day, and the sun is warm though not uncomfortably hot. There is so much that is bracing and invigorating in the very air, that he longs to be doing something at once. Longs to commence laying the foundation-stone of that temple of fortune which—let Captain Vesey say what he likes—he, Archie Broadbent, is bent upon building. ”

“ But, dear Elsie, how lovely it will look when we are living in it! when light streams out from the open casement windows! when warmth and music are there! Oh, come soon, come soon! You see I'm still impulsive.
"You, Elsie, love pets. I daresay Bounder will come with you. Poor Scallowa! I was sorry to hear of his sad death. But we can have all kinds of pets here. We have many. To begin with, there is little Diana, she is queen of the station, and likely to be; she is everybody's favourite. Then there are the collies, and the kangaroo. He is quite a darling fellow, and goes everywhere with me. ”

“ His dear old mummy too, with her innocent womanly ways, delighted with all she saw, yet half afraid of almost everything—half afraid the monster gum-trees would fall upon her when out in the forest; half afraid to put her feet firmly to the ground when walking, but gathering up her skirts gingerly, and thinking every withered branch was a snake; half afraid the howling dingoes would come down in force at night, as wild wolves do on Russian wastes, and kill and eat everybody; half afraid of the most ordinary good-natured-looking black fellow ”

“ And such tall grass Archie had never before seen as that which grew in some parts of the open.
"Is it going to be a long job, think you, Bob?"
"I hardly know, Archie. But Craig is here."
"Oh, yes, Gentleman Craig, as Mr. Winslow insists on calling him! You have seen him."
"Yes; I met him at Brisbane. And a handsome chap he is. Looks like a prince."
"Isn't it strange he doesn't rise from the ranks, as one might say; that he doesn't get on?"
"I'll tell you what keeps him back," said Bob, reining his horse up to a dead stop, that Archie might hear him all the easier. ”

“ Oh, my poor Cock Jock! We'll never see him again."
"Shooting foxes isn't sport, Archie."
"No, dad; it's revenge."
The father shook his head.
"Well, I mean something else."
"Justice?"
"Yes, that is it. Justice, dad. Oh, I did love that cock so! He was so gentlemanly and gallant, father. Oh, so kind! And the fox seized him just as poor Jock was carrying a crust of bread to the old hen Ann. He threw my bonnie bird over his shoulder and ran off, looking so sly and wicked. But I mean to kill him! ”

“ Unfortunately, in spite of all his mother said to the contrary, Bob was firmly impressed with the notion that game of every kind, whether fur or feather, belonged as much to him as to the gentry who tried to preserve them. The fresh air was free; nobody dared to claim the sunshine. Then why the wild birds, and the hares and rabbits?
Evil company corrupts good manners. That is what his copy-book used to tell him. But Bob soon learned to laugh at that, and it is no wonder that as he reached manhood his doings and daring as a poacher became noted far and near. ”

“ Yet that hare was the first Archie had shot, and—well, he had meant to astonish Elsie with this proof of his prowess; but the hare was better to be left where it was—he had earned a blessing.
The party were in the wood when Bob Cooper, the poacher, sprang up as if from the earth and confronted them.
"I came here a purpose," he said to Branson. "This is not your wood; even if it was I wouldn't mind. What did you want at my mother's hoose?"
"Nothing; and I've nothing to say to ye."
"Haven't ye? But ye were in our cottage. It's no for nought the glaud whistles." ”