Joseph Furphy

“ The chaps had hung their tucker-bags on some adjacent lignum, out of reach of the wild pigs, but at a height accessible to Pup. The absence of the owners, though desirable, would not have been absolutely necessary to the performance which followed, for a kangaroo-dog can abstract food with a motion more silent—and certainly more swift—than that of a gnomon's shadow on a sun-dial. ”

“ They maintained, with manifest sincerity, that Smythe's repudiation of the bullocks, and his subsequent levy of damages upon them as strangers and trespassers, gave themselves a certain right of trover, which prerogative they had duly developed into a title containing nine points of the law. Not equal to a pound-receipt, of course; but good enough for the track. And throughout the discussion, Bob's name was never mentioned, nor his complicity hinted at. Such is life. ”

“ Before our company had recovered from the painful constraint induced by this unfathomable joke, Saunders resumed his place, holding the dog by a saddle-strap taken from his own equator.
"Dead spit of my poor old Monkey," remarked Thompson sadly, as he caressed the dog. "Never felt the thing that's on me more distinctly than when I lost poor Monkey."
"Well, I offered you a fiver for him," rejoined Donovan. "Never know'd a man to have luck with a thing that he'd refused a good bid for. Picked up a bait, I s'pose?" ”

“ After you with them matches, Stevenson; mine's all done."
"Barefooted Bob's mixed-up in this," remarked Stevenson, handing the matches. "Now, who would have suspected it, from his manner last night? But no one is to be trusted. Better take our saddles and bridles with us."
"In respect of imbecility and ignorance, I grant you," I replied. "But in respect of deliberate deceit, most men are to be trusted. By-the-way, there's four of your frames left—out near those coolibahs." ”

“ Never been trained to track children—and how were they going to make him understand that a child was lost? However, while two of the well-sinkers were persevering with their retriever, the other fellow drove off like fury to fetch Dan's sheep-dog; making sure that we would only have to follow him along the scent. In the meantime, I walked behind Bob, leading both our horses.
"Give him his due, he's a great tracker. I compare tracking to reading a letter written in a good business hand. You must'nt look at what's under your eye ”

“ Just at sunrise, one glance round the vicinity brought me out of my possum-rug with an impression that there was nothing but roguery to be found in villainous man. The country on all sides was as bare as the palm of your hand; and my horses, a quarter of a mile away, were nibbling at the stumps of cotton-bush. Breakfast, however, was the first consideration, as I had n't bothered about supper on the previous night—though filling my water-bag at a tank on the way. ”

“ The thing that made us most uneasy was the weather. It was threatening for a thunderstorm. At this time we were in that unstocked country south-east of the station. Suddenly Bob rose up from his stoop, and looked round at me with a face on him like a ghost.
"'God help us now, if we don't get a blackfellow quick!' says he, pointing at the ground before him. And, sure enough, there lay the child's little copper-toed boots, where she had taken them off when her feet got sore, and walked on in her socks. It was just then that a tank-sinker drove up, with Dan and his dog in the buggy." ”

“ But the saddest and most precious of memorials will be those little copper-toed boots that she left along the way. Deepest pathos lies only in homely things, since the frailness of mortality is the pathetic centre, and mortality is nothing but homely. ”

“ A lady, travelling by coach, had a pet dog, which annoyed her fellow-passengers till one of them remonstrated. 'I'm surprised that you don't like my dog,' says the lady; 'he's a real Peruvian.' 'We don't object to your Peruvian dog,' says the passenger, 'but we wish he would give us less of his Peruvian bark'. ”

“ One day there was a stranger among our cattle—a fine big white bullock, an' Tregarvis's brand on him. We run this mob into the yard before dinner, to git a beast to kill, an' turned 'em all out agen, bar the white one; but he was in the killin'-yard all the afternoon. Dusk in the evenin', the white bullock was shot; an' jist in the nick o' time, when the head was slung in the pigsty, an' the hide was hangin' on the fence, raw side up, who should pounce on us but ole Tregarvis, an' Young Tregarvis, an' a trooper. ”

“ Yet the hazy, uniform light, disciplining the eye to its standard, seemed rather like a noonday dulled to the same shade. The temperature was perfect for comfort, so I fared well enough; whilst with respect to my horses, I could only hope that Bert had been unfaithful to his chief and clan. ”

“ Nice way for a man to be fixed, after me breakin' my neck since I was fifteen, to make M'Gregor what he is. Eighteen solid years clean throwed away!"
"How did you fine us here, unless you was (adv.) well after somebody?" asked Baxter, still suspicious of the dog with a bad name.
"Well, I am after somebody. I'm after ole M'Gregor—at least, I'll be after him as soon 's I git this reservoy off o' my mind. Daresay I'll git you to understand by-'n'-by. See: Jist when Smythe wanted this job fixed-up, he got a slant o' fourteen bullocks, sold at a gift, for debt ”

“ Smythe, if you please,' says he! Hope I'll live to see him with bluey on his back."
"Well-matched pair—M'Gregor an' Smythe," remarked Donovan thoughtfully. "Wonder which of the two (individuals) is worst in the sight o' God?"
"Toss-up," replied Bob. "Same time, there's a lot o' difference in people, accordin' to the shape o' their head. There's Stewart of Kooltopa; he don't demean his self with little things; he goes in for big things, an' gits there; an' he's got the heart to make a proper use o' what money travels his road. Comes-out a Christian. ”

“ The two greatest supra-physical pleasures of life are antithetical in operation. One is to have something to do, and to know that you are doing it deftly and honestly. The other is to have nothing to do, and to know that you are carrying out your blank programme like a good and faithful menial. ”

“ Anyhow, the two station blokes rode out to pass the word; an' the most o' the crowd was there in half-an-hour. The kid was a good thirty foot up the log; an' there was no satisfaction to be got out of him. He would n't shift; an' by-'n'-by we come to the impression that he could n't shift; an' at long an' at last we had to chop him out, like a bees' nest. Turned out after, that the little (stray) had foun' himself out of his latitude when night come on; an' he'd got gumption enough to set down where he was, an' wait for mornin'. He'd always bin told to do that, if he got lost. ”

“ I ain't turnin' dog on anybody when I stick to my own work, an' keep off of goin' partners with opium an' leprosy. Same time, mind you, I'd be turnin' dog on the station if I took advantage o' your message, to go round warnin' the chaps that was workin' on the paddick. Way I was situated, the clean thing was to stand out. ”

“ Horses supposed to be lost in the lignum on Yoongoolee, and him hunting them for all he's worth. Keeps them planted all day, and tails them here at night. He would n't have laid me on, only that he's going to drop across them to-morrow morning, and shift."
"Anyone coming with you to-night?"
"Baxter and Donovan. It's a good step to travel—must be ten or twelve mile—but this grass is worth it. Safe, too, from what I hear. Might get two goes at it, by taking the bullocks out at daylight, and planting them till night. However, I must get back, to meet the other chaps with the mob." ”

“ Bob was continually losing the track; and us circling round and round in front, sometimes picking it up a little further ahead. But we only made another half-mile or three-quarters, at the outside—before night was on. I daresay there might be about twenty-five of us by this time, and eighteen or twenty horses, and two or three buggies and wagonettes. Some of the chaps took all the horses to a tank six or eight mile away, and some cleared-off in desperation to hunt for blackfellows, and the rest of us scattered out a mile or two ahead of the last track, to listen. ”

“ Then there's Smythe: his mind's so much took-up with the tuppenny-thruppenny things that he can't see the big thing when it's starin' him in the face. Can't afford to come-out anything but a pis-ant. Then there's M'Gregor: he goes-in for big things an' little things, an' he goes-in to win, an' he wins; an' all he wins is Donal' M'Gregor's. Comesout a bow constructor."
"Do you think he'll shift Smythe from Mondunbarra, as he did Pratt from Boolka?" I asked.
"Ain't he doin' it all the time?" replied Bob. "He's got Smythe frightened of him now, an' beginnin' to hate him like fury, besides. ”

“ At the first alarm, he stopped to consider; then, when the horses shot past him, with the dog eating their heels, he rubbed his chin for about two minutes—and me trusting Providence all I was able—then he gave a sort of snort, and said, 'Well, I be dang!' and with that he turned round and went toward his hut. That was the signal for me to clear; and in fifteen minutes I had all my stock in safety—bar poor Monkey; and I never saw him from that day to this."
"You (adj.) fool! why did n't you hunt for him?" asked Donovan. ”

“ It was crossed by a shallow billabong which had been dammed when the dividing fence was erected; but the first flood in the Lachlan had burst an opening in the embankment, so that even at the end of the previous winter there was no water in the paddock, except a drop of sludgy stuff in the excavation. Hence the grass. There was no stock in the Trinidad, and no one in charge. There were two station men, with a team of bullocks and scoop, cleaning out the dam and repairing the bank; but they would n't see anything. Also, Mr. Smythe was away in Melbourne, and would n't be back for another week. ”

“ Ay, and by this time more than a dozen blackfellows had rallied-up to the station.
"Spanker arranged to send a man with the wagonette, to look after the horses for Dan. The child's mother wanted to go with them, but Dan refused to allow it, and did so with a harshness that surprised me. In the end, Spanker sent Ward, one of the narangies. I happened to camp with them four nights ago, when I was coming down from Kulkaroo, and they were getting back to Goolumbulla. ”

“ Guarantee you fellers ain't heard no language out o' my mouth since I set down here. Nor 'on't—never again. Well, take care o' yourselves, chaps." And, without further farewell, Bob removed his lonely individuality from our convention.
"Anointed (adj.) savage," remarked Donovan, as the subject of his comment receded into the hazy half-light of the plain, where his horse was feeding.
"Uncivilised (person) ," added Baxter.
"Well—yes," conceded Thompson. "Same time, he's got the profit of his unprofitableness, so to speak. Hard to beat him in the back country. ”

“ You must just lift the general meaning as you go. Of course, our everyday tracking is not tracking at all.
"However, Bob run this little track full walk, mile after mile, in places where I would 'n't see a mark for fifty yards at a stretch, on account of rough grass, and dead leaves, and so forth. One thing in favour of Bob was that she kept a fairly straight course, except when she was blocked by porcupine or supple-jack; then she would swerve off, and keep another middling straight line. ”

“ They got twelve bullocks each. Dan tells me he dropped two out of his eighteen, comin' down from Mooltunya. Says one o' the Chinks laid him on to this bit o' grass. Two other fellers I met in the plain—strangers to me—they had the very same yarn. Them heathens think I'm in charge here; an' they're workin' a point to make me nasty with the chaps on the track. An' if I was in charge, that's jist the sort o' thing would put a hump on me. Sort o' off-sider for a gang o' Chinks! My word!"
"Bin many people workin' on this paddick lately?" asked Saunders innocently. ”

“ So we tells the missus; an' she clears-out for the plain, an' me after her. Cunningham, he collars his horse, an' out for the plain too. Station chaps turns-up, in ones an' twos; an' when they seen the tracks, they scattered for the plain too. Mostly young fellers, on good horses—some o' them good enough to be worth enterin' for a saddle, or the like o' that. Curious how horses was better an' cheaper them days nor what they are now. I had a brown mare that time; got her off of a traveller for three notes ”

“ Well-off for a selector, too; an' he done a big business back an' forrid to Vic. with cattle. Mixed lots, of course, with stags an' ole cows that no fence would hold. North of Ireland feller, name o' Moore, was managin' Wo-Winya at the time; an' M'Gregor was a good deal about the station, takin' a sort o' interest in this Tregarvis. Well, things was so arranged that the Cousin Jack's cattle was always gittin' into our paddicks; an' the rule was that his people had to come to the home-station to get leaf to hunt 'em; an' a man was sent along o' them as a percaution. ”

“ Vanished out of the land of the living. That dog would never leave me while he had breath in his body; and when he did n't come back, after he had chivied the horses, I might have"——
"Sh-sh-sh!" whispered Stevenson. And, following the direction of his look, we discerned the approaching figure of a man on horseback.
"Ben Cartwright," observed Baxter, after a pause. "Anybody else comin', I wonder? Seems like as if people could n't fine a bit o' grass without the whole (adj.) country jumpin' it."
"I move that all trespassers ought to be prosecuted with the utmost vigour o' the (adj.) ”