Rolf Boldrewood

“ I was real glad to see Jonathan's paddock fence and the old house we'd thought so little of lately. It's wonderful how soon people rise grand notions and begin to get too big for their boots.
`Hello, Dick, what's up?' says Jonathan. `No swag, 'lastic-side boots, flyaway tie, new rifle, old horse; looks a bit fishy don't it?'
`I can't stop barneying,' I said. `Have you a decent horse to give me? The game's up. I must ride night and day till I get home. Heard anything?'
`No; but Billy the Boy's just rode up. I hear him a-talkin' to the gals. He knows if anybody does. ”

“ A bush telegraph ain't a bad thing. They're not all as good as Billy the Boy. But the worst of 'em, like a bad sheep dog, is a deal better than none.
A bush telegraph, you see, is mostly worked about the neighbourhood he was born in. He's not much good anywhere else. He's like a blackfellow outside of his own `tauri'. He's at sea. But within twenty or thirty miles of where he was born and bred he knows every track, every range, every hill, every creek, as well as all the short cuts and by-roads. He can bring you miles shorter than any one that only follows the road. ”

“ I asked one of the men the road; said I'd lost myself, and would be late home. Ha! ha! ha!'
And how the young villain laughed till the tears came into his eyes, while he danced about like a blackfellow.
`See here, Billy,' I said, `here's another pound for you, and there'll be a fiver after if you stick well to me to-day. I won't let Jim be walked off to Berrima without a flutter to save him. It'll be the death of him. He's not like me, and he's got a young wife besides.'
`More fool he, Dick. What does a cross cove want with a wife? ”