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Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 33, 7 February 1906, Page 10

BACK TO OUR SELECTION.

DAD HOLDS A POST-MORTEM (By Steele Rudd.) (Copyright reserved to the Author.) VII. The valuable Jersey cow that had cost U3 fifteen pounds tried to jump into the lucerne near the bouse, and got caught in the wires, and hung by the legs straining and kicking and tearing strips of flesh from every limb in her efforts to get free. Mother ran to Dad's door, and called out excitedly. "Let her die ' there," Dad bellowed back; "pity they're not all stuck in it." "Oh, dear, dear,' . Mother murmured, joining Sarah, who, with the axe in her hand, 'approached the troubled beast. "She'll kill herself, she will, and not one of the boys about." Sarah backed at the fence until she severed every wire, then the cow struggled to her feet; and ran on the lucerne and began eating ravenously. Then Dad appeared on the verandah. "What th' devil did y' want destroying the fence for?" he yelled. "What else could we do?" Sarah answered angrily. "You could have undone it/ Dad yelled louder. "Undone it," Sarah sneered, "why didn't y' come then and undo it y'self?" '""You hussy, if you give rue any impertinence :, Here Dad, with 'a determined stride, moved towards the steps as though be meant to descend and swallow Sarah, axe and all, but when half-way down he stopped, and waving his hand;«Toared: "Are y' going to leave her there to bust herself on tb# confounded lucerne? , ' Sarah ran round the cow, and drove her out, and proceeded to barricade the gap in the fence with some sticks that were lying about. Then Dad, growling to himself, returned to his room and locked himself in again. Half an hour later. Willie Wiley. Mr-Donald's orphan boy, rushed on to the verandah in a state of excitement. 'Where's Mr Euddf he said to Mother. "They wants him at Walkers. Sam Walker has hung himself with a leg rope." "Bung hisself?". Mother and Sarah exclaimed in the same breath. "Yes, bung hisself.-' Willie gasped just now—this morning*," '•Oh, his poor wife." mother moaned. -And they're not three , months married," Sarah sighed. "They wants Mr. Rndd to come quick." WUie added, " "cause he's hangin' yet," 6 "*>h., gracSous mc!" And mother hurried to dad's room again. "What has it to do with me—what do F want with him, , ' dad howled, let him hang . . . the devil take him . . . pity there wasn't some more hangin' with him." Mother pleaded through the keyhole with dad and reminded him that he was a justice of the peace. "To th' devil with the justice of the peace," dad shouted. "I don't know what on earth's come over the man," mother groaned, returning to the verandah. Then she sent Sarah down the paddock to summon one of the boys. , "Who is growled cd. coming from his room at last. "They want you over at Walker's." mother explained quietly—'"the poosman has hanged himself with a rope.' "The best thing he could do," dad granted, descending the steps slowly, "the best thing." At the garden gate he loitered a while, then glancing along the lucerne paddock fence, called out— "Is that panel fixed up?" Mother said that Sarah had seen to it. "Seen to it," dad shouted, "those bits of stick wouldn't keep a hen out. Tell some of those fellows when they come it to mend it properly?" "Very well, very well," mother answered, and dad directed his steps towards Walker's. He had hardly covered ten yards of the way when his restless eyes settled on the new spring cart standing in the glaring hot sun. "D it all." he muttered, snapping his fingers, "confound it, look at that!" and he hurried back to the garden fence. "Who th' deuce left that cart out there?" he roared. Mother badn't the slightest idea. "Well, tell them to put it in, or 111 put a stop to them touching it at aIL" Mother said she would. Dad, grunting, turned away again and tripped over a long-handled shovel lying in the grass. "The deuce take those devils of fellows- . . . Who left this here? :, he howled. Mother looked puzried. Then Dad lifted the implement and heaved it Ravagely into the garden, and broke the handle against a peach tree, "If they had to do their work without implements at all." he grumbled, "they'd know how to look after things better than they do," and again he headed for Walker's! &s he passed out the big white gats little Mary • Murphy, bare-footed and picking her way tenderly through the prickly tufts of dead Bathurst burr, stTewn orer the hard road, shyly accosted him. J "Please, Mr. Rudd." Mary said, glancing up timidly from beneath a large calico bonnet, "mc Mother says would you oblige Father with a lend of th' spring cart to go to town in tomomT ?" '"'No, T won't—l lend, no spring cajrt. D th' spring cart," Dad blurted out, "I didn't buy it to lend round th' country." Then he went on again, leaving Mary standing on the road with her bead down and her jßnger in her mouth. When about fifty yards from the gats a thin voice screeched otter Dad— "Keep your dirty old cart." Dad jumped round, and saw Mary, regardless of baTe feet and Bathurst burr, running for dear life. When Dad arrived at Walker's farm quite a crowd of sad helpless-looking spectators had gathered in eympalhy there. "What's up?" Dad asked abruptly, pushing his way through them like a policeman. "Sam's thrown his sponge up," young Regan answered, pointing to the body dangling in the 'doorway of the shed that served as a dairy. "Slipped Ms win." The others grinned reluctantly at Regan. , Dad contemplated the grim spectacle in silence for a moment or two, just as he might h»va regarded a sheep on the gambol, 'Made a niea pioture of himself," Dad jTDwlcd, and, taking off hii hat, poked

his heed ia between the Tmngjng ],od> ud the door post to eurvey the interior of the dairy. Dad was more interested in milk dishes than he was in suicides. "Will I cut him down?" young Began asked, advancing to the hanging form with an open pocket knife in Ms hand, "ought to be nearly time now." "Xot at all," D-Id yelled authoritatively. "Leave him where he is until the police come, unless y , want t' be suspected of havin' a hand in it." "Supposin , th' chap ain't dead, but V Regan, persisted. "Well, supposin' be ain't." Dad answer ed, "it won't make any difference. HeT have to hang there just the same; it'; th' law." "A law I don't see much sense in." th< other sneered., closing his knife with £ look of disappointment. "No, of course, y' don't," Dad replied "'you wouldn't see any sense in beinj hanged v'self if v' killed a man, woulc y-'? - ' * Then Dad grinned triumphantly on thi crowd, all of whom grinned in turn a , Regan's discomfiture. Regan said, '-Rot," and slinked a*nray. Then Dad, seeing Mrs. Walker grievinj beside the water cask, approached her Dad didn't put his arms round Mrs. Wai ker. He didn't condole with her either or offer her any words of encouragement at all. Dad was present in his officia capacity. "What put it into his head to play th fool Hke that?" he asked, pointing to thi corpse. Mrs. Walker couldn't offer any reasoi for the deed at all. "Sure y' -wasn't naggin' at him," Dat said sternly, "like all of~V do?" "No, no," the woman sobbed, "my hus band was fond of me—he always said hi loved mc so much." '"Yes." Dad mumbled, turning awa l from her, "it looks like it, doesn't it?" Then giving final injunctions to al present not to interfere with the bod-* or anything about the place till the polic' .'..rrived, Dad said he'd "send a wire," am retraced his etcps home. (To be Continued.)