LITERATURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6437, 5 January 1889, Page 1

LITERATURE.

y|^'.£''.tftliwi3iEllßOLT, . : Uf OF THE AUSTRALIAN pTv:,-,.' - .••bush: . ■",■■..■.. 11l the "good old times 4 '— by whiohT mean the dayH when we were young— two '. or t£ree "of us, yorangbnßhmen,, were 'stay" i ing at Wyalla, the head station of a neigh'bonf, on'the nuKcsheavat Queensland ■ and. j New; South Wales; andvthoroughly enjoyjesses, a lady who commanded the-..a11e- ; gianoeof every yonngfellowf or lHLy'iiiSlea' arotmd. Ladies were few and far between ' in the bush in those days, and MrsKaye had at her call a troop of dashing light, horsemen, her neighbours and Bege^assals, who would have ridden fast and f arat her behest; ~ : - Eaflways were afar off in the " pod oil tunes;" and the screech of "the loomottre had then never scared the wildcatte in£hegranite ranges j nor had the electro telegraph stridden over the great, gry plains with, its 'long staltß, nor played sfrange muaioon its .ZEolian. harp for tb lonely shepherd to wonder at. A jozney to Sydney was an affairofa^reek'shad travel^ ling, and not to be nndertaken l^htly. On this occasion a friend, and ohum of mine ahd-X were out riding down country together on our way to. Maithuu, thence meaning to take boat for Sydney, and we were .halting our first night a Kaye'e Wyalla station. Half-a dozen ius were. ~ Bitting in the wide verandah fter tea, / watobing.the violet. light fade rom the great ianges of moontakiß yißibi to the J^Hft eastward, across the plains at ourfeet, and. announced my intention of - mjing a harness in Sydney and driving HHHbaokthetwo horses which I was ridng country. When, aaindnly bound,! I^^^S askad Mrs. Kaye what Commissionß I optld doior her in Sydney,. her lord and mastr from behind his big pipe, waxneV me<: ■.■':'"■••. . . .-.-•■ " Don't be-too.raah, young man ! Tot may be taken at your ,wbrd and have more on your hands than.you might bargain for." V So fear 1* qnoth I, loyally. "Well, yon are a good boy," said Mrs Kaye.- "I have a commission. There is : something: I want very much. But it will be too much trouble, you will: not card to doit for me." So of course, I vowedthat nothing could possibly be too hot or too heavy for me to bring np country, if by ao> doing I might ptoase my hostess. . , fWell, then, bring me up a house-, maid-" * What la young woman P How on earth am Ito get hold of one P " "Oh, you foolish fellow! Why, go to the Immigration Depfit, of course, and I hire one.*' ■' • •• Evidently my host was right, and I had been jmt a little rash. . j "But, Mrs Kaye, how am I to choose oneP What do I know about housemaids?" just bring me up the prettiest! girl you can., see among them.*— a nice j looking-one. I am. sure- you know-what I ! m ean^* r ■'- -■ - '■■■■■ " . -| . "Why, sheTlba married in a month,.! Lite the laatone,""«ays someone. "Oh, no-! The last one squinted. It la ! only plain women who* marry the first man ; who asks them; tie- pretty ones are much mote particular, they are used to being xnAdeMrre to. SMr C. win bring me up a * pretty girl, Bhe will turn up her nose at anything short of an overseer; very likely Bet her cap at you young gentlemen. Besides, all the men on the station win be courting her, and there is safety in num- , ben. I hove tried ugly ones until lam tired; they will marry anybody and never last me any time at all. Bo> under promise of reward, and having to endure chaff from the mankind present, I engaged to hire and bring up-country a servant maid for Mrs Kaye of "Wyalla. We made an early start next morning, my friend and I, each with, a Bpare horse, making long journeys over mountain and plain, by Glen Innes to Tamworfci, and across the great Liverpool range to Mnrmrundi, whence, by rail to Maitland. Oh the evening of the sixth day from Wysila we were steaming between the. towering black cliffs which forn the magnificent entrance to Sydney harbour. Off Port Macquarrie we passed t beautiful London ship just coming to azchor. We knew by the rows of heads whioi lined her bulwarks that she was full of inmigrants, and I was vividJy reminded of llrs Kayo's Once housed at the olub, we scarcely knew what first to do, the excitement and the whirl of Sydney was so plsasantto us. However, we bought some cuttobacco, and paid a vißit to the outfitter's, who, of coarse, knew exactly what we vrantjd, and guaranteed to renew our respectaUliW of appearaoe in a miraoulqnsly short time. Seasons were good, in the "gooi old times," tallow "up," and cattle, both fat and Btore, in request, bo, of course, my agents were delighted to see me, ana forthwith asked me to dinner. At my . friend's pretty house down at Rose ' Bay, I sat, at dinner, next to the charming young matron, who, as Sydney's matrons often were in the "good, old times " to bachelor squatters freah from the bush, was verykind to me; listened to my perplexities about Mrs Kaye's oommiBBion ; laughed at her theory about., pretty handmaidens and their matrimonial amDitioiu, and volunteered to go with me to* the depot and Select a "Mbspa" who should fulfil the W My frieaidw»ethe wife of a government f «faaal, and as such enjoyed certain [ privilegea not granted to the , So next morning saw me at the depdt with my chapecou, where certain ceremonies tr; having been gone through.in the office, we |^h^ji«re ptaocnted to the matron of the newly . , abip,. a genial, dame,': on whose «hon3D4era the weight of responaihiliy, in B Reshape of fivescore young women, sat W lightly. We were nshered. into a great ~ tere hall, among a lot of aontesix^gxrls of afld«eripti<aja-^x-London"Blafrey8 y 'freali eaa^blaafi trtaidenn. with "the mark of «M-dtefi teettx" yet in fhdr heels, taU "daogntezs of the plough/ and some poor gods who might a few months befoxe have %ttwdittapiciaire6rHood > a"Song o£the healthy, after too* notitfcsx* tea air, the twoal condition of aewJy Iwiiled emigxaate; bnt"fche Sydney* lfdt&oiboem imj&haa.i*ot£ofr6t tihAJmurivaL ■ntlhadfeaßtedoafwehandhealthyßrttiah, Uood. So*hepoorgnris,£oirwhom*pafcernax gomouisoKmijaovmuK'jstoTiciß mosquibO", xafa^ fwadt' aaat^U '' disfigured by" -19iei il^ejt towuMUtonk ; Haß^udoaen y-outtg; :mmi» irto we^m>ortedw^igto facejAs < ws{tvori3id buait 'WWO'ttotced oufc-foi^ oßfKw^wJhjujlaiM lmnirti imriniTnn Illrn matt" Hi. mill « lififl. fair. tiiiTiflnnTnn nhyEncTfnli gviof ia»j>>OTtteeelaad-t»F€BiT > wa» bound, ■pmet: by ■myHteriora-dtttimnftntff to meetTne afcacertamtirae^a^^laca.andjanderiiiy^ cterg», fepcootad: t& Wyallratoanspoitfior^ htt--*boraT being dnlyarnagedfoE. r And jßwtTOOiny^flnt introduction to iteyLnrsm. ■■ ~-^ . -■ - ' 'Bben, with many thanks to my fair frtsodaway sped I^on hnainfissJ under— juwwnmwHn hurit^thft baying of-whatwe AssbnaSanß cafl abrtguy, bttt what is ■Jaumniu. tfae Btmte&we fk^HuzKoa or buck-' koard— lomr Ught wheels, all about the ■me haight^a porch. « Bhallow tray and HjjhiiiiiKurrt, mounted ott ford and. aft |Rjringß.on which is a. Mat for two; the

'skilful combination of mild BteeJ, hickory and leather can be made to be, and the best veliole yot devised for travelling over , the conplication of rate, rocks and roots,) which Ue known aa roads in the Austea-v Kan Wsh. Mine was an "Abbot," newly* unporied from 'f Concord, New Tori I *-— aofcj a cheap article by any means, bat a very> good one. And a week afterwards— my? viaitco Sydney too soon over, for I had; sold* thousand head of atore cattle to^ Victorian man, to be mastered and; delvered a ' htmdred miles down thai roj3, and had not many weeks to do ifej in-I was on my way home, with: Mra» Bye's housemaid by my sidei in thei 'bw?y* * ..■.-■. I had driven one of my horses my«el£;<' iboutthe other there existed a traditMHii in the station* that.aome one hadveeen him-" in harness. He certainly, at first sterting, seemed to have forgotten hifl early experienoefl. My companion, however, treated his eccentricities as a matter of course, . "merely remarking that she was used to v iorses. It was evident that she had good nerves. The young woman indulged in 4 one good cry daring the journey, much to' my alarm, bat otherwise took the many strange sights and sounds Bhe saw and* heard very quietly. She spoke good; English and Beamed nice in her ways; and! was, she told me, the daughter of aJtevon-" shire farmer and cattle dealer, and after" her parents' death had been for awhile in service in London. : . Jim Curtis, the Wyalla stockman, met us* fifty miles down the road with fresh horses,); and I handed over/ my charge to Mrs Kaye. after a prosperous journey. Jim was a finetall, handsome young fellow, « type of an* Australian " Cornstalk," slim and broad-> shouldered, with curling fait beard and hair, and good-tempered eyes. A splendid rider and horse-breaker, & really good, stockman, either in the bush or in the yard, was well-liked everywhere, and a model to be imitated by all the jackaroosand new chums in the district. And in clean, white Bhirt and moleskin trousers, neat boots and little cabbage tree hat, with his handsome brown face and perfect seat on horseback, he looked the bean ideal of a daring stockman, andwas celebrated for variousexploits among-catUe and horses. Indeed, ( it needed a good man to follow him among ' ranges, or in scrub, or to "back up" to him after a mob of wild cattle. Jim was the son of a small farmer. Singleton way j his father and . mother had probably both come to the Colony "under- Government" as the phrase used to be. Well, to shorten my story, I went home, mistering my cattle, and, in a couple of nonths' time, again found myself agueßtat SVyalla. I, of course, .inquired for and Baw ay housemaid; she had recovered from ter mosquito bites,.and was, undeniably, a. cry handsome girt Mrs Kaye liked her, nd praised me for; the way in which I had xecuted her commission. The next news bat I heard, some months later.of Mary iawson, was that Bhe was engaged to be harried to Jim Curtis, but the event was tot to come off until ct after shearing/ 4 an nterval of some months. Then came evil ddings. Jim^hadgot mixed up with some lorse-dealing transactions, had yielded to ;he temptations to which all stockmen ire exposed where stray horse? abound, tad been tried for horse-stealing, and had jeen convioted of "illegal possession "of i certain mare and foal, which is about jhe utmost of which a bush jury will find a man guilty. So Curtis, instead of marrying the pretty new chum, had before him the prospect of nine months' imprisonment in-Bexriman gaoL My friends at Wyalla, where Jim was a favourite, were vorj oony for.him.. 'Hera was a young fellow's whole life . ruined for what mightonlyhave been a case of "soldiering," or a mistake about a brand; and here, too, was Mrs Kayo's favourite parlour-maid crying her eyes out for her l«ver, and vowing that she would marry Jm as soon as he came out of prison. , A?out that time a sort of epidemic of bishranging or robbery underarms had. a/t in. Paisley, Gardiner,; Morgan, and be Clarks and many others had made the ■ (ountry ring with their deßperate deeds, ilany men had been Bhot, and robbery inder arms had beenmade a capital offence. Zn the partially, settled districts of New South Wales there was growing up a class cf young men, many of them of convict Hood, lawless and very ignorant r pref erring an idle life, diversified by a little horseplanting, or downright horse and cattle stealing, to steady work. From this to bushranging is but a atep, and to such young men these brigands seemed heroes. These men were good bushmen, splendid horsemen, and were sympathized with by the small settlers, many of whom have a hereditary hatred of a policeman. To inform againßt those men was to court death, and they flung about their stolen sovereigns with lavish recklessness. When a bushranger said to a man, "Bail up, you, or I'll shoot you" he meant what he said, and often did it. Thus the terror they inspired was great, and their example contagious. Banks, gold escorts, mails, stations and travellers had been Btucknp without number, and the robbers seem to have the gift of fern seed, and there was a certain amount of uneasiness pervading our district, though aa yet we were free from molestation. About twelve months after Jim Curtis' trial ye heard that he had been seen about Wyalla cattle station. And news came, too, that Mary Lawion had left Mrs Kaye'a employment rather BUddenly, and that lady had little doubt that the girl intended to carry out her intentions of marrying -the dashing ex-stockman, despite all that had happened. But we visitors at Wyalla had Boon more important matters to discuss than the vagaries of a servant girl. Bushrangers were here in our midst. Mail- after mail had been stuck up and robbed on both sides of the border, the robbers being a tall man and a boy j and, as A climax, a tank had been entered in broad day, in the main Btreet of a neighbouring township. Two men walked in, bailed up the accountant with a < revolver, - found * the manager in his bath, and without giving him time to df ess, made him open the safe and hand i over a noble booty in notes and gold; the while a man had guarded the door, . and a boy stood holding the horses in the Btreet. Then the party had vanished into the air, leaving not a trace behind. The leader of the gang- became known as Thunderbolt ; the name wad in the mouths of great and small, and men who had seen him said that Thunderbolt was mo other than Jim Cnrtis, late stockman M* Wyalla. •• ■ -.-•. - .• -. .;■■■:. [ ' Some timshadelapsedfriiufr those events, thrftb-montha or so, during which we had ' heaid little of the busbxangars. ■ Many people ihoughtthafc they had^eared out of the country, which was patrolled in all .directions by mounted police belonging vbo&:t6 Nev South Wales and Qneenauma. J— «be latter reinforced by Wacktrackera from the border force, wildfellowß, keen as i kangaroo dogs> bub uncontroUable, except by their own officers* Still, horses dis- ■. appeared my HLedoualy^and Thunderbolt and his boywere said tohaare*eejween at and, -relatively, far distant 'points. (To becohtinnedQ