 Section 33 of the Book of the Bush. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Magdalena Cook. The Book of the Bush by George Dunderdale. Section 33. A New Rush. And there was gathering in hot haste. When gold was first discovered, the Stockyard Creek Griffiths, one of the prospectors, came to me with the intentions of registering the claim, under the impression that I was mining registrar. He showed me a very good sample of gold. As I had not been appointed registrar, he had to travel 60 miles further before he could comply with the necessary legal formalities. Then the rush began. Old diggers came from all parts of Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and New Zealand. Also men who had never dug before, and many who did not intend to dig. Pickpockets, horse thieves and jumpers. The prospectors' claim proved the richest, and the jumpers and the lawyers paid a particular attention to it. The trail of the old serpent is over everything. The desire of the jumpers was to obtain possession of the rich claim, or some part of it. And the lawyers longed for costs, and they got them. The prospectors paid, and it was a long time before they could extricate their claim from the clutches of the law. They found the goldfield, and they also soon found an unprofitable crop of lawsuits growing on it. They were called upon to show course before the warden and the court of minds why they should not be deprived of the fruit of their labours. The fact of their having discovered gold, and of having pegged out and registered their claim, could not be denied. But then it was argued by counsel, most learned in mining law, that they had done something which they should have admitted to do, or had admitted to do something else which they should have done. Frail human beings as they were, and therefore their claim should be declared to belong to some Ballarat jumper. I had to sit and listen to such like legal logic until it made me sick, and ashamed of my species. Of course justice was never mentioned. That was out of the question. If law and justice don't agree, so much the worse for justice. Gold was next found at Turton's Creek, which proved one of the richest little gullies ever worked by diggers. It was discovered by some prospectors who followed the tracks which Mr Turton had cut over the scrubby mountains, and so they gratefully gave his name to the gully. But I never heard that they gave him any of the gold which they found in it. A narrow track from Foster was cut between high walls of impenetrable scrub, and it soon became like a ditch full of mud, deep and dangerous. If the diggers had been assured that they would find heaven at the other end of it, they would never have tried to go. The prospect of eternal happiness having much less attraction for them than the prospect of gold. But the sacred thirst made them tramp bravely through the sleuth. The sun and wind never dried the mud, because it was shut in and overshadowed by the dense growth of the bush. All tools and provisions were carried through it on the backs of horses, whose legs soon became caked with mud, and the hair was taken off them as clean as if they had been shaved with a razor. Most of them had a short life, and a hard one. The digging was quite shallow, and the gully was soon rifled off the gold. At this time there was a mining registrar at Foster, as the new diggings at Stockyard Creek were named, and some men, after pegging out their claim at Turton's Creek, went back down the ditch to register them at Foster. It was a great mistake. It was neither the time nor the place for legal forms or ceremony. Time was of the essence of the contract, and they wasted the essence. Other and wiser men stepped onto their ground while they were absent, commenced at once to work vigorously, and the original peggers, when they returned, were unable to dislodge them. Peter Wilson pegged out a claim, and then rode away to register it. He returned the next day and found two men on it, who had already nearly worked it out. This claim is mine, mates," said Peter. I peaked it out yesterday, and I have registered it. You will have to come out. One of the men looked up at Peter and said, Oh, your name is Peter, isn't it? I hear you're a fighting man. Well, you just come down off that bare-legged horse, and I'll kill you in a couple of minutes while I take a spell. It's no use you're talking that way. You'll see, I'll have the law on you, and you'll have to pay for it," replied Peter. You can go, Peter, and fetch the law as soon as you like. I don't care a tinkers curse for you or the law. All I want is the prophets, and I'm going to have them. This profane outlaw and his mate got the prophets, cleared all the gold out of Peter's claim, and took it away with them. It was reported in Melbourne that there was no law or order at Turton's Creek, that the diggers were treating the mining statutes and regulations with contempt, that the gold went to the strong and the weakest went to the wall. Therefore, six of the biggest policemen in Melbourne were selected, stretched out, and measured in Russell Street barracks, and were then ordered to proceed to Turton's Creek and vindicate the majesty of the law. They landed from the steamer on the wharf at Port Albert, and being armed with carbines and revolvers looked very formidable. They proceeded on their journey in the direction of Foster, and it was afterwards reported that they arrived at Turton's Creek, and finding everybody quiet and peaceable. They came back again, bringing with them neither jumpers nor criminals. It was said, however, that they never went any further than the commencement of the ditch. They would naturally, on viewing it, turn aside and camp to recruit the energies and discuss the situation. Although they were big constables, it did not follow they were big fools. They said the government ought to have asfalted the ditch for them. It was unreasonable to expect men, each six foot four inches in height, carrying arms and accruements, which they were bound by the regulations to keep clean and in good order, to plunge into that river of mud and to spoil all their clothes. Turton's Creek was soon worked out, and before any professional jumpers or lawyers could put their fingers in the pie, the plums were all gone. The gully was prospected from top to bottom, and the hills on both sides were tunneled, but no more gold and no reefs were found. There was much speculation by geologists, mining experts, and the old duffers as to the manner in which the gold had contrived to get into the creek, and where it came from, where it went to. The diggers who carried it away in their pockets knew well enough. The diggers dispersed. Some went to Melbourne to enjoy their wealth. Some stayed at Foster to try to get some more. Some died from the extreme enjoyment of riches suddenly acquired, and a few went mad. One of the latter was brought to Palmerston and remained there a day or two on his way to the Yarra Bend Lunatic asylum. Having an inborn thirst for facts, I conversed with him from the wooden platform which overlooks the jail yard. He was walking to and fro, talking very cheerfully to himself and to the world in general. He spoke well and had evidently been well educated, and his ideas were all in pieces as it were, and lacked connection. He spoke very disrespectfully of men in high places, both in England and the colonies, and remarked the members of Parliament were the greatest rascals on the face of the earth. No man of sound mind would ever use such language as that. Some years afterwards, while I was a collector of customs at Port Albert, I received a letter from Melbourne to the following purport, Yarra Bend Asylum. Sir, you are hereby ordered to take possession off and detain every vessel arriving at Port Albert. You will immediately proceed on board each of them and place the broad arrow above the four mast six feet above the deck. You will thus cut off all communication with the British Empire. I may state that I am the lawful heir to the title and estates of a Scottish dukedom, and am deprived of the possession and enjoyment of my rightful station and wealth by the machinations of a band of conspirators who have found means to detain me in this prison in order to enjoy my patrimony. You will particularly observe that you are to hold no communication whatever with the Governor of this colony, as he is the paid agent of the conspirators and will endeavour to frustrate all efforts to obtain my rights. You will also be most careful to withhold all information from the duke of Duncinane, who is a member of the junior branch of my family and at the head of the conspiracy. You will proceed as soon as possible to enrol a body of men for the purpose of affecting my deliverance by force of arms, as these men will require payment for their services. You will enter the Bank of Victoria at Port Albert and seize all the money you will find there, the amount of which I estimate at £10,000, which will be sufficient for preliminary expenses. You will give in my name to the manager of the bank a guarantee in writing for repayment of the money, with current rate of interest added when I recover the dukedom and estates. Be careful to explain to him that you take the money only as a loan and that will prevent the bank from laying any criminal charge against you. Should anything of the kind be in contemplation, you will be good enough to report progress to me as soon as possible and I will give you all necessary instructions as to your future proceedings. I may mention that in seeking to obtain my title and estates, I am influenced by no mean or mercenary considerations. My sole desire is to benefit the human race. I have been employing all my leisure hours during the last nine years in perfecting a system of philosophy entirely new and applicable to all times, to all nations and to all individuals. I have discovered the true foundation for it, which, like all great inventions, is so simple that it will surprise the world it was never thought of before. It is this. Posito impossibility, sequitur quidlibet. My philosophy is founded on the firm basis of the impossible. On that you can build anything and everything. My great work is methodical, divided into sections and chapters, perfect in style and so lucid in argument that he who runs may read and be enlightened. I have counted the words and they number so far 702,578. Five years more will be required to complete the work. I shall then course it to be translated into every language of the world and shipped at the lowest rate of tonnage for universal distribution gratis. This will ensure its acceptance and its own beauty and intrinsic merits will secure its adoption by all nations and the result will be human happiness. It will supersede all the baseless theories of science, religion and morality which have hitherto confounded the human intellect. Extract from my magnum opus. We may reasonably suppose that matter is primordially self-existent and that it imbued itself with the potentiality of life. It therefore produced germs. A pair of germs coalesced and formed a somewhat discordant combination, the movements in which tended towards divergence. They attracted and enclosed other atoms and progressing through sleep and wakefulness at last arrived at complete satisfaction or perfect harmonic combination. This harmonic combination is death. We may say then in brief that growth is simply discordant currents progressing towards harmony. One question may be briefly noticed. It has been asked, when did life first appear on the earth? We shall understand now that the question is unnecessary. Life first appeared on the earth when the earth first appeared as an unsatisfied atom seeking combination. The question is rather, when did the inanimate first appear? It appeared when the first harmonic combination was affected. The earth is indeed to be considered as having grown up through the life that is inherent in it. Man is the most concentrated and differentiated outgrowth of that life. Mankind is, so to speak, the brain of the earth and is progressing towards the conscious guidance of all its processes. Dunsonane It was not clear on what ground this noble duke based his authority over me, but I had been so long accustomed to fulfil the behest of lunatics of low degree that I was able to receive those of an afflicted Lord with perfect equanimity. But as I could not see that my obedience would be rewarded with anything except death or pentridge, I refrained from action. I did not place the broad arrow a-buffed off anything or anybody, nor did I make a levy on the cash in the Bank of Victoria. End of Section 33 Section 34 of the Book of the Bush This is a LibriVox recording, or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Magdalena Cook The Book of the Bush by George Dundadale Section 34 Gips Land After 30 Years A pleasing land of drowsy head it was dreams that waved before the half-shut high. For twelve years I did the government's stroke in Her Majesty's Court at Colack, then I was ordered to make my way to Gips Land. The son of Wisdom shone on a new ministry. They observed that many of their officers were destitute of energy and they resolved to infuse a new life into the service, by moving its members continually from place to place. But officials live long and the wisdom of one cabinet is foolishness to the next. I took root so deeply in the soil of Gips Land that I became immovable. Twice the government tried to uproot me, but I remained there to the end of my official days. Little reliable information about the country or its inhabitants was to be had. So I fondly imagined that in such a land secured from contamination by the wicked world outside I should find a people of primeval innocence and simplicity, and the long-forgotten lines returned to my memory. Beartus illiqui procol negotius. Ut prisca gens mortallium. It was summertime and the weather was serene and beautiful, when in the grey dusk of the evening we sailed through the rip at Port Phillip Heads, then began the troubles of the heaving ocean and the log of the voyage was cut short. The ship ran thus. The ship went up and the ship went down and then we fell down and then we were sick and then we fell asleep and then we was at Port Albert and that's all I know about it. I walked along one street past the custom house, the post office and the bank about 300 yards and saw nothing beyond but tea tree and swamps, through which ran a roughly metal road leading apparently to the distant mountains. Nothing but stagnation. It was the deadest seaport ever seen or heard of. There were some old stores, empty and falling to pieces, which the owners had not been enterpricing enough to burn for the insurance money. The ribs of a wreck schooner were sticking out of the mud near the channel. A stockyard, once used for shipping cattle, was rotting slowly away and a fisherman's net was hanging from the top rails to dry. Three or four days filled with pigs were drawn up near the wolf. These animals were put to form part of the steamer's return cargo. One half of her deck space being allotted to pigs and the other half to passengers. In case of foul weather, the deck hamper, pigs and passengers was impartially washed overboard. An old man in a dirty buggy was coming along the road and all the inhabitants and dogs turned out to look and bark at him. Just as they do in a small village in England when the man with a donkey cart comes into sight. To allay my astonishment on observing so much agitation and excitement the principal inhabitant introduced himself and informed me that it was a busy day at the port, a kind of market day, on account of the arrival of the steamer. I began sorrowfully to examine my official conscience to discover for which of my unattained for sins I had been exiled to this dreary land. Many a time in after years did I see a stranger leave the steamer, walk, as I had done, to the utmost extremity of the sea-port and stand at the corner of the butcher's shop gazing on the swamps, the tea-tree, and the faraway wooded hills. The Strzelecki rangers. The dismal look of hopeless misery that stole over his countenance was pitiful to behold. After recovering the power of speech his first question was, how is it possible that any man could ever consent to live in a hole like this? Here the principal inhabitant intervened and poured balm on the wounded spirit of the stranger. He gently reminded him that first impressions are not always to be relied on and assured him that if he would condescend to take up his abode with us for two or three years he would never want to live anywhere else. The climate was delicious, the best in the world. It induced a feeling of repose and bliss and sweet contentment. We had no ice or snow or piercing blasts in winter and the heat of summer was tempered by the cool breezes of the Pacific Ocean which gently lapped our lovely shores. The land, when cleared, was as rich and fertile as the farmer's heart could wish yielding abundant pastureage both in summer and winter. The mountain sent down to us unfailing supplies of the purest water and we wanted no schemes of irrigation for green are our fields and fair are our flowers, our fountains never drummly. We had no plagues of locust, no animal or insect pests to destroy our crops or herbage. Rabbits had been introduced and turned loose at various times but instead of multiplying until they had become as numerous as a sand on the seashore as had been the case in other parts of Australia they invariably died and it had been abundantly proved that rabbits had no more chance of living there than snakes in Ireland. And with regard to the celebrity of the climate the first settlers lived so long that they were absolutely tired of life. Let him look at the cemetery if he could find it. After 30 years of settlement it was almost uninhabited neglected and overgrown with tusks and scrub for want of use. It will be gathered from this statement of the principal inhabitant that Gippsland had really been discovered and settled about 30 years before but mountains and sea divided it from the outside world and on account of the intense drowsiness and inactivity with the delicious air and even temperature of the climate produced the land and its inhabitants had been forgotten and unnoticed until it had been rediscovered and its praises sung by the enterprising minister of the crown before mentioned. Following the example of the cautious cat when introduced into a strange house I investigated every corner of the district as far as the nature of the country would permit and I found that it contained three principal corners or villages about three miles apart at each of which the police magistrate and clerk had to attend on certain days business or no business generally the latter. It was of course beneath the dignity of a court to walk officially so far through the scrub so the police magistrate was allowed 60 pounds per annum in addition to his salary and the clerk whom I relieved 50 pounds to defray the expense of keeping their horses. Away went Gilpin and away went Gilpin's hat and wig. I bought a wagonette and then began to look for a horse to draw it as soon as my want became known it was pleasing to find so many of my neighbours willing to supply it. Cox, the jailer, said he knew of a horse that would just suit me. It belonged to Bins, an ex-Constable who was spending a month in jail on account of a little trouble that had come upon him. Cox invited me into his office and brought Bins out of his cell. Yes said Bins, I have a horse and there's not another like him on the island. These men always meant Van Demon's land when they said the island. Forgetting occasionally that they had crossed the straits and were in a land of freedom. As good a goer as ever carried a saddle or wore a collar I wouldn't sell him on no account only you see I'm hard up just now. What is his age? I inquired. Well he's just rising ten. He has been used a bit hard but you won't overwork him and he'll do all the law business you want as easy as winking. He's the best trotter on the island and has won many a stake for me. When I took Johnny come lately to jail in Melbourne for stealing him he brought me back in less time than any horse ever did the distance before or since and you can have him dirt cheap. I'll take ten pounds for him and he's worth twenty pounds of any man's money. Love is vows and horse dealers those are never literally true. It is safer to receive them as lies. I thought it would be prudent to try this trotter before buying him so Ben signed an order in a very shaky hand to the man in charge of his farm to let me have the horse on trial. When I harnessed and put him in between the shafts he was very quiet indeed. I took a whip not for the purpose of using it but merely for show. A horse that has won so many races would of course go without the lash. When I was seated and requested him to start he began walking very slowly as if he had a load or two tons weight behind him and I never weighed so much as that. I had to use the whip and at last after a good deal of reflection he began to trot but not with any speed. He did not want to win anything that day. I remarked that his ears looked dead. No sound or sight of any kind disturbed the peace of his mind. He evidently knew this world well and despised it. Nothing in it could excite his feelings any more. Halfway up the water road I met Bill Mills, a carrier. He stopped his team and looked at mine. Have you bought that horse, mister? He said. Not yet. I'm only trying him. I replied. Do you know him? No him. I should think I did. That's old punch. I broke him into harness when he was three off. He nearly killed me, ran away with me and my dog cart among the scrub at the race course swamp and smashed it against a honeysuckle. Is that long ago? I inquired. Long ago, let me see. That horse is twenty year old if he's a day. He'll not run away with you now. No fear. He's quite safe. Good day, mister. Come on, star. And Bill touched his leader with his whip. When I arrived at the courthouse, I made a search in the course list book and found that Johnny come lately had been sent to jail just sixteen years before stealing old punch. So I restored that venerable trotter to its owner. I had soon more horses offered to me for trail. Every old screw within twenty miles being brought to me for inspection. The next animal I harness belonged to Andrew Jackson and was brought by Andrew Jackson Jr. who said his father could let me have it for a month on trail. Jackson Jr. was anxious to go away without the horse but I told him to wait a bit while I put on the harness. The animal was of a mousy colour, very tall, something like a giraffe and by the time I got in between the shafts I could see that he was possessed by a devil of some kind. It might be a winged one who would fly away with me. So in order to have a clear course I let him through the gateway into the middle of the road and while Jackson Jr. held his head I mounted carefully into the trap. I held the lines ready for a start and after some hesitation the giraffe did start. But he went tail foremost. I tried to reverse the engine but it would only work in one direction. He backed me into the ditch and then a crosser onto the side path then against the fence bucking at it and trying to go through put me in the tarot. I told Andrew, Jr. to take the giraffe home to his parent and relate what he had seen. My next horse was a black one from sail and he also was possessed of a devil but one of a different species. He was named Gilpin and the very name ought to have been a warning to me if I had had sense enough to profit by it. Just as I sat down and took the reins and was going to observe what he would do he suddenly went away at full gallop. I tried to pull him in but he put his chin against his chest and the harder I pulled the faster he flew. The road was full of ruts and I was bumped up and down very badly. My hat went away but for the present my head kept its place. I managed to steer safely as far as the bridge across the tarot but in going over it the horses, hoofs and whirling wheels sounded like thunder and brought out the whole population of Tarraville to look at me. It was on a Sunday afternoon some good people were singing hymns in the local chapel and as I passed the turn of the road they left the anxious benches came outside in the body and gazed at me a bare-headed and miserable sabbath-breaker going swiftly to perdition. I was also on a very anxious bench but now there was a long stretch of good road before me and I made good use of it. Instead of pulling the horse in I let him go and encouraged him with a whip to go faster being determined to let him gallop until either he or the sun went down. Then the despicable wretch slackened his pace and wanted to come to terms so I wheeled him around and whipped him without mercy making him gallop all the way home again. I did not buy him. But the next horse I tried was comparatively blameless so I bought him and at the end of the first month sent in a claim to the law department for the usual allowance. I was curtly informed that the amount had been reduced from fifty pounds to ten pounds for my horse although sixty pounds were still owed to the other horse for travelling the same distance. The calculation evidently being based on the supposition that the police magistrates horse would eat six times as much as mine. Remonstrance was vain and I found I had burdened myself with an animal possessing no social or political influence whatever. I knew already that the world was governed without wisdom and I now felt that it was also ruled with extreme meanness. And even after my horse was condemned to starve on ten pounds per annum the cost of justice was still extravagant. Without reckoning the expense incurred in erecting and maintaining three court horses and three police stations and paying three policemen for doing next to nothing I ascertained from the cause list that it cost the government fourteen pounds sterling every time we fined Terry the cobbler five shillings for being drunk and Terry did not always pay the fines. What ails British law is dignity and the insufferable expense attending it. The deceased will never be cured until a strong-minded chief justice shall be found who has sense enough to sit on the bench in his native hair and to take off his coat when the thermometer rises to eighty degrees. It was in that manner Judge Winstanley kept court at Waterloo in Illinois and we had their quicker justice, cheaper laws and better manners than those which his southern hemisphere yet exhibits. As to the lawyers, if we did not like them we could lynch them so they were very sociable and civil. Moreover Prairie de Long was discovered and settled nearly twenty years before Australia Felix was heard of. The three villagers had a life-long feud with and a consuming jealousy of each other. Until my arrival I was not aware that there were three such places as Palmerston, Alburton and Tarraville claiming separate and rival existences. I had a notion that they were merely straggling suburbs of the great city in Seaport, Port Albert but it was a grievous mistake. I asked a tall young lady at the hotel who brought in some very salty fish that took the skin off the roof of my mouth if she could recommend the society of these villagers and if she would favour me with her opinion as to which would be the best place to select as a residence and she said, the people there are an horrid lot. This was very discouraging but on making further inquiries I found she only expressed the opinion which the inhabitants of these centres of population held of each other and it was evident that I should have to demean myself with prudence and show no particular affection for one place more than for another or trouble would ensue. Therefore as soon as occasion offered I took a house and paddock within easy distance of all three corners so that when the government allowance had reduced my horse to a skeleton I might give him a spell on grass and travel to the courts on foot. The house was on a gentle rise overlooking a rich river flat. It had been built by a retainer of Lord Glingari who had declined to follow any further the fortunes of his chief when he had closed his daring operations at Greenmount. A tragedy had been enacted in at some years before and a ghost had often since been seen flitting about the house and grounds on moonlit nights. This gave an aristocratic distinction to the property which was very pleasing as it is well known that ghosts never haunted any mansion or castles except such as have belonged to ancient families of noble race. I bought the estate on very reasonable terms no special charge being made for the ghost. The paddock had been without a tenant for some time but I found it was not unoccupied. A friendly neighbour had introduced his flock of sheep into it and he was fattening them cheaply. I said to Tyre to patulate Recuban's sub-tec mine-farvy be good enough to round up your sheep and travel. Titrus said that would be all right he would take them away as soon as they were ready for the butcher. It would be no inconvenience to me as my horse would not be able to eat all the grass. The idea of paying anything did not occur to him. He was doing me a favour. He was one of the simple natives. As I did not like to take favours from an entire stranger the sheep and the shepherd sought other pastures beyond the winding terror. The dense tea tree which boarded the banks of the river was the home of wild hogs which spent the nights in rooting up the soil and destroying the grass. I therefore armed myself with a gun charged with buckshot and went to meet the animals by moonlight. I lay an ambush among the tussocks. One shot was enough for each hog. After receiving it he retired hastily into the tea tree and never came out again. After I had cleared my land from sheep and pigs the grass began to grow in abundance and passing travellers looking pensively over the fence were full of pity for me because I had no stock enough to eat the grass. One man had a team of bullocks which he was willing to put in another had six calves ready to be weaned and a third friend had a horse which he could spare for a spell. All these were willing to put in their stock and they would not charge me anything. They were three more of the simple natives. I would rather buy forty cows and one horse because even allowing for the cows horns the horse has so many more points. I wanted a good cow a quiet milker and a farmer named Ruffy offered to sell me one. He was very rough indeed he was very good at work he showed me the cow and put her in the bale with a big stick and said she was as quiet as a lamb and would stand to be milked anywhere without a leg rope. Here Tom, he brought to his son bring a bucket and come and milk Daisy without the rope and show the gentleman what a quiet bee she is. Tom brought a bucket placed a stool near the cow sat down and grasped one of the teats. Daisy did not give any milk which scattered Tom, the bucket and the stool all over the stockyard. I could not think of anything that it would be safe to say under these circumstances so I went away while the farmer was picking up the fragments. End of section 34 Section 35 at the book at the bush this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information auto volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the book at the bush by George Dundadale section 35 government officers in the bush Satan finds some mischief still for the idle hands to do although I had to attend at three courts on three days of each week my duties were very light and quite insufficient to keep me out of mischief it was therefore a matter of very great importance for me to find something else to do in bush townships the art of killing time was attained in various ways Mr. A went on the street with a handball and coaxed some stray idler to join him in a game he was a young man of exceptional innocence and died early beloved of the gods Mr. B kept a pair of sticks under his desk in the courthouse and made a fencing school at the space allotted to the public some of the police had been soldiers and were quite pleased to prove he was still in arms and show how fields were won as a result there were more breaches of the peace inside the court than outside Mr. C tried to while away his lonely hours by learning to play on a violin which he kept concealed in a corner between a press and the wall of his office he executed music and doubled the terrors of the law intending litigants still transfixed with horror when they approached the open door of his office and listened to the waves and long drawn screeches which filled the interior of the building and every passing dog sat down on its tail and held in sympathetic agony with the maddening sounds but the majority of the officials condemned to live in the dreary townships tried to alleviate their misery by drinking and gambling the police magistrate, the surveyor the solicitor the receiver of revenue the police inspector and the clerk of courts together with one or two settlers formed a little society for the promotion of poker, yooka and other little games interspersed with whiskies it is sad to recall to mind the untimely end at which most of them arrived Mr. D was found dead on the main road Mr. E shot himself through the head Mr. Epp fell asleep in the bush and never woke he was drowned in a water hole one officer was not quite so unfortunate as some of his friends his score at the crook and played became so long that he began to pass that hotel without calling Polly the venerable landlady took offence at such conduct and was daily on the watch for him when she saw him passing which he always did at a rapid pace she hobbled to the door and called after him hey hey then the gentleman twirled his cane whistled a lively tune looked up first to the sky and then to the right and left but never stopped all looked back to Polly behind him at last his creditors became so troublesome and his accounts so inexplicable that he deserted the public service and took refuge across the Murray Mr. H fell into the habit of borrowing his collections to pay his gambling debts he was allowed a certain number of days at the beginning of each month to complete his returns and send in his cash so he made use of the money collected during the days of grace to repay any sums he had borrowed from the public cash during the preceding month but the cards were against him one morning an inspector of accounts from Melbourne appeared unexpectedly in his office in those days there were no railways and no telegraphs and offensive nuisance to us the good old times will never come again when we could regulate our own hours of attendance take unlimited leave of absence and relieve distress by having recourse to the government cash when Grimes was ordered to general every officer was a gentleman and a man of honour in the bush was kept as there was no bank within 50 or 100 miles and it was an implied insult to expect a gentleman to produce his cash balance out of his pocket as a matter of courtesy he expected to be informed by letter two or three weeks beforehand when it was intended to make an official inspection of his books he did not be absent nor taken unawares when the inspector appeared Mr H did not lose his presence of mind or show any signs of embarrassment he said he was glad to see him which was a lie hoped he had had a pleasant journey through the bush asked how things were going on in Melbourne and made inquiries about old friends there but all the while he was calculating chances he had acquired the valuable habit of the gambler and speculator of taking about one thing while he was thinking about another his thoughts ran on in this style this fellow he could not think of him as a gentleman wants to see my cash haven't got any must be near 500 pounds short by this time can't borrow it no time to go round couldn't get it if I did juiced awkward shall be given in charge charge with larceny or embezzlement or something can't help it better quit till I think about it so apologizing he went out mounted his horse and rode away to the mountains the inspector waited 5 minutes 10 minutes 20 minutes and finding that Mr H had gone away he examined the books and vouchers and concluded that there should be a cash balance of more than 400 pounds payable to revenue he looked about the office for the cash but did not find any then the police began to look for Mr H but week after week passed by and Mr H was neither seen nor heard of there were only two ways of leaving south Kippsland that could be considered safe one was by sea from Port Albert the other by the road over the mountains if anyone ventured to desert the beaten track and tried to escape unseen through the forest he was likely to be lost and to be starved to death the only man ever known to escape was an eccentric farmer a wandering outlaw of his own dark mind as Byron so darkly expressed it he deserted his wife one morning in a most systematic manner taking with him his horse and cart a supply of provisions and all the money he was worth a warrant for his arrest was issued and the police were on the lookout for him at all the stations from Port Albert to Melbourne but they never found him many weeks passed by without any tidings of the man or his team when one day he drove up to his own gate unhitched his horse and went to work as usual on enquiry it was found that he had gone all the way to Sydney over land on a visit to an old friend living not far from that city it was supposed that he had some reason for his visit when he started but if so he lost it by the way for when he arrived he had nothing particular to say after a few days he commenced his return journey to South Gippsland and travelled the whole distance without being observed by the watchful police when asked about his travels his only remark was splendid horse there he is between the shafts walked 1200 miles never turned a hair splendid horse there he is but Mr H lacked the intellect or the courage to perform as similar bills errant successfully he rode up to the police station at Elburton and finding from the officer in charge that he was wanted on a warrant he supplied that want he stated that he had been on a visit for the benefit of his help to a friend in the mountains a rail-splitter who had given him accommodation in his hut on reasonable terms he had lived in strict retirement for a time he was in daily and nightly fear at the appearance of the police coming to arrest him every sound disturbed him in about 10 days he began to feel lonely and disappointed because the police did not come neither they or anybody else seemed to be looking for him or to care anything about him heroic self-denial was not his virtue and he felt no call to live the life of a hermit he was treated with undeserved neglect and at the end of 4 weeks he resolved that as the police would not come to him he would go to the police he unburdened his mind and made a confession to the officer who had him in charge he explained how he had taken the money how he had lost it and who had won it it relieved his mind and the policeman kept the secret a confession until after the trial then he broke the seal and related to me confidentially the story of his penitent showing that he was quite as unfit for the saccadotal office as myself Mr H on his trial was found not guilty but the department did not feel inclined to entrust him with the collection or custody of any more cash in succeeding years he again served the government as state school teacher having received his appointment from a minister of merciful principles a reclaimed poacher makes an excellent gamekeeper and a repentant thief may be a better teacher of youth than a sanctimonious hypocrite end of section 30 end of section 35 Kent's group the answers, the judgement rocks and others have visited at certain seasons of the year by seals of three different kinds is the hare seals which are not of much value except for their oil the grey seals whose skins are valuable and the black seals whose furs always command the highest price when these animals have not been disturbed in their resorts for some years they are comparatively tame and it is not difficult to approach them great numbers of the young ones are sometimes found on the rocks and if pushed into the water they will presently come out again scramble back on the rocks and begin crying for their dams but the old seals when frequently disturbed become shy and on the first alarm take to the water the flesh of the young seals is good to eat and the seamen who have been cast away on the islands have been sometimes saved from starvation by eating it I once made the acquaintance of an old sealer he had formerly been very sensitive on the point of honour would resent and insult as promptly as any nighterrant but by making an idol of his honour his life had been a grievous burden to him and he was not even a gentleman and had never been one he was known only as Jack it was in the year 1854 that I had been cast ashore in Cario Bay by a gale of hostile fortune and had taken refuge for a while at the Buxed Hotel then kept by a man named Mackenzie one evening after tea I was talking to a carpenter at the back door who was lamenting his want of timber he had not bought a sufficient supply from Geelong to complete his contract which was to construct some benches for a Presbyterian church Jack was standing near listening to the conversation what kind of timber do you want he said there was a lot of planks down there in the yard and if you'll be outside about 11 o'clock I'll chuck over as many as you want the contractor hesitated who's planks are they he asked I don't know who they are I don't care replied Jack say the word and you can have them if you like the contractor made no reply at least in words to this generous offer it is not every man that has a friend like Jack many men will steal from you but very few will steal for you and when such a one is found he deserves his reward we adjourned to the bar parlor and Jack had a glass of brandy for which he did not pay there was amongst the company a man from Adelaide a learned mineralogist who commenced a dissertation on the origin of gold he was most insufferable would talk about nothing but science Darwin wrote a book about the origin of the species and it has been observed that the origin of the species is precisely what is not in the book so we argued about the origin of gold but we could get nowhere near it when the rest of the company had retired Jack observed to me he put down that Adelaide chap gravely he had not a leg to stand on I was pleased to find that Jack knew a good argument when he heard it so I rewarded his intelligence with another glass of brandy and asked him if he had been long in the colonies he said my name's not Jack that's what they call me but it doesn't matter what my name is I was bought up in Liverpool but I wasn't born there that doesn't matter either I used to work at the docks was living quite respectable was married and had a little son about five years old one night after I had supper and washed myself I said to the missus there's a peep show in Tith Barn Street and if you'll wash Bob his face I'll take him there it's no but a penny you know it was one of them shows where they have pictures behind a piece of calico Paul Pry with his umbrella Daniel and the lion's din roaming across a river a giantess who was a man shaved and dressed in women's clothes a dog with five legs and a stuffed mermaid just what little lads would like there was a man beside who played on a flute and another singing funny songs when I went outside into the street there was little Billy 8's who used to play with Bobby so I said come along Billy and I'll take you to the show and just as they began to show the pictures three black fillers came in and sat down on the bench before us they thought there were big swirls and had on black coats, white shirts stiff collars up to their ear red and green handkerchief and bell topper hats so I just touched one of them on the shoulder and said would you please take your hats off to let the lads see the pictures well then he could just turn his head half round and looked at me and put it like but he kept his hat on so I asked him again quite civil and he called me a low fellow told me to mind my own business and the other two niggas grinned well you know I could not stand that I knew well enough what they were there were stewards on the line as running between New York and Liverpool and they were going round trying to pass for swirls in a penny peep show I didn't want to make a row just then and spoil the show so I said to the lads they go home and I took them home and then came back to the show and waited at the door when the niggas came out I pitched into the one that had given me cheek but we couldn't have it out for the crowd and we were all shoved into the street I went away a bit thinking no more about it and met a man I knew when we went into a public house and had a court of forpony we were in a room by our self and the very same three niggas came in and stood a bit inside the door so I took my tumbler and threw it at the head of the man I wanted and then went at him but I couldn't lick him greatly because the landlord came along and stopped us so after a while I went home next morning I was going along Dale Street toward the doctor work when who should I see but the very same blackfella it looked as if the devil was in it he was by himself this time coming along the other side of the street so I crossed over and met him and went close up to him and said well what have you to say for yourself now and I gave him a lick under the ear he fell down on the curb stone and wouldn't get up turned sulky like there was soon a crowd about and they tried to waken him up but he wouldn't help himself a bit just sulked and wouldn't stir I don't believe he had died but for that because I know but gave him one hit I thought I'd better make myself scarce for a while so I left Liverpool and went to Preston we were in Preston I said I was well then you'll remember Melling the Fishmonger a very big fat man I worked for him for about 6 months and then came back to Liverpool thinking there'd be no more bother about the blackfella but they took me up and gave me 14 year free and if had been a white man I wouldn't have got more than 12 months and I was sent out to Van Diemen's Land and ruined forever but given the chance licked to a blackfella and now I hear they're going to war with Russia and England, Scotland and Wales I hope they all get blooming well licked he don't mend a man much to transport him nor a woman either for that matter they all grow worse than ever when I got my ticket I sometimes went working in the bush sometimes whaling and sealing and sometimes tripping back at Western Port and Portland Bay where there was such a place as Melbourne I was in a whaler for 2 years about Wilson's Promethe until the whales were all cooled or driven away I never saved any money until 9 years back we always went on the spree and spent every penny directly we were paid off at that time I went with a man from Port Albert to the Seal Islands in a boat I knew of a place where there was a cave a big hollow under the rocks to go to sleep and a blowhole coming out of it to the top of the island we hired a boat and went there and made a kind of door which we could drop down with a rope to shut up the mouth of the cave and catch all the seals inside we killed so many that we couldn't take the skins away all at once in the boat to Port Albert we had to come back again I thought to myself I'd be richer than ever I was in my life and I'd be worth millions of pounds I had agreed to go halves with the Port Albert man but you see he had never got a penny but for me because he knew nothing what ever about sealing it didn't look quite fair to give him half and then I thought what a lucky thing it would be for me if he was drowned and he were drowned but mind me I didn't do it it was this way when we got back to the blowhole the weather was bad big waves dashed again the rocks roaring and sending spray across the island we had packed away all the seal skins snug in the boat and pulled the door up from the bottom of the chimney before the gale started when we were taking down the rope and tackle and the shears the water began to come boiling up the blowhole and sinking down again there was a big rush of wind first up and then down sucking you in like it was a ticklish time when we were going to lower the shears the Port Albert man made a kind of slip and was sucked in with the wind and went head first into the boiling water and out of sight I took hold of the slack of a rope thinking I'd throw it to him he might get hold of it and then I could pull him out in about half a minute he were throwing up again by the next wave right to the top of the chimney I could see his face within four feet of me he threw up his hands for something to catch it and looked at me and then gave a frightful scream I didn't throw him the rope something stopped me he might not have got hold of it you know anyhow he went down again among the white water and I never saw him no more only when I am dreaming I always dream about him I can see his face coming up above the boiling water and when he screams I wake up I can never get clear of him out of my head yet mind you I didn't drown him he fell in off his self and I just missed throwing him the rope that's all and I wasn't bound to do it was he and as for money I got for seal skins I could have lived comfortably on that all my life but it never did me no good I started drinking trying to forget that poor Talbot man but it was no use every shelling was soon gone and ever since I've been doing odd jobs and loafing about the public I've never done no good and never shall let's just have another nobler before we turn in End of Section 36 Section 37 of the Book of the Bush this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Magdalena Cook The Book of the Bush by George Dundadale Section 37 Thrice did I receive 40 stripes save one it was court day at Palmerston and there was an unusual amount of business that morning a constable brought in a prisoner and charged him with being a vagrant having no lawful visible means of support I entered the charge in the course list police versus John Smithers vagrancy and then looked at the vagrant he was growing aged was dressed in old clothes faded, dirty and ill-fitting he had not been measured for them his face was very dark and his hair and beard were long and rough showing that he had not been in jail lately his eyes wandered about the court in a helpless and vacant manner two boys about eight or nine years old entered the court and with a colonial presumption sat in the jury box there were no other spectators so I left them there to represent the public they stared at the prisoner whispered to each other and smiled the prisoner could not see anything to laugh at and frowned at them then the magistrate came in rubbing one of his hands over the other glanced at the prisoner as he passed and withered him with the look of virtuous severity he was our Black Wednesday magistrate and was death on criminals when he had taken his seat on the bench I opened the court and called the first and only case it was not often that we had a man to sit on and we sat heavily on this one I put on my sternest look and said, John Smithers here the prisoner instantly put one hand to his forehead and stood at attention you are charged by the police with vagrancy having no lawful visible means of support what have you to say to that charge I'm a blacksmith looking for work said the prisoner I ain't done nothing in your worship I don't want nothing but you should do something replied the magistrate we don't want idle vagabonds like you wondering about the country you will be sent to jail for three months I stood up and reminded the justice respectfully that there was as yet no evidence against the prisoner so as a matter of form he condescended to hear the constable he went into the witness box and proved his case to the Hilt he had found the man at nightfall under the shelter of some tea tree sticks before a fire asked him what he was doing there said he was camping out had come from Melbourne looking for work was a blacksmith took him in charge as a vagrant and locked him up all his property was the clothes he wore an old blanket a tin billy a clasp knife a few crusts of bread an old pipe and half a fig of tobacco could find no money about him the last facts settled in the matter a man travelling about the bush without money is a deep-died criminal I had done it myself and so was able to measure the extent of such wickedness I never felt really virtuous unless I had some money in my pocket you are sentenced to imprisonment for three months in Melbourne jail said the magistrate and mind you don't come here again I ain't done nothing you worship replied the prisoner and I don't want nothing take him away constable seven years afterwards I was riding home about sundown through Tarraville I observed a solitary swagman sitting before a fire among the ruins of an old public house like Marius meditating among the ruins of Carthage there was a crumbling chimney built of bricks not worth carting away the early bricks in South Gippsland were very bad and the mortar had no visible lime in it the ground was strewn with brick bats bottles sardine tins with hoop-iron and other articles the usual refuse of a bush-santy it had been in the early times a place reeking with crime and debauchery men had gone out of it mad with drinking the poisonous liquor had stumbled down the steep bank and had ended their lives and crimes in the Black Tarra River below here the rising generation had taken the first lessons in vice from old hands who made the house their favourite resort here was planned the murder of Jimmy the snob by Pretty Boy and his mates whose hut was near the end of the bridge across the river and for which murder Pretty Boy was hanged in Melbourne in the dusk I mistook the swagman for a stray abridgenal who had survived the destruction of his tribe but on approaching nearer I found that he was or at least once had been a white man he had gathered a few sticks which he was breaking and putting on the fire I did not recognise him I did not think I had ever seen him before and I rode away during the next 24 hours he had advanced about half a mile on his journey and in the evening was making his fire in the church paddock near a small waterhole opposite my house I could see him from the veranda and I sent Jim to offer him shelter in an outbuilding Jim was one of the two boys who had represented the public in the jury box at the Palmerston Court seven years before he came back and said the man declined the offer of shelter never slept under a roof winter or summer if he could help it had lived in the open air for 12 years and never stayed a night in any building except for three months when he was in Melbourne jail he had been arrested by a constable near Palmerston seven years before although he had done nothing and a fall of a beak with a long grey beard had given him three months while two puppies of boys were sitting in the jury box laughing at him he also gave some paternal advice to the youth which, like a great deal of other paternal advice was rejected as of no value never you go to Melbourne young man he said and if you do never stop in any boarding house or public they are full of vermin brought him by bad characters mostly government officers and bank clerks who have been in pentridge don't you never go near him this advice did not sound very respectful however I overlooked it for the present it was not unlikely I might have the advantage of seeing him again in custody and I sent to him across the road some hot tea bread butter and beef this softened the heart and loosed the tongue of the old swagman it appeared from his account of himself that he was not much of a blacksmith he was ostensibly going about the colony looking for work but as long as he could get food for nothing he did not want any work and he always avoided a blacksmith's shop as soon as he found himself near one he ceased to be a blacksmith when asked about his former life he said a gentleman had once advised him to write the particulars of it and had promised him half a crown if he would do so he had written some of them but had never seen the gentleman again so he did not get the half crown and now he would take sixpence for the copy right off his work I gave him sixpence and he drew out a manuscript from an inside pocket off his coat and handed it to me it was composed of small sheets of whitey brown wrapping paper sewn together he had ruled lines on it and had written his biography with lead pencil on looking over it I observed that although he was deficient in some of the inferior qualifications of a great historian such as spelling, grammar and a commander words of seven syllables yet he had the true instincts of a faithful chronicler he had carefully recorded the names of all the eminent bad men he had met of the constable who had first arrested him of the magistrate who had committed him for trial of the judge who had sentenced him of the jailers and warders who had kept him in prison of the captain, doctor and officers of the ship which conveyed him to Sydney of the squatters who had forced him to work for them and of the scourgers who had scourged him for not working enough the names of all these celebrated men together with the wicked deeds for which they were admired were given in detail after the true historic method we all take a great interest in reading every particular relating to the lives of notorious tyrants and great sinners we like to know what clothes they wore and how they swore but the lives of great good men and women are very uninteresting some young ladies even when travelling by train prefer, as I observe French novels inspired by Chloe Chiena to the lives of the saints some people in the colonies are said to have had no grandfathers but John Smithers was even more deficient in pedigree for he had neither father nor mother as far as he could recollect he commenced life as a stable boy and general drudge in England at a village in owned and conducted by a widow named Cobbledick this widow had a daughter named Jemima the mischief wrought in this world by women from Eve to Jemima downwards is incalculable and Smithers averred that it was this female Jemima who brought on his sorrow, grief and woe she was very advanced in worldly science and as young ladies are apt to be when they are educated in the retail liquor trade when Smithers had been several years at the inn and Jemima was already in her teens she thought the world went slowly she had no lover there was nobody coming to marry her nobody coming to woo but at length she was determined to find a remedy for this date of things she had never read the history of the loves of the great Catherine of Russia nor of those of our own Virgin Queen Elizabeth but by an inborn royal instinct she was impelled to follow their high example if lovers did not offer their adoration to her charm spontaneously there was at any rate one whose homage she could command one Sunday afternoon while her mother was absent she went to the stable and ordered Smithers to come and take a walk with her directing him first to polish his shoes and put on his best clothes she brought out a bottle of scented oil to sweeten him and told him to rub it well into his hair and stroke his head with his hands until it was sleek and shiny she had put on her Sunday dress and best bonnet she had four ringlets at each side of her face and to crown her charms had ventured to borrow her mother's gold watch and chain being now a perfect princess in statelyness and beauty she took Jack by the arm she called him Jack and made him march away with her he was rather abashed at the newly duty and post upon him but he had been so well kicked and cuffed all his life that he never thought of disobeying orders love fooled the gods and it gave him little trouble so sorry a pair as Jack and his Jemima they walked along Perkins Lane where many of the neighbours were likely to see them for Jemima was anxious that all the other girls her dearest friends should be filled with spite and envy at her good fortune in having secured a lover when the happy youth and maid were returning with wondering steps and slow Jemima saw her mother pass the end of the lane on her way homewards much sooner than she had expected the golden hours and angel wings had flown away too quickly for the lovers Miss Cobble Dick was filled with sudden alarm and her brief day of glory was clouded it was now impossible to reach home in time to avoid trouble her mother would be certain to miss the watch and what was she to do with it what was Jack and what with herself self-preservation being the first law of nature Jemima resolved to sacrifice Jack in order to shield herself from her mother's rage he was not of much account in any respect so she gave him the watch and chain telling him to keep them safely till she asked for them and to hurry round by the yard gate into the stable this gave great relief to her conscience and enabled her to meet her mother with a face of untroubled innocence Jack had not a lively imagination but during the night he had a clear and blissful vision of his future destiny the dream of fortune his life was ever blessed with he was to be the landlord of the hotel where Mrs Cobble Dick had gone to bliss and Jemima was to be his bride and the landlady but early next morning there was trouble in the house the watch was missing and nobody knew anything about it Jemima helped her mother to look for it and could not find it a constable was sent for and he questioned everyone in and about the house and searched everywhere without result last of all Jack was asked if he knew anything of the missing watch he was faithful and true how could he betray Jemima his future partner in life he said he had never seen no watch and didn't know nothing whatsoever about no watch and the next instant the constable pulled the watch out of Jack's pocket at his trial he was asked what he had to say in his defence and then he told the truth and said Jemima gave him the watch to keep until she should ask for it but there is a time for all things and Jack could never learn the proper time for telling the truth or for telling a lie he was always in the wrong the judge in passing sentence said he had aggravated his crime by endeavouring to implicate an innocent young lady in his villainy and gave him seven years he was taken on board a hulk where he found two or three hundred other boys imprisoned on the evening of his arrival a report was circulated among them that they were all to be sent to another ship which was bound for Botany Bay and that they would never see England again they would have to work and sleep in chains they would be yoke together and whip like bullocks and if they escaped into the bush the blacks would kill and eat them as this dismal tale went round some of the boys who were quite young and small began to cry and to call for their mothers to come and help them and then the others began to scream and shout and yell the waters came below and tried to silence them but the more they tried the louder grew the uproar and it continued for many hours during the night Britons really swerved from law however stern which tends their strength to serve discipline must be maintained so the next morning the poor little beggars were brought up on deck in batches stripped, triced up and severely flogged Jack and a number of other boys said they had not cried at all but the officer in charge thought it was better that a few of the innocent should suffer rather than that one of the guilty should escape so they were all flogged alike and soon after they were shipped for New South Wales on his arrival in Sydney Jack was assigned as a servant to a squatter and taken into the bush a long way to the west the weather had been very hot for a long time all the grass had withered to dust and the cattle were starving the first work which he was ordered to do was to climb trees and cut off the branches in order that the cattle might keep themselves alive by eating the leaves and twigs Jack had never been used to handle an axe or tumourhawk so he found the labour of chopping very hard he did his best but that was not good enough for the squatter who took him to a magistrate and had him flogged by the official scourger while serving his sentence of seven years he was flogged four times three of the times he said he had done nothing and for the fourth flogging he confessed to me that he had done something but he did not say what the something was in those days it seems that doing nothing and doing something were crimes equally meriting the lash and now after a long life of labour the old convict had achieved independence at last I don't think I ever met a richer man he was richer than the whole family of the Ross Childs he wanted scarcely anything food and clothing he obtained for asking for them and he was not particular as to their quality if the quantity was sufficient property to him was something despicable he did not want any and would not live inside a house if he had one he preferred the outside he was free from family cares never had a father or mother, sister or brother wife or children no poor relatives ever claimed his hospitality no intimate friends wanted to borrow half a crown no one ever asked him to buy suburban lots or to take shares in a limited liability company he was perfectly indifferent to all danger from bush rangers burglars, pickpockets or cattle stealers he did not even own a dog so the dogman never asked him for the dog tax he never inquired about the state of the money market nor bothered himself about the prices of land or cattle wood, wine or wheat every bank and brewery and building society in the world might go into liquidation at once for ought he cared he had retired from the government service had superannuated himself on a pension of nothing per annum and to draw it he'd required no voucher and yet notwithstanding all these advantages I don't think there are many men who would voluntarily choose his lot I watched him from the end of the veranda again speculating about him what was he thinking about during his solitary watches in the night all while he tramped alone through the bush year after year in heat and cold, wind and rain did he ever think of anything of his past life or of his future lot did he believe in or hope for a heaven or had he any fear of hell and eternal punishment surely he had been punished enough in this life he had endured evil things in plenty and might at least hope for eternal rest in the next he was sitting with his back against a gum tree and his feet towards the fire from time to time he threw a few more sticks on the embers and a fitful blaze lit up his dark weather-beaten face then to my surprise he began to sing and to sing well his voice was strong, clear and mellow and its tones rose and fell in the silent night air with a pathetic and wonderful sweetness the burden of his song was we may be happy yet oh, smile as thou wilt won't to smile before a weight of care had crushed on heart and yet a while left only sorrow there we may be happy yet he sang three stances and was silent then someone said poor old fellow I hope he may be happy yet next morning he was sitting with his back against the gum tree his fire had gone out and he seemed to be late in awakening and in no hurry to resume his journey but his travels were finished he never awoke his body was quite cold and he must have died soon after he had sung the last note of his song he had only six pence in his pocket the six pence I had given him for his biography the police took him in charge once more and put him in his last prison we will remain until we shall all be called together by the dread blast of the Archangel's trumpet on the Judgment Day End of Section 37 End of The Book of the Bush by George Dundadale