CHAPTER I.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1944, 20 December 1884, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHAPTER I.

" What a magnificent man I I never remember seeing a youth so splendidly developed, so strong yet graceful and picturesque. He must at least be six feet four, yet so well is he proportioned, that he does not seem above the ordinary height except when another person is standing by. What a broad back and mighty chest; telling of enormous strength. What a fine waist for so large a man. His lipa are rounded like Apollo's ; his limbs the perfect ideal of beauty, combined with strength— the greatest of all beauty. And how well, yet evidently unconsciously, he sets off his appearance by dress. The yellow cords fit his limbs like a glove, while the loose dark coat sits upon him as tailor never could have desigt cd. Upon my word, if I were a young girl I would be hopelessly gone the moment I saw him." " Well, he is a splendid fellow undoubtedly, though in the rough. You have forgotten to criticise his face. It is for that I like him best. It is a good face, though wanting in refinement and somewhat reckless. I like the look of good humor in the eyes and the Bweetness of the mouth, and that short, crisp, dark beard gives him the appearance of Mars as one sees it in ancient cameos. He is a fine fellow, but a rough bushman for all that. Probably if we hear him speak and see him when drunk, we will be thoroughly disenchanted. His mouth is, no doubt, as full of senseless abominable adjectives as those of his companions." The speakers were two elderly gentlemen, who were smoking cigars in the verandah of the leading Cockietown hotel, waiting for the only great event of the day in that fast- rising municipality, the arrival of the coach from $he railway terminus, distant ten miles. The fails were being laid, and Cockietown would soon have a station of its own, where the larrikins would be able to lounge about and spit and swear to their heart's content. At present their haunt was the Selectors' Arms Hotel corner, where they duly assembled every day at four o'clock and indulged in the diversions of their kind ; varying the amusement by occasionally having a polka or quadrille in the road, which they ceased the moment the word " nit " was uttered by a scout, which signified that Sergeant O'Flaherty, weighing sixteen stone, was "on the track," " from information received." Among this crowd of town loungers and "bush Bwells" stood the object of the remarks passed by the two old gentlemen, who were commercial travellers, and, being in different lines, were on the best of terms. Big Jack was undoubtedly a young fellow, that anyone with an eye to beauty must at once have singled out. Beauty of face and form are so rare that they at once attract at tention. How often the reader must have felt this when in a crowd. His eye wandera over a number of common place faces and forms, and at last lights upon a man or woman who enchains him. It is like the traveller w hose eye glances over the desert and is brightened by the sight of an oasis. " Who is that big tall young chap ? " queried one traveller of the landlord, who came out to watch for the coach. " Big Jack, they call him," said the landlord. " He's the son of a selector out Mia Mia way, and a real do no-good. He's as Strong as four men, but he will work only when the fit's on him. He goes shearing regularly in the season, and comes back with a big cheque, half of which he gives the old people, the other half he spends in drink and the like, If he don't look out he'll develop a eort of c Ned Kelly — theee bush ■^dandies o^me to no gaod. If he was ordinary bedome'a respectable hardworkana bring up a family. who are too good looking never dp r well:" walked off to thp bar tp grab which Jack

and hia companions bad organised. He knew he was ruining the youngchaps, but money waB dparer to him than his fellow creatures. In a minute or two his laugh waß the heartiest, encouraging the youths to shake—" better luck next time." 1 That is the way of the world," said Mr. Anderson, f he soft goods man, who, perhaps, from hia vocation, was sentimental. "Mcd locrity hates beauty and talent, and predicts evil of them. And it is true that they are too often curses instead of blessings. The patient plodding determined man, however stupid, is bound to succeed where talent fails, for with talent is too otten associated % warm heart, a fervid temperament, and a craving for something beyond what this world gives. Beauty leads to destructive vanity; talent to impatience and discontent. Yet I cannot think that a line honebt face will ever have the devil's mark upon it. A good woman would save him — if one can be found." Mr. Andeison was a confiimed bachelor; hence his views of the, at present, dominant sex. Mr. lltchards, the gentleman- in the hardware line, was about to reply, when with a rush and a whirl, the cracking of the driver's whip, barking of dogs, the shouting of men, and the querulous cries of poultry, the coach turned the corner, and all rushed tn pee j^who (had come to Cuckietown that day. Tnere were all soite of passengers: sunburnt selectors who had been to Benalla to sell and buy ; commercial travellers, divided between the anxiety to see about their samples and to be first at the leading storekeepers ; limp-looking individuals who had come from a long spree in Benalla or the metropolis, with aching heads, shaky hands, an aroma of whisky and empty pockets ; and last of all, but not the least, a pretty girl, very small of stature, but bewitching in her style, figure, and features— as far as could be seen of the latter, for all the travellers were plentifully covered with the grey dust of the plains. This little lady stood alone, looking ruefully around her, and allowing her feelings of disappointment to be seen pretty plainly. It was after harvest, and the travel over miles and miles of seemingly limitless plains without an object to break the monotony, made her heart sink. How could she live here? She remembered, and the tears clouded her eyes as she did, how her heart had leaped when she received a letter from the Education Department stating she was promoted from assistant at a Ballarat school to the sole charge of a school in Cockietown. What plans she built ; how glad she felt to be free. And now it seemed to her she would give anything to be back in the dear mountain city where she had been born ; the city of lakes and gardens and grand streets, and never ending amusement. Cockietown was indeed an uninviting place, albeit its wealth of golden grain. The lat lands on the plains had been recently selected, and the town had grown up like magic — grown in its own irregular way. Shanties appeared in its long straggling main street, side by side with splendid banka and stores. The architecture was free and easy, as were the people. And around Btretched an illimitable expanse of dry baked plains, the vista broken only by the gaunt ghostlike forms of the dead timber. It was an awful place for a sensitive artistic nature to contemplate as its abode for any length of time. The sea may be monotonous, but it has its waves and its storms. Cockietown was always the same— even storms were scarce ; and the sky was generally as cloudlessly blue as the earth was either green or grey. " Shall I take your luggage in ? " was the query of a waiter, which dissipated the girl's reverie and made her think of the present. And that very moment she remembered Bhe was hungry 1 That was a good symptom. Bringing her attention to the present, she was at once sensible that a young man who seemed to her a perfect Goliah, was gazing eagerly and admiringly at her. Yet his look was not such as any woman could be offended at ; there was nothing impure or wrong in the honest glance which recognised the beauty of the girl. Women are quick to understand the language of the eyes, and a pure woman instantly resents the gaze of the lecher and the impertinent. The girl, however, could not but blush and cast her eyes down. As for the youth, he turned a brick red, and shambled away as if he had committed some teriible cume, such as the landlord had in view for him, and deserved to be led to execution at once. He had disappeared when the girl again raised her eyes, and she followed the waiter into the hotel, with a strange fluttering in her breast that her little heart had never known. Perhaps, after all, there were some things that would make life in Coekietown worth living 1