The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1873-01-24
LOVE UP Gum TREE.

New South Wales is country peculiar
ly liable To floods. Its rivers generally take
their rise in tho lofty mountain ranges, and
in the early part of their course are joined
by tributary streams. When the rainy sea-
son has set in-which generally commences
about the middle of hay-the downpour
somctm, S continues for six weeks at a time
and then these rivers overflow their banks
and flood the surrounding country far and
near, forming i'll many places, miniature
seas. Upon these occasions hundreds of
farmers are ruined, thousands # sheep and
cattle generally destroyed, and not unfre
uuently many valuable human lives sacri-
feed.
Perhaps the district most liable to disas
trous floods i'll the whole country is the
Hunter. where, after 4 few years. thOus-
ands of acres arc submerged with the sud
tIenncss that is truly appalling. Houses
arc frequently buried to the ciIiInncy-JoIs
beneath the waters, which rapidly form an
inland sea of at least hundred miles i'll
length, by an acre i'll breadth.
In the year 1866 l was quartered at
Windsor, little township about twenty
five miles distant from Sydney, the me-
tropolis of the country, and for some months
l had chiefly been engaged i'll the arduous
and by no means romantic duty of hunting
for illicit stills of which it WAS supposed
there were several i'll the neghborhood-
/ certainly did my best to discover their
whereabouts, but was completely unsuc-
cessful, and after traversing the country
day after day, i'll every kind of disguise,
until must have travelled hundreds of
miles, | at last gave the matter up ls bad
job.
If | had not found still, however, I had
in the course of my wanderings discovered
what gave me far greater delight, for had
| fallen across ono OF tho protticst and most
lovable little girls than All Australian or
any other sun ever had the honor Of shin
ing upon, and what was better, had SO in
| gratiatcd myself III her good graces as to
! win her promise that she would never mar
| ry any one but me.
| Our acquaintance had commenced in a
romantic manner enough. | had rescued
her from a wiidfcow, who would certainly
| have gored her had / not intCrposcd and
shot the brute. She was too frightened to
! walk home, and so accompanied her, was
| introduced to her parents, as a matter Of
course, and they were very pr"fuso i'll their
thanks, and begged mc hcnceforth to look
| upon their house "a my home, and SD forth.
| | promptly took them at their word, and
| every other evening, and sometimes even
| oftcner, my charger would bc comfortably
| stalled for hours ut time IN Farmer Mar-
tins stable; and ,rneanwhilc, the pretty &c
trude and myself would bc either wander
|
gethcr in the old summer-housc, as the
cold wo:theradrew ON, or playing chess III
the snug little back parlor.
These things continued until the rainy
season set in, but instead of being deferred
| by the steady down pours, my visits be-
| came if possible more frequent, and thTo'
the sluShY lowlands, where the water was
often above my horses knee, nightly jog
| ged, like marine ccntaUr, to revisit my
namOrata.
By and by the fathers suspicious were
aroused. Could it lie possible Il mounted
trooper, wearing English uniform, would
| ride nightly through mud and rain, and
| thunder and lightning, ard half hail and
wind, to drink a glass of grog and smoke !,
| pipe with an old man of sixty? Common
sense answered No" and having fair
stock of that commodity, so also said Far
mer Martin. 1.-The girl he's after, and it 5
time to rut a stop to this nonsense" was
the conclusion he arrived at.
And so the very next evening rode over,
but before Gertrude and | could finish OuI
third game of chess, Mr. Martin put his
| head in the room and said, is Il dry, digui-
fed kin.l Of way:
"Hcn could | speak with you few
minutes in the front parior, Mir. Rush ?''
think knew what was coming, and sc
did Gertrude, for she grew very pale and
upset the cheSsboard i'll her agitation, sc
that kings, queens, bishops, knights, and
all the smaller fray, went rolling over the
room.
Meanwhile, / followed tho old gentleman
INFO tho front parlor-that horrid room
wherein everything was buried either i'll
| chiutzcs OF yellox muslin, and where lire
was mover lighted moro than oncc a year
and here lie opened the trenches, not AIT
,rr;lv. bat collectively, calmly, dc:ollnincdly