Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1889-06-20

he"l -dTIlNcd HhA pa StnlhI uhinS one uu
whose shoulders the weight of response
bility, in the shape of four or five score
| young women, sat lightly. We were
ushered into great bare hall among
a lot of some sixty giIls Of all descrip-
| tions-ex-London slaveys, fresh caught
Irish msidens with 1.-The mark of the
dogs teeth yet in their heels, tall
daughters of the plough" and some poor
girls who might a month before have
| figured in picture of Hoods Song OF
the Shirt"
All looked fat and healthy after tour
months of sea air, the usual condition of
newly landed immigrants, but the Sydney
mosquitoes had had notice of their arriv
al, and had Toasted on fresh and healthy
| British blood. SO the poor girls for
whom paternal government does not
| provide mosquito nets, were one and all
disfgured by the winged tormentors.
| Half dozen young women who were re-
| ported willing to face the unknown perils
of the bush were trotted out for our in
speotion in q most business like manner,
and tall, fair, handsome, shy English
| girl of two or three and twenty was bound
over by mysterious documents to meet
me at a certain time and place, and, under
my charge, TO proceed to Wyalls, trans
port for her "boxesn being duly arranged
| for. And that was my first introduction
to Mary Lawson.
Then, with many thanks to my fair
/ friend, away sped /, on business l under
stood much better than that of hiring
housemai1s-to wit, the buying of what
We Austral ans call a buggy, but what is
known in the states as wagon, or buck
board-four light wheels, all about the
same height, perch, q shallow tray and
| splashboard, mounted on fore and aft
| springs, on which is a seat for two; the
whole as tight, tough and elastic as a
skillful combination of mild steel, hick-
DRY and leather can be made TO be, and
the best vehicle yet devised for travelling
over the complication of ruts, rocks and
roots, which are known as roads IN the
Australian bush. Mine was 81 abbott
newly i'm ported from Concord, n. H.
not a cheap article by any means, but a
very good one. And week aft7rward-
my visit TO Sydney too soon over, for
had sold 1000 head of store cattle to a
| Victoria man, to be mustered and deliv-
cred 100 miles down the road, and had
not many weeks TO do it in-I was on my
way home, with Mrs. Hayes housemaid
| by my side, in the buggy.
! had driven one of my horses myself
about the other there existed a tradition,
on the station, that someone had once
! seen him in harness. He certainly, at
| first starting seemed to have forgotten
his early experiences. My companion,
| however, treated his eocentrioities as a
matter of course, merely remarkinR that
she was used 20 horses. 1t was evident
that she had good nerves. The young
woman INDUCED in one good cry during
the Journey, much TO my alarm, but
otherwise took the many strange sights
and sounds she saw aud heard very
quietly. She spoke good English and
seemed nice in her ways, and was, she
told me, the daughter of Il Devonshire
| farmer and cattle dealer, and after her
parents death had been for a while in
service in London.
Jim Curtis the Wyalla stockman, met
us, 80 miles down the road, with fresh
horses, and handed over my charge to
Mrs. Kay, after a prosperous journey,
j i'm was a fine, tall, handsome young fell
low, a type of an Australian "Cornstalk,"
slim and broad shouldered, with curling
| fair beard and hair ana good tempered
real good stookman, either in the bush
or in the yard, he was well liked every
where, and O model TO be initiated by all
! the Jackaroos and new chums in the dis
| trict And, in clean white shirt and mole
skin trousers, neat boots and little
cabbage Tree hat, with his handsome
brown face and perfect seat on horseback,
| he looked like the beau ideal of daring
stockman, and was celebrated for various
exploits among cattle and horses. Indeed,
! it needed good man to follow him among
ranges or in scrub or to "track up" to him
after a mob of wild cattle. Jim was the
son of small farmer, Sing Teton way; his
father and mother had probably both
come to the colon "under government"
as the phrase used to be.
Well to shorten my story, went home,
mustered my cattle, and, in a couple of
months time, again found myself guest
at Wyalla. /, of course, inquired for and
saw my housemaid; she had recovered
| from her mosquito bites, aud was, unde-
niably, worry handsome girl. Mrs. Kaye
| liked her, and praised me for the way in
which | had executed her commission.
! The next news that / heard, some months
/ later, of Mary Lawson was that she was
engaged to be married to Jim Curtis, but
the event was not TO come off until latter
shearing," an interval of some months.
| Then came evil tidings. Jim had got
mixed up with some horse dealing trans
actions, had yielded to the temptations to
which all the stookmen are expo ed where
horses abound, had been tried for horse
stealing, and had been con gicted of ii
| legal possession of a certain mare and
foal, Thich is about the utmost of which
a bush Jury will iud a man guilty. So
Curtis, instead OF marrying the pretty
new chum, had before him the prospect
OF nine months imprisonment in the
county jail.
| My friends at Wyalla, where Jim was
! favorite, were very sorry foI him. Here
was a young fellows whole life ruined
for what might only have been case of
"soldiering,n OF a mistake about brand {;
and here, too, was Mrs. Hayes fRvo-ite
parlormaid crying her eyes out for her
| lover aid yoWiDg that she would marry
| Jim as soon as he came out of prison.
/ About that time sort of epidemic OF
| bushranging or robbery under arms had
set in. Pelsly, Gardener, Morgan, the
Clarks and many others had made the