The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-06-21
KATIE.

| Ou COlQ winter nlBHl Iudn d SInlinA
 with it's roaring fire. The ruddy glow
 and sparkle of light, the interested
 faces of the village loungers, the roai
 of the bellows, and the cheerful ring oi
 the smiths hammer on the anvil, al
 combine to make up comfortable ru
 ral picture of light and warmth The
 smithy at Godscroft on a cold Decem. | Der evening was no exception to this
 rule; it was warm and bright, and filled
 to overflowing with village gossips, met to talk over the events of the day. The | group of men collected round the fire
 was just such a group as may be found round any smithy fire in the country,
 hard-headed, hard-featured, hard-fist-
 ed, shrewd, sensible men; keen politi- clans, learned in polemical controversy, fond of argument on most subjects, and able to take an intelligent, although
 often prejudiced, interest in almost all
 the leading topics of the day.
 Such were the loungers collected
 round the smithy fire at Godscroft, list
 ening eagerly to a man who was in
 many respects dissmilar to them.
 There was about him an easy breadth,
 9 freedom, an expansiveness of gesture
 and manner, which suggested colonial
 life. He had an air as if the village street were scarcely wide enough for
 his swinging stride, as if he felt the lit-
 tie world of the smithy, the arena of the intellectual heroes of Godscroft narrow and circumscribed. He was good-looking, with 8 sun-embrowned complexion, and dark eyes with a mer- ry twinkle in them; while a strong, squarely cut chin and jaw gave char acter to a face that would otherwise have been only weakly good-natured. A large wiry- -haired dog, of a mongrel and nondescript type, lay at his feet, and formed the theme of conversation.
 Its bonny dog O its kind, and guid dog, Tse warrant; but will never allow that it's collie," said one speak er
 Did I ever say that it was? It has nothing of the collie about 1t, although it has more than a collie's intelligence"
 Its dour-looking beast" said an- other. "It reminds me of wolf once saw in Womwell's menagerie, that came round this countryside four years ago come Lammas.-Ye'll mind it. Geor- dle?"
 You're none SO handsome yourself, Jock" said the stranger, that you should object to the want of beauty in others. Did you never hear tell of the old proyerb. Handsome Is as hand some does?' Bill here, Is better than he is bonny, and that he has proved"
 "Tell us all about it. It's just grand to hear ye telling these outlandish sto- ries," said one of the bystanders.
 Tt would be away out there in Aus tralia, Tse warrant said. another.
 "Yes, boys, it was," said the tall, bearded man who owned Bill; and he tossed back his hair and gave his forehead a rub, as if to quicken the bump of memory, and straightway be- gan.
 You want BillS story, mates, Well. here it is. Some of you here, I don't ioubt, will remember that when the old man died In the hard winter of TO, eft the old country, that was pretty well used up for me. to try my luck in he Austrian gold-felds, where they lsed to tell Us down here that the gold night be got for the mere trouble of fitting it up. What I got and that was lever very much, took a precious deal ,f hard work, I can tell you; and what with one thing and another I tired of t, and went up the country to a big iquatter. a kenned man and a kindly, Or he was one of Hunter of Godscroft's ons, and hired myself to be one of his | hepherds. I had a good berth with | i'm, nothing to complain of, either in | he way of work, or meat, or wages; | -gf erribly lonesome. I missed my mother l 'oor old body, more than can tell you fany a time 1t would have done my | eart good just to have heard the click | f her knitting-needles, or seen the | Fhisk of the skirts of her old black own; and sometimes laughed, and | ometimes I almost shed tears. when I | bought how it would have amused her 0 have seen me with my sleeves turned | D kneadlng damper or toasting bit mutton at the smoky fire.
 However. 1t was better, as often aid to myself, to be alone than teth- red to a bad neighbor: and my sheep ept me in so much work that I had cry little time for thinking. Every ow and again they would take wan ering fit, and I would get up some fine | and find the half of the hirsel one, and nothing for 1t but to SCOUT the ountry far and near till I came upon le track of them. I have seen me ride fty miles before came up with them" "Eh, man, but ye would be fearsome hen ye did" said an old school-fellow | 
 The big Australian withered him with
 look, and went calmly on. ''I was out one day after a lot of these woolly trespassers, that ere as swift as deer, and as cunning as le oldest fox in your splnneys here; nd had not seen as much as a print 1
 one of their feet, I had been riding nee the morning broke, and I was ent with hunger and fatigue, when e night came down upon me pitch irk not q star visible--a deep Egyp- 2 m darkness that could almost be felt I
 could not so much as see my hand c hen held 1t up before me" IT "Ye were aye a bauld billy" said an- l her retrospective sch0ol-fellow, "but q at would daunton ye. What did ye | .?" d i'What could do? To turn back was | ore dangerous than to go forward. let my horse solve the difficulty; he c emed to see what was before him; I h uld not; and we went on, and on, and f
 till saw shimmering gleam flash r rough the mirk darkness of the night, t.