Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1896-08-20
NQUEENSLAND WILDS.
By PERCY RUSSELL.
fCopyright. 1896. ]

knew it, yet he felt that he would do i
a second time under the same circum
stances, and truly as Oswald Rothwel
gazed fondly on his bride, it might vel
be said that he might have chosen {
great deal worse although convention
ally be was gentleman born, and she
well, that is part Of the story We
have to tell. The pair were sitting OF
that splendid beach at Port Douglas
which is the great beauty OF thai
Queensland port, extending as it does
for seven miles and backed by won
derful scrub. 1t is well to remark thai
in this part Of the world scrub" ii
what we in England should call dense
forest, whereas the "bush" simply il
forest of a much more open and park
like description. Boutwell, wore sui
of cricketing fannels and one Of tht
famous cabbage tree" hats, which
extravaganza had cost him 20 shillings
anything made by human hand Labor
being enormously dear in this Labor
governed, democratic colony, and very
becoming it was to this fair, honest
blue eyed Saxon face, while by his side
nestled close to him the dearest little
bright eyed girl in the world as he
Thought She was short to his 6 feet
of wellbuilt manhood, but by no means
insignificant in herself. Her face was
as sunny and sweet as the climate,
which is saying much, and two beauti.
full, thick, silky brown curls came like
bonnet strings on each side of her good
tempered round chin. She wore blue
and white print dress and had just tuck,
ed away two pretty feet in neatly san,
'daled black shoes, because her husband
had been making himself ridiculous,
she said, by remarks on "her hoofs. "
There sat the two ON the first day of
their honeymoon on the beach of this
remote Queensland port, just for all the
world, as Oswald said, as though they
were at the seaside in England itself
and not on the very hem of the Austral
wilderness.
The history Of all this pretty picture
as presented to US in framework of
intense tropical sunshine was simple
and brief Rothwell was the youngest
son of north country gentleman of
'incumbered estate,' who had given
him good education and then found
out that his son was not exactly wanted
by the world--at all events in the land
of his birth, unless in an ornamental
and purely spending capacity.
Oswald was good, brave and amia-
BILE, but these are not exactly merchant
able commodities in the English labor
market. He knew good deal of "a good
many useful things, but nothing quite
well enough to enable him to turn it to
pecuniary purpose among those who
really wanted work done, and after sew
eral unsuccessful attempts to enter a
profession--he tried law and architec-
ture--the elder Rothwell embraced an
opportunity, believed to be very unique,
of sending him out to the station in
north Queensland Of college friend
who had emigrated thither and was
supposed to be rapidly making for
tune out of sheep and cattle 1t happen
ed that on board the ship in which Os-
--wald went out were number Of single
women emigrants, one Of whom was an
orphan, Emily Bixby, whom Oswald
had seen at the same school, and, seeing,
admired as being what he called one
OF natures young ladies. 1t seemed to
h bn1 cHc
should be in the same ship as himself,
bound for the same colony, and, like
himself, seeking her fortune Emily
Was not in the least of the designing
type of girls and was not vain in any
proportion to her great natural charms.
Once committed to the emigrant ship,
however, her heart had failed her, and
on arriving at the depot, where the girls
waited to be engaged, she had given
way to q species of panic.
IN word, she heartily repented Of
having yielded to the persuasion of her
aunt, who had only sought how to rid
herself of a charge she did not relish
and had packed the girl off to the antip-
sodes as an incumbrance well rid of.
Oswald saw her, and his future being,
as he imagined, fixed he had cast care
to the winds and determined to make
her his wife. He considered that the
300 year he was to receive fully JUS
titled this step, and he had, moreover,
worked himself into fear of apprehen-
sion lest such girl should go into what
he deemed the slavery Of domestic serv-
ice. The specimens Of settlers wives
who came down to the depot to engage
servants seemed to him to include some
of the most coarse and vulgar women in
the whole world, and in one word he
had hurried Emily to the registrars Of
fee and married her straight off, leav
ing the question of repentance sine die.
Emily had clung to him as kind Of
rescuer from people OF whom she felt
afraid. And then had he not told her
that he was engaged on a property Of
vast dimensions at good salary, and
that when up there she would live like
a lady and in way worthy ofsthe wife
of a person SO important as~Oswald
Rothwell considered himself to be? He
had in truth much to learn. this rash,
impulsiye youth. 1t never occurred to
him il what guise his friend, Fred Fos-
len. might take this ''incumbrance, +"
and he had an idea. that was fully
CA-@ToRTA.
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