The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-03-01

! lit was a beech trce} and went ana
broke something in my ankle and some
thing in my chest and couldn't stand
Consequently, of course, I couldn' tstick
him up The pain was pretty thick, but
feeling what fool was seemed to
make me forget it. Anyway, finding it
was useless thinking of sticking him
up, I tried to hobble into the fern and
get out of sight, and finding I couldn' t
crawl rolled. But, of course, you can
roll away from chap, and he came
after me, and my mask fell off while l
rolled, and he recognized me-
Mon Dieul 1t is the boy Maine!'
he said. Speak, childl What in the
wide world was this
81 disguised my voice and said I
wasn't Maine, and that he'd better
leave me alone or it might be the worse
for him yet. But he wouldn't 90, and
CHANGING to get queer about the head
somehow I went off, J. suppose. though
it wasn't for long. When came to, he
was gone, but he rushed back in min
ute with that rotten old top hat he
wears full of water he'd got from the
puddle in the stone pit. He doused my
head and made me sit up with my back
against tree Then, feeling the fright
fulness of ii, again begged him to go
and let me be. I said:
You don't know what you're do
ing. I'm no friend to you, but the
deadliest ensmy you We got in the world
very likely, and if hadn't fallen down
at a critical moment and broken myself
T should have stuck you up. NJ. Michel
So now you know.
..He said to himself: The poor mad
boy, the poor mad hoyI I will run a
toutes jambes for snccor. But I told
him not to- I began to get rum hot
pain in my side then, but I felt I would
gladly have died there rather than be
obliged to him. said:
...You called me an "aborigine, "
which is the most terrible thing you
can call an Australian born chap, and
you wanted TO pass it off with knife
with corkscrew and tweezers in it.
But you couldn't expect me to take 1T
feeling as I did Now the fortunes of
war have given you the victory, and. if
you please, wish you'd go.
"He wouldn't, though. He said be
wouldn't have hurt my feelings for
anything. He seemed to overlook alto
gether what 7 was going to do to him
and asked me where it hurt me. I told
him, and he said itwas his fault-fancy
that-and wished he was big enough to
carry me back. I kept on asking him
to go, and at last, after begging my
pardon like anything for about a week
it seemed, he went. But heard him
shouting and yelling French yells in
the woods, and after bit he came back
with two men and hurdle. They pres
emily took me back, and what Frenchy' s
said since to the doctor I don't know.
In fact. 1 didn't know anything for
days. Anyway I've had nothing but a
mild rowing and veTy good grub, and
I'm not to be even fogged, though
that's probably because broke rib OF
two, not including the bone in my leg.
But I'm all right now, and I think it
was about the most sporting thing 3
chap ever did for Frenchy to treat me
like that eh3 shouldn't have thought
it was in Frenchman to do it, espe-
cially after told him what l was go
ing to do.
eyes, I said, "that's al right But
what about bushranging
"It's pretty sickening," he said,
"bqt feel as if all the keenness was
knocked out Of me- If chap can + SO
much as fall out of tree on wander
er's path at the nick of time without
smashing himself. what's the good OF
him %
Besides, said, ..if it hadn't been
Frenchy, but somebody else of a differ
ent turn Of mind. be might have taken
you at disadvantage and killed you.
"In real bushranging that is what
would have happened, admitted Free
kles. "As it is, feel months, perhaps
years. will have to go by before feel
to banker after it again. And mean
time shan trest in peace till I've paid
Frenchy.
GLOW I asked.
"Well, r believe it's to be done. Hes
often come to see me- while was on my
back in bed. and he's told me- a lot
about himself He's frightfully hard NJ
and Roman Catholic and hopes to
lay his bones in la belle France. with
luck, but he doesn think he'll ever be
able to manage it. He told me all this,
little knowing my father was extremely
rich Well, you see the mater wants
somebody French for the kids at home,
which are girls. and knowing Frenchy
bars this climate think Australia
might do him good. He's So years old,
and it seems to me if the guv' nor wrote
and offered him his passage and good
screw he go. I have made it q persona
thing to myself, and told the guv mol
what good little chap he is and what
beautiful accent he's got and the
thing that happened in the wood "
The affair dropped then. and about
six weeks after, when Freckles was got
ting fit again, he walked with me one
half holiday to see the place where he
was smashed up. The bough was a
frightfnl high one to drop from even IN
4 daylight; also it was broken. Freckles
got awfully excited when he spotted it.
kFTyJ IL.