en
funny."

When Peter came back he went on with his story, and was only interrupted
once or twice by Danny waking up and calling him to drive off the
snakes, and green and crimson dogs with crocodile heads, and devils with
flaming tails, and those unpleasant sorts of things that force their
company on boozers and madmen.

"Gentleman Once," said Peter, "he came from the old country with a good
education and no character. He disgraced himself and family once too
often and came, or was sent, out to Australia to reform. It's a great
mistake. If a man is too far gone, or hasn't the strength to live the
past down and reform at home, he won't do it in a new country, unless a
combination of circumstances compels him to it. A man rises by chance;
just as often he falls by chance. Some men fall into the habit of
keeping steady and stick to it, for the novelty of it, until they are on
their feet and in their sane minds and can look at the past, present and
future sensibly. I knew one case--But that's got nothing to do with the
story.

"Gentleman Once came out on the remittance system. That system is fatal
in nine cases out of ten. The remittance system is an insult to any
manhood that may be left in the black sheep, and an insult to the land
he is sent to. The cursed quarterly allowance is a stone round his neck
which will drag him down deeper in a new land than he would have fallen
at home. You know that remittance men are regarded with such contempt
in the bush that a man seldom admits he is one, save when he's drunk
and reckless and wants money or credit. When a ne'er-do-well lands in
Melbourne or Sydney without a penny he will probably buck-up and do
something for himself. When he lands with money he will probably spend
it all in the first few months and then straighten up, because he has
to. But when he lands on the remittance system he drinks, first to drown
homesickness. He decides that he'll wait till he gets his next quarter's
allowance and then look round. He persuades himself that it's no use
trying to do anything: that, in fact, he can't do anything until he gets
his money. When he gets it he drifts into one `last' night with chums
he has picked up in second and third-rate hotels. He drinks from pure
selfishness. No matter what precautions his friends at home take, he
finds means of getting credit or drawing on his allowance before it
is due--until he is two or three quarters behind. He drinks because he
feels hap