returned the whack with interest.
Then the other fellow hit Jimmie a lick, and took a clout in return.
Then they had another drink, and continued thus until Jimmie's rival
lost all heart and interest in the business. But you couldn't take
everything my uncle's brother said for granted.

Black Mary was a queen by right, and had the reputation of being
the cleanest gin in the district; she was a great favourite with the
squatters' wives round there. Perhaps she hoped to reclaim Jimmie--he
was royal, too, but held easy views with regard to religion and the
conventionalities of civilisation. Mary insisted on being married
properly by a clergyman, made the old man build a decent hut, had all
her children christened, and kept him and them clean and tidy up to the
time of her death.

Poor Queen Mary was ambitious. She started to educate her children,
and when they got beyond her--that is when they had learnt their
letters--she was grateful for any assistance from the good-natured bush
men and women of her acquaintance. She had decided to get her eldest boy
into the mounted police, and had plans for the rest, and she worked hard
for them, too. Jimmie offered no opposition, and gave her no assistance
beyond the rations and money he earned shepherding--which was as much as
could be expected of him.

He did as many husbands do "for the sake of peace and quietness"--he
drifted along in the wake of his wife, and took things as easily as her
schemes of reformation and education would allow him to.

Queen Mary died before her time, respected by all who knew or had heard
of her. The nearest squatter's wife sent a pair of sheets for a shroud,
with instructions to lay Mary out, and arranged (by bush telegraph) to
drive over next morning with her sister-in-law and two other white women
in the vicinity, to see Mary decently buried.

But the remnant of Jimmie's tribe were there beforehand. They tore the
sheets in strips and tied Mary up in a bundle, with her chin to her
knees--preparing her for burial in their own fashion--and mourned all
night in whitewash and ashes. At least, the gins did. The white women
saw that it was hopeless to attempt to untie any of the innumerable
knots and double knots, even if it had been possible to lay Mary out
afterwards; so they had to let her be buried as she was, with black and
white obsequies. And we've got no interest in believing that she did not
"jump up white woman" long ago.

My uncle and his