never knew no harm of him; a better tempered chap couldn't be;
and all the time we knowed him he was that particular about his bills
and money matters that a banker couldn't have been more regular. He may
have had his faults, but we never seen 'em. I believe a deal that was
said of him wasn't true, and nothing won't ever make me believe it.'

These kind of people will stand up for you all the days of your life,
and stick to you till the very last moment, no matter what you turn out
to be. Well, there's something pleasant in it; and it makes you think
human nature ain't quite such a low and paltry thing as some people
tries to make out. Anyhow, when we went away our good little landlady
and her sister was that sorry to lose us, as you'd have thought they was
our blood relations. As for Jim, every one in the house was fit to cry
when he went off, from the dogs and cats upwards. Jim never was in no
house where everybody didn't seem to take naturally to him. Poor old
Jim!

We bought a couple of horses, and rode away down to Sale with these
chaps that had sold their cattle in Melbourne and was going home. It
rained all the way, and it was the worst road by chalks we'd ever seen
in our lives; but the soil was wonderful, and the grass was something to
talk about; we'd hardly ever seen anything like it. A few thousand acres
there would keep more stock than half the country we'd been used to.

We didn't stay more than a day or so in Sale. Every morning at breakfast
some one was sure to turn up the paper and begin jabbering about the
same old infernal business, Hood's cattle, and what a lot were taken,
and whether they'll catch Starlight and the other men, and so on.

We heard of a job at Omeo while we were in Sale, which we thought would
just about suit us. All the cattle on a run there were to be mustered
and delivered to a firm of stock agents that had bought them; they
wanted people to do it by contract at so much a head. Anybody who took
it must have money enough to buy stock horses. The price per head was
pretty fair, what would pay well, and we made up our minds to go in for
it.

So we made a bargain; bought two more horses each, and started away
for Omeo. It was near 200 miles from where we were. We got up there all
right, and found a great rich country with a big lake, I don't know
how many feet above the sea. The cattle were as wild as hares, but the
country was pretty good to ride over. We were able to keep our ho