about it. I felt mean. I felt disgusted with
myself. I pictured my poor, ill-treated, little wife and children in
misery and poverty, and my conscience wouldn't let me rest night or
day"--(Lally Thompson seemed greatly moved)--"so at last I made up my
mind to be a man, and make--what's the word?"

"Reparation," suggested the joker.

"Yes, so I slaved like a nigger for a year or so, got a few pounds
together and went to find my wife. I found out that she was living in
a cottage in Burwood, Sydney, and struggling through the winter on what
she'd saved from the money her father left her.

"I got a shave and dressed up quiet and decent. I was older-looking and
more subdued like, and I'd got pretty grey in those few years that I'd
been making a fool of myself; and, some how, I felt rather glad about
it, because I reckoned she'd notice it first thing--she was always quick
at noticing things--and forgive me all the quicker. Well, I waylaid
the school kids that evening, and found out mine--a little boy and a
girl--and fine youngsters they were. The girl took after her mother, and
the youngster was the dead spit o' me. I gave 'em half a crows each and
told them to tell their mother that someone would come when the sun went
down."

Bogan Bill nodded approvingly.

"So at sundown I went and knocked at the door. It opened and there stood
my little wife looking prettier than ever--only careworn."

Long, impressive pause.

"Well, Jack, what did she do?" asked Bogan.

"She didn't do nothing."

"Well, Jack, and what did she say?"

Jack sighed and straightened himself up: "She said--she said--'Well, so
you've come back.'"

"Painful silence.

"Well, Jack, and what did you say?"

"I said yes."

"Well, and so you had!" said Tom Moonlight.

"It wasn't that, Tom," said Jack sadly and wearily--"_It was the way she
said it_!"

Lally Thompson rubbed his eyes: "And what did you do, Jack?" he asked
gently.

"I stayed for a year, and then I deserted her again--but meant it that
time."

"Ah, well! It's time to turn in."

ANOTHER OF MITCHELL'S PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

"I'll get down among the cockies along the Lachlan, or some of these
rivers," said Mitchell, throwing down his swag beneath a big tree. "A
man stands a better show down there. It's a mistake to come out back. I
knocked around a good deal down there among the farms. Could always
get plenty of tucker, and a job if I wanted it. One cocky I worked
for want