. The people here don't seem to know what a grand country
they've got. You say this is the worst, eh? Well, this would make an
Australian cockatoo's mouth water-the worst of New Zealand would."

"I always thought Australia was all good country," mused the driver--a
flax-stick. "I always thought--"

"Good country!" exclaimed the man with the grey beard, in a tone of
disgust. "Why, it's only a mongrel desert, except some bits round the
coast. The worst dried-up and God-forsaken country I was ever in."

There was a silence, thoughtful on the driver's part, and aggressive on
that of the stranger.

"I always thought," said the driver, reflectively, after the pause--"I
always thought Australia was a good country," and he placed his foot on
the brake.

They let him think. The coach descended the natural terraces above the
river bank, and pulled up at the pub.

"So you're a native of Australia?" said the bagman to the grey-beard, as
the coach went on again.

"Well, I suppose I am. Anyway, I was born there. That's the main thing
I've got against the darned country."

"How long did you stay there?"

"Till I got away," said the stranger. Then, after a think, he added, "I
went away first when I was thirty-five--went to the islands. I swore I'd
never go back to Australia again; but I did. I thought I had a kind of
affection for old Sydney. I knocked about the blasted country for five
or six years, and then I cleared out to 'Frisco. I swore I'd never go
back again, and I never will."

"But surely you'll take a run over and have a look at old Sydney and
those places, before you go back to America, after getting so near?"

"What the blazes do I want to have a look at the blamed country for?"
snapped the stranger, who had refreshed considerably. "I've got nothing
to thank Australia for--except getting out of it. It's the best country
to get out of that I was ever in."

"Oh, well, I only thought you might have had some friends over there,"
interposed the traveller in an injured tone.

"Friends! That's another reason. I wouldn't go back there for all the
friends and relations since Adam. I had more than quite enough of it
while I was there. The worst and hardest years of my life were spent
in Australia. I might have starved there, and did do it half my time. I
worked harder and got less in my own country in five years than I ever
did in any other in fifteen"--he was getting mixed--"and I've been in
a few since then. No,