ntry will come to in the end.

Well. It was after Jack and I had been out shearing at Beenaway shed in
the Big Scrubs. Jack was living in the little farming town of Solong,
and I was hanging round. Black, the squatter, wanted some fencing done
and a new stable built, or buggy and harness-house, at his place
at Haviland, a few miles out of Solong. Jack and I were good Bush
carpenters, so we took the job to keep us going till something else
turned up. 'Better than doing nothing,' said Jack.

'There's a nice little girl in service at Black's,' he said. 'She's more
like an adopted daughter, in fact, than a servant. She's a real good
little girl, and good-looking into the bargain. I hear that young Black
is sweet on her, but they say she won't have anything to do with him. I
know a lot of chaps that have tried for her, but they've never had any
luck. She's a regular little dumpling, and I like dumplings. They call
her 'Possum. You ought to try a bear up in that direction, Joe.'

I was always shy with women--except perhaps some that I should have
fought shy of; but Jack wasn't--he was afraid of no woman, good, bad, or
indifferent. I haven't time to explain why, but somehow, whenever a girl
took any notice of me I took it for granted that she was only playing
with me, and felt nasty about it. I made one or two mistakes, but--ah
well!

'My wife knows little 'Possum,' said Jack. 'I'll get her to ask her out
to our place and let you know.'

I reckoned that he wouldn't get me there then, and made a note to be on
the watch for tricks. I had a hopeless little love-story behind me, of
course. I suppose most married men can look back to their lost love; few
marry the first flame. Many a married man looks back and thinks it was
damned lucky that he didn't get the girl he couldn't have. Jack had been
my successful rival, only he didn't know it--I don't think his wife knew
it either. I used to think her the prettiest and sweetest little girl in
the district.

But Jack was mighty keen on fixing me up with the little girl at
Haviland. He seemed to take it for granted that I was going to fall in
love with her at first sight. He took too many things for granted as far
as I was concerned, and got me into awful tangles sometimes.

'You let me alone, and I'll fix you up, Joe,' he said, as we rode up
to the station. 'I'll make it all right with the girl. You're rather
a good-looking chap. You've got the sort of eyes that take with girls,