y asked--

'Don't you feel lonely, Mrs Spicer, when your husband goes away?'

'Well--no, Mrs Wilson,' she said in the groping sort of voice. 'I uster,
once. I remember, when we lived on the Cudgeegong river--we lived in
a brick house then--the first time Spicer had to go away from home I
nearly fretted my eyes out. And he was only goin' shearin' for a month.
I muster bin a fool; but then we were only jist married a little while.
He's been away drovin' in Queenslan' as long as eighteen months at a
time since then. But' (her voice seemed to grope in the dark more
than ever) 'I don't mind,--I somehow seem to have got past carin'.
Besides--besides, Spicer was a very different man then to what he is
now. He's got so moody and gloomy at home, he hardly ever speaks.'

Mary sat silent for a minute thinking. Then Mrs Spicer roused herself--

'Oh, I don't know what I'm talkin' about! You mustn't take any notice of
me, Mrs Wilson,--I don't often go on like this. I do believe I'm gittin'
a bit ratty at times. It must be the heat and the dulness.'

But once or twice afterwards she referred to a time 'when Spicer was a
different man to what he was now.'

I walked home with her a piece along the creek. She said nothing for
a long time, and seemed to be thinking in a puzzled way. Then she said
suddenly--

'What-did-you-bring-her-here-for? She's only a girl.'

'I beg pardon, Mrs Spicer.'

'Oh, I don't know what I'm talkin' about! I b'lieve I'm gittin' ratty.
You mustn't take any notice of me, Mr Wilson.'

She wasn't much company for Mary; and often, when she had a child with
her, she'd start taking notice of the baby while Mary was talking, which
used to exasperate Mary. But poor Mrs Spicer couldn't help it, and she
seemed to hear all the same.

Her great trouble was that she 'couldn't git no reg'lar schoolin' for
the children.'

'I learns 'em at home as much as I can. But I don't git a minute to
call me own; an' I'm ginerally that dead-beat at night that I'm fit for
nothink.'

Mary had some of the children up now and then later on, and taught them
a little. When she first offered to do so, Mrs Spicer laid hold of the
handiest youngster and said--

'There--do you hear that? Mrs Wilson is goin' to teach yer, an'
it's more than yer deserve!' (the youngster had been 'cryin'' over
something). 'Now, go up an' say "Thenk yer, Mrs Wilson." And if yer
ain't good, and don't do as she tells yer, I'll break every bone in yer
youn