to the dance yet; she said she'd go into her room
and rest a while. There was no one near the old verandah; and when she
stood on the end of the floor she was just on a level with my shoulder.

'Mary,' I whispered, 'put your arms round my neck and kiss me.'

She put her arms round my neck, but she didn't kiss me; she only hid her
face.

'Kiss me, Mary!' I said.

'I--I don't like to,' she whispered.

'Why not, Mary?'

Then I felt her crying or laughing, or half crying and half laughing.
I'm not sure to this day which it was.

'Why won't you kiss me, Mary? Don't you love me?'

'Because,' she said, 'because--because I--I don't--I don't think it's
right for--for a girl to--to kiss a man unless she's going to be his
wife.'

Then it dawned on me! I'd forgot all about proposing.

'Mary,' I said, 'would you marry a chap like me?'

And that was all right.

*****

Next morning Mary cleared out my room and sorted out my things, and
didn't take the slightest notice of the other girls' astonishment.

But she made me promise to speak to old Black, and I did the same
evening. I found him sitting on the log by the fence, having a yarn on
the quiet with an old Bushman; and when the old Bushman got up and went
away, I sat down.

'Well, Joe,' said Black, 'I see somebody's been spoiling your face for
the dance.' And after a bit he said, 'Well, Joe, what is it? Do you want
another job? If you do, you'll have to ask Mrs Black, or Bob' (Bob was
his eldest son); 'they're managing the station for me now, you know.' He
could be bitter sometimes in his quiet way.

'No,' I said; 'it's not that, Boss.'

'Well, what is it, Joe?'

'I--well the fact is, I want little Mary.'

He puffed at his pipe for a long time, then I thought he spoke.

'What did you say, Boss?' I said.

'Nothing, Joe,' he said. 'I was going to say a lot, but it wouldn't be
any use. My father used to say a lot to me before I was married.'

I waited a good while for him to speak.

'Well, Boss,' I said, 'what about Mary?'

'Oh! I suppose that's all right, Joe,' he said. 'I--I beg your pardon. I
got thinking of the days when I was courting Mrs Black.'

Brighten's Sister-In-Law.

Jim was born on Gulgong, New South Wales. We used to say 'on'
Gulgong--and old diggers still talked of being 'on th' Gulgong'--though
the goldfield there had been worked out for years, and the place was
only a dusty little pastoral town in the scrubs. Gulgong was