y was married?" demanded Smith.

"Of course you did, and said that he was about five miles from town, and
would be here in two or three hours' time."

"Well, Barney has his wife with him, and a pretty life she is leading
him. I listened to her scoldings and complaints until I couldn't stand
any more, and then I whipped up my cattle and got out of the sound of
her tongue, and by good management I have avoided her for two days. She
is good looking, but has got the spirit of the devil in her
composition."

We recollected that Murden, in his letter, alluded to the lady, and
although we were not impatient to see her, we know that she would have
some claims upon our hospitality for her husband's sake, and to prevent
her from breaking out into open mutiny, we made some few preparations to
receive the lady with becoming honors. We got out a small tent that we
owned, and had made on the passage from San Francisco to Australia, and
pitched it near the store for the express accommodation of the bride and
groom, and then stocked it with a mattress and blankets, and thought the
lady would be delighted at our delicate attentions. We even kept back
supper an hour, and added a number of little luxuries, on purpose to
give her an agreeable surprise, and show that we were still susceptible
of woman's influence and beauty.

At about seven o'clock we heard the rumbling of wheels, and the loud,
quick crack of a stockman's whip. Smith glanced anxiously towards the
supper, and was visibly agitated, as though he expected to receive
disastrous news. Rover, who had been lying near the door, waiting with
remarkable patience for his supper, uttered a howl, and retreated
towards the horses, as though to communicate some bad intelligence.

"Why don't you stop the team, if this is the place, you confounded
fool?" we heard some one say.

"That's her," groaned Smith; "I should know that voice if I was off the
Cape of Good Hope, and I almost wish that I was at sea, or on a desert
island."

We hurried to the door, to receive our guest, and with our curiosity
somewhat excited to see the woman whom all appeared to dread.

To our extreme surprise, we saw a female not more than twenty years of
age, dressed in the latest style of Melbourne fashion, with a frank,
pleasing face, looking fresh and clean, which was so extraordinary, in
that part of the world, that we rather exceeded good manners by the
length of our gaze.

We little knew, at the time,