The dog was a little conservative mongrel poodle, with long dirty white hair all over him–longest and most over his eyes, which glistened through it like black beads. Also he seemed to have a bad liver. He always looked as if he was suffering from a sense of injury, past or to come. It did […]

It was the first Monday after the holidays. The children had taken their seats in the Old Bark School, and the master called out the roll as usual: “Arvie Aspinall.”…”‘Es, sir.” “David Cooper.”…”Yes, sir.” “John Heegard.”…”Yezzer.” “Joseph Swallow.”…”Yesser.” “James Bullock.”…”Present.” “Frederick Swallow.”…”Y’sir.” “James Nowlett.”….(Chorus of “Absent.”) “William Atkins.”…(Chorus of “Absent.”) “Daniel Lyons.”…”Perresent, sor-r-r.” Dan was […]

We crossed Cook’s Straits from Wellington in one of those rusty little iron tanks that go up and down and across there for twenty or thirty years and never get wrecked–for no other reason, apparently, than that they have every possible excuse to go ashore or go down on those stormy coasts. The age, construction, […]

At least two hundred poor beggars were counted sleeping out on the pavements of the main streets of Sydney the other night–grotesque bundles of rags lying under the verandas of the old Fruit Markets and York Street shops, with their heads to the wall and their feet to the gutter. It was raining and cold […]

We caught up with an old swagman crossing the plain, and tramped along with him till we came to good shade to have a smoke in. We had got yarning about men getting lost in the bush or going away and being reported dead. “Yes,” said the old ‘whaler’, as he dropped his swag in […]

The two travellers had yarned late in their camp, and the moon was getting low down through the mulga. Mitchell’s mate had just finished a rather racy yarn, but it seemed to fall flat on Mitchell–he was in a sentimental mood. He smoked a while, and thought, and then said: “Ah! there was one little […]

One o’clock on Saturday. The unemployed’s one o’clock on Saturday! Nothing more can be done this week, so you drag yourself wearily and despairingly “home,” with the cheerful prospect of a penniless Saturday afternoon and evening and the long horrible Australian-city Sunday to drag through. One of the landlady’s clutch–and she is an old hen–opens […]

Steelman was a hard case, but some said that Smith was harder. Steelman was big and good-looking, and good-natured in his way; he was a spieler, pure and simple, but did things in humorous style. Smith was small and weedy, of the sneak variety; he had a whining tone and a cringing manner. He seemed […]

“Does Arvie live here, old woman?” “Why?” “Strike me dead! carn’t yer answer a civil queschin?” “How dare you talk to me like that, you young larrikin! Be off! or I’ll send for a policeman.” “Blarst the cops! D’yer think I cares for ’em? Fur two pins I’d fetch a push an’ smash yer ole […]

I lately met an old schoolmate of mine up-country. He was much changed. He was tall and lank, and had the most hideous bristly red beard I ever saw. He was working on his father’s farm. He shook hands, looked anywhere but in my face–and said nothing. Presently I remarked at a venture “So poor […]

“Why, there’s two of them, and they’re having a fight! Come on.”‘ It seemed a strange place for a fight–that hot, lonely, cotton-bush plain. And yet not more than half a mile ahead there were apparently two men struggling together on the track. The three travellers postponed their smoke-ho and hurried on. They were shearers–a […]

“Five Bob!” The old man shaded his eyes and peered through the dazzling glow of that broiling Christmas Day. He stood just within the door of a slab-and-bark hut situated upon the bank of a barren creek; sheep-yards lay to the right, and a low line of bare, brown ridges formed a suitable background to […]

It was a very mean station, and Mitchell thought he had better go himself and beard the overseer for tucker. His mates were for waiting till the overseer went out on the run, and then trying their luck with the cook; but the self-assertive and diplomatic Mitchell decided to go. “Good day,” said Mitchell. “Good […]

We were delayed for an hour or so inside Sydney Heads, taking passengers from the Oroya, which had just arrived from England and anchored off Watson’s Bay. An Adelaide boat went alongside the ocean liner, while we dropped anchor at a respectable distance. This puzzled some of us until one of the passengers stopped an […]

The moon rose away out on the edge of a smoky plain, seen through a sort of tunnel or arch in the fringe of mulga behind which we were camped–Jack Mitchell and I. The timber proper was just behind us, very thick and very dark. The moon looked like a big new copper boiler set […]

She lived in Jones’s Alley. She cleaned offices, washed, and nursed from daylight until any time after dark, and filled in her spare time cleaning her own place (which she always found dirty–in a “beastly filthy state,” she called it–on account of the children being left in possession all day), cooking, and nursing her own […]

“Nothing makes a dog madder,” said Mitchell, “than to have another dog come outside his fence and sniff and bark at him through the cracks when he can’t get out. The other dog might be an entire stranger; he might be an old chum, and he mightn’t bark–only sniff–but it makes no difference to the […]

There’s nothing so interesting as Geology, even to common and ignorant people, especially when you have a bank or the side of a cutting, studded with fossil fish and things and oysters that were stale when Adam was fresh to illustrate by. (Remark made by Steelman, professional wanderer, to his pal and pupil, Smith.) The […]

Well, we reached the pub about dinner-time, dropped our swags outside, had a drink, and then went into the dinin’-room. There was a lot of jackaroo swells, that had been on a visit to the squatter, or something, and they were sittin’ down at dinner; and they seemed to think by their looks that we […]

At the local police court, where the subject of this sketch turned up periodically amongst the drunks, he had “James” prefixed to his name for the sake of convenience and as a matter of form previous to his being fined forty shillings (which he never paid) and sentenced to “a month hard” (which he contrived […]