cracked, and soles
so patched (patch over patch) with leather, boot protectors, hoop
iron and hobnails that they were about two inches thick, and the boots
weighed over five pounds. (If you don't believe me go into the Melbourne
Museum, where, in a glass case in a place of honour, you will see a
similar, perhaps the same, pair of bluchers labelled "An example of
colonial industry.") And in the core of the swag was a sugar-bag tied
tightly with a whip-lash, and containing another old skirt, rolled very
tight and fastened with many turns of a length of clothes-line, which
last, I suppose, he carried to hang himself with if he felt that way.
The skirt was rolled round a small packet of old portraits and almost
indecipherable letters--one from a woman who had evidently been a
sensible woman and a widow, and who stated in the letter that she did
not intend to get married again as she had enough to do already, slavin'
her finger-nails off to keep a family, without having a second husband
to keep. And her answer was "final for good and all," and it wasn't no
use comin' "bungfoodlin'" round her again. If he did she'd set Satan on
to him. "Satan" was a dog, I suppose.

The letter was addressed to "Dear Bill," as were others. There were no
envelopes. The letters were addressed from no place in particular, so
there weren't any means of identifying the dead man. The police buried
him under a gum, and a young trooper cut on the tree the words:

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF BILL
WHO DIED.

"BUCKOLTS' GATE"

PROLOGUE

Old Abel Albury had a genius for getting the bull by the tail with a
tight grip, and holding on with both hands and an obstinacy born of
ignorance--and not necessarily for the sake of self-preservation or
selfishness--while all the time the bull might be, so to speak, rooting
up life-long friendships and neighbourly relations, and upsetting
domestic customs and traditions with his horns.

Yes, Uncle Abel was always grasping the wrong end of things, and
sticking to it with that human mulishness which is often stronger, and
more often wearies and breaks down the opposition than an intelligent
man's arguments. He was----or professed to be, the family said--unable
for a long time to distinguish between his two grand-nephews, one of
whom was short and fat, while the other was tall and thin, the only
points of resemblance between them being that each possessed the old
family nose and eyes. When they were boys he use