ance. That was the way he put it; he never was for puttin'
hisself up half enough. So crying again I just snuggled up to him an'
said I didn't want to forget it, I wanted to remember it more an'
more, an' with that he took the hint an' kissed me; an' that's how we
got engaged without no proposing or nothink. I didn't tell me mother,
or there would have been a uproar, an' just then Jim Clay got a coach
on the Cooma line, an' went right away. I told him I'd wait for him.
He was away two years, an' w'en he came home we found it was still the
same with us. I was eighteen then, an' him twenty-two.

He went away to Queensland for two years more, an' in that time the
sister next me was married, an' Jake there was comin' on; but he was
never no good on the box--he pottered round and grew forage. Me mother
began to suggest I ought to marry this one an' that one, but I waited
for Jim Clay, an' w'en I was gettin' on for twenty-one, old Jack Clay
reckoned he was gettin' too old for drivin' in all weathers, an' Jim
come home an' took his place. A fine great feller he was, all tanned
and brown, with his white teeth showin' among his black beard. He said
he'd seen no girl that wasn't as tame as ditch water after me, an' as
for me, no one else could ever give me the feelin' he could, so we
reckoned to be publicly engaged. It raised the most terrible bobberie,
and me mother nearly took a fit. She had me laid out for a swell like
me sisters, an' she said I must be mad to throw myself away like that.
Me brother-in-laws got ashamed of their wives' parents bein' in such a
trade, an' as they had made a comfortable bit, they was goin' to give
it best and rare a few sheep an' cattle, an' me sisters came down on
me an' said I would disgrace them now they had rose theirselves up in
the stirrups. Mother said she'd never give her consent, an' I told her
very saucy I'd do without it. That's why I know it don't do to press
Dawn over far; she must have the same fight in her, an' if drove in a
corner there'd be no doing anythink with her. Things was very strained
at home then; they thought to wean me of him, an' Jim Clay he hung
back some, sayin' I'd better think twice before I threw myself away on
him. That made me all the determinder. Jim was the only man for me. I
never did have patience with them as can't make up their mind. So I
waited, an' the day I was twenty-one--me two sisters was twins and
married, one at nineteen and the other at eighteen--I