gathered up a
few things, and I had two hundred in the bank, and I went to a point
of the road, Fern-tree Gully it was named, an' w'en Jim come down the
hill with his horses I waved--we had it all made up--an' he stopped
till I clambered aboard, an' the box seat was reserved for me that day
for nothink, and at the end of the stage we was married. I stayed with
Jim's mother for a week or two till we seen a opening, an' I kep' a
accommodation while Jim drove a coach. Jim was always steady, an' we
was both very popular, though I never pandered to no one, or put up
with nothink that didn't please me. Our story was a sort of romance in
them days, an' money was changin' hands freely, an' we was all right.
The old folk died by-and-by; they didn't live very long, and Jake
there come to me. He wasn't good enough for his sisters, an' somehow
that's made us always cling together. I ain't blind, I can see he's no
miracle; he has his faults. Who hasn't?" the old lady fiercely
demanded. I assured her I knew none, and somewhat appeased by this she
proceeded.

"Well, as I say, Jake there ain't a wonder of smartness, but he's the
only one belonging to the old days left to me, an' you couldn't
understand what that means till you get to be my age. If I went to any
one of your age, or old enough to be your mother, an' said, 'Do you
remember this or that,' how far back could they go with me, do you
think?"

"And then did you and Jim Clay--"

"Me an' Jim Clay was the happiest pair I think ever lived under a
weddin' ring, an' it was a love match. He was quiet an' easy-goin'
like, an' I was the one to bustle, consequently there would be times
w'en there would be a little controversy in the house; but Jim, he'd
always put his arm round me an' kiss me, an' that's the sort of thing
a woman likes. She doesn't like all the love-makin' to be over in the
courtin' days, as if it was only a bit of fishin' to ketch her. Tho'
of course I'd tell him to leave me alone, that I couldn't bear him
maulin' me; but women has to be that way, it bein' rared into them to
pretend they don't like what they do. An' you see Jim always
remembered how I had stuck to him straight, an' flung up swell matches
for him, which must have showed I loved him. That's what gets over a
man, he never forgets that in a girl, an' always thinks more of her
than the one with prawperty who marries a poor girl and is always
suspicioning she took him for what he has. Of course, there a