thus I turned to the
old dame who had ceased talking and said--

"And what of your father, did he get away from seeing the convicts
flogged?"

"Yes; me mother thought he was goin' mad. He used to sob in his sleep
an' call out and squirm that he couldn't bear to see them flogged, an'
leap up in bed in a sweat. So he gave up the police an' we went a long
way farther back to Gool-Gool on the Yarrangung, a tributary of the
Murrumbidgee. The train in them days was only a little way out of
Sydney, an' me father got a job of drivin' Cobb & Co.'s coaches from
Gool-Gool to Yarrandogi, an' me an' me mother an' sisters an' Jake
there used to live in a little tent at the first stage out of
Gool-Gool, an' take care of the horses. I was fond of them horses, and
used to sneak out to harness them on to the swingle-bar w'en I was no
higher than the table. It's a wonder I didn't get me brains knocked
out. I was lots smarter than Jake there with the horses, though it
ain't supposed to be girl's work. But it came nacheral to me, an' I
think in that case it's right. That's why I never was one to narrer
girls down an' say you mustn't do this and that because you're a girl.
I've always found, in spite of their talk, the best and gamest mothers
is the ones that grew out of the tomboy girls. Well, it come that me
father, being a steady man an' very kind and well liked, he got on
surprisin', an' soon the tent give place to a bark hut. That's the way
people worked up in my days, an' what they had was their own. They
didn't want to start in mansions an' eat off of silver at the expense
of others like in these times! After that we moved a long way down an'
took up a position on the Murra-Murra run beside the Sydney road,
where the coaches passed in the night; an' me mother made hot coffee
for the passengers, an' we drove a roarin' trade, had to git girls in
to help, an' put up a large accommodation house, and respectable
people always made to us" (the old head went high and the eyes
flashed) "because we was clean, temperance people, there never was no
D.T.'s or sly grog where we had the rule. An' that's why I always like
to have a few people in the house to this day. I'm used to their
company like, an' feel there's nothing goin' on or doing without them.
Well, I grew up in time. I can't say it meself, but them as knew me
then could tell you I wasn't disfigured in any way or a cripple, an'
had no lack of admirers. Me an' me two sisters had 'em by