of the Eden rose--but once beneath the sun!
Though the years may bring her joy or pain, fame, sorrow, or sacrifice,
The hour that brought her the scent of the Rose--she lived it in Paradise!"

The horse's hoof-beats kept time to the rhythm of the song. "The hour
that brought her the scent of the Rose--she lived it in Paradise!"

"An' I guess," said the driver's voice--breaking in on my
reverie--"that's about all there is to tell. Them's the lights of
Wongonilla over there. The rest of the story--Lord bless you, it all 'us
ended where the gal died. The men I guess did'nt feel much inclined for
fighting after that. Anyhow I b'lieve Ben Fisher came back dazed like to
camp an' told 'em what 'd happened. But though they scoured the country,
Gentleman Jim got clean away. Fisher? Oh, he weren't no account after
it, I b'lieve--gave him a sort a' shock, same as if he 'd killed her
hisself. He was speared by the blacks on the Lachlan three years later,
they say. He never took up with another gal. The other? Lord, yes--he
did--Woa, mare, will you? She's a bit tired, you see--we 've come the
pace. Yes, it was all along o' a woman Jim Newton was taken--wanted for
a bushranging job, over on the Queensland border--that was fifteen years
after. I 've heard my father tell the story. He was one of the troopers
that took him, and it was a gal that sold him. Mighty set on her he was.
She? Oh, she was gone on another man. A woman's only gone like that once
in a way, ye see, an' then, Lord! she is a fool--same as Nellie Durham,
an' she was a mighty fool all through, for Fisher was a decent sort of
a chap--while the other fellow was an' out-an'-out blaggard. But ye see,
if there's a ghost at all, it 's the gal that walks, though they call
the place Trotting Cob, and Trotting Cob it'll be till the end of the
chapter."

CHRISTMAS EVE AT WARWINGIE

It was a comfortable place, the wide verandah at Warwingie, a place
much used by the Warners on all occasions, save during the heat of the
day--but the long hot day was drawing to a close now. Slowly the sun was
sinking over the forest-clad hills. The heat haze which had hung all day
over the eastern outlet to the gully cleared, the faraway blue ranges
grew more distinct, and the creeper-covered verandah was once more a
pleasant place to lounge in. From the untidy, half-reclaimed garden,
came the sound of children's voices, subdued by the distance, and the
gentle lowing of the milke