mmandment. Those journeys in the spring-cart through the soft faint
starlight were conducive to thought. My father, like most men when under
the influence of liquor, would allow no one but himself to handle the
reins, and he was often so incapable that he would keep turning the horse
round and round in the one place. It is a marvel we never met with an
accident. I was not nervous, but quite content to take whatever came, and
our trusty old horse fulfilled his duty, ever faithfully taking us home
along the gum-tree-lined road.

My mother had taught me from the Bible that I should honour my parents,
whether they were deserving of honour or not.

Dick Melvyn being my father did not blind me to the fact that he was a
despicable, selfish, weak creature, and as such I despised him with the
relentlessness of fifteen, which makes no allowance for human frailty and
weakness. Disgust, not honour, was the feeling which possessed me when I
studied the matter.

Towards mother I felt differently. A woman is but the helpless tool of
man--a creature of circumstances.

Seeing my father beside me, and thinking of his infant with its mother,
eating her heart out with anxiety at home, this was the reasoning which
took possession of me. Among other such inexpressible thoughts I got
lost, grew dizzy, and drew back appalled at the spirit which was maturing
within me. It was a grim lonely one, which I vainly tried to hide in a
bosom which was not big or strong enough for its comfortable habitation.
It was as a climbing plant without a pole--it groped about the ground,
bruised itself, and became hungry searching for something strong to which
to cling. Needing a master-hand to train and prune, it was becoming rank
and sour.

CHAPTER FIVE

Disjointed Sketches And Grumbles

It was my duty to "rare the poddies". This is the most godless occupation
in which it has been my lot to engage. I did a great amount of thinking
while feeding them--for, by the way, I am afflicted with the power of
thought, which is a heavy curse. The less a person thinks and inquires
regarding the why and the wherefore and the justice of things, when
dragging along through life, the happier it is for him, and doubly,
trebly so, for her.

Poor little calves! Slaves to the greed of man! Bereft of the mothers
with which Nature has provided them, and compelled to exist on milk from
the separator, often thick, sour, and icy cold.

Besides the milking I did,