BY HON. A. NORTON, M.L.C, 97 
inches less in height than myself, but he found me some slop 
clothes in the store, which had to do duty while my own 
garments were once more dried. But this is a digression. 
I arrived at Baramba station in due course with a mist 
rising from my pack, as mist rises on the hillsides after summer 
rain. My schoolfellow, “Tom” Jones, part owner of the 
station, was in Brisbane, or elsewhere, but his overseer and 
wife ministered to my inward necessities. Then I removed 
the shoe from my mare’s lame foot, and from one of the nail- 
holes dribbled the tell-tale blood! There was no Francis 
Bigge here to tell me to take that better horse and leave my 
lame one ; and the overseer, good fellow though he was, had 
no such power; there was nothing for it but to wait. I 
spread my limited apparel, my saddles, etc., over the fences, 
and did what I could to pass the time as these dried. Next 
morning, the mare was still very lame, so again I waited, 
but in the afternoon, having cleared a channel in her hoof 
that the discharge might escape by, I tacked on the shoe so 
that I might save time in the morning. On the second day, 
I thanked my hospitable entertainers, and jogged on quietly. 
At about 1 o’clock I passed the station owned by the Jones 
Brothers ; Boonara it was called. I was almost near enough 
to catch the smell of a well-cooked stew, but the mare could 
not be hurried, and the road was long. Some time afterwards, 
Thompson, a relative of the Joneses, overtook me, and we rode 
on together until in the evening we found quarters and 
were hospitably received by Mr. Lawless, at Boobyjan. 
I was still anxious about my tender-footed mare, and 
when on the following day I left Boobyjan, I had to take her 
along very carefully. That evening I reached Gigoomgan, 
where lived George Mant and his wife, a daughter of Dr. 
Palmer, of Bathurst. Her brother Edward had been at 
school with me for some time, and I hoped to meet him in 
this new country. I was disappointed however ; not very 
long afterwards he was drowned in the River Boyne. The 
Mants had no children at this time, but they had two very 
fine tabby cats, special favourites, who were quite at home 
in the drawing-room. The older of the two had been doing 
battle with a stranger from the bush, and brought home a 
very much damaged hind leg. The younger one was a 
splendid animal in magnificent condition. These engaged 
