down the law for others. It was when the offender 

 had gone that the old transport-rider took up the 

 general question and finished his observations with a 

 proverb which I had not heard before perhaps he 

 invented it : 



" Yah ! " he said, rising and stretching himself, 

 " there's no rule for a young fool." 



I did not quite know what he meant, and it seemed 

 safer not to inquire. 



The driving of bullocks is not an exalted occupation : 

 it is a very humble calling indeed ; yet, if one is able 

 to learn, there are things worth learning in that useful 

 school. But it is not good to stay at school all one's 

 life. 



Brains and character tell there as everywhere ; 

 experience only gives them scope ; it is not a substitute. 

 The men themselves would not tell you so ; they never 

 trouble themselves with introspections and analyses, 

 and if you asked one of them the secret of success, 

 he might tell you " Commonsense and hard work," 

 or curtly give you the maxims * Watch it,' and ' Stick 

 to it ' which to him express the whole creed, and 

 to you, I suppose, convey nothing. Among them- 

 selves, when the prime topics of loads, rates, grass, 

 water and disease have been disposed of, there is as 

 much interest in talking about their own and each 

 other's oxen as there is in babies at a mothers' meeting. 

 Spans are compared ; individual oxen discussed in 

 minute detail ; and the reputations of 

 ' front oxen,' in pairs or singly, are can- 

 vassed as earnestly as the importance 

 229 "'* 



