THE CANOE-MAKER 129 



tobacco, and one " good fella trousis"; and he would 

 demand help in the landing of his merchandise. Worn 

 with age, sleep would soon again claim him, but never 

 and anon his great cry, hailing the phantom steamer 

 with her beneficent cargo, would wake the poor and 

 squalid camp. 



The time came when Cassowary could no longer 

 obtain for himself the coarse and trivial food essential 

 to life, and he and another outcast, blind and maimed, 

 quartered themselves on the camp on the beach; and 

 in spite of fretfulnesses and suspicions, their fellows 

 administered to their wants. Being brought face to 

 face with facts, the State gave orders which meant 

 an old-age pension for the outcasts. The dole was 

 liberal enough. The mistake was that it came too 

 late. 



There was no reaction, as is oft the case with those 

 who retire after the bustling phase to live on the bounty 

 of the State, for Cassowary and his blind companion 

 had never been strenuous workers or brain-compelling 

 men. The pension represented unexampled abundance. 

 It was real, and yet it came from a source almost as 

 intangible as Cassowary's ship. Food and tobacco ! 

 What more could the heart of a casual relic of such a 

 race want ? Actually he wanted nothing more, save, 

 peradventure, a blanket; but he dreamt he did, and no 

 earthly agent could diminish the festal extravagance 

 of the scenes among which he revelled, conducted by 

 the enchanted sleep. 



Cassowary had at last come to his kingdom. His 

 time had always been his own. The ready-to-hand food 

 gave him leisure. His days were all dreams. Weary 

 of crouching over the fire before the opening of his 

 humpy, he began to wander in the flesh as he was wont 

 to wander in mind. He was seen a mile away from the 



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