146 TROPIC DAYS 



mountain, that she might solace herself with the solitude 

 and food in plenty there; but that when she conjured 

 up the chance of meeting some "dreadful native" she 

 thanked God for home and loving companions. How 

 frequent and how intense was this unconfessed lust for 

 the bush we knew not. 



When Soosie was fourteen there came to the neigh- 

 bourhood a hardy young fellow who began to clear a 

 small area of jungle land; for civilisation, which had 

 been marking time for nigh upon two decades, now 

 marched slowly, and to no throb of drum, in our direc- 

 tion. Times were changing, and in some details less 

 desirable conditions arose. The infinite privacy of the 

 bush suffered. The little clearing was no longer our 

 own. Soosie 's demeanour became more reposeful. She 

 had seemed to think that it might be her fate, in common 

 with others, to become a ward of the State at some 

 mission-station; but as settlement advanced, though 

 still miles away, for we were the furthest out, and no 

 interfering guardian of the peace came to enforce 

 officialdom and insist upon obedience to the letter of 

 the law, it was comforting to reflect that this unofficial 

 daughter might be permitted to live out her life un- 

 hampered even by the goodwill expressed, in the first 

 stages, by the visit of a policeman. 



Her presence was necessary, not only on account of 

 her amiable disposition and self-sacrificing ways, but 

 for the actual load she bore of the duties of a quiet home. 

 We had failed, however, to take into calculation the 

 chances of another means of separation. There was 

 now no disguising the fact that our new neighbour, Dan, 

 was casting sheep's eyes in Soosie's direction, and to her 

 evident dismay. It was of little avail to upbraid him 

 as to the unseemliness of attachment to a girl who, 

 however civilised, was of inferior race and despised 



