1895. 



THE AMERfCAN BEE-KEEPER. 



347 



IB almost reruarkable, and later on 

 ■when each menifcer of the tiny par- 

 ty has found a resting place among 

 the loading or heneath the wagon it 

 becomes even more intense till only 

 the whistle of a curlew, the cry of a 

 marauding dingo or the di-^tant 

 hoom of the bullock bells jars upon 

 the sleeping night. 



By daybreak the community is 

 once more astir, and when breakfast 

 has been eaten the team is yoked up. 

 Then the ^Yoman places herself and 

 children upon the top of the wagon, 

 the carrier takes his place and cracks 

 his heavy whip, the bullocks sway 

 forward, and once more the journey 

 is resumed across the same inter- 

 minable plain. So, week in and week 

 out, from year's end to year's end, 

 the same life goes forward, never 

 varying save when rain or scarcity 

 of grass makes the track impassable. 

 Small wonder, therefore, that the 

 women grow to be hard and rough, 

 Consorting, as they do, with none 

 but the sternest of the opposite sex 

 and daily doing work that would 

 test the patience and endurance of 

 the strongest man. These are some 

 of the folk who in reality do the 

 building up of our colonies, although 

 the credit goes to another noiser, 

 uglier and far less useful class. But 

 to get back to my story. 



As I have said at the beginning, 

 Bhe was tall, angular and particu- 

 larly plain, and in spite of tho glar- 

 ing incongruity of it it must be re- 

 corded that hor baptismal name was 

 Daphne. Her husband was a car- 

 rier on the Hidgereo-Kalaba track, 

 and she was at once the brain and 

 mainstay of his business. 



My first acquaintance with them 

 occurred on the edge of a Boree 

 scrub, a dismal i^lace and more than 

 100 miles removed from either of the 

 above townships. They were camp- 

 ed beside a big water hole, and on 

 dismoimting from .my horse I was 



coming ceremony to his wife. Great 



W'eve the proofs of friendship tboy 

 shovvod me, and long will I oLerish 

 the memory of that rough but hoarty 

 hos])itality. Next morning I went 

 my way, they theirs, and it was 

 nearly a year before we met again. 



When next I heard of them, 

 Daphne was in the township hos 

 pital recovering from a serious ac- 

 cident occasioned by a fall from the 

 wagon, and her husband, an enor- 

 mously built man, with a rough 

 manner which by those unskilled in 

 such matters might easily have been 

 mistaken for insolence, had that 

 very da^^ returned with loading from 

 the west. By inquiring after his 

 wife, whose illness I was aware of, 

 I touched the right string, for his 

 erc-s lit up, his voice softened, and 

 he a}iswered my questions with sur- 

 prising meekness. 



"31)0 is gettin on well," he said, 

 "but all the same it is terribly slow 

 work." 



Now, it must be known here that, 

 although the Kalaba hospital occu- 

 pies the best position in the town- 

 ship, even then it is, if anything, a 

 little less chtvrful than an under- 

 taker's showroom. Great gray 

 plains surround it on three sides; 

 the townsbij), with its ugl.y white- 

 washed roofs, stares at it from the 

 fourth, and it would be impossible 

 to say which view would be likely 

 to have the most depressing effect 

 upon an invalid. I am told that 

 Kalaba was only designed as a depot 

 for the great west, and I console 

 myself with the reflection that in 

 tho very near future the overland 

 railway will obviate that necessity. 

 Then it will be scattered to the four 

 winds of heaven. At present it is 

 the deoalo<.;ue turned backward. 



When my business was finished I 

 rode up to the L'ospital and left some 

 newspapers. Daphne being tho only 

 patient, I fcmnd her occupying the 

 best bed in tho only ward. Her 

 \vi: '-':.: J: \::.'::: z'r: '. zV"^. i:" :':-';l; 

 confusion about the uillow. while 



