6 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



bullying was the least of the ill practices current 

 among us. Almost the only cheerful reminis- 

 cence in connection with the place which arises in 

 my mind is that of a battle I had with one of my 

 classmates, who had bullied me until I could stand 

 it no longer. I was a very slight lad, but there 

 was a wild-cat element in me which, when roused, 

 made up for lack of weight, and I licked my 

 adversary effectually. However, one of my first 

 experiences of the extremely rough-and-ready 

 nature of justice, as exhibited by the course of 

 things in general, arose out of the fact that I the 

 victor had a black eye, while he the vanquished 

 had none, so that I got into disgrace and he did 

 not. We made it up, and thereafter I was un- 

 molested. One of the greatest shocks I ever 

 received in my life was to be told a dozen years 

 afterwards by the groom who brought me my 

 horse in a stable-yard in Sydney that he was my 

 quondam antagonist. He had a long story of 

 family misfortune to account for his position, but 

 at that time it was necessary to deal very eau- 

 tiously with mysterious strangers in New Smith 

 Wak-s, and on inquiry I found that the unfortu- 

 nate young man had not only been " sent out," but 

 had uncl<Tgone more than one colonial conviction. 



I givw older, my great desire was to IK- ;i 

 inerlianiral engineer, but the lutes were against 

 this and, while very young, I commenced the study 



liciue under a medical brother-in-law. But, 



