26 
MACNADE HOUSE 
CHAP. 
sticky delicacies, and the mothers were nursing their 
babies in most delightful unconcern. 
We sat waiting until three o’clock, when three horses 
jumped some hurdles in front of the stand, then an 
opposition “larrikins” jumping -race went on outside, 
and a Chinaman, with a stall of oranges, got mixed 
up in the excitement, and this filled up the time until 
half-past four, when the race of the day, a flat one, 
was run. Then we had a regular tropical storm, and 
such deluges of rain came down that the crowd, as 
if by magic, dispersed ; every leaf and plant sobbed 
with heavy drops, and the dust was turned into lakes 
of water for us to drive through on the way home. 
Another day we had a most sumptuous lunch at 
the Victoria Sugar Company’s Works. It was given 
by a number of young bachelors, and after being shown 
over the workings of the mill we drove home in the 
cool of the evening by moonlight. 
How strange it was that at the very time you were 
restless and uneasy in your mind about me, I was really 
ill. I telegraphed that I had missed the post, not 
wanting to give you the anxiety of knowing that I 
had fever. Mr. and Mrs. N. were called unexpectedly 
to Townsville, and during their absence I brought it on 
by my own imprudence in wading across a river which 
at low tide one can run across with a hop, skip, and a 
jump. I had crossed this river and miscalculated the 
time of my return. I found on coming to it that the 
tide was running strongly in, and as there was no time 
to be lost, in I went, and it was just as much as I could 
do to stand against the current. It was an intensely 
hot day — my clothes had all dried on me before I 
reached home; but in these tropical climates one cannot 
play tricks, as I found when the fever developed itself. 
The Kanaka woman who was with me used to pay me 
