for the moment that the one drink had
affected him; but I understood
before the night was over. He laid his hand on my shoulder with a grip
like a man who has suddenly made up his mind to lend you five pounds.
`Jack!' he said, `there's worse things than drinking, and there's worse things
than heavy smoking. When a man who smokes gets such a load of trouble on him
that he can find no comfort in his pipe, then it's a heavy load.
And when a man who drinks gets so deep into trouble that he can find
no comfort in
liquor, then it's deep trouble. Take my tip for it, Jack.'
He broke off, and half turned away with a jerk of his head,
as if
impatient with himself; then
presently he spoke
in his usual quiet tone --
`But you're only a boy yet, Jack. Never mind me. I won't ask you
to take the second drink. You don't want it; and, besides, I know the signs.'
He paused, leaning with both hands on the edge of the counter,
and looking down between his arms at the floor. He stood that way
thinking for a while; then he suddenly straightened up,
like a man who'd made up his mind to something.
`I want you to come along home with me, Jack,' he said;
`we'll fix you a shake-down.'
I forgot to tell you that he was married and lived in Bathurst.
`But won't it put Mrs Head about?'
`Not at all. She's expecting you. Come along; there's nothing to see
in Bathurst, and you'll have plenty of knocking round in Sydney.
Come on, we'll just be in time for tea.'
He lived in a brick
cottage on the
outskirts of the town --
an
old-fashionedcottage, with ivy and climbing roses,
like you see in some of those old settled districts. There was,
I remember, the stump of a tree in front, covered with ivy
till it looked like a giant's club with the thick end up.
When we got to the house the Boss paused a minute with his hand on the gate.
He'd been home a couple of days, having
ridden in ahead of the bullocks.
`Jack,' he said, `I must tell you that Mrs Head had a great trouble
at one time. We -- we lost our two children. It does her good
to talk to a stranger now and again -- she's always better afterwards;
but there's very few I care to bring. You -- you needn't notice
anything strange. And agree with her, Jack. You know, Jack.'
`That's all right, Boss,' I said. I'd knocked about the Bush too long,
and run against too many strange characters and things,
to be surprised at anything much.
The door opened, and he took a little woman in his arms.
I saw by the light of a lamp in the room behind that the woman's hair
was grey, and I reckoned that he had his mother living with him.
And -- we do have odd thoughts at odd times in a flash -- and I wondered
how Mrs Head and her mother-in-law got on together. But the next minute
I was in the room, and introduced to `My wife, Mrs Head,'
and staring at her with both eyes.
It was his wife. I don't think I can describe her. For the first
minute or two, coming in out of the dark and before my eyes
got used to the lamp-light, I had an
impression as of a little old woman
-- one of those fresh-faced, well-preserved, little old ladies --
who dressed young, wore false teeth, and aped the giddy girl.
But this was because of Mrs Head's
impulsivewelcome of me, and her grey hair.
The hair was not so grey as I thought at first,
seeing it with the lamp-light
behind it: it was like dull-brown hair
lightly dusted with flour.
She wore it short, and it became her that way. There was something
aristocratic about her face -- her nose and chin -- I fancied,
and something that you couldn't describe. She had big dark eyes --
dark-brown, I thought, though they might have been hazel:
they were a bit too big and bright for me, and now and again,
when she got excited, the white showed all round the pupils -- just a little,
but a little was enough.
She seemed extra glad to see me. I thought at first
that she was a bit of a gusher.
`Oh, I'm so glad you've come, Mr Ellis,' she said, giving my hand a grip.
`Walter -- Mr Head -- has been
speaking to me about you.
I've been expecting you. Sit down by the fire, Mr Ellis;
tea will be ready
presently. Don't you find it a bit
chilly?'
She shivered. It was a bit
chilly now at night on the Bathurst plains.
The table was set for tea, and set rather in swell style.
The
cottage was too well furnished even for a lucky boss drover's home;
the furniture looked as if it had belonged to a tony
homestead at one time.
I felt a bit strange at first, sitting down to tea, and almost wished that
I was having a comfortable tuck-in at a
restaurant or in a pub. dining-room.
But she knew a lot about the Bush, and chatted away,
and asked questions about the trip, and soon put me at my ease.
You see, for the last year or two I'd taken my tucker in my hands, --
hunk of damper and meat and a clasp-knife
mostly, -- sitting on my heel
in the dust, or on a log or a tucker-box.
There was a hard, brown, wrinkled old woman that the Heads called `Auntie'.
She waited at the table; but Mrs Head kept bustling round herself
most of the time, helping us. Andy came in to tea.
Mrs Head bustled round like a girl of twenty instead of
a woman of thirty-seven, as Andy afterwards told me she was.
She had the figure and movements of a girl, and the
impulsiveness
and expression too -- a womanly girl; but sometimes I fancied
there was something very
childish about her face and talk. After tea
she and the Boss sat on one side of the fire and Andy and I on the other --
Andy a little behind me at the corner of the table.
`Walter -- Mr Head -- tells me you've been out on the Lachlan river,
Mr Ellis?' she said as soon as she'd settled down, and she leaned forward,
as if eager to hear that I'd been there.
`Yes, Mrs Head. I've knocked round all about out there.'
She sat up straight, and put the tips of her fingers to the side
of her
forehead and knitted her brows. This was a trick she had --
she often did it during the evening. And when she did that
she seemed to forget what she'd said last.
She smoothed her
forehead, and clasped her hands in her lap.
`Oh, I'm so glad to meet somebody from the back country, Mr Ellis,' she said.
`Walter so seldom brings a stranger here, and I get tired of talking
to the same people about the same things, and
seeing the same faces.
You don't know what a
relief it is, Mr Ellis, to see a new face
and talk to a stranger.'
`I can quite understand that, Mrs Head,' I said. And so I could.
I never stayed more than three months in one place if I could help it.
She looked into the fire and seemed to try to think. The Boss straightened up
and stroked her head with his big sun-browned hand, and then put his arm
round her shoulders. This brought her back.
`You know we had a station out on the Lachlan, Mr Ellis.
Did Walter ever tell you about the time we lived there?'
`No,' I said, glancing at the Boss. `I know you had a station there;
but, you know, the Boss doesn't talk much.'
`Tell Jack, Maggie,' said the Boss; `I don't mind.'
She smiled. `You know Walter, Mr Ellis,' she said. `You won't mind him.
He doesn't like me to talk about the children; he thinks it upsets me,
but that's foolish: it always relieves me to talk to a stranger.'
She leaned forward,
eagerly it seemed, and went on quickly:
`I've been
wanting to tell you about the children ever since Walter
spoke to me about you. I knew you would understand directly I saw your face.
These town people don't understand. I like to talk to a Bushman.
You know we lost our children out on the station. The fairies took them.
Did Walter ever tell you about the fairies
taking the children away?'
This was a facer. `I -- I beg pardon,' I commenced, when Andy gave me
a dig in the back. Then I saw it all.
`No, Mrs Head. The Boss didn't tell me about that.'
`You surely know about the Bush Fairies, Mr Ellis,' she said,
her big eyes fixed on my face -- `the Bush Fairies that look after
the little ones that are lost in the Bush, and take them away from the Bush
if they are not found? You've surely heard of them, Mr Ellis?
Most Bushmen have that I've
spoken to. Maybe you've seen them?
Andy there has?' Andy gave me another dig.
`Of course I've heard of them, Mrs Head,' I said; `but I can't swear
that I've seen one.'
`Andy has. Haven't you, Andy?'
`Of course I have, Mrs Head. Didn't I tell you all about it
the last time we were home?'
`And didn't you ever tell Mr Ellis, Andy?'
`Of course he did!' I said, coming to Andy's
rescue; `I remember it now.
You told me that night we camped on the Bogan river, Andy.'
`Of course!' said Andy.
`Did he tell you about
finding a lost child and the fairy with it?'
`Yes,' said Andy; `I told him all about that.'
`And the fairy was just going to take the child away when Andy found it,
and when the fairy saw Andy she flew away.'
`Yes,' I said; `that's what Andy told me.'
`And what did you say the fairy was like, Andy?' asked Mrs Head,
fixing her eyes on his face.
`Like. It was like one of them angels you see in Bible pictures, Mrs Head,'
said Andy
promptly, sitting bolt
upright, and keeping his big
innocent grey eyes fixed on hers lest she might think he was telling lies.
`It was just like the angel in that Christ-in-the-stable picture
we had at home on the station -- the
right-hand one in blue.'
She smiled. You couldn't call it an idiotic smile,
nor the foolish smile you see sometimes in
melancholy mad people.
It was more of a happy
childish smile.
`I was so foolish at first, and gave poor Walter and the doctors
a lot of trouble,' she said. `Of course it never struck me, until afterwards,
that the fairies had taken the children.'
She pressed the tips of the fingers of both hands to her
forehead,
and sat so for a while; then she roused herself again --
`But what am I thinking about? I haven't started to tell you
about the children at all yet. Auntie! bring the children's
portraits,
will you, please? You'll find them on my dressing-table.'
The old woman seemed to hesitate.
`Go on, Auntie, and do what I ask you,' said Mrs Head. `Don't be foolish.
You know I'm all right now.'
`You mustn't take any notice of Auntie, Mr Ellis,' she said with a smile,
while the old woman's back was turned. `Poor old body,
she's a bit crotchety at times, as old women are. She doesn't like me to get
talking about the children. She's got an idea that if I do
I'll start talking
nonsense, as I used to do the first year
after the children were lost. I was very foolish then, wasn't I, Walter?'
`You were, Maggie,' said the Boss. `But that's all past.
You mustn't think of that time any more.'
`You see,' said Mrs Head, in
explanation to me, `at first
nothing would drive it out of my head that the children had wandered about
until they perished of
hunger and
thirst in the Bush. As if the Bush Fairies
would let them do that.'
`You were very foolish, Maggie,' said the Boss; `but don't think about that.'
The old woman brought the
portraits, a little boy and a little girl:
they must have been very pretty children.
`You see,' said Mrs Head,
taking the
portraits
eagerly, and giving them to me
one by one, `we had these taken in Sydney some years before the children
were lost; they were much younger then. Wally's is not a good
portrait;
he was teething then, and very thin. That's him
standing on the chair.
Isn't the pose good? See, he's got one hand and one little foot forward,
and an eager look in his eyes. The
portrait is very dark,
and you've got to look close to see the foot. He wants a toy rabbit
that the photographer is tossing up to make him laugh. In the next
portraithe's sitting on the chair -- he's just settled himself to enjoy the fun.
But see how happy little Maggie looks! You can see my arm
where I was
holding her in the chair. She was six months old then,
and little Wally had just turned two.'
She put the
portraits up on the mantel-shelf.
`Let me see; Wally (that's little Walter, you know) --
Wally was five and little Maggie three and a half when we lost them.
Weren't they, Walter?'
`Yes, Maggie,' said the Boss.
`You were away, Walter, when it happened.'
`Yes, Maggie,' said the Boss --
cheerfully, it seemed to me -- `I was away.'
`And we couldn't find you, Walter. You see,' she said to me,
`Walter -- Mr Head -- was away in Sydney on business, and we couldn't find