"`Oh, I ain't been home yet,' says he, holdin' out his hand;
but, afore I could grip it, the cussed horse sidled off

to the south end of the clearin' and broke away again through the scrub.
"I heard Dave swearin' about the country for twenty minutes or so,

and then he came spurrin' and cursin' in from the other end of the clearin'.
"`Where have you been all this time?' I said, as the horse came curvin' up

like a boomerang.
"`Gulf country,' said Dave.

"`That was a storm, Dave,' said I.
"`My oath!' says Dave.

"`Get caught in it?'
"`Yes.'

"`Got to shelter?'
"`No.'

"`But you're as dry's a bone, Dave!'
"Dave grinned. `------ and ------ and ------ the --------!' he yelled.

"He said that to the horse as it boomeranged off again and broke away
through the scrub. I waited; but he didn't come back,

and I reckoned he'd got so far away before he could pull up
that he didn't think it worth while comin' back; so I went on.

By-and-bye I got thinkin'. Dave was as dry as a bone,
and I knowed that he hadn't had time to get to shelter,

for there wasn't a shed within twelve miles. He wasn't only dry,
but his coat was creased and dusty too -- same as if he'd been sleepin'

in a holler log; and when I come to think of it, his face seemed
thinner and whiter than it used ter, and so did his hands and wrists,

which always stuck a long way out of his coat-sleeves; and there was blood
on his face -- but I thought he'd got scratched with a twig.

(Dave used to wear a coat three or four sizes too small for him,
with sleeves that didn't come much below his elbows and a tail

that scarcely reached his waist behind.) And his hair seemed dark and lank,
instead of bein' sandy and stickin' out like an old fibre brush,

as it used ter. And then I thought his voice sounded different, too.
And, when I enquired next day, there was no one heard of Dave,

and the chaps reckoned I must have been drunk, or seen his ghost.
"It didn't seem all right at all -- it worried me a lot. I couldn't make out

how Dave kept dry; and the horse and saddle and saddle-cloth was wet.
I told the chaps how he talked to me and what he said, and how he swore

at the horse; but they only said it was Dave's ghost and nobody else's.
I told 'em about him bein' dry as a bone after gettin' caught in that storm;

but they only laughed and said it was a dry place where Dave went to.
I talked and argued about it until the chaps began to

tap their foreheads and wink -- then I left off talking.
But I didn't leave off thinkin' -- I always hated a mystery.

Even Dave's father told me that Dave couldn't be alive or else his ghost
wouldn't be round -- he said he knew Dave better than that.

One or two fellers did turn up afterwards that had seen Dave
about the time that I did -- and then the chaps said they was sure

that Dave was dead.
"But one fine day, as a lot of us chaps was playin' pitch and toss

at the shanty, one of the fellers yelled out:
"`By Gee! Here comes Dave Regan!'

"And I looked up and saw Dave himself, sidlin' out of a cloud of dust
on a long lanky horse. He rode into the stockyard, got down,

hung his horse up to a post, put up the rails, and then come
slopin' towards us with a half-acre grin on his face.

Dave had long, thin bow-legs, and when he was on the ground
he moved as if he was on roller skates.

"`'El-lo, Dave!' says I. `How are yer?'
"`'Ello, Jim!' said he. `How the blazes are you?'

"`All right!' says I, shakin' hands. `How are yer?'
"`Oh! I'm all right!' he says. `How are yer poppin' up!'

"Well, when we'd got all that settled, and the other chaps had asked
how he was, he said: `Ah, well! Let's have a drink.'

"And all the other chaps crawfished up and flung themselves round the corner
and sidled into the bar after Dave. We had a lot of talk, and he told us

that he'd been down before, but had gone away without seein' any of us,
except me, because he'd suddenly heard of a mob of cattle at a station

two hundred miles away; and after a while I took him aside and said:
"`Look here, Dave! Do you remember the day I met you after the storm?'

"He scratched his head.
"`Why, yes,' he says.

"`Did you get under shelter that day?'
"`Why -- no.'

"`Then how the blazes didn't yer get wet?'
"Dave grinned; then he says:

"`Why, when I seen the storm coming I took off me clothes
and stuck 'em in a holler log till the rain was over.'

"`Yes,' he says, after the other coves had done laughin',
but before I'd done thinking; `I kept my clothes dry and got

a good refreshin' shower-bath into the bargain.'
"Then he scratched the back of his neck with his little finger,

and dropped his jaw, and thought a bit; then he rubbed
the top of his head and his shoulder, reflective-like, and then he said:

"`But I didn't reckon for them there blanky hailstones.'"
Mitchell on Matrimony

"I suppose your wife will be glad to see you," said Mitchell to his mate
in their camp by the dam at Hungerford. They were overhauling their swags,

and throwing away the blankets, and calico, and old clothes,
and rubbish they didn't want -- everything, in fact,

except their pocket-books and letters and portraits,
things which men carry about with them always, that are found on them

when they die, and sent to their relations if possible.
Otherwise they are taken in charge by the constable who officiates

at the inquest, and forwarded to the Minister of Justice
along with the depositions.

It was the end of the shearing season. Mitchell and his mate
had been lucky enough to get two good sheds in succession,

and were going to take the coach from Hungerford to Bourke
on their way to Sydney. The morning stars were bright yet,

and they sat down to a final billy of tea, two dusty Johnny-cakes,
and a scrag of salt mutton.

"Yes," said Mitchell's mate, "and I'll be glad to see her too."
"I suppose you will," said Mitchell. He placed his pint-pot between his feet,

rested his arm against his knee, and stirred the tea meditatively
with the handle of his pocket-knife. It was vaguely understood

that Mitchell had been married at one period of his chequered career.
"I don't think we ever understood women properly," he said,

as he took a cautious sip to see if his tea was cool and sweet enough,
for his lips were sore; "I don't think we ever will -- we never took

the trouble to try, and if we did it would be only wasted brain power
that might just as well be spent on the blackfellow's lingo;

because by the time you've learnt it they'll be extinct,
and woman 'll be extinct before you've learnt her. . . .

The morning star looks bright, doesn't it?"
"Ah, well," said Mitchell after a while, "there's many little things

we might try to understand women in. I read in a piece of newspaper
the other day about how a man changes after he's married;

how he gets short, and impatient, and bored (which is only natural),
and sticks up a wall of newspaper between himself and his wife

when he's at home; and how it comes like a cold shock to her,
and all her air-castles vanish, and in the end she often thinks

about taking the baby and the clothes she stands in, and going home
for sympathy and comfort to mother.

"Perhaps she never got a word of sympathy from her mother in her life,
nor a day's comfort at home before she was married; but that doesn't make

the slightest difference. It doesn't make any difference in your case either,
if you haven't been acting like a dutiful son-in-law.

"Somebody wrote that a woman's love is her whole existence, while a man's love
is only part of his -- which is true, and only natural and reasonable,

all things considered. But women never consider as a rule. A man can't go on
talking lovey-dovey talk for ever, and listening to his young wife's prattle

when he's got to think about making a living, and nursing her and answering
her childish questions and telling her he loves his little ownest

every minute in the day, while the bills are running up, and rent mornings
begin to fly round and hustle and crowd him.

"He's got her and he's satisfied; and if the truth is known
he loves her really more than he did when they were engaged,

only she won't be satisfied about it unless he tells her so
every hour in the day. At least that's how it is for the first few months.

"But a woman doesn't understand these things -- she never will, she can't --
and it would be just as well for us to try and understand

that she doesn't and can't understand them."
Mitchell knocked the tea-leaves out of his pannikin against his boot,

and reached for the billy.
"There's many little things we might do that seem mere trifles and nonsense

to us, but mean a lot to her; that wouldn't be any trouble or sacrifice to us,
but might help to make her life happy. It's just because we never think about

these little things -- don't think them worth thinking about, in fact --
they never enter our intellectual foreheads.

"For instance, when you're going out in the morning you might
put your arms round her and give her a hug and a kiss, without her having

to remind you. You may forget about it and never think any more of it --
but she will.

"It wouldn't be any trouble to you, and would only take a couple of seconds,
and would give her something to be happy about when you're gone,

and make her sing to herself for hours while she bustles about her work
and thinks up what she'll get you for dinner."

Mitchell's mate sighed, and shifted the sugar-bag over towards Mitchell.
He seemed touched and bothered over something.

"Then again," said Mitchell, "it mightn't be convenient for you
to go home to dinner -- something might turn up during the morning --

you might have some important business to do, or meet some chaps
and get invited to lunch and not be very well able to refuse,

when it's too late, or you haven't a chance to send a message to your wife.
But then again, chaps and business seem very big things to you,

and only little things to the wife; just as lovey-dovey talk
is important to her and nonsense to you. And when you come to analyse it,

one is not so big, nor the other so small, after all;
especially when you come to think that chaps can always wait,

and business is only an inspiration in your mind, nine cases out of ten.
"Think of the trouble she takes to get you a good dinner,

and how she keeps it hot between two plates in the oven,
and waits hour after hour till the dinner gets dried up,

and all her morning's work is wasted. Think how it hurts her,
and how anxious she'll be (especially if you're inclined to booze)

for fear that something has happened to you. You can't get it
out of the heads of some young wives that you're liable to get run over,

or knocked down, or assaulted, or robbed, or get into one of the fixes
that a woman is likely to get into. But about the dinner waiting.

Try and put yourself in her place. Wouldn't you get mad
under the same circumstances? I know I would.

"I remember once, only just after I was married, I was invited unexpectedly
to a kidneypudding and beans -- which was my favourite grub at the time --

and I didn't resist, especially as it was washing day and I told the wife
not to bother about anything for dinner. I got home an hour or so late,

and had a good explanation thought out, when the wife met me with a smile
as if we had just been left a thousand pounds. She'd got her washing finished

without assistance, though I'd told her to get somebody to help her,
and she had a kidneypudding and beans, with a lot of extras thrown in,

as a pleasant surprise for me.
"Well, I kissed her, and sat down, and stuffed till I thought every mouthful

would choke me. I got through with it somehow, but I've never cared
for kidneypudding or beans since."

Mitchell felt for his pipe with a fatherly smile in his eyes.
"And then again," he continued, as he cut up his tobacco,

"your wife might put on a new dress and fix herself up and look well,
and you might think so and be satisfied with her appearance and be proud

to take her out; but you want to tell her so, and tell her so
as often as you think about it -- and try to think a little oftener

than men usually do, too."

• saddle [´sædl] n.鞍子 v.装鞍(于) (初中英语单词)
• reckon [´rekən] v.计算；认为；估计 (初中英语单词)
• charge [tʃɑ:dʒ] v.收费；冲锋 n.费用 (初中英语单词)
• minister [´ministə] n.部长；大臣 v.伺候 (初中英语单词)
• learnt [lə:nt] learn 的过去式(分词) (初中英语单词)
• vanish [´væniʃ] vi.消失；消散；消灭 (初中英语单词)
• sympathy [´simpəθi] n.同情，怜悯 (初中英语单词)
• acting [´æktiŋ] a.代理的 n.演戏 (初中英语单词)
• existence [ig´zistəns] n.存在；生存；生活 (初中英语单词)
• childish [´tʃaildiʃ] a.孩子的；幼稚的 (初中英语单词)
• running [´rʌniŋ] a.奔跑的；流动的 (初中英语单词)
• instance [´instəns] n.例子，实例，例证 (初中英语单词)
• remind [ri´maind] vt.提醒；使记(想)起 (初中英语单词)
• convenient [kən´vi:niənt] a.方便的 (初中英语单词)
• anxious [´æŋkʃəs] a.担忧的；渴望的 (初中英语单词)
• resist [ri´zist] v.抵抗；对抗；抵制 (初中英语单词)
• bother [´bɔðə] v.打扰 n.麻烦(事) (初中英语单词)
• explanation [,eksplə´neiʃən] n.解释；说明；辩解 (初中英语单词)
• assistance [ə´sistəns] n.协作；援助；帮助 (初中英语单词)
• roller [´rəulə] n.打滚的人；滚柱 (高中英语单词)
• constable [´kʌnstəbəl] n.警察；警官 (高中英语单词)
• impatient [im´peiʃənt] a.不耐烦的，急躁的 (高中英语单词)
• intellectual [,inti´lektʃuəl] n.知识分子 (高中英语单词)
• nonsense [´nɔnsəns] n.胡说 int.胡说!废话 (高中英语单词)
• analyse [´ænəlaiz] vt.分析，分解 =analyze (高中英语单词)
• inspiration [,inspi´reiʃən] n.鼓舞；灵感；启发 (高中英语单词)
• liable [´laiəbəl] a.易于...的；有责任的 (高中英语单词)
• pudding [´pudiŋ] n.布丁 (高中英语单词)
• calico [´kælikəu] n.白棉布；印花布 (英语四级单词)
• rubbish [´rʌbiʃ] n.垃圾；碎屑；废话 (英语四级单词)
• vaguely [´veigli] ad.含糊地，暖昧地 (英语四级单词)
• cautious [´kɔ:ʃəs] a.小心的；谨慎的 (英语四级单词)
• extinct [ik´stiŋkt] a.熄灭的；灭绝的 (英语四级单词)
• hustle [´hʌsəl] v.猛挤；催促 n.乱堆 (英语四级单词)
• sydney [´sidni] n.悉尼 (英语六级单词)
• taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
• kidney [´kidni] n.肾；性格；脾气 (英语六级单词)