Page 88 - A Little Bush Maid

"Oh, that’s hardly a yarn, Miss Norah," he said, his eyes twinkling in a way
that made them look astonishingly young, despite his white hair and his

wrinkles. "That was only a small happening, though it capped a day of bad
luck. T had been busy in camp all the morning cooking, and had laid in

quite a supply of tucker, for me. T’d cooked some wild duck, and roasted a
hare, boiled a most splendid plum-duff and finally baked a big damper, and
T can tell you T was patting myself on the back because T need not do any

more cooking for nearly a week, unless it were fish--T’m not a cook by
nature, and pretty often go hungry rather than prepare a meal.

"After dinner T thought T’d go down to the creek and try my luck--it was a
perfect day for fishing, still and grey. So T dug some worms--and broke my

spade in doing so--and started off.

"The promise of the day held good. T went to my favourite spot, and the fish
just rushed me--the worms must have been very tempting, or else the fish
larder was scantily supplied. At any rate, they bit splendidly, and soon T

grew fastidious, and was picking out and throwing back any that weren’t
quite large enough. T fished from the old log over the creek, and soon had a

pile of fish, and grew tired of the sport. T was sleepy, too, through hanging
over the fire all the morning. T kept on fishing mechanically, but it was little
more than holding my bait in the water, and T began nodding and dozing,

leaning back on the broad old log.

"T didn’t think T had really gone to sleep, though T suppose T must have done
so, because T dreamed a kind of half-waking dream. Tn it T saw a snake that
crept and crept nearer and nearer to me until T could see its wicked eyes

gleaming, and though T tried to get away, T could not. Tt came on and on
until it was quite near, and T was feeling highly uncomfortable in my

dream. At last T made a great effort, flung out my hand towards a stick, and,
with a yell, woke up, to realise that T had struck something cold, and
clammy, and wet. What it was T couldn’t be certain for an instant, until T

heard a dull splash, and then T knew. T had swept my whole string of fish
into the water below!