About the Author.-James Lister Cuthbertson was born in Scotland in 1851. He went to school there and afterwards to Oxford University, where he took his degree of Bachelor of Arts. He came to Australia and taught at the Geelong Grammar School from 1875 to 1896. He died in 1910. His Barwon Ballads and his Collected Poems have appeared in book form.
About the Poem.-What season is the poet writing about? Where is the pathway? Why can no one "mark" it? What are the joys of noontide? What beauties of sight and smell does he mention? What are "enchanted hours"?
Suggestions for Verse-speaking.-Divide the class into three sections. Each section speaks a verse and all join in the last verse.
Lesson 39
LOST IN THE BuSH
pari I.
OUT thirty miles from Horsham is the Spring Hill Station; and back from the homestead, in a small, open spot among the mallee, stood in 1864 a shepherd"s hut, built of slabs, with a clay floor and a bark roof-the home of the Duffs. The dreary view was broken only by the summit of Mount Arapiles and the Mitre Rock, some miles to the eastward.
Three children-Isaac, nine years old; Jane, seven and a half; and Frank, a toddler, not four-helped their mother, and filled in the long day as best they could, playing about the hut, for there was no school for them to attend.
Well, one day their mother called them and said, "Now, children, run away to the scrub and get me some broom to sweep the floor and make it nice for father when he comes home."It was a fine day in August-spring was early that year-and the children, who had been to the scrub onthe same errand before, liked going; so they set off merrily.
They had a fine time. Isaac amused himself by climbing trees and cutting down saplings with his tomahawk; he found a possum in a hollow in the trunk of a tree, and poked at the little creature with a stick, but without doing it much harm. Jane chased butterflies, picked flowers, and tried to catch the lizards that Frank wanted so much. When they felt hungry they all had, in addition to their lunch of bread and treacle, quite a feast of gum from a clump of wattle-trees.
In laughter and play the time passed pleasantly and quickly; and, when half a dozen kangaroos bounded away from them through the bush, their delight knew no bounds. But, by and by, Jane thought of going home; so they gathered each a bundle of broom for mother, and turned, as they thought, homewards.
After they had walked some distance, Isaac began to think that it was farther to the edge of the scrub than he had expected, so he urged his sister and little brother to go faster. In an hour or two the scrub grew thicker, and it looked strange to him. He thought that he might have taken a wrong turn, and started off in another direction, and then tried another, and another; but no rememberedspot met his straining eyes.
Then deep dread seized them all. They stopped, and cooeed, and shouted- "Father!" "Mother !" but there was no answer-only the sad "caw! caw!" of a crow winging its homeward flight came to their ears.
Drawn by Tom V. Carter
"They stopped and cooeed, and shouted."
On they pressed once more. Soon little Frank began to cry; and his sister said, "Don"t cry, Frankie dear; don"t cry. We"ll soon be home, and you shall have a nice supper. Let me carry your broom, it"s too heavy for you." She took the bundle of tea-tree twigs; and for ward again they went with wildly beating hearts, sometimes stopping to cooee and look about; and then on, on till the sun set, and the bush, except for the dismal howl now and then of a dingo in the distance, grew gloomyand still.
Tired out and hungry, they huddled together at the foot of a big tree, and said the prayers their mother had taught them. Then they talked of home, wondering if father would be vexed, and if mother knew that they were lost. Frank soon cried himself to sleep; and his sister put some of the broom under his head for a pillow. Poor, dear little things! They little thought how glad mother would be to see them, even without their broom.
As the night went on it grew cold; and Jane, who was awake, took off her frock to wrap round her little brother, and crept close to him to keep him warm. For hours she lay listening to the cry of the curlew and the rush of the possum as it ran from tree to tree over the dead leaves and bark. At last she fell asleep, and slepttill the loud, mocking "Ha, ha! ho, ho! hoo, hoo!" of the laughing-jackass roused her at dawn. What a waking it was! Tired and cold, hungry and thirsty, and lost.
part II.
The mother had grown anxious as the day wore on and the children did not return; and so, late in the afternoon, she went into the scrub and cooeed for them till she was hoarse. As she got no answer, she became really alarmed, and at length hurried back to tell her husband, who she expected would return home from his work just before nightfall. He also searched through the scrub, and cooeed till long after dark, but in vain.
Before daybreak next morning they were up, and as soon as it was light enough were hurrying to tell their nearest neighbours what had happened and ask their help in the search. Before dinner-time a score of willing people-men and women-were scouring the scrub in various directions.
All that day, and the next, and the next, they searched, but found nothing; and the poor mother began to lose hope of ever seeing her darlings again. A messenger had been sent to a station some distance off to bring two or three blackfellows, who were employedthere as boundary-riders.
The Australian blacks can find and follow a trail with wonderful skill. They have sharp eyes, and their training in searching for the tracks of the game they hunt causes them to note signs to guide them in places where a white man, even with good eyesight, sees nothing.