Then Other Anniversaries Crowded On Us Thick And Fast, And With Them There Crept Into The Territory That Scourge Of The Wet Season - Malarial Dysentery, And Travellers Coming In Stricken-Down With It Rested A Little While Before Going On Again.

But two of these sick travellers went down to the very gates of death, where one, a little Chinaman, slipped through, blessing the "good boss," who treated all men alike, and leaving an echo of the blessing in old Cheon's loyal heart.

But the other sick traveller turned back from those open gates, although bowed with the weight of seventy years, and faced life anew, blessing in his turn "the whitest man" those seventy years had known.

Bravely the worn, bowed shoulders took up the burden of life again, and, as they squared to their load, we slipped back to our anniversaries - once more Jack went bush for the schooling of his colts, once more Mac and Dan went into the Katherine to "see about the ordering of stores," Tam going with them; and as they rode out of the homestead, once more we slipped, with the Dandy, into the Land of Wait-a-while - waiting once more for the wet to lift, for the waggons to come, and for the Territory to rouse itself for another year's work.

Full of bright hopes, we rested in that Land of Wait-a-while, speaking of the years to come, when the bush-folk will have conquered the Never-Never and lain it at the feet of great cities; and, waiting and resting, made merry and planned plans, all unconscious of the great shadow that was even then hovering over us.

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