{"product_id":"2940013668461","title":"Rigby's Romance","description":"Making straight for my customary place of sojourn--namely, Mrs.\u003cbr\u003eFerguson's Coffee Palace--I helped the landlady's husband to unsaddle\u003cbr\u003eand feed my horses; after which, I caused that unassuming bondman to\u003cbr\u003ebring about twenty lbs. of scraps for Pup, whilst I chained him (Pup,\u003cbr\u003eof course) in an empty stall. Then, with six or eight words of\u003cbr\u003eexplanation and apology to Mrs. Ferguson, I sought my usual bedroom,\u003cbr\u003eand, shedding all my garments but one, threw myself into collision\u003cbr\u003ewith that article of furniture which has proved fatal to some better\u003cbr\u003emen, and to a great many worse.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHere an opportune intermission of about ten hours in the march of\u003cbr\u003eevents affords convenience for explaining the purpose of my journey to\u003cbr\u003eYarrawonga. The fact is that I object to being regarded as a mere\u003cbr\u003eromancist, even as a dead-head speculator, or dilettante reporter, of\u003cbr\u003ethe drama of life. You must take me as a hard-working and ordinary\u003cbr\u003eactor on this great stage of fools; but one who, nevertheless, finds a\u003cbr\u003ewholesome recreation in observing the parts played by his fellow-\u003cbr\u003ehypocrites. (The Greek \"hupokrisis,\" I find, signifies, indifferently,\u003cbr\u003e\"actor\" and \"hypocrite.\")\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI was booked for one of those soft things that sometimes light on us\u003cbr\u003eas gratefully and as unaccountably as the wholesale rain from heaven\u003cbr\u003eupon the mallee beneath. John C. Spooner, Rory O'Halloran and I had\u003cbr\u003ejust bought the Goolumbulla brand. Or rather, the manager, Mr.\u003cbr\u003eSpanker, had given us the clearing of the run under certain\u003cbr\u003econditions, one of which was the payment of £100.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGoolumbulla--centrally-situated in that wilderness between the\u003cbr\u003eWillandra and the Darling--had been settled for about five years. Six\u003cbr\u003ehundred head of cattle had originally been placed on the run, to the\u003cbr\u003edisgust and exasperation of Mr. Spanker, whose bigoted faith in the\u003cbr\u003eevil-smelling merino admitted no toleration for any other kind of\u003cbr\u003estock. His antipathy was reasonable enough in this instance, for these\u003cbr\u003ewere warrigals, even as scrub-bred cattle go. You know the class--\u003cbr\u003elong-bodied, clean-flanked, hard-muscled, ardent-eyed, and always in\u003cbr\u003ethe same advanced-store condition. They had been wild enough when\u003cbr\u003efirst brought from the ranges of the Upper Lachlan, and Goolumbulla\u003cbr\u003ewas just the sort of country to accelerate their reversion to the pre-\u003cbr\u003edomesticated type. At the time I speak of, they could barely endure\u003cbr\u003ethe sight of a man on horseback. As for a man on foot, they would face\u003cbr\u003eanything else on earth to get away from him; and if they couldn't get\u003cbr\u003eaway, that man might either betake himself to his faith, or stand on\u003cbr\u003eguard. Which latter alternative sounds so dishonestly vague and non-\u003cbr\u003ecommittal that literary self-respect demands a slight digression.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo deal with fear-maddened cattle in confined spaces--as in drafting\u003cbr\u003eor trucking--the infantry man requires an alert eye, a cool head, and\u003cbr\u003ea suitable stem of scrub, terminating in a nasty spray of leafless\u003cbr\u003etwigs; also his flank and rear must be covered, in order to confine\u003cbr\u003ethe enemy to a frontal assault. These conditions being fulfilled, the\u003cbr\u003eoperator can reserve his mortal preparation for some future emergency,\u003cbr\u003ethough it would, perhaps, be as well to abstain from anything in the\u003cbr\u003enature of language until the draft is put through. A handy piece of\u003cbr\u003ebrush, judicially presented, will check the charge of any steer. The\u003cbr\u003eanimal will try to get round the obstruction, but he won't attempt to\u003cbr\u003ebreak through.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHere, by the way, I may seize an opportunity of further disturbing\u003cbr\u003ethe congested ignorance of the bookish public by noticing Sir Walter\u003cbr\u003eScott's misapprehension of the bovine temperament, as displayed in\u003cbr\u003e\"The Lady of the Lake.\" You remember how the milk-white bull--\u003cbr\u003e\"choicest of the prey we had, when swept our merry men Gallangad\"--is\u003cbr\u003edepicted as fiery-eyed, fierce, tameless and fleet, to begin with.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47180445155568,"sku":"2940013668461","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013668461_p0.jpg?v=1763596835","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013668461","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}