{"product_id":"2940016292120","title":"The Dis-honorable","description":"UPON the shores of Moreton Bay, on the east coast of Australia, is a\u003cbr\u003epoint of land stretching seaward in the direction of a Government penal\u003cbr\u003esettlement, on an island known as St. Helena. Other islands are\u003cbr\u003eclustered in close proximity, and with the long hills on Stradbrook and\u003cbr\u003eMoreton islands in the distance the scene is one of striking beauty. In\u003cbr\u003ethe summer months this part of the bay forms a favorite rendezvous for\u003cbr\u003eyachting parties from the Queensland capital.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe point of land referred to rises high above the water, with the bay\u003cbr\u003eon one side and the estuary of a small river on the other. The\u003cbr\u003eshore--half mud, half sand--which stretches for a long distance at low\u003cbr\u003ewater, is, on the seaward side, thickly fringed with mangroves; while\u003cbr\u003eoverlooking them, upon the utmost headland, one tall tree--pushing out\u003cbr\u003efrom among its fellows--stands sentinel over the miniature peninsula.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis forest giant, with black, massive trunk, and branches, is an\u003cbr\u003eAustralian blood-wood, and presents a singular appearance to the\u003cbr\u003eobservant onlooker. Its huge limbs, but sightly clothed with foliage,\u003cbr\u003eare gnarled and crooked into ungainly and fantastic shapes by centuries\u003cbr\u003eof battling with the southeast gales that not unfrequently sweep\u003cbr\u003efiercely across the bay from the Pacific Ocean. The tree possesses none\u003cbr\u003eof the symmetry common to trees of European or Asiatic growth, except\u003cbr\u003ethat in some remarkable way its huge, ungainly trunk has maintained the\u003cbr\u003eperpendicular. Turnings and twistings and contortions notwithstanding,\u003cbr\u003eit preserves its general erectness to the very topmost branch, over a\u003cbr\u003ehundred feet from the ground, where by a strange freak of nature a huge\u003cbr\u003ebole has been developed, out of which a branch, thicker than a man's\u003cbr\u003ebody, grows for several feet at a right angle in the direction of the\u003cbr\u003eBay.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn a Friday afternoon in February, 1893, there might have been discerned\u003cbr\u003ethe figure of a man on that dizzy, natural platform, as, grasping a\u003cbr\u003esmaller branch above him for support, he gazed intently across the water\u003cbr\u003ein the direction of the entrance to the River Brisbane.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSince the commencement of the year the weather had been unusually wet,\u003cbr\u003ebut that week had beaten all previous records. With brief intervals of a\u003cbr\u003efew hours' duration, in the early part of the week, it had rained\u003cbr\u003esteadily both night and day. Not in warm, genial showers, such as the\u003cbr\u003epoet remembered when he wrote of:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The useful trouble of the rain,\"","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47071256740080,"sku":"2940016292120","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940016292120","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}