" Then our Christmas guests rode out into the forest,
taking with them the sick Mac, and as they faded from our sight we knew
that the memory of that Christmas day would never fade out of our lives;
for we bush-folk have long memories and love to rest now and then beside
the milestones of the past.
CHAPTER XXIV
A Day or two after Christmas, Dan came in full of regrets because he had
"missed the celebrations," and gratified Cheon's heart with a minute and
detailed account of the "Clisymus" at Pine Creek. Then the homestead
settled down to the stagnation of the Wet, and as the days and weeks
slipped by, travellers came in and went on, and Mac and Tam paid us many
visits, as with the weeks we slipped through a succession of
anniversaries.
"A year to-day, Mac, since you sent those telegrams!" we said, near the
beginning of those weeks; and, all mock gravity, Mac answered "Yes! And
blocked that Goer!... Often wondered what happened to her!"
"A year to-day, gentlemen," I added a few days later, "since you flung
that woman across the Fergusson"; and as Mac enjoyed the reminiscence,
the Maluka said: "And forgot to fling the false veneer of civilisation
after her.
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