THE BOY
IN THE BUSH
BY
D. H. LAWRENCE
AND
M. L. SKINNER
NEW YORK
THOMAS SELTZER
1924
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. Jack Arrives in Australia
II. The Twin Lambs
III. Driving to Wandoo
IV. Wandoo
V. The Lambs Come Home
VI. In the Yard
VII. Out Back and Some Letters
VIII. Home for Christmas
IX. New Year's Eve
X. Shadows Before
XI. Blows
XII. The Great Passing
XIII. Tom and Jack Ride Together
XIV. Jamboree
XV. Uncle John Grant
XVI. On the Road
XVII. After Two Years
XVIII. The Governor's Dance
XIX. The Welcome at Wandoo
XX. The Last of Easu
XXI. Lost
XXII. The Find
XXIII. Gold
XXIV. The Offer to Mary
XXV. Trot, Trot Back Again
XXVI. The Rider on the Red Horse
THE BOY IN THE BUSH
CHAPTER I
JACK ARRIVES IN AUSTRALIA
I
He stepped ashore, looking like a lamb. Far be it from me to say he wasthe lamb he looked. Else why should he have been sent out of England?But a good-looking boy he was, with dark blue eyes and the complexion ofa girl and a bearing just a little too lamb-like to be convincing.
He stepped ashore in the newest of new colonies, glancing quicklyaround, but preserving his lamb-like quietness. Down came his elegantkit, and was dumped on the wharf: a kit that included a brand-newpigskin saddle and bridle, nailed up in a box straight from a smart shopin London. He kept his eye on that also, the tail of his well-bred eye.
Behind him was the wool ship that had brought him from England. Thisnondescript port was Fremantle, in West Australia; might have beenanywhere or nowhere. In his pocket he had a letter of introduction to awell-known colonial lawyer, in which, as he was aware, was folded also adraft on a West Australian bank. In his purse he had a five-pound note.In his head were a few irritating memories. In his heart he felt acertain excited flutter at being in a real new land, where a man couldbe really free. Though what he meant by "free" he never stopped todefine. He left everything suitably vague.
Meanwhile, he waited for events to develop, as if it were none of hisbusiness.
This was forty years ago, when it was still a long, long way toAustralia, and the land was still full of the lure of promi