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Updated: July 16, 2025
As I said, everybody was looking at the horses coming along with the rush of the thoroughbred when he's 'on his top' for condition; his coat like satin, and his legs like iron. There were lots of the bush girls on horseback, and among them I soon picked out Maddie Barnes. She was dressed in a handsome habit and hat.
There's a big diggings broke out there too, he says; and he has some friends there, and he thinks he'll like that side better. 'I think we'd better cut the Sydney "side", too, says Starlight. 'What do you say, Maddie? We'll be able to mix up with these new chum Englishmen and Americans that are coming here in swarms, and puzzle Sergeant Goring and his troopers more than ever.
We'll make such a room of this before night!" And, without another word, she began in earnest to bring order out of strange confusion. Lolly was a capital helper, because her heart was in the matter, and she really wanted a pleasant, cheerful home; but Maddie was content to look on, and scarcely moved a finger to help.
Come here, Lolly: you shall have some of my dinner." And she led the little grateful child to the wild table, that seemed to her like a fairy scene, with the fresh leaf-plates, and the pure sweet flowers breathing so delightfully. "Mother makes capital bread doesn't she, Maddie?" said Alice, as she ate her small portion with evident relish, while she shared the remnant with her guests.
He had been backward and forward a good deal with father before we got clear of Berrima, and that's how poor Maddie had come to take the fancy so strong and set her heart upon him. It must be hard lines for a woman to stand by, in a church or anywhere else, and see the man she loves given away, for good and all, buckled hard and fast to another woman.
"Aren't you afraid to stay here so much alone, Alice?" she asked, giving another glance about the room. "But I never stay alone, Maddie!" answered the dear child. "I have plenty of company 'Tabby, and the flies, and now and then a spider, and everything that goes by the door, and the clouds and the sunshine and the leaves and the oh dear! so many things, Maddie, that I can't begin to tell you."
Her face was dull, and her hair showed no touch of brush or comb, and her nails were long and dirty; but she jumped from her perch with some signs of shame as she saw Alice, so neat and tidy, at the door; and she began to scramble about as if she wished to make things a little better. "May I help you to-day, Maddie?" asked Alice. "I haven't any work at home, and I like to get things tidy.
'I wouldn't "come it", unless I could get that lovely horse of yours, says the youngest one, Maddie; 'but I'd do anything in the world to have him. He's the greatest darling I ever saw. Wouldn't he look stunning with a side-saddle? I've a great mind to "duff" him myself one of these days. 'You shall have a ride on Rainbow next time we come, says Starlight.
It would be a good wind-up, and Maddie was coming out a great swell. Sir Ferdinand would be there, but there'd be such a crowd anybody would pass muster, and so on. 'Yours sincerely, 'Isabella Barnes. 'P.S. There was a big handicap, with 500 added; hadn't we a good horse enough? 'Well done, Bella! says Starlight. 'I vote we go, Dick. I never went to a hop with a price on my head before.
We'd told Maddie that money needn't stand in the way, so she was to promise Joe the full sum that he was to get for his contract would be paid to him in cash that night Jim to pay his own expenses as he went, the same as he was to do himself. Of course she could get the money from old Jonathan. A word from us then was worth a deal more than that'd come to.
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