Benbonuna A Bush Tale of the 'fifties' Author:Robert Bruce General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1904 Original Publisher: Long Subjects: Fiction / General Literary Criticism / General Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get fr... more »ee trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III THE BENBONUNA HOUSEHOLD After Mick and Moses quitted the overseer, the latter seemed to be in a very satisfied frame of mind, whistling a stave of ' Far, far upon the sea ' as he glanced carelessly through his lelters, which were mostly on station matters. (Mr. Ashby had gradually allowed all business to pass into Hawley's hands, until he himself had become a mere nonentity on the place, being styled by the station hands ' Mr. Ashby,' while Hawley received the far more important title of ' the boss.') None of the letters seemed to be of any importance, for Hawley, after reading, did not trouble to put them away, but threw them carelessly back on the mantelpiece from which he had taken them ; and then, giving his clothes a brush down under the veranda, he retired to one of the end rooms of the hut, where he washed, changed his linen, carefully arranged his hair, and with a self- satisfied smirk contemplated the result in a small, square mirror that hung against the wall, before which he postured like any dandy dressed for a ball. When he resumed his coat, he took from the breastpocket a large black pocket-book, and, glancing at the contents -- seemingly legal documents -- carefully re- clasped and locked the book away in the secret drawer of a large chest standing beside the green-hide stretcher on which he slept ; then, replacing his candle on the sitting-room table, he passed his hands over his pockets as if to assure himself that their various contents weresafe, and stepped out into the darkness. Leaving...« less