vilization: they work their way long before every thing else. When a white man passes through the bush, he can't leave a church, a theatre, nor a gallows behind him (all marks of civilization in their way), but he very likely smashes a bottle or a pipe, and whoever follows after, knows, by these tokens, that he is treading in the steps of the white man. Ah! the bottle has noble uses," he said with a smile as he glanced towards the door-post of his hut.
"Yoic! old lass! yoic! old girl!" he shouted as a fine kangaroo dog came bounding down to the water's edge to welcome her master. The dog gave signs of uneasiness by an occasional growl, which, although unnoticed by Hugh and Slinger, was not so by Dodge.
"Do you see my old Lady there?" he said, looking after his dog attentively; "there's something in the wind."
"Why you are not married, are you, Mr. Dodge?" inquired Slinger.
"Married!" said Dodge, "Married!—ha!—ha!—Married!!—ha!—ha! ha!—Old Dodge married!—ho!—ho! ho!—Dodge domesticated!!! Well, that is good. When I was a ladling," he continued, as well as he could speak for laughing, " a gipsy once told me I should be wedded to a dark lady with beautiful teeth and black hair. She must have imagined me just situated as I happen to be; for I am visited occasionally by some very dark ladies, and gentlemen too; and who knows," said Dodge, "but Miss Dulkey-bulkey, 'the Big Smutty Pot,' or, 'the Dowager Lady Yaller-nibberon,' otherwise, 'The Warm Blanket,' may not captivate me.—Married! no, no. I was talking of my dog 'Lady;' and she, dear old creeter, is talking to me. You don't understand her, but I do: and she's letting me know as plainly—as plainly as I see that fellow on the opposite side of the creek to my hut to keep a
