They only mocked him for his pains. “Hearken to him pleading for mercy! Careless Harry! cruel Harry!” and amidst much noise and confusion the young mortal was carried to the apex of the [[105]]steep, tall cliff, and pushed over into the yawning gulf below.
Poor Harry, half mad with terror, uttered a series of piercing shrieks as he felt himself falling—falling through the air—and called aloud for his mother to help him. Conceive his joy when he found himself in her arms, and heard her well-known voice reassuring him.
“You are safe, my boy, quite safe. What has frightened you?”
“Oh, mother! I have been taken away in the night.”
“Taken away! Where?”
“To—to—‘I don’t know.’ ”
The mother smiled to herself as she left the room, and “Careless Harry” went out to see if the rocking-horse and the others had returned home. [[106]]
THE BANK CAT.
Because “Tent-Peg” on the Bogan isn’t on the map of Australia, it must not be inferred that the little township does not exist. Indeed, any old colonist who knows his way about will tell you that the place is in the sister colony, and consists of one public-house, a blacksmith’s shop, a store, a church (about the shape and size of a haystack), and a small branch bank.