Frank and Fred learned many other things about sheep-farming in Australia, but they made no further notes on the subject, and therefore we will drop it. At any rate, they did not conclude to go into the business when they learned of its hazards and discomforts, and ascertained from the newspapers that the price of wool was at that time quite low.
Frank made a memorandum of a good story that he heard during the evening, while they sat in front of the fire in the sitting-room of the head station. It was told by the manager of the place, and was as follows:
"When I first came to Australia," said the manager, "I was employed on a cattle-station in Victoria; while I was there gold was discovered about ten miles away from us. The rush to the mines caused a demand for our cattle, and the owner did a fine business in supplying the miners with beef; but, on the other hand, there was a great deal of stealing, so that he was obliged to hire more men than usual. The favorite objects of the thieves were our saddle-horses, and every few days a horse would be missing from the paddock, and the chances of his recovery were doubtful.
"But we had one horse that was a treasure. He was perfectly docile in harness, and would stand quietly while being saddled, but anybody who mounted him was thrown at once. He was kept as a carriage-horse, and was a favorite of the manager, and was so docile that he could be caught at any time with a handful of oats.
"Once or twice a month he would be missed from the paddock. In a day or two he reappeared, and almost always with a saddle and somebody's 'swag,' or baggage, strapped to it. Once he came back with a new saddle and a swag containing, among other things, thirty ounces of gold-dust, and nobody ever appeared to claim it. Another time he brought in twenty ounces and three gold watches. Altogether, in the course of a year, he was stolen about twenty times, and must have brought home two or three thousand dollars' worth of gold-dust, to say nothing of the saddles. He kept the place supplied with saddles all the time I was there."
"A very profitable horse," remarked Doctor Bronson. "I suppose the owner was not willing to sell him?"
"Not by any means," was the reply. "He used to say that he had only to 'set' that horse in the paddock as he would any other trap, and the thieves walked in at once."
"That reminds me of a Melbourne horse story," said one of the listeners. Being pressed to give it, he did so.
