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The Lost Child By: Henry Kingsley (1830-1876) |
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BY HENRY KINGSLEY. [Illustration: " And there he stood, naked and free, on the
forbidden ground. "] ILLUSTRATED BY L. FRÖLICH. London and New York:
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1871. [Illustration: " Looking eagerly across the water. " FRONT.]
PREFACE.
It is only natural that an author should say a few words about a
republication of this kind. The story in its separate form has the
advantage of being illustrated by an eminent artist, whose special
qualifications are widely known and acknowledged; and it seemed to all
concerned best that it should be left entirely untouched. The first two
paragraphs and the last short one are simply added: no other liberty has
been taken with it. To avoid the trouble of those great plagues of literature, foot notes,
the author asks the reader to submit to a few very trifling
explanations: "Quantongs" are a bush fruit, of about the same quality as green
gooseberries, but, like the last named fruit, very much sought after by
the native youth. The Bunyip is the native river devil, or kelpie, evidently the crocodile
of the Northern Australian rivers, whose recognition by the Southern
natives in their legends shows, if nothing else did, that the centre of
dispersion in Australia was from the North, as Doctor Laing told us
years ago. With regard to the habit which lost children have of aimless climbing,
the author knew a child who, being lost by his father while out shooting
on one of the flats bordering on the Eastern Pyrenees in Port Phillip on
Sunday afternoon, was found the next Wednesday dead, at an elevation
above the Avoca township of between two and three thousand feet.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE SOMETIMES LOOKING EAGERLY ACROSS THE WATER AT THE
WAVING FOREST BOUGHS Front. AND THERE HE STOOD, NAKED AND FREE, ON THE FORBIDDEN
GROUND Vignette. "MOTHER, WHAT COUNTRY IS THAT ACROSS THE RIVER?" 15 A KANGAROO! A SNAKE! AN EAGLE! 21 HE WAS LOST IN THE BUSH 25 HE CAME ON THE BALD, THUNDER SMITTEN SUMMIT RIDGE 29 "WE HAVE COME TO HELP YOU, MISTRESS" 33 THERE HE LAY, DEAD AND STIFF 39
THE LOST CHILD.
Remember? Yes, I remember well that time when the disagreement arose
between Sam Buckley and Cecil, and how it was mended. You are wrong
about one thing, General; no words ever passed between those two young
men: death was between them before they had time to speak. I will tell you the real story, old as I am, as well as either of them
could tell it for themselves; and as I tell it I hear the familiar roar
of the old snowy river in my ears, and if I shut my eyes I can see the
great mountain, Lanyngerin, bending down his head like a thorough bred
horse with a curb in his mouth; I can see the long grey plains, broken
with the outlines of the solitary volcanoes Widderin and Monmot. Ah,
General Halbert! I will go back there next year, for I am tired of
England, and I will leave my bones there; I am getting old, and I want
peace, as I had it in Australia. As for the story you speak of, it is
simply this: Four or five miles up the river from Garoopna stood a solitary hut,
sheltered by a lofty bare knoll, round which the great river chafed
among the boulders. Across the stream was the forest sloping down in
pleasant glades from the mountain; and behind the hut rose the plain
four or five hundred feet overhead, seeming to be held aloft by the
blue stone columns which rose from the river side. In this cottage resided a shepherd, his wife, and one little boy, their
son, about eight years old, a strange, wild little bush child, able to
speak articulately, but utterly without knowledge or experience of human
creatures, save of his father and mother; unable to read a line; without
religion of any sort or kind; as entire a little savage, in fact, as you
could find in the worst den in your city, morally speaking, and yet
beautiful to look on; as active as a roe, and, with regard to natural
objects, as fearless as a lion... Continue reading book >>
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