Joe Wilson and His Mates

Concluding Verses -- The Never-Never Country.

------------------------

JOE WILSON AND HIS MATES

------------------------

Part I.

Joe Wilson's Courtship.

There are many times in this world when a healthy boy is happy. When he is put into knickerbockers, for instance, and `comes a man to-day,' as my little Jim used to say. When they're cooking something at home that he likes. When the `sandy-blight' or measles breaks out amongst the children, or the teacher or his wife falls dangerously ill -- or dies, it doesn't matter which -- `and there ain't no school.' When a boy is naked and in his natural state for a warm climate like Australia, with three or four of his schoolmates, under the shade of the creek-oaks in the bend where there's a good clear pool with a sandy bottom. When his father buys him a gun, and he starts out after kangaroos or 'possums. When