Australian Tales - Setis

Chapter IV.
“As I before remarked, sir, an important change took place in my
affairs, after I had been about six years in the colony,” said Mr.
Dovecott, while his face began to glow like the rising sun just emerging
from a fog bank. “One morning at daybreak, I was lying on my stretcher
bed, trying to kick myself cool, and cogitating whether I should turn out
and have a shower-bath, or take another nap, for I had passed a very
restless night. The weather was excessively warm, and the mosquitos had
probably mistaken me for a ‘new chum,’ for they were unusually vicious;
my skin was covered with the marks of their sharp little snouts, and my
ears had been annoyed all night long with their satirical songs, after
drinking my health. While keeping my involuntary vigil, I was thinking
as usual about Nanny and my mother, and roaming in imagination
through every lane and leafy nook around my native home; until I
actually fancied I would rather be a fox in Beechwood Copse, with a
fox's freedom, and the society of other foxes, than be in my isolated
position, with all its prospective honours and emoluments. There was
I — I thought — pining away my prime in forced celibacy, and yonder
was the darling of my heart at the other end of the earth, pining for me
like a little jenny-wren with her mate caught in a brick trap. And this
waste of love was all caused by the stupidity of old Roseley, who
obstinately believed that one of the finest countries in the world was as
much to be dreaded as the cells of Old Bailey.
“But those gloomy musings were not very lasting, for I seldom
encouraged such thoughts. Hope was a prominent bump in my cranium;
still I suppose the most sanguine of men have occasional seasons of
dumpiness, especially in close muggy weather, when their gastric
secretions are apt to get disarranged. I was doubtless suffering to some
extent from the enervating effects of the sultry weather, and the
depression which the sight of ruin and semi-starvation induced, for it had
been a season of protracted drought, and I was obliged to put my men
upon reduced rations. However, there I lay, rolling about on my
stretcher, and avenging myself upon the gorged mosquitos on the slabs,
by tapping them on the head with my slippers, when suddenly Jem Traps
entered my room in a state of great excitement, and handed me a letter
which a special messenger had just brought from Sydney. The missive
informed me of the sudden death of my superior officer, through eating
toad-fish, and intimated that I was required to proceed to head quarters at
once, and fill the important post which had become vacant by his
decease.
“I must avoid details, Mr. Boomerang, or I shall keep you here for a
week listening to my story. By that sudden event I was promoted to a
position of influence and honour, with a large income, and a fine