Page:An Australian Parsonage.djvu/102

 Perhaps what struck us most in his manner was the complete taking for granted that he and ourselves were upon precisely the same social level; an idea which we were fain to accept in a complimentary sense, such being evidently the intention of our visitor. He appeared to find us congenial, for after this introduction, his visits to us were constantly repeated whenever he was in the neighbourhood, and as the liking was mutual, and experience had proved him to be thoroughly trustworthy, we habitually employed him about our house in preference to any of his relations.

The native figure and complexion are much set off by dress, and as Khourabene often frequented the parsonage for weeks together, we wished to give him the benefit of bright-coloured clothes which should do justice to his lithe well-knit shape. My husband therefore dressed him in a dark-blue jersey and a pair of white trousers, and Khourabene was delighted with the effect; but at the end of two days both trousers and jersey had disappeared, and a grave silence was all that we could extract from our friend on the subject. We dressed him again, but without more permanent results; in fact, he seemed to wear our livery no longer than until an opportunity should occur for exchanging or giving it away. In his native kangaroo mantle he looked the gentleman savage; in shirt and trousers he had the air of a neat trim black servant; but when left to himself, and allowed to exchange his good clothes for the old rags in which the first native he might meet happened to be arrayed (an exchange which their habits forbade him to decline), he looked as if got up for a scare-crow. Bottled beer had no doubt something to do with the disappearance of the