Page:Old Melbourne Memories.djvu/90

 THE NATIVE POLICE

the third day after our departure Joe and his wife were in the milking-yard finishing the morning's work, when suddenly Mrs. Burge, looking towards the road, exclaimed, "Good God! the hut's full of blacks!" Realising that her infant lay in his cradle in the front room, she rushed down, in spite of Joe's command to stay where she was while he confronted the enemy.

"Sure, isn't the child there?" she said. "And whether or not, mayn't you and I be as well killed together?"

Joe, having no sufficiently effective answer at hand, was fain to follow his more impetuous helpmate with what speed he might. When they arrived on the scene, they found about twenty or thirty blacks briskly engaged in pillaging the hut. They were passing and repassing from out the doorway, handing to one another provisions and everything which attracted their cupidity.

Mrs. Burge, in her own words, first "med into the big room, and the first thing I seen was this