It's the comfortablest bachelor station on this side.

You've got a smart few sheep, I expect ?" "Twenty-five thousand.

Do you know these parts well ?" "I knew that country of yours long before any of it was took up." "You've been a long while in the country, then ?" "I was sent out when I was eighteen; spared, as the old judge said, on account of my youth: that's eleven years ago." "Spared, eh?
It was something serious, then ?" "Trifling enough: only for having a rope in my hand." "They wouldn't lag a man for that," said I.
"Ay, but," he replied, "there was a horse at the end of the rope.

I was brought up in a training stable, and somehow there's something in the smell of a stable is sure to send a man wrong if he don't take care.

I got betting and drinking, too, as young chaps will, and lost my place, and got from bad to worse till I shook a nag, and got bowled out and lagged.