Excerpt from An Australian Rip Van Winkle: And Other Pieces; Being a Sketch-Book After the Style of Washington Irving
Looking back, we suppose Jake was a man of quite forty. He was a beautiful rider, and carried a small stock-whip, a weapon which, like the finished swordsman of old, he would seldom use. He never varied in his dress or address. There was something soothing in his Slow voice, but some times - very seldom - his remarks were not exactly coherent. Perhaps this was owing to his solitary life - the life of his choice. Every year-we think it was every year - he would take a month’s holiday, sometimes riding Off to the capital on his horse, sometimes by Coach. What he did with himself on these occasions was not quite Clear. On one of them he informed me he went to Tasmania to see the caves, but finding his bush dress and manners not suitable to some fine company in which he found himself, took careful pencil notes of the Clothing of a member of the party, purchasing exactly Similar articles as near as he could remem ber from neck-tie to hat, and restricting himself to one single ornamental cup of tea who had been used to swig from his capacious billy-can. He also, he said, Stopped himself in a habit he had of running down everything he saw, as it seemed to worry the party For the time, he would half sadly reflect, he seemed to pass comparatively well as a sort of harmless companionable joker.
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