... alarm and excitement. Nearer and still nearer came the personage in the fur cap, rueful of countenance and ludicrously important as the bearer of a tale of woe. A Romance of Canvas Town and ... Australia, and in a secluded dell, where others of the household slept their long sleep, all that was mortal of that A Romance of Canvas Town and Other Stories 14 incarnation of grace, beauty, ... to make necessary purchases at the station. At all other times a shepherd unattached, seen approaching the homestead, is a precursor of evil, a messenger of bad tidings, causing general alarm...