The king sat down sadly and considered thickly in his slow brain.  Annie did not come out, and he knew better than to ask for her, for Mr. Colborn’s niece, who kept house for him, was but newly come from home, and thought all black fellows congenital murderers, which indeed they are in some parts of the north.  So Billy sat and waited, for he wanted a new coat.  How could he be respected in one whose natural divisions were unnaturally extended to the very neck?  It was obviously necessary to get a new garment at once, and the best chance of a good one lay in little Annie’s kindness.  But in order to obviate the slightest chance of his girl patron’s refusing, he must bring her some offering.  He went off into the bush at the back of the town, and, coming to where three or four black fellows were camped, he sat down and talked with them.  In spite of the heat, a wretched old gin, muffled up in her one garment, a ragged blanket, held her hands over the few burning sticks which represent an Australian native’s idea of a fire.  Presently King Billy rose, and, taking a tomahawk, went farther into the bush.  He looked about, and at last came to a tree, which he climbed native fashion, first discarding his clothes.  When near the first big branches he came to a hole, and, putting in his hand, he extracted a lively young possum by the tail.

Next morning he was sitting on the Colborns’ fence as usual.  At his feet was a little box with two or three slats nailed roughly across it.  Inside was the possum.  King Billy wondered what kind of a coat he could get.  He liked a frock-coat; there was something majestic about it, something fine and ample.  Common morning coats would not do; no one would insult a king by offering him tweed; even little Annie knew better than that, especially if he gave her a live possum he had caught himself.  And when Annie did come out, she was in the seventh heaven of delight with the possum, and ready to bestow anything in the world on King Billy.

“You give poor Billy one fellow coat, missy, and he go down along street like a king.”

Annie flew into the house and seized the first garment she laid her little hands on.  It was her father’s dress-coat.  She rolled it up, and, running out, thrust it excitedly into the king’s black paw.  As he went off, she carried the possum indoors, and was deliriously happy for hours.

King Billy hurried into the bush till he came to a water-hole, and, stripping off his rags, he held up the coat.  His jaw fell; there was a remarkable exiguity about the coat which was inexplicable.  He had never observed such in his life.  He put it on, and, bending over the surface of the still pool, took a good look at the general effect.  It was not bad from some points of view, but Billy had his doubts as to whether he would be received with the respect due to his title if he went into Ballarat clothed thus.  He tried to button it, but discovered that, if it had ever been intended