or whether the smile went on externally irrespective of any variation

I think it was the latter case, for often when he had received

bad news from home we have heard his voice quaver with anxiety,

while the old smile played on his round, brown features just the same.

Little Nelse (one of those queer old-man children who seem

to come into the world by mistake, and who seldom stay long) used to say

Once, on Gulgong, when he attended the funeral of an old Ballarat mate,

a stranger who had been watching his face curiously remarked