Happy Australia Day

                                                            Charles Conder: How we lost poor Flossie                   1889

      I do not know whether the vertical lines on this painting are just the cedar panel’s visible grains behind the paint or if it is raining intentionally, but it must have been a mystifying, rainy day when poor Flossie disappeared. It also might be how people remember: our memories are only misty flashes, some merely dim pictures.

      Flossie, the pretty, fair terrier girl met with a mongrel boy in Collins Street, Melbourne’s busy road. He was a stranger to her yet she felt she already knew him in some way she could not recall.

      Flossie’s heart gave a big jump when she saw the handsome young dogman, who barked nice words to her and looked at her with puppy eyes. Flossie’s flossy fur was wet from the rain but she did not feel it. She saw only the young dogman and the young dogman saw only Flossie. It was love at first sight. It was predestination, and there was nothing to do otherwise.

      The noisy street with the rushing pedestrians and horse-carriages, the sky with the rain and the mist ceased, the music faded, the dancers stopped.

      The half-breed boy barked one loud sound in a longing voice. Flossie barked back one sweet sound. She quickly looked back at her master with a sad moan and then ran away with her love never looking back to the mystifying, rainy street of Melbourne. That was how we lost poor Flossie.