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The Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn...............................................................................................................1

NEAR the end of February 1857, I think about the 20th or so, though it don't much matter; I only know it was

near the latter end of summer, burning hot, with the bushfires raging like volcanoes on the ranges, and the

river reduced to a slender stream of water, almost lost upon the broad white flats of quartz shingle. It was the

end of February, I said, when Major Buckley, Captain Brentwood (formerly of the Artillery), and I, Geoffry

Hamlyn, sat together over our wine in the veranda at Baroona, gazing sleepily on the grey plains that rolled

We had sat silent for some time, too lazy to speak, almost to think. The beautiful flowergarden which lay

before us, sloping towards the river, looked rather brown and sere, after the hot winds, although the

orangetrees were still green enough, and vast clusters of purple grapes were ripening rapidly among the

yellowing vine leaves. On the whole, however, the garden was but a poor subject of contemplation for one

who remembered it in all its full November beauty, and so my eye travelled away to the left, to a broad

paddock of yellow grass which bounded the garden on that side, and there I watched an old horse feeding.

A very old horse indeed, a horse which seemed to have reached the utmost bounds of equine existence. And

yet such a beautiful beast. Even as I looked some wild young colts were let out of the stockyard, and came

galloping and whinnying towards him, and then it was a sight to see the old fellow as he trotted towards

them, with his nose in the air, and his tail arched, throwing his legs out before him with the ease and grace of

a four yearold, and making me regret that he wasn't my property and ten years younger; altogether,

even then, one of the finest horses of his class I had ever seen, and suddenly a thought came over me, and I

"What horse is that?" repeated the major very slowly. "Why, my good fellow, old Widderin, to be sure."

"I thought he had died while I was in England," I said. "Ah, major, that horse's history would be worth

"If you began," answered the major, "to write the history of the horse, you must write also the history of

every body who was concerned in those circumstances which caused Sam to take a certain famous ride upon

him. And you would find that the history of the horse would be reduced into very small compass, and that the

rest of your book would assume proportions too vast for the human intellect to grasp."

He entered into certain details, which I will not give. "You would have," he said, "to begin at the end of the

last century, and bring one gradually on to the present time. Good heavens! just consider."

"Not at all," he answered. "You must begin the histories of the Buckley and Thornton families in the last

generation. The Brentwoods also, must not be omitted, why there's work for several years. What do you

"But suppose I were to write a simple narrative of the principal events in the histories of the three families,

which no one is more able to do than myself, seeing that nothing important has ever happened without my

"If it amused you to write it, I am sure it would amuse us to read it," said the major.

"But you are rather old to turn author," said Captain Brentwood; "you'll make a failure of it; in fact, you'll

I replied not, but went into my bedroom, and return ing with a thick roll of papers threw it on the floor as

on the stage the honest notary throws down the long lost will, and there I stood for a moment with my

The captain lit a cigar, and said nothing; but the major said, "Good gracious me! and when was this done?"

"Partly here, and partly in England. I propose to read it aloud to you, if it will not bore you."

"A really excellent idea," said the major. "My dear!" this last was addressed to a figure which was now

seen approaching us up a long vista of trellised vines. A tall figure dressed in grey. The figure, one could see

Dressed I said in grey, with a white handkerchief pinned over her grey hair, and a light Indian shawl hanging

from her shoulders. As upright as a dart: she came towards us through the burning heat, as calmly and

majestically as if the temperature had been delight fully moderate. A hoary old magpie accompanied her,

evidently of great age, and from time to time barked like an old bulldog, in a wheezy whisper.

"My dear," said the major; "Hamlyn is going to read aloud some manuscript to us."

"That will be very delightful, this hot weather," said Mrs. Buckley. "May I ask the subject, old friend?"

"I would rather you did not, my dear madam; you will soon discover, in spite of a change of names, and

"Well, go on," said the major; and so on I went with the next chapter, which is the first of the story.

"Now, who on earth is Major Buckley? and who is Captain Brentwood? and last not least, who the Dickens

are you?" If you will have patience, my dear sir, you will find it all out in a very short time Read on.

SOMETIME between the years 1780 and 1790, young John Thornton, then a Servitor at Christ Church, fell

in love with pretty Jane Hickman, whose father was a welltodo farmer, living not far down the river from

Oxford; and shortly before he took his degree, he called formally upon old Hickman, and asked his daughter's

hand. Hickman was secretly well pleased that his daughter should marry a scholar and a gentleman like John

Thornton, and a man too who could knock over his bird, or kill his trout in the lasher with any one. So after

some decent hesitation he told him, that as soon as he got a living, good enough to support Jane as she had

been accustomed to live, he might take her home with a father's blessing, and a hundred pounds to buy

furniture. And you may take my word for it, that there was not much difficulty with the young lady, for in

fact the thing had long ago been arranged between them, and she was anxiously waiting in the passage to hear

John came forth from the room well pleased and happy. And that evening when they two were walking

together in the twilight by the quiet river, gathering cowslips and fritillaries, he told her of his good prospects,

and how a young lord, who made much of him, and treated him as a friend and an equal, though he was but a

Ser vitor and was used to sit in his room talking with him long after the quadrangle was quiet, and the

fast men had reeled off to their drunken slumbers had only three days before promised him a living of

300l. ayear, as soon as he should take his priest's orders. And when they parted that night, at the old stile in

the meadow, and he saw her go gliding home like a white phantom under the dark elms, he thought joyfully,

that in two short years they would be happily settled, never more to part in this world, in his peaceful

Two short years, he thought. Alas! and alas! Before two years were gone, poor Lord Sandston was lying one

foggy November morning on Hampstead Heath, with a bullet through his heart. Shot down at the

commencement of a noble and useful career by a brainless gambler a man who did all things ill, save

billiards and pistolshooting; his beauty and his strength hurried to corruption, and his wealth to the senseless

debauch e who hounded on his murderer to insult him. But I have heard old Thornton tell, with proud tears,

how my lord, though outraged and in sulted, with no course open to him but to give the villain the power of

taking his life, still fired in the air, and went down to the vault of his forefathers without the guilt of blood

So died Lord Sandston, and with him all John's hopes of advancement. A curate now on 50l. ayear; what

hope had he of marrying? And now the tearful couple, walking once more by the river in desolate autumn,

among the flying yellow leaves, swore con stancy, and agreed to wait till better times should come.

So they waited. John in his parish among his poor people and his schoolchildren, busy always during the

day, and sometimes perhaps happy. But in the long winter evenings, when the snow lay piled against the

door, and the wind howled in the chimney; or worse, when the wind was still, and the rain was pattering from

the eaves, he would sit lonely and miserable by his desolate hearth, and think with a sigh of what might have

been had his patron lived. And fiveandtwenty years rolled on until James Brown, who was born during the

first year of his curateship, came home a broken man, with one arm gone, from the battle of St. Vincent. And

the great world roared on, and empires rose and fell, and dull echoes of the great throes without were heard in

the peaceful English village, like distant thunder on a summer's afternoon, but still no change for him.

But poor Jane bides her time in the old farm house, sitting constant and patient behind the long low latticed

window, among the geraniums and roses, watching the old willows by the river. Fiveand twenty times she

sees those willows grow green, and the meadow brighten up with flowers, and as often she sees their yellow

leaves driven before the strong south wind, and the meadow grow dark and hoar before the breath of autumn.

Her father was long since dead, and she was bringing up her brother's children. Her raven hair was streaked

with grey, and her step was not so light, nor her laugh so loud, yet still she waited and hoped, long after all

But at length a brighter day seemed to dawn for them; for the bishop, who had watched for years John

Thornton's patient industry and blameless conversation, gave him, to his great joy and astonishment, the

living of Drumston, worth 350l. ayear. And now, at last, he might marry if he would. True, the morning of

his life was gone long since, and its hot noon spent in thankless labour; but the evening, the sober, quiet

evening, yet remained, and he and Jane might still render pleasant for one another the downward road toward

the churchyard, and handinhand walk more tranquilly forward to meet that dark tyrant Death, who seemed

A month or less after John was installed, one soft grey day in March, this patient couple walked slowly

arminarm up the hill, under the lychgate, past the dark yew that shadowed the peaceful graves, and so

through the damp church porch, up to the old stone altar, and there were quietly married, and then walked

home again. No feasting or rejoicing was there at that wedding; the very realization of their long de ferred

hopes was a disappointment. In March they were married, and before the lanes grew bright with the

primroses of another spring, poor Jane was lying in a newmade grave, in the shadow of the old grey tower.

But, though dead, she yet lived to him in the person of a brighteyed baby, a little girl, born but three months

before her mother's death. Who can tell how John watched and prayed over that infant, or how he felt that

there was something left for him in this world yet, and thought that if his child would live, he should not go

down to the grave a lonely desolate man. Poor John! who can say whether it would not have been better if

the mother's coffin had been made a little larger, and the baby had been carried up the hill, to sleep quietly

But the child lived and grew, and, at seventeen, I remember her well, a beautiful girl, merry, im petuous,

and thoughtless, with black waving hair and dark blue eyes, and all the village loved her and took pride in

AMONG all the great old commoner families of the south of England, who have held the lands of their fore

fathers through every change of dynasty and religion, the Buckleys of Clere stand deservedly high among the

brightest and the oldest. All down the stormy page of this great island's history one sees, once in a about a

hundred years, that name in some place of secondrate honour at least, whether as admiral, general, or

statesman; and yet, at the beginning of this present century, the representative of the good old family was

living at Clere House, a palace built in the golden times of Elizabeth, on 900l. ayear, while all the county

The two Stuart revolutions had brought them down from county princes to simple wealthy squires, and the

frantic efforts made by Godfrey Buckley, in the "South Sea" scheme to retrieve the family fortunes, had well

nigh broke them. Year by year they saw acre after acre of the broad lands depart, and yet Mar maduke

Buckley lived in the home of his ancestors, and the avenue was untouched by axe or saw.

He was a widower, with two sons, John and James. John had been to sea from his earliest youth, and James

had joined his regiment a year or more. John had been doing the state good service under his beloved

Colling wood; and on the 19th October 1805, when Nelson and Collingwood made tryst to meet at the gates

of hell, John Buckley was one of the immortals on the deck of the "Royal Sovereign." And when the war fog

rolled away to leeward, and Trafalgar was won, and all seas were free, he lay dead in the cockpit, having

Brave old Marmaduke was walking up and down the terrace at Clere uneasy and impatient. Beside him was

the good old curate who had educated both the boys, and wearily and oft they turned to watch down the long

vista of the ancient avenue for the groom, who had been despatched to Portsmouth to gain some tidings of the

lieutenant. They had heard of the victory, and, in their simple way, had praised God for it, drinking a bottle of

the rarest old wine to his Majesty's health and the confusion of his enemies, before they knew whether they

themselves were among the number of the mourners. And now, as they paced the terrace, every moment they

Some trifle took them into the flowergarden, and, when they came back, their hearts leapt up, for the me

senger was there dismounted, opening the gate. The curate ran down the steps, and taking a blackedged

letter from the sorrowful groom, gave it into the trem bling hands of the old man with a choking sob. He

opened it and glanced over it, and then, throwing it towards his friend, walked steadily up the steps, and

It was just three hasty lines from the great Colling wood himself. That brave heart, in the midst of the din of

victory, had found time to scrawl a word to his old schoolmate, and tell him that his boy had died like a hero,

The old man sat that evening in the western gallery, tearless and alone, brooding over his grief. Three times

the curate had peeped in, and as often had retreated, fearful of disturbing the old man's solemn sorrow. The

autumn sun had gone down in wild and lurid clouds, and the gallery was growing dark and gloomy, when the

white figure of a beautiful girl entering silently at the lower door came gliding up the darken ing vista, past

the light of the windows and the shadow of the piers, to where the old man sat under the high north window,

It was Agnes Talbot, the daughter of his nearest neigh bour and best friend, whom the curate had slyly sent

for, thinking in his honest heart that she would make a better comforter than he, and rightly; for the old man,

bending over her, lifted up his voice and wept, speaking for the first time since he heard of his bereavement,

"He is gone, sir," said Agnes, through her tears; "and gone the way a man should go. But there is another left

"Aye, James," said he; "alas, poor James! I wonder if he knows it. I wish he were here."

"James is here," said she. "He heard of it before you, and came posting over as fast as he could, and is waiting

The door at the lower end of the gallery opened, and a tall and noblelooking young man strode up and took

He was above the ordinary height of man, with a grand broad forehead and bold blue eyes. Old Mar

"Thank God, I've got one left still! The old house will not perish yet, while such a one as you remains to

After a time they left him, at his own request, and walked out together through the dark rooms towards the

"Agnes, my beloved, my darling!" said James, drawing his arm round her waist; "I knew I should find you

with him like a ministering angel. Say some thing to comfort me, my love. You never could love John as I

did; yet I know you felt for him as your brother, as he soon would have been, if he had lived."

"What can I say to you, my own?" she replied, "save to tell you that he fell as your brother should fall,

amongst the foremost, fighting for his country's ex istence. And, James, if you must go before me, and leave

me a widow before I am a bride, it would render more tolerable the short time that would be left me before I

"There will be a chance of it, Agnes," said James, "for Stuart, they say, is going to Italy, and I go with him.

There will be a long and bloody war, and who knows how it will end? Stay you here quiet with the old man,

my love, and pray for me; the end will come some day. I am only eighteen and an ensign; in ten years I may

They parted that night with tears and kisses, and a few days afterwards James went from among them to join

From that time Agnes almost lived with old Marma duke. Her father's castle could be seen over the trees

from the windows of Clere, and every morning, wet or dry, the old man posted himself in the great north

window of the gallery to watch her coming. All day she would pervade the gloomy old mansion like a ray of

sunlight, now reading to him, now leading him into the flowergarden in fine weather, till he grew quite fond

of flowers for her sake, and began even to learn the names of some of them. But oftenest of all she would sit

working by his side, while he told her stories of times gone by, stories which would have been dull to any but

her, but which she could listen to and applaud. Best of all she liked to hear him talk of James, and his exploits

by flood and field from his youth up; and so it was that this quiet couple never tired one another, for their

Sometimes her two sisters, noble and beautiful girls, would come to see him; but they, indeed, were rather

intruders, kind and good as they were. And sometimes old Talbot looked round to see his old friend, and

talked of bygone fishing and hunting, which roused the old man up and made him look glad for half a day

after. Still, however, Agnes and the old curate were company enough for him, for they were the only two who

loved his absent son as well as he. The love which had been divided between the two, seemed now to be

concentrated upon the one, and yet this true old Briton never hinted at James' selling out and coming home,

for he said that the country had need of every one then, more particularly such a one as James.

Time went on, and he came back to them from Corunna, and spending little more than a month at home, he

started away once more; and next they heard of him at Busaco, wounded and promoted. Then they followed

him in their hearts along the path of glory, from Talavera by Albuera and Vittoria, across the Pyrenees. And

while they were yet reading a longdelayed letter, written from Toulouse at midnight after having been to

the theatre with Lord Wellington, wearing a white cockade he broke in on them again, to tell them the war

Then what delightful reunions were there in the old gallery window, going over all the weary campaigns once

more; pleasant rambles, too, down by the river side in the sweet May evenings, old Marmaduke and the

curate discreetly walking in front, and James and Agnes loitering far behind. And in the succeeding winter

after they were married, what pleasant rides had they to meet the hounds, and merry evenings before the

bright woodfire in the hall. Never were four people more happy than they. The war was done, the disturber

Peace, yes. But not for long. Spring came on, and with it strange disquieting rumours, growing more cer tain

day by day, till the terrible news broke on them that the faithless tyrant had broke loose again, and that all

James had sold out of the army, so that when Agnes first heard the intelligence she thanked God that her

husband at least would be safe at home during the storm. But she was soon to be undeceived. When the news

first came, James had galloped off to Portsmouth, and late in the evening they saw him come riding slowly

and sadly up the avenue. She was down at the gate before he could dismount, and to her eager inquiries if the

"My God!" said she; "leave me again, and not six months married? Surely the king has had you long enough;

"Listen to me, dear wife," he replied. "All the Peninsular men are volunteering, and I must not be among the

last, for every man is wanted now. Buona parte is joined by the whole army, and the craven king has fled. If

England and Prussia can combine to strike a blow before he gets head, thousands and hundreds of thousands

of lives will be spared. But let him once get firmly seated, and then, hey! for ten years' more war. Beside the

She said, "God's will be done;" and he left his young bride and his old father once again. The night ingale

grew melodious in the midnight woods, the swallows nestled again in the chimneys, and day by day the

shadows under the old avenue grew darker and darker till merry June was half gone; and then one Saturday

All the long weary summer Sabbath that followed, Agnes and Marmaduke silently paced the terrace, till the

curate having got through his own services some how, and broken down in the "prayer during war and

Alas! that was but little. He could only speculate whether or not the duke would give up Brussels, and retire

for reinforcements. If the two armies could effect a union, they would be near about the strength of the

French, but then the Prussians were cut to pieces; so the curate broke down, and became the worst of the

Cheer up, good souls! for he you love shall not die yet for many long years. While you are standing there

before the porch, dreading the long anxious night, Waterloo has been won, and he having stood the

appointed time in the serried square, watching the angry waves of French cavalry dash in vain against the

glittering wall of bayonets is now lean ing against a gun in the French position, alive and well, though

fearfully tired, listening to the thunder of the Prussian artillery to the north, and watching the red sun go down

But home at Clere none slept that night, but met again next morning weary and harassed. All the long three

days none of them spoke much, but wandered about the house uneasily. About ten o'clock on the Wednesday

It was twelve o'clock when there came a clang at the gate, and a sound of horses' feet on the gravel. Agnes

"An orderly from Colonel Mountford at Portsmouth," said a voice below. "A letter for Mr. Buckley."

She sent a servant to undo the door; and going to the window again, she inquired, trembling,

"A great victory, my dear," said the man, mistaking her for one of the servants. "Your master is all right.

"And I daresay," Mrs. Buckley used to add, when she would tell this old Waterloo story, as we called it, "that

the orderly thought me a most heartless domestic, for when I heard what he said, I burst out laughing so loud,

that old Mr. Buckley woke up to see what was the matter, and when heard, he laughed as loud as I did."

So he came back to them again with fresh laurels, but Agnes never felt safe, till she heard that the powers had

determined to chain up her b te noir, Buonapart , on a lonely rock in the Atlantic, that he might disturb the

world no more. Then at last she began to believe that peace might be a reality, and a few months after

And as we shall see more of this boy, probably, than of any one else in these following pages, we will if you

please appoint him hero, with all the honours and emo luments thereunto pertaining. Perhaps when I have

finished, you will think him not so much of a hero after all. But at all events you shall see how he is an honest

upright gentleman, and in these times, perhaps such a character is preferable to a hero.

Old Marmaduke had been long failing, and two years after this he had taken to his bed, never to leave it again

alive. And one day when the son and heir was rolling and crowing on his grandfather's bed, and Agnes was

sewing at the window, and James was tying a fly by the bedside, under the old man's directions; he drew the

"My children, I shan't be long with you, and I must be the last of the Buckleys that die at Clere. Nay, I mean

it, James; listen carefully to me: when I go, the house and park must go with me. We are very poor as you

well know, and you will be doing injustice to this boy if you hang on here in this useless tumbledown old

palace, without money enough to keep up your posi tion in the county. You are still young, and it would be

hard for you to break up old associations. It got too hard for me lately, though at one time I meant to do it.

The land and the house are the worst investment you can have for your money, and if you sell, a man like you

may make money in many ways. Gordon the brewer is dying to have the place, and he has more right to it

than we have, for he has ten acres round to our one. Let him have the estate and found a new family; the

people will miss us at first, God bless 'em, but they'll soon get used to Gordon, for he's a kindly man, and a

just, and I am glad that we shall have so good a suc cessor. Remember your family and your ancestors, and

for that reason don't hang on here, as I said before, in the false position of an old county family without

money, like the Singletons of Hurst, living in a ruined hall, with a miserable overcropped farm, a corner of

the old deer park, under their drawingroom window. No, my boy, I would sooner see you take a farm from

my lord, than that. And now I am tired with talking, and so leave me, but after I am gone, remember what I

A few days after this the old man passed peacefully from the world without a sigh.

They buried him in the family vault under the chancel windows. And he was the last of the Buckleys that

slept in the grave of his forefathers. And the old arch beneath the east window is built up for ever.

Soon after he was gone, the Major, as I shall call him in future, sold the house and park, and the few farms

that were left, and found himself with twelve thousand pounds, ready to begin the world again. He funded his

money and made up his mind to wait a few years and see what to do; determining that if no other course

should open, he would emigrate to Canada the paradise of halfpay officers. But in the meantime he

moved into Devonshire, and took a pretty little cottage which was to let, not a quarter of a mile from

Such an addition to John Thornton's little circle of acquaintances was very welcome. The Major and he very

soon became fast friends, and noble Mrs. Buckley was seldom a day without spending an hour at least, with

THE twilight of a winter's evening, succeeding a short and stormy day, was fast fading into night, and old

John Thornton sat dozing in his chair before the fire, waiting for candles to resume his reading. He was now

but little over sixty, yet his hair was snowy white, and his face looked worn and aged. Anyone who watched

his countenance now in the light of the blazing wood, might see by the downdrawn brows and uneasy

The book that lay in his lap was a volume of Shake speare, open at the "Merchant of Venice." Something he

had come across in that play had set him thinking. The book had fallen on his knees, and he sat pondering till

he had fallen asleep. Yet even in his slumber the uneasy expression stayed upon his face, and now and then

What could there be to vex him? Not poverty at all events, for not a year ago a relation, whom he had seldom

seen, and of late years entirely lost sight of, had left him 5000l. and a like sum to his daughter Mary. And his

sister, Miss Thornton, a quiet good old maid, who had been a governess all her life, had come to live with

him, so that he was now comfortably off, with the only two relations he cared about in the world staying with

him to make his old age comfortable. Yet notwith standing all this, John was unhappy.

His daughter Mary sat sewing in the window, osten sibly for the purpose of using the last of the daylight.

But the piece of white muslin in her hand claimed but a small part of her attention. Sometimes she gave a

stitch or two; but then followed a long gaze out of the window, across the damp gravel and plushy lawn,

towards the white gate under the leafless larches. Again with an impatient sigh she would address herself to

her sew ing, but once more her attention would wander to the darkening garden; so at length she rose, and

But now she starts, and her face brightens up, as the gate swings on its hinges, and a tall man comes with

rapid eager step up the walk. John moves uneasily in his sleep, but unnoticed by her, for she stands back in

the shadow of the curtain, and eagerly watches the new comer in his approach. Her father sits up in his chair,

and after looking sadly at her for a moment, then sinks back with a sigh, as though he would wish to go to

The maid, bringing in candles, met the new comer at the door, and, carrying in the lights before him,

I remember his face indistinctly as it was then. I remember it far better as it was twenty years after. Yet I

must try to recall it for you as well as I can, for we shall have much to do with this man before the end. As the

light from the candles fell upon his figure while he stood in the doorway, any man or woman who saw it

would have exclaimed immediately, "What a handsome fellow!" and with justice; for if perfectly regular

features, splendid red and brown complexion, faultless white teeth, and the finest head of curling black hair I

ever saw, could make him handsome, handsome he was without doubt. And yet the more you looked at him

the less you liked him, and the more inclined you felt to pick a quarrel with him. The thin lips, the everlasting

smile, the quick sus picious glance, so rapidly shot out from under the over hanging eyebrows, and as

quickly withdrawn, were fearfully repulsive, as well as a trick he had of always clearing his throat before he

spoke, as if to gain time to frame a lie. But, perhaps, the strangest thing about him was the shape of his head,

which, I believe, a child would have observed. We young fellows in those times knew little enough about

phrenology. I doubt, indeed, if I had ever heard the word, and yet among the village lads that man went by the

name of "flatheaded George." The forehead was both low and narrow, sloping a great way back, while the

larger part of the skull lay low down behind the ears. All this was made the more visible by the short curling

He was the only son of a small farmer, in one of the distant outlying hamlets of Drumston, called Wood

lands. His mother had died when he was very young, and he had had but little education, but had lived shut

up with his father in the lonely old farmhouse. And strange stories were in circulation among the villages

about that house, not much to the credit of either father or son, which stories John Thornton must in his

position as clergyman have heard somewhat of, so that one need hardly wonder at his uneasiness when he

For Mary adored him; the rest of the village disliked and distrusted him; but she, with a strange perversity,

loved him as it seldom falls to the lot of man to be loved with her whole heart and soul.

"I have brought you some snipes, Mr. Thornton," said he, in his most musical tones. "The white frost last

night has sent them down off the moor as thick as bees, and this warm rain will soon send them all back

again. I only went round through Fernworthy and Combe, and I have killed five couple."

"Thank you, Mr. George, thank you," said John, "they are not so plentiful as they were in old times, and I

don't shoot so well either as I used to do. My sight's going, and I can't walk far. It is nearly time for me to go,

"Not yet, sir, I hope; not yet for a long time," said George Hawker, in an offhand sort of way. But Mary

John looked from her to George, and dropped her hand with a sigh, and soon the lovers were whispering

But now there is a fresh footfall on the garden walk, a quick, rapid, decided one. Somebody burst open the

halldoor, and, without shutting it, dashes into the par lour, accompanied by a tornado of damp air, and an

He was a broad, massive built man, about the middle height, with a square determined set of features, bright

ened up by a pair of merry blue eyes. His forehead was, I think, the finest I ever saw; so high, so broad, and

so upright; and, altogether, he was the sort of man that in a city one would turn round and look after,

He stood in the doorway, dripping, and without "Goodeven," or salutation of any sort, exclaimed

"No!" cried old John, starting up all alive, "Have you though? How did you get him? Are you sure it is not a

"The obstinacy and incredulity of you English," replied the new comer, totally disregarding John's

exclamations, and remaining dripping in the doorway, "far exceeds anything I could have conceived, if I had

not witnessed it. If I told you once, I told you twenty times, that I had seen the bird on three dis tinct

occasions in the meadow below Reel's mill; and you each time threw your jacksnipe theory in my face.

Today I marked him down in the bare ground outside Haveldon wood, then ran at full speed up to the jager,

and offered him five shillings if he would come down and shoot the bird I showed him. He came, killed the

bird in a style that I would give a year's tobacco to be master of, and remarked as I paid him his money, that

he would like to get five shillings for every one of those birds he could shoot in summer time. The

jolterhead thought it was a sandpiper, but he wasn't much further out than you with your jack snipes. Bah!"

"My dear Doctor Mulhaus," said John mildly, "I confess myself to have been foolishly incredulous, as to our

little place being honoured by such a distin guished stranger as the new snipe. But come in to the fire, and

smoke your pipe, while you show me your treasure. Mary, you know, likes tobacco, and Mr. George, I am

Mr. George would be charmed. But the Doctor, standing staring at him openeyed for a moment, demanded

"Mr. George Hawker, Doctor, from the Woodlands. I should have thought you had met him before."

"Never," replied the Doctor. "And I don't and I mean I have had the honour of hearing of him from

Stockbridge. Excuse me, sir, a moment. I am going to take a liberty. I am a phrenologist." He advanced

across the room to where George sat, laid his hand on his forehead, and drawing it lightly and slowly back

through his black curls, till he reached the nape of his neck, ejaculated a "Hah!" which might mean any

He then began filling his pipe, but before it was filled set it suddenly on the table, and drawing from his coat

pocket a cardboard box, exhibited to the delighted eyes of the vicar that beautiful little brownmottled snipe,

which now bears the name of Colonel Sabine, and having lit his pipe, set to work with a tiny penknife and a

pot of arsenical soap, all of which were disinterred from the vast coatpocket before mentioned, to reduce the

plump little bird to a loose mass of skin and feathers, fit to begin again his new life in death in a glasscase in

George Hawker had sat very uneasy since the Doctor's phrenological examination, and every now and then

cast fierce angry glances at him from under his lowered eye brows, talking but little to Mary. But now he

grows more uneasy still, for the gate goes again, and still another footfall is heard approaching through the

"That is James Stockbridge. I should know that step among a thousand. Whether brushing through the long

grass of an English meadow in May time, or quietly pacing up and down the orange alley in the New World,

between the crimson snow and the blazing west; or treading lightly across the wet ground at black mid

night, when the cattle are restless, or the blacks are abroad; or even, I should think, staggering on the slip

pery deck, when the big grey seas are booming past, and the good ship seems plunging down to destruction."

He had loved Mary dearly since she was almost a child; but she, poor pretty fool, used to turn him to ridicule,

and make him fetch and carry for her like a dog. He was handsomer, cleverer, stronger, and better tem pered

than George Hawker, and yet she had no eyes for him, or his good qualities. She liked him in a sort of way;

nay, it might even be said that she was fond of him. But what she liked better than him was to gratify her

vanity, by showing her power over the finest young fellow in the village, and to use him as a foil to aggravate

George Hawker. My aunt Betsy (spinster), used to say, that if she were a man, sooner than stand that hussy's

airs (meaning Mary's), in the way young Stockbridge did, she'd cut, and run to America, which, in the old

lady's estimation, was the last resource left to an unfortunate human creature, before suicide.

As he entered the parlour, John's face grew bright, and he held out his hand to him. The Doctor, too, shoving

his spectacles on his forehead, greeted him with a royal salute, of about twentyone short words; but he got

rather a cool reception from the lovers in the window. Mary gave him a quiet good evening, and George

hoped with a sneer that he was quite well, but directly the pair were whispering together once more in the

So he sat down between the Doctor and the Vicar. James, like all the rest of us, had a pro found respect for

the Doctor's learning, and old John and he were as father and son; so a better matched trio could hardly be

found in the parish, as they sat there before the cheerful blaze, smoking their pipes.

"Some idiots," said the Doctor, "take the wing bones out first. Now, my method of beginning at the legs and

working forward, is infinitely superior. Yet that ass at Crediton, after I had condescended to show him,

persisted his own way was the best." All this time he was busy skinning his bird.

"Well, yes, sir," says James, "they always will, you know, in these wet clays. But I prefer 'em to the

"Ah! taking you out with the harriers instead of minding his business; just like him. He'll be leading you

astray, James, my boy. Young men like you and he, who have come to be their own masters so young, ought

to be more careful than others. Besides, you see, both you and Hamlyn being 'squires, have got an example to

"No; but you are both gentlemen born, you see, and, therefore, ought to be in some way models for those who

"I don't mind it once aweek," said the Vicar, ignor ing the Doctor's interruption; "but four times is rather

too much. And Hamlyn has been out four days this week. Twice with Wrefords, and twice with Holes. He

Jim couldn't, so he laughed. "You must catch him, sir," he said, "and give him a real good wigging. He'll

mind you. But catch him soon, sir, or you won't get the chance. Doctor, do you know anything about New

"Botany Bay," said the Vicar abstractedly, "con vict settlement in South Seas. Jerry Shaw begged the judge

to hang him instead of sending him there. Judge wouldn't do it though; Jerry was too bad for that."

"Hamlyn and I are thinking of selling up and going there," said Jim. "Do you know anything about it,

"What!" said the Doctor; "the mysterious hidden land of the great South Sea. Tasman's land, Nuyt's land,

Leuwin's land, De Witt's land, any fool's land who could sail round it, and never have the sense to land and

make use of it the new country of Australasia. The land with millions of acres of fertile soil, under a

splendid climate, calling aloud for some one to come and cultivate them. The land of the Eucalypti and the

Marsupials, the land of deep forests and boundless pas tures, which go rolling away westward, plain beyond

The Vicar was "knocked all of a heap" at James' announcement, and now, slightly recovering himself, said

"You hear him. He is going to Botany Bay. He is going to sell his estate, 250 acres of the best land in Devon,

and go and live among the convicts. And who is going with him? Why, Hamlyn, the wise. Oh dear me. And

That was a question apparently hard to answer. If there was a reason, Jim was either unwilling or unable to

give it. Yet I think that the real cause was standing there in the window, with a look of unbounded astonish

"Going to leave us, James!" she cried, coming quickly towards him. "Why, whatever shall I do without you?"

"Yes, Miss Mary," said James somewhat huskily; "I think I may say that we have settled to go. Hamlyn has

got a letter from a cousin of his who went from down Plymouth way, and who is making a fortune; and

besides, I have got tired of the old place somehow, lately. I have nothing to keep me here now, and there will

be a change, and a new life there. In short," said he, in despair of giving a rational reason, "I have made up

"Oh!" said Mary, while her eyes filled with tears, "I shall be so sorry to lose you."

"I too," said James, "shall be sorry to start away beyond seas and leave all the friends I care about save one

behind me. But times are hard for the poor folks here now, and if I, as 'squire, set the example of going, I

know many will follow. The old country, Mr. Thornton," he continued, "is getting too crowded for men to

live in without a hard push, and depend on it, when poor men are afraid to marry for fear of having children

which they can't support, it is time to move somewhere. The hive is too hot, and the bees must swarm, so

those that go will both better themselves, and better those they leave behind them, by giving them more room

to work and succeed. It's hard to part with the old farm and the old faces now, but perhaps in a few years, one

will get to like that country just as one does this, from being used to it, and then the old country will seem

"Don't be such an ass as to hesitate," said the Doctor impatiently. "It is the genius of your restless discon

tented nation to go blundering about the world like buffaloes in search of fresh pasture. You have founded

already two or three grand new empires, and you are now going to form another; and men like you ought to

"Well, God speed you, and Hamlyn too, wherever you go. Are you going home, Mr. Hawker?"

George, who hated James from the very bottom of his heart, was not illpleased to hear there would be a

chance of soon getting rid of him. He had been always half jealous of him, though without the slightest cause,

and tonight he was more so than ever, for Mary, since she had heard of James' intended departure, had

grown very grave and silent. He stood, hat in hand, ready to depart, and as usual, when he meant mischief,

"I am afraid I must be saying good evening, Mr. Thornton. Why, James," he added, "this is some thing quite

new. So you are going to Botany without waiting to be sent there. Ha! ha! Well, I wish you every sort of good

luck. My dear friend, Hamlyn, too. What a loss he'll be to our little society, so sociable and affable as he

always is to us poor farmers' sons. You'll find it lonely there though. You should get a wife to take with you.

All this was meant to be as irritating as possible; but as he went out at the door he had the satisfaction to hear

James' clear honest laugh mingling with the Vicar's, for, as George had closed the door, the Doctor had said,

This complimentary observation was lost on Mary, who had left the room with George. The Vicar looked

Soon after this the party separated. When James and the Doctor stood outside the door, the latter de manded,

"No, you ain't," said the Doctor; "you are going to walk up to Hamlyn's with me, and hear me dis course."

Accordingly, about eleven o'clock, these two arrived at my house, and sat before the fire till halfpast three in

the morning; and in that time the Doctor had given us more information about New South Wales than we had

THOSE who only know the river Taw as he goes sweeping, clear and full, past orchards and farmhouses, by

woods and parks, and through long green meadows, after he has left Dartmoor, have little idea of the mag

nificent scene which rewards the perseverance of anyone who has the curiosity to follow him up to his granite

On the left, Great Cawsand heaves up, down beyond down, a vast sheet of purple heath and golden whin,

while on the right the lofty serrated ridge of Yestor starts boldly up, black against the western sky, throwing a

Some Scotchmen, perhaps, may smile at my applying the word "magnificent" to heights of only 2,100 feet.

Yet I have been among mountains which double Ben Nevis in height, and, with the exception of the Murray

Gates in Australia, and a glen in Madeira, whose name I have forgotten, I have never seen among them the

equal of some of the northern passes of Dartmoor for gloomy magnificence. For I consider that scenery

It is an evil, depressing place. Far as the eye can reach up the glen and to the right it is one horrid waste of

grey granite; here and there a streak of yellow grass or a patch of black bog; not a tree nor a shrub within the

skyline. On a hot summer's day it is wearisome enough for the lonely angler to listen to the river crawling

lazily through the rocks that choke his bed, mingled with the clocking of some watermoved boulder, and the

chickchick of the stonechat, or the scream of the golden plover overhead. But on a wild winter's evening,

when day is fast giving place to night, and the mist shrouds the hill, and the wild wind is rushing hoarse

On just such a night as that, at that time when it becomes evident that the little light we have had all day is

about to leave us, a lonely watcher was standing by the angry swelling river in the most desolate part of the

pass, at a place where a vast confusion of formless rocks crosses the stream, torturing it into a hundred

He stood on the summit of a cairn close to the river, and every now and then, shading his eyes with his hand,

he looked eastward through the driving rain, as though expecting some one who came not. But at length,

grown tired of watching, he with an oath descended to a sheltered corner among the boulders, where a

smouldering peatfire was giving out more smoke than heat, and, crouching over it, began to fan the embers

He was a somewhat short, though powerful man, in age about forty, very dark in complexion, with black

whiskers growing half over his chin. His nose was hooked, his eyes were black and piercing, and his lips thin.

His face was battered like an old sailor's, and every careless, unstudied motion of his body was as wild and

reckless as could be. There was something about his toute ensemble, in short, that would have made an

There were redeeming points in the man's face, too. There was plenty of determination, for instance, in that

lower jaw, and as he bent now over the fire, and his thoughts wandered away to other times and places, the

whole appearance of the man seemed to change and become milder and kindlier; yet when some slight noise

makes him lift his head and look round, there is the old expression back again, and he looks as reckless and

desperate as ever; what he is is more apparent, and the ghost of what he might have been has not wholly

I can picture to myself that man scowling behind the bayonet line at Maida, or rapidly and coolly serving his

gun at Trafalgar, helping to win the dominion of all seas, or taking his trick at the helm through arctic

iceblocks with Parry, or toiling on with steadfast Sturt, kneedeep in the sand of the middle desert, patiently

In fifty situations where energy and courage are required, I can conceive that man a useful citizen. Yet here

he is on the lone moor, on the winter's night, a reckless, cursing, thrice convicted man. His very vir tues,

his impatient energy and undeniable courage, his greatest stumblingblocks, leading him into crimes

which a lazy man or a coward would have shrunk from. Deserted apparently by God and man, he crouched

He had been transported at eighteen for something, I know not what, which earned transportation in those

days, and since then his naturally violent temper, aggravated instead of being broken by penal discipline, had

earned him three fresh convictions in the colony. >From the last of these sentences he had escaped, with a

cunning and address which had baffled the vigilance of the Sydney police, good as they were, and had arrived

home, two years before this time, after twenty one years' absence, at his native village in the moor.

None there knew him, or even guessed who he was. His brother, a small farmer, who would have taken him

to his heart had he recognised him, always regarded him as a suspicious stranger; and what cut him deeper

still, his mother, his old, halfblind, palsied mother, whose memory he had in some sort cherished through

the horrors of the hulk, the convictship, the chain gang, and the bush, knew him not. Only once, when he

"The voice of him is like the voice of my boy that was took away. But he was smoothfaced, like a girl, and

But the old lady grew thoughtful and silent from that day, and three weeks after she was carried up to her

At the funeral, William Lee, the man whom I have been describing, pushed quietly through the little crowd,

and as they threw the first earth on the coffin, stood looking over the shoulder of his brother, who was

Like many men who have been much in great solitudes, and have gone days and weeks sometimes without

meeting a fellowcreature, he had acquired the habit of thinking aloud, and if anyone had been listening they

would have heard much such a soliloquy as the following, expletives omitted, or rather softened:

"A brutal cold country this, for a man to camp out in. Never a bucklog to his fire, no, nor a stick thicker than

your finger for seven mile round; and if there was, you'd get a month for cutting it. If the young'un milks free

this time, I'll be off to the bay again, I know. But will he? By George, he shall though. The young snob, I

know he daren't but come, and yet it's my belief he's late just to keep me soaking out in the rain. Whew! it's

cold enough to freeze the tail of a tin possum; and this infernal rubbish won't burn, at least not to warm a

man. If it wasn't for the whisky I should be dead. There's a rush of wind; I am glad for one thing there is no

dead timber overhead. He'll be drinking at all the places coming along to get his courage up to bounce me,

but there ain't a publichouse on the road six miles from this, so the drink will have pretty much died out of

him by the time he gets to me, and if I can get him to sit in this rain, and smoke 'backer for five minutes, he

won't be particular owdacious. I'll hide the grog, too, between the stones. He'll be asking for a drink the

minute he comes. I hope Dick is ready; he is pretty sure to be. He's a good little chap, that Dick; he has stuck

to me well these five years. I wouldn't like to trust him with another man's horse, though. But this other one is

no good; he's got all the inclination to go the whole hog, and none of the pluck necessary. If he ever is lagged,

he will be a worse one than ever I was, or Dick either. There he is, for a hundred pounds."

A faint "halloo!" sounded above the war of the weather; and Lee, putting his hand to his mouth, replied with

A man was now heard approaching through the darkness, now splashing deep into some treacherous moss

hole with a loud curse, now blundering among looselying blocks of stone. Lee waited till he was quite close,

and then seizing a bunch of gorse lighted it at his fire and held it aloft; the bright blaze fell full upon the face

"A cursed place and a cursed time," he began, "for an appointment. If you had wanted to murder me, I could

have understood it. But I am pretty safe, I think; your interests don't lie that way."

"Well, well, you see," returned Lee, "I don't want any meetings on the cross up at my place in the village. The

whole house ain't mine, and we don't know who may be listening. I am suspected enough already, and it

wouldn't look well for you to be seen at my place. Folks would have begun axing what for."

"Don't see it," said George. "Besides, if you did not want to see me at home, why the devil do you bring me

out here in the middle of the moor? We might have met on the hill underneath the village, and when we had

He acquiesced sulkily to the arrangement, however, because he saw it was no use talking about it, but he was

far from comfortable. He would have been still less so had he known that Lee's shout had brought up a

"Well," said Lee, "here we are, so we had better be as comfortable as we can this devil's night."

"Deuce a swipe of grog have I. But I have got some real Barret's twist, that never paid duty as I know'd on, so

"We must do as the Spaniards do, when they can't get anything," said Lee; "go without."

They both lit their pipes, and smoked in silence for a few minutes, till Lee resumed:

"If the witches weren't all dead, there would be some of them abroad tonight; hear that?"

"That's something worse than a whimbrel, I'm thinking," said the other. "There's some folks don't believe in

witches and the like," he continued; "but a man that's seen a naked old hag of a gin ride away on a

"Lord!" said George. "I shouldn't have thought you'd have believed in the like of that but I do that old

devil's dam, dame Parker, that lives alone up in Hatherleigh Wood, got gibbering some infernal non sense at

me the other day, for shooting her black cat. I made the cross in the road though, so I suppose it won't come

Another pause. The tobacco, so much stronger than any George had been accustomed to, combined with the

"When I was a boy," resumed Lee, "there were two young brothers made it up to rob the 'squire's house,

down at Gidleigh. They separated in the garden after they cracked the crib, agreeing to meet here in this very

place, and share the swag, for they had got nigh seventy pound. They met and quarrelled over the sharing up;

and the elder one drew out a pistol, and shot the younger dead. The poor boy was sitting much where you are

"I believe that's all a lie," said George; "you want to drive me into the horrors with your humbug ging tales."

Lee, seeing that he had gone far enough, if not too far, proposed, somewhat sulkily, that they should begin to

"Well," said George, "it's you to begin. What made you send for me to this infernal place?"

"Then you'd better axe about and get some," said George; "you'll get none from me. I am surprised that a man

with your knowledge of the world should have sent me such a letter as you did yesterday, I am indeed

He started on his feet. A blaze of sudden light filled the nook where they were sitting, and made it as bright as

"Ha, ha, ha! my secret coves, what's going on here? something quiet and sly, eh? something worth a

"You're playing a dangerous game, my flash man, whoever you are," said Lee, rising savagely. "I've shot a

man down for less than that. So you've been stagging this gentleman and me, and listening, have you? For

just half a halfpenny," he added, striding towards him, and drawing out a pistol, "you shouldn't go home this

"Don't you be a fool, Bill Lee;" said the new comer. "I saw the light and made towards it, and as I come up I

heard some mention made of money Now then, if my company is disagreeable, why I'll go, and no harm

"What! it's you, is it?" said Lee; "well, now you've come, you may stop and hear what it's all about. I don't

George saw that the arrival of this man was precon certed, and cursed Lee bitterly in his heart, but he sat

"Now," said Lee, "I ain't altogether sorry that you have come, for I want to tell you a bit of a yarn, and ask

your advice about my behaviour. This is about the state of the case. A young gentleman, a great friend of

mine, was not very many years ago, pretty much given up to fast living, cockfighting, horseracing, and

many other little matters which all young fellows worth anything are pretty sure to indulge in, and which are

very agreeable for the time, but which cost money, and are apt to bring a man into low society. When I tell

you that he and I first met in Exeter, as principals in crossing a fight, you may be sure that these pursuits had

brought the young gentleman into very low com pany indeed. In fact, he was over head and ears in debt,

raising money in every way he could, hook or crook, square or cross, to satisfy certain creditors, who were

becoming nasty impatient and vexatious. I thought something might be made of this young gentle man, so

finding there was no pride about him, I cul tivated his acquaintance, examined his affairs, and put him up to

the neatest little fakement in the world, just showed him how to raise two hundred pounds, and clear himself

with everybody, just by signing his father's name, thereby saving the old gent the trouble of writing it (he is

very infirm, is dad), and anticipating by a few years what must be his own at last. Not to mention paying off a

lot of poor publicans and horsedealers, who could not afford to wait for their money. Blowed if I don't think

it the most honest action he ever did in his life. Well, he committed the wrote the name I mean, and

stood two tenpound notes for the information, quite hand some. But now this same young gent is going to

marry a young lady with five thousand pounds in her own right, and she nearly of age. Her father, I

understand, is worth another five thousand, and very old; so that what he'll get ultimately if he marries into

that family, counting his own expectations, won't be much less I should say than twenty thousand pounds.

Now I mean to say, under these circumstances, I should be neglecting my own interests most culpably, if I

didn't demand from him the trifling sum of three hundred pounds for holding my tongue."

"Exactly so," said Lee, "but that was yesterday. Tomorrow, if the job ain't settled, it'll be four, and the day

after five. It's no use, George Hawker," he con tinued; "you are treed, and you can't help yourself. If I give

information you swing, and you know it; but I'd rather have the money than see the man hanged. But mind,"

said he, with a snarl, "if I catch you playing false, by the Lord, I'll hang you for love."

For an instant the wretched George cast a hurried glance around, as if considering what wild chance there was

of mastering his two enemies, but that glance showed him that it was hopeless, for they both stood close

together, each holding in his hand a cocked pistol, so in despair he dropped his eyes on the fire once more,

"By Jove," he said to himself, "it's lucky Dick's here. If I had been alone, he'd have been at me then like a

tiger. It would have been only man to man, but he would have been as good as me; he'd have fought like a rat

George sat looking into the embers for a full half minute, while the others waited for his answer, deter

mined that he should speak first. At length he raised his head, and said hoarsely, looking at neither of them,

"A simple question very easily answered," said Lee. "Do what you did before, with half the difficulty. You

manage nearly everything now your father is getting blind, so you need hardly take the trouble of altering the

figures in the banker's book, and some slight hint about taking a new farm would naturally account for the old

"Take my advice, young man," said Dick, "and take the shortest cut out of the wood. You see my friend here,

William, has got tired of these parts, as being, you see, hardly free and easy enough for him, and he wants to

get back to a part of the world he was rather anxious to leave a few years ago. If he likes to take me back with

him, why he can. I rather fancy the notion myself. Give him the money, and in three months we'll both be

fourteen thousand odd miles off. Meanwhile, you marry the young lady, and die in your bed, an honest

gentleman, at eightyfour, instead of being walked out some cold morning to a gallows at twentytwo."

"Needs must where the devil drives," replied George. "You shall have the money this day week. And now let

"That's the talk," said Lee; "I knew you would be reasonable. If it hadn't been for my necessities, I am sure I

George rose and departed eastward, towards the rising moon, while Lee and his companion struck due west

across the moor. The rain had ceased, and the sky was clear, so that there was not much difficulty in picking

their way through the stones and mosshags. Suddenly Lee stopped, and said to his comrade, with an oath,

"Nor I either," replied the other. "He has got some new move in his head, you may depend on it. He'll give

LEE had guessed rightly. When George found himself so thoroughly entrapped, and heard all his most secret

relations with Lee so openly discussed before a third man, he was in utter despair, and saw no hope of

extrication from his difficulties. But this lasted for a very short time. Even while Lee and Dick were still

speaking, he was reflecting how to turn the tables on them, and already began to see a sparkle of hope

Lee was a returned convict, George had very little doubt of that. A thousand queer expressions he had let fall

in conversation had shown him that it was so. And now, if he could but prove it, and get Lee sent back out of

the way. And yet that would hardly do after all. It would be difficult to identify him. His name gave no clue

to who he was. There were a thousand or two of Lees hereabouts, and a hundred William Lees at least. Still it

was evident that he was originally from this part of the country; it was odd no one had recognised him.

So George gave up this plan as hopeless. "Still," said he, "there is a week left; surely I can contrive to bowl

He was crossing the highest watershed in the county by an open, lowsided valley on the southern shoulder

of Cawsand. To the left lay the mountain, and to the right tors of weathered granite, dim in the changing

moonlight. Before him was a small moorpool, in summer a mere reedy marsh, but now a bleak tarn,

standing among dangerous mosses, sending ghostly echoes across the solitude, as the water washed wearily

against the black peat shores, or rustled among the sere skeleton reeds in the shallow bays.

Suddenly he stopped with a jar in his brain and a chill at his heart. His breath came short, and raising one

hand, he stood beating the ground for half a minute with his foot. He gave a stealthy glance around, and then

"Aye, that would do; that would do well. And I could do it, too, when I was halfdrunk."

Was that the devil, chuckling joyous to himself across the bog? No, only an innocent little snipe, getting

merry over the change of weather, bleating to his companions as though breeding time were come round

Crowd close, little snipes, among the cupmoss and wolf'sfoot, for he who stalks past you over the mid

Yes, it had come to that, and so quickly. He would get this man Lee, who held his life in his hand, and was

driving him on from crime to crime, to meet him alone on the moor if he could, and shoot him. What surety

had he that Lee would leave him in peace after this next extortion? none but his word, the word of a

villain like that. He knew what his own word was worth; what wonder if he set a small value on Lee's? He

might be hung as it was; he would be hung for something. Taw Steps was a wild place, and none were likely

to miss either Lee or his friend. It would be supposed they had tramped off as they came. There could be no

proof against him, none whatever. No one had ever seen them together. They must both go. Well, two men

were no worse than one. Hatherleigh had killed four men with his own hand at Waterloo, and they gave him a

medal for it. They were likely honest fellows enough, not such scoundrels as these two.

So arguing confusedly with himself, only one thing certain in his mind, that he was committed to the

perpetration of this crime, and that the time for drawing back was passed long ago, he walked rapidly

onwards towards the little village where he had left his horse in an outhouse, fearing to trust him among the

dan gerous bogs which he had himself to cross to gain the rendezvous at Taw Steps.

He rapidly cleared the moor, and soon gained the little grey street, lying calm and peaceful beneath the bright

winter moon, which was only now and then obscured for a moment by the last flying clouds of the late storm

hurrying after their fellows. The rill which ran brawling loud through the village, swollen by the late rains, at

length forced on his perception that he was fearfully thirsty, and that his throat was parched and dry.

"This is the way men feel in hell, I think," said he. "Lord! let me get a drink while I can. The rich man old

He walked up to a stone horsetrough, a little off the road. He stooped to drink, and started back with an

oath. What pale, wild, ghastly face was that, looking at him out of the cool calm water? Not his own, surely?

He closed his eyes, and, having drunk deep, walked on refreshed. He reached the outhouse where his horse

was tied, and, as he was leading the impa tient animal forth, one of the children within the cot tage

adjoining woke up and began to cry. He waited still a moment, and heard the mother arise and soothe it; then

He was startled at the sound of his own voice. It was like another man's. But like the voice of some one he

"It will be morn soon," resumed the woman. "The child is much worse tonight, and I think he'll go before

daybreak. Well, well much sorrow saved, maybe. I'll go to bed no more tonight, lest my boy should be

off while I'm sleeping. Good night, sir. God bless you. May you never know the sorrow of losing a

Years after he remembered those random words. But now he only thought that if the brat should die, there

would be only one pauper less in Bicker ton. And so thinking, mounted and rode on his way.

He rode fast, and was soon at home. He had put his horse in the stable, and, shoeless, was creeping up to bed,

when, as he passed his father's door, it opened, and the old man came out, light in hand.

He was a very infirm old man, much bent, though evidently at one time he had been of great stature. His

retreating forehead, heavy grey eyebrows, and loose sensual mouth, rendered him no pleasing object at any

time, and, as he stood in the doorway now, with a half drunken satyrlike leer on his face, he looked perfectly

"Where's my pretty boy been?" he piped out. "How pale he looks. Are you drunk, my lad?"

"No! wish I was," replied George. "Give me the keys, dad, and let me get a drink of brandy. I've been vexed,

and had nought to drink all night. I shall be getting the horrors if I don't have something before I go to bed."

The old man got him half a tumbler of brandy from his room, where there was always some to be had, and

"Who's been vexing my handsome son?" said he; "my son that I've been waiting up for all night. Death and

gallows to them, whoever they are. Is it that palefaced little parson's daughter? Or is it her tight laced

hypocrite of a father, that comes whining here with his good advice to me who know the world so well?

Never mind, my boy. Keep a smooth face, and play the humbug till you've got her, and her money, and then

break her impudent little heart if you will. Go to sleep, my boy, and dream you are avenged on them all."

"Good night, old dad," said George. As he watched him out of the room, a kinder, softer, expression came on

He slept a heavy and dreamless sleep that night, and when he woke for the first time, the bright winter's sun

He arose, strengthened and refreshed by his sleep, with a light heart. He began whistling as he dressed

himself, but suddenly stopped, as the recollection of the night before came upon him. Was it a reality, or only

a dream? No; it was true enough. He has no need to whistle this morning. He is entangled in a web of crime

He dressed himself, and went forth into the fresh morning air for a turn, walking up and down on the broad

A glorious winter's morning. The dismal old stone house, manygabled, held aloft its tall red chimneys

towards the clear blue sky, and looked bright and pleasant in the sunshine. The deep fir and holly woods

which hemmed it in on all sides, save in front, were cheerful with sloping gleams of sunlight, falling on many

a patch of green moss, red fern, and bright brown last year's leaves. In front, far below him, rolled away miles

of unbroken woodland, and in the far distance rose the moor, a dim cloud of pearly grey.

A robin sat and sung loud beside him, sole songster left in the wintry woods, but which said, as plain as bird

could say, could he have understood it, "See, the birds are not all dead in this dreary winter time. I am still

here, a pledge from my brothers. When yon dim grey woods grow green, and the brown hollows are yellow

with kingcups and primroses, the old melody you know so well shall begin again, and the thrush from the oak

top shall answer to the golden toned blackbird in the copse, saying 'Our mother is not dead, but has been

Little part had that poor darkened mind in such thoughts as these. If any softening influence were upon him

this morning, he gave no place to it. The robin ceased, and he only heard the croak of a raven, an old

inhabitant of these wild woods, coming from the darkest and tallest of the firtrees. Then he saw his father

One more chance for thee, unhappy man. Go up to him now, and tell him all. He has been a kind father to

you, with all his faults. Get him on your side, and you may laugh Lee to scorn. Have you not the courage to

For a moment he hesitated, but the dread of his father's burst of anger kept him silent. He hardened his heart,

"How is he this morning?" said his father. "What has he got his old clothes on for, and such fine ones as he

"True," said George. "I had forgotten all about it. Yes; I shall go down, of course."

"Curse her crossness," said George. "If I were ye, dad, I'd kick her out in the lane next time she got on one of

A tall woman about forty stepped out of the house as he uttered these words. "Ye hear what he says, William

Hawker," she said. "Ye hear what ye're own lawful son says. He'd kick me out in the lane. And ye'd stand

"Hush, George," said the old man. "You don't know what you're saying, boy. Go in, Madge, and don't be a

The woman turned in a contemptuous way and walked in. She was a very remarkable looking person. Tall

and upright, at least six feet high, with swarthy complexion, black eyes, and coalblack hair, looped up

loosely in a knot behind. She must have been very beautiful as a young girl, but was now too fierce and

hawkish looking, though you would still call her handsome. She was a fullblooded gipsy, of one of the best

families, which, however, she totally denied. When I say that she bore the worst of characters morally, and

had the reputation besides of being a witch of the highest acquirements, a sort of double first at Satan's

These three sat down to breakfast, not before each of them, however, had refreshed themselves with a dram.

All the meal through, the old man and Madge were quarrelling with one another, till at length the contest

grew so fierce that George noticed it, a thing he very seldom took the trouble to do.

"I tell thee," said the old man, "ye'll get no more money this week. What have 'ee done with the last five

George knew well enough, she had given it to him. Many a time did she contrive to let him have a pound or

two, and blind the old man as to where it was gone. The day before he had applied to her for some money and

she had refused, and in revenge, George had recommended his father to turn her out, knowing that she could

"Ye stingy old beast," she replied, very slowly and distinctly, "I wish ye were dead and out of the way. I'll be

doing it myself some of these odd times." And looking at him fixedly and pointing her finger, she began the

"I won't have it," screamed the old man. "Stop, or I'll kill you, I will! George, you won't see your father

"Come, quiet, old girl; none of that;" said George, taking her round the waist and putting his hand before her

mouth. "Be reasonable now." She continued to look at the old man with a smile of triumph for a short time,

"It's lucky you stopped me. Oh, very lucky indeed. Now, are you going to give the money, you old Jew?"

She had carried the day, and the old man sulkily acquiesced. George went up stairs, and having dressed

himself to his taste, got on horseback and rode down to the village, which was about three miles.

This was the day of the Revels, which corresponds pretty well with what is called in other parts of England a

pleasure fair; that is to say, although some business might be done, yet it was only a secondary object to

The main village of Drumston was about a mile from the church which I have before noticed, and con sisted

of a narrow street of cobhouses, whitewashed and thatched, crossing at right angles, by a little stone bridge,

over a pretty, clear troutstream. All around the village, immediately behind the backs of the houses, rose the

abrupt red hills, divided into fields by broad oak hedges, thickly set with elms. The water of the stream,

intercepted at some point higher up, was carried round the crown of the hills for the purposes of irriga tion,

which, even at this dead season, showed its advantages by the brilliant emerald green of the tender young

grass on the hillsides. Drumston, in short, was an excellent specimen of a close, dull, dirty, and, I fear, not

On this day the main street, usually in a state of ancledeep mud six months in the year, was churned and

pounded into an almost kneedeep state, by four or five hundred hobnail shoes in search of amusement. The

amusements were various. Drinking (very po pular), swearing (ditto), quarrelling, eating pastry

gingerbread and nuts (female pastime), and looking at a filthy Italian, leading a still more filthy monkey,

who rode on a dog (the only honest one of the three). This all day, till night dropped down on a scene of

drunkenness and vice, which we had better not seek to look at further. Surely, if ever man was right, old Joey

Bender, the methodist shoemaker, was right, when he preached against the revels for four Sundays run ning,

and said roundly that he would sooner see all his congregation leave him and go up to the steeple house

The wrestling, the only honest sensible amusement to be had, was not in much favour at Drumston. Such

wrestling as there was was carried on in a little croft behind the principal of the publichouses, for some

trifling prize, given by the publicans. In this place, James Stockbridge and myself had wandered on the

afternoon of the day in question, having come down to the revel to see if we could find some one we wanted.

There was a small ring of men watching the per formances, and talking, each and all of them, not to his

neighbour, or to himself, but to the ambient air, in the most unintelligible Devonshire jargon, rendered some

what more barbarous than usual by intoxication. Fre quently one of them would address one of the players

in language more forcible than choice, as he applauded some piece of finesse, or condemned some

clumsiness on the part of the two youths who were struggling about in the centre, under the impression they

were wrestling. There were but two moderate wrestlers in the parish, and those two were George Hawker and

James Stock bridge. And James and myself had hardly arrived on the ground two minutes, before George,

After a few commonplace civilities, he challenged James to play. "Let us show these muffs what play is,"

James had no objection; so, having put on the jackets, they set to work to the great admiration of the by

standers, one of whom, a drunken tinker, expressed his applause in such remarkable language that I mildly

The two wrestlers made very pretty play of it for some time, till James, feinting at some outlandish

manoeuvre, put George on his back by a simple trip, akin to scholar'smate at chess.

George fell heavily, for they were both heavy men. He rose from the ground and walked to where his coat

was, sulkily. James thinking he might have been hurt, went up to speak to him; but the other, greeting him

He was in a furious passion, and he went on to the little bridge that crossed the stream. We saw him standing

looking into the water below, when a short lightlooking man came up to him, and having spoken to him for

That man was Dick, the companion of Lee, (I knew all this well afterwards). George was standing as I have

"No offence, sir. You see, I'm in trouble, there's a warrant out against me, and I must fly. I am as hard up as

Here was a slice of good luck; to get rid of this one so easily. George gave him money, and having wished

him farewell, watched him striding steadily up the long hill towards Exeter with great satisfaction; then he

went back to the publichouse, and sat drinking an hour or more. At last he got out his horse to ride

The crowd about the publichouse door was as thick as ever, and the disturbance greater. Some of the women

were trying to get their drunken husbands home, one man had fallen down deaddrunk beside the door in the

mud, and his wife was sitting patiently beside him. Several girls were standing wearily about the door,

dressed in their best, each with a carefully folded whitepockethandkerchief in her hand for show, and not

for use, waiting for their sweethearts to come forth when it should suit them; while inside the tap all was a

wild confusion of talk, quarrelling, oaths, and smoke enough to sicken a scavenger.

These things are changed now, or are changing, year by year. Now we have our rural policeman keeping

some sort of order, and some show of decency. And indeed these little fairs, the curse of the country, are

gradually becoming extinct by the exertions of a more energetic class of county magistrates; and though there

is probably the same amount of vice, public propriety is at all events more respected. I think I may say that I

have seen as bad, or even worse, scenes of drunken ness and disorder at an English fair, as ever I have in

George Hawker was so hemmed in by the crowd that he was unable to proceed above a foot'space. He was

slowly picking his way through the people, when he felt some one touching him on the leg, and, looking

"What, Lee, my boy, you here!" said he; "I have just seen your amiable comrade he seems to be in

"Dick's always in trouble, Mr. Hawker," replied he. "He has no care or reason; he isn't a bad fellow, but I'm

always glad when he is out of my way; I don't like being seen with him. This is likely to be his last time,

though. He is in a serious scrape, and, by way of getting out of it, he is walking into Exeter, along the high

road, as if nothing was the matter. There's a couple of traps in Belston after him now, and I came down here

to keep secure. Bythebye, have you thought of that little matter we were talking about the other night? To

tell you the truth, I don't care how soon I am out of this part of the country."

"Oh! ah!" replied George, "I've thought of it, and it's all right. Can you be at the old place the day after

"You'll come alone this time, I suppose," said George. "I suppose you don't want to share our little matter

It was getting late in the evening when he started, and ere he reached home it was nearly dark. For the last

mile his road lay through forestland: noble oaks, with a plentiful undergrowth of holly, overshadowed a

floor of brown leaves and red fern; and at the end of the wood nearest home, where the oaks joined their own

fir plantations, one mighty gnarled tree, broader and older than all the rest, held aloft its withered boughs

This oak was one of the bogie haunts of the neigh bourhood. All sorts of stories were told about it, all of

which George, of course, believed; so that when his horse started and refused to move forward, and when he

saw a dark figure sitting on the twisted roots of the tree, he grew suddenly cold, and believed he had seen a

The figure rose, and stalked towards him through the gathering gloom; he saw that it held a baby in its arms,

and that it was tall and noblelooking. Then a new fear took possession of him, not supernatural; and he said

"That was my name once, George Hawker," replied she, standing beside him, and laying her hand upon his

horse's shoulder. "I don't know what my name is now, I'm sure; It surely can't remain the same, and me so

"Hunger, cold, misery, drunkenness, disease. Those are the merry companions that lead me back to my old

She held up a noble child about a year old, for him to look at. The child, disturbed from her warm bosom,

"What! cry to see your father, child?" she ex claimed. "See what a bonnie gentleman he is, and what a pretty

"What have you come to me for, Ellen?" asked George. "Do you know that if you are seen about here just

"I don't want to hurt you, George," she replied; "but I must have money. I cannot work, and I dare not show

my face here. Can't you take me in tonight, George, only just tonight, and let me lie by the fire? I'll go in

the morning; but I know it's going to freeze, and I do dread the long cold hours so. I have lain out two nights,

now, and I had naught to eat all day. Do'ee take me in, George; for old love's sake, do!"

She was his own cousin, an orphan, brought up in the same house with him by his father. Never very strong

in her mind, though exceedingly pretty, she had been early brought to ruin by George. On the birth of a boy,

about a year before, the old man's eyes were opened to what was going on, and in a furious rage he turned her

out of doors, and refused ever to see her again. George, to do him justice, would have married her, but his

father told him, if he did so, he should leave the house with her. So the poor thing had gone away and tried to

get needlework in Exeter, but her health failing, and George having ceased to answer all applications from

her, she had walked over, and lurked about in the woods to gain an interview with him.

She laid her hand on his, and he felt it was deadly cold. "Put my coat over your shoulders, Nelly, and wait an

instant while I go and speak to Madge. I had better let her know you are coming; then we shan't have any

He rode quickly through the plantation, and gave his horse to a boy who waited in front of the door. In the

kitchen he found Madge brooding over the fire, with her elbows on her knees, and without raising her head or

"None, Madge, none! but here's the devil to pay. Ellen's come back. She's been lying out these three nights,

and is awful hard up. It's not my fault, I have sent her money enough, in all conscience."

"Why don't you bring her in, you treacherous young wolf?" replied she. "What did you bring her to shame

"I was going to fetch her in," said George, indig nantly; "only I wanted to find out what your temper was

like, you vicious old cow. How did I know but what you would begin some of your tantrums, and miscall

"No fear o' that! no fear of pots and kettles with me! lead her in, lad, before she's frozen!"

George went back for her, and finding her still in the same place, brought her in. Madge was standing erect

before the fire, and, walking up to the unfortunate Ellen, took her baby from her, and made her sit before the

"Better not face the old man," said she; "he's away to the revels, and he'll come home drunk. Make yourself

The poor thing began to cry, which brought on such a terrible fit of coughing that Madge feared she would

rupture a bloodvessel. She went to get her a glass of wine, and returned with a candle, and then, for the first

"Oh!" she said to George, "you see what I am now. I ain't long for this world. Only keep me from worse,

George, while I am alive, and do something for the boy afterwards, and I am content. You're going to get

married, I know, and I wish you well. But don't forget this poor little thing when it's motherless. If you do,

"Oh, you ain't going to die, old Nelly," said George; "not for many years yet. You're pulled down, and thin,

but you'll pick up again with the spring. Now, old girl, get some supper out before he comes home."

They gave her supper, and put her to bed. In the morning, very early, George heard the sound of wheels

below his bedroom window; and looking out, saw that Madge was driving out of the yard in a light cart, and,

watching her closely, saw her pick up Ellen and the child just outside the gate. Then he went to bed again,

"In course she is," replied Madge. "Do you think I was going to let her stay till the old man was about?"

"I made it five pounds in all; that will keep her for some time, and then you must send her some more. If you

let that wench starve, you ought to be burnt alive. A man would have married her in spite of his father."

"A likely story," said George, "that I was to dis inherit myself for her. However, she shan't want at present,

The old man had, as Madge prophesied, come home very drunk the night before, and had lain in bed later

than usual, so that, when he came to breakfast, he found George, gun in hand, ready to go out.

"Down through the hollies for a W.. I'll get one this morning, it's near full moon."

All the morning they heard him firing in the bottom below the house, and at one o'clock he came home,

"Why, George!" said his father, "what hast thee been shooting at? I thought 'ee was getting good sport."

"Going over to Eggesford, eh, Georgey? This nice full moon is about the right thing for thee. They Fellowes

George laughed, as he admitted the soft impeach ment of deerstealing, but soon after grew sullen, and all

the afternoon sat over the fire brooding and drink ing. He went to bed early, and had just got off his boots,

"That's folly enough, but there's a worse folly than that. It's worse folly to wipe out moneyscores in blood.

It's a worse folly if you are in a difficulty to put yourself in a harder one to get out of the first. Its a

"Why, you're mad," broke in George. "Do you think I am fool enough to make away with one of the

"I don't know what you are fool enough to do. Only mind my words before it's too late."

She went out, and left him sitting moodily on the bed. "What a clever woman she is," he mused. "How she

hits a thing off. She's been a good friend to me. I've a good mind to ask her advice. I'll think about it

But on the morrow they quarrelled about something or another, and her advice was never asked. George was

moody and captious all day; and at evening, hav ing drank hard, he slipped off, and, gun in hand, rode away

It was dark before he had got clear of the labyrinth of lanes through which he took his way. His horse he

turned out in a small croft close to where the heather began; and, having hid the saddle and bridle in a hedge,

He would not think; he would sooner whistle; dis tance seemed like nothing to him; and he was surprised

and frightened to find himself already looking over the deep black gulf through which the river ran before he

He paused to look before he began to descend. A faint light still lingered in the frosty sky to the south west,

and majestic Yestor rose bold and black against it. Down far, far beneath his feet was the river, dimly heard,

but not seen; and, as he looked to where it should be, he saw a little flickering star, which arrested his

Boldly at first, but afterwards more stealthily, and now more silently still, for the fire is close by, and it were

well to give him no notice. It is in the old place, and he can see it now, not ten yards before him, between two

Nearer yet a little, with catlike tread. There is Lee, close to the fire, sitting on the ground, dimly visible, yet

He is pinioned from behind by a vigorous hand, and a voice he knows cries in his ear "Help, Bill, or you'll

The gun goes off in the scuffle, but hurts nobody, and Lee running up, George finds the tables completely

turned, and himself lying, after a few desperate struggles, helplessly pinioned on the ground.

Dick had merely blinded him by appearing to go to Exeter. They both thought it likely that he would attack

Lee, but neither supposed he would have stolen on him so treacherously. Dick had just noticed him in time,

"You treacherous young sweep, you shall hang for this," were Lee's first words. "Ten thousand pounds would

not save you now. Dick, you're a jewel. If I had listened to you, I shouldn't have trusted my life to the

Although it appeared at first that ten thousand pounds would not prevent Lee handing George over to justice,

yet, after a long and stormy argument, it ap peared that the lesser sum of five hundred would be amply

sufficient to stay any ulterior proceedings, pro vided the money was forthcoming in a week. So that

ultimately George found himself at liberty again, and, to his great astonishment, in higher spirits than he

"At all events," said he to himself, as he limped back, lame and bruised, "I have not got that on my mind.

Even if this other thing was found out, there is a chance of getting off. Surely my own father wouldn't

prosecute though I wouldn't like to trust to it, unless I got Madge on my side."

His father, I think I have mentioned, was too blind to read, and George used to keep all his accounts; so that

nothing would seem at first to look more easy than to imitate his father's signature, and obtain what money he

wished. But George knew well that the old man was often in the habit of looking through his banker's book,

with the assistance of Madge, so that he was quite unsafe without her. His former embezzlement he had kept

secret, by altering some figure in the banker's book; but this next one, of such a much larger amount, he felt

somewhat anxious about. He, however, knew his woman well, and took his measures accordingly.

On the day mentioned, he met Lee, and gave him the money agreed on; and having received his assurances

that he valued his life too much to trouble him any more, saw him depart, fully expecting that he should have

another application at an early date; under which circumstances, he thought he would take certain pre

But he saw Lee no more. No more for many, many years. But how and when they met again, and who came

SPRING had come again, after a long wet winter, and every orchardhollow blushed once more with apple

blossoms. In warm sheltered southern valleys hedges were already green, and even the tall hedgerowelms

It was a bright April morning, about ten o'clock, when Mary Thornton, throwing up her father's study

window from the outside, challenged him to come out and take a walk; and John, getting his hat and stick,

She began throwing gravel at one of the upper windows, and crying out, "Auntie! Auntie!"

The sash was immediately thrown (no, that is too violent a word say lifted) up, and a beautiful old lady's

"My love," it said, in a small, soft voice, "pray be careful of the windows. Did you want anything, my dear?"

Commencement of a sorethroat lecture from the window, cut short by the Vicar, who says,

"My dear, I shall be late if you don't come;" (jesu itically on his part, for he was going nowhere.)

So she comes accordingly, as sweetlooking an old maid as ever you saw in your life. People have no right to

use up such beautiful women as governesses. It's a sheer waste of material. Miss Thornton had been a

governess all her life; and now, at the age of fiveandforty, had come to keep her brother's house for him,

add her savings to his, and put the finishing touch on Mary's somewhat rough education.

"Oh, indeed, Auntie, I won't wear them," said Mary. "I couldn't be plagued with gloves. Nobody wears them

"Mrs. Buckley wears them, and it would relieve my mind if you were to put them on, my dear. I fear my

lady's end was accelerated by, unfortunately, in her last illness, catching sight of Lady Kate's hands after she

Mary was always on the eve of laughing at these aristocratic recollections of her aunt; and to her credit be it

said, she always restrained herself, though with great difficulty. She, so wildly brought up, without rule or

guidance in feminine matters, could not be brought to comprehend that prim lineandrule life, of which her

aunt was the very impersonation. Never theless, she heard what Miss Thornton had to say with respect; and

if ever she committed an extreme gaucherie, calculated to set her aunt's teeth on edge, she always discovered

They stood on the lawn while the glove contro versy was going on, and a glorious prospect there was that

bright spring morning. In one direction the eye was carried down a long, broad, and rich vale, intersected by a

gleaming river, and all the way down set thick with hamlet, farm, and church. In the dim soft distance rose

the two massive towers of a cathedral, now filling all the countryside with the gentle melody of their

goldentoned bells, while beyond them, in the misty south, there was a gleam in the horizon, showing where

"It's as soft and quiet as a Sunday," said the Vicar; "and what a fishing day! I have half a mind Hallo! look

The exclamation was caused by the appearance on the walk of a very tall and noblelooking man, about

thirty, leading a grey pony, on which sat a beautiful woman with a child in her arms. Our party imme diately

moved forward to meet them, and a most friendly greeting took place on both sides, Mary at once taking

This was Major Buckley and his wife Agnes. I mentioned before that, after Clere was sold, the Major had

taken a cottage in Drumston, and was a constant visitor on the Vicar; generally calling for the old gentleman

to come fishing or shooting, and leaving his wife and his little son Samuel in the company of Mary and Miss

"I have come, Vicar, to take you out fishing," said he. "Get your rod and come. A capital day. Why, here's the

"I announce," said he, "that I shall accept the most agreeable invitation that any one will give me. What are

"Ah!" said the Doctor, "now we have it. I would suggest that all the Mrs. Lees in the parish should have a

ticket with a number on it, like the voituriers. Buckley, lay it before the quartersessions. If you say the idea

came from a foreigner, they would adopt it immediately. Miss Thornton, I will do myself the honour of

So the ladies went off with the Doctor, while the Vicar and Major Buckley turned to go fishing.

"I shall watch you, Major, instead of fishing myself," said the Vicar. "Where do you propose going?"

"To the red water," said the Major. Accordingly they turn down a long, deep lane, which looks certainly as if

it would lead one to a red brook, for the road and banks are of a brickcolour. And so it does, for presently

before them they discern a red mill, and a broad, pleasant ford, where a crystal brook dimples and sparkles

"That's a very hard question to answer," says the Vicar. "Your Scotchman, eh? or a small blue dun?"

"We'll try both," says the Major; and in a very short time it becomes apparent that the small dun is the man,

for the trout seem to think that it is the very thing they have been looking for all day, and rise at it two at a

They fish downwards; and after killing halfadozen halfpound fish, come to a place where another stream

joins the first, making it double its original size, and here there is a great oakroot jutting into a large deep

The Vicar stands back, intensely excited. This is a sure place for a big fish. The Major, eager but cool, stoops

down and puts his flies in just above the root at once; not as a greenhorn would, taking a few wide casts over

the pool first, thereby standing a chance of hooking a little fish, and ruining his chance for a big one; and at

the second trial a deepbodied brown fellow, about two pounds, dashes at the treacherous little blue, and

Then what a todo is there. The Vicar jumping about on the grass, giving all sorts of contradictory advice.

The Major, utterly despairing of ever getting his fish ashore, fighting a losing battle with infinite courage,

determined that the trout shall remember him, at all events, if he does get away. And the trout, furious and

indignant, but not in the least fright ened, trying vainly to get back to the old root. Was there ever such a

But the Major is the best man, for after ten minutes troutie is towed up on his side to a convenient shallow,

and the Vicar puts on his spectacles to see him brought ashore. He scientifically pokes him in the flank, and

"You'll find, sir, there won't be a finer fish, take him all in all, killed in the parish this season."

"Ah, it's a noble sport," says the Major. "I shan't get much more of it, I'm afraid."

"Well, I'll tell you," says the Major. "Do you know how much property I have got?"

"I have only ten thousand pounds; and how am I to bring up a family on the interest of that?"

"I should fancy it was quite enough for you," said the Vicar; "you have only one son."

"How many more am I likely to have, eh? And how should I look to find myself at sixty with five boys

"That is rather an extreme case," said the Vicar; "you would be poor then, certainly."

"Just what I don't want to be. Besides wanting to make some money, I am leading an idle life here, and am

"I am thinking of emigrating. To New South Wales. To go into the sheepfarming line. There."

"Why, my wife and I have been thinking of going to Canada for some time, and so the idea is not altogether

new. The other day Hamlyn (you know him) showed me a letter from a cousin of his who is making a good

deal of money there. Having seen that letter, I was much struck with it, and having made a great many other

inquiries, I laid the whole information before my wife, and begged her to give me her opinion."

"And she recommended you to stay at home in peace and comfort," interposed the Vicar.

"On the contrary, she said she thought we ought by all means to go," returned the Major.

"Nay, Vicar, I hope not," said the Major. "You will stay behind to see your daughter happily married, and

"Bythebye, Miss Thornton seems to have made a conquest already. Young Hawker seems desperately

"How can I prevent it? She is her own mistress, and I never could control her yet. How can I control her when

"My dear friend, you should take her away for a short time, and see if she will forget him. Anything sooner

"Why should she not marry him?" said the Vicar. "She is only a farmer's granddaughter. We are no body,

"Oh, there is nothing more against him than there is against most young fellows. He will reform and be

"Not actually against him; but just conceive, my dear friend, what a family to marry into! His father, I speak

the plain truth, is a most disreputable, drunken old man, living in open sin with a gipsy woman of the worst

character, by whom George Hawker has been brought up. What an atmosphere of vice! The young fellow

himself is universally disliked, and distrusted too, all over the village. Can you forgive me for speaking so

"There is no forgiveness necessary, my good friend;" said the Vicar. "I know how kind your intentions are.

But I cannot bring myself to have a useless quarrel with my daughter merely because I happen to dislike the

object of her choice. It would be quite a useless quarrel. She has always had her own way, and always will."

"Nothing, she never does say anything. She regards Hawker as Mary's accepted suitor; and though she may

think him vulgar, she would sooner die than commit herself so far as to say so. She has been so long under

others, and without an opinion save theirs, that she cannot form an opinion at all."

They had turned and were walking home, when the Vicar, sticking his walkingcane upright in the grass,

"It is the most miserable and lamentable thing that ever took place in this world. Look at my sister again:

what a delicate old maid she is! used to move and be respected, more than most governesses are, in the

highest society in the land. There'll be a home for her when I die. Think of her living in the house with any of

the Hawkers; and yet, sir, that woman's sense of duty is such that she'd die sooner than leave her niece.

Sooner be burnt at the stake than go one inch out of the line of conduct she has marked out for herself."

"A man of determination and strength of character could have prevented it at the beginning, you would say. I

dare say he might have; but I am not a man of determination and strength of character. I never was, and I

"Do you consider it in the light of a settled question, then," said the Major, "that your daughter should marry

"God knows. She will please herself. I spoke to her at first about encouraging him, and she began by laughing

at me, and ended by making a scene whenever I spoke against him. I was at one time in hopes that she would

have taken a fancy to young Stockbridge; but I fear I must have set her against him by praising him too much.

"You see, as I said before, I have no actual reason to urge against Hawker, and he will be very rich. I shall

raise my voice against her living in the house with that woman Madge in fact, I won't have it; but take it

Major Buckley said no more, and soon after they got home. There was Mrs. Buckley, queenly and beautiful,

waiting for her husband; and there was Mary, pretty, and full of fun; there also was the Doctor, smoking and

contemplating a new fern; and Miss Thornton, with her glovedhands folded, calculating uneasily what

amount of detriment Mary's complexion would sustain in consequence of walking about without her bonnet

One and all cried out to know what sport; and little Sam tottered forward demanding a fish for himself,

which, having got, he at once put into his mouth head foremost. The Doctor, taking off his spectacles, ex

"Now, my good friend, why do you give yourself the trouble to catch trout in that roundabout way,

requiring so much skill and patience? In Germany we catch them with a net a far superior way, I assure

you. Get any one of the idle young fellows about the village to go down to the stream with a net, and they

"What!" said the Major, indignantly; "put a net in my rented water? if I caught any audacious scoun drel

carrying a net within half a mile of it, I'd break his neck. You can't appreciate the delights of fly fishing,

"No, I ain't," said the Doctor; "you never said anything truer than that, James Buckley. I am nothing of the

sort. When I was a young man, I had a sort of brute instinct, which made me take the same sort of pleasure in

killing a boar that a cat does in killing a mouse; but I have outlived such barbarism."

"Ha! ha!" said the Vicar; "and yet he gave ten shillings for a snipe. And he's handandglove with every

"The snipe was a new species, sir," said the Doctor indignantly; "and if I do employ the hunters to collect for

me, I see no inconsistency in that. But I consider this flyfishing mania just of a piece with your idiotic, I

repeat it, idiotic institution of foxhunting. Why, if you laid baits poisoned with nux vomica about the haunts

The Doctor used to delight in aggravating the Major by attacking English sports; but he had a great admi

The Major got out his wife's pony; and setting her on it, and handing up the son and heir, departed home to

"My dear husband, did you bring him to speak of the subject we were talking about?"

"Well! indeed, my dear Agnes, do you know that, although I love the old man dearly, I must say I think he is

"So I fear," said Mrs. Buckley; "but he is surely not so weak as to allow that young fellow to haunt the house,

"My dear, he accepts him as her suitor. He says he has been aware of it for some time, and that he has spoken

to Mary about it, and made no impression; so that now he considers it a settled thing."

"Unfortunate girl," said Mrs. Buckley! "and with such a noble young fellow as Stockbridge ready to cut off

"Is he?" said Mrs. Buckley. "I call him one of the most evillooking men I ever saw."

"My dear Agnes, I think if you were to speak boldly to her, you might do some good. You might begin to

undermine this unlucky infatuation of her's; and I am sure, if her eyes were once opened, that the more she

"I think, James," said Mrs. Buckley, "that it becomes the duty of us, who have been so happy in our marriage,

to prevent our good old vicar's last days from being rendered miserable by such a mesalliance as this. I am

very fond of Mary; but the old Vicar, my dear, has taken the place of your father to me."

"He is like a second father to me too," said the Major; "but he wants a good many qualities that my own

father had. He hasn't his energy or determina tion. Why, if my father had been in his place, and such an

illlooking young dog as that came hanging about the premises, my father would have laid his stick about his

"MY dear," said old Miss Thornton, that evening, "I have consulted Mrs. Buckley on the sleeves, and she is

"She promised to give the matter her earnest atten tion," said Miss Thornton; "so I suppose she did. Mrs.

Buckley would never speak at random, if she once promised to give her real opinion."

"No, I don't think she would, Auntie, but she is not very particular in her own dress."

"She always looks like a thorough lady, my dear: Mrs. Buckley is a woman whom I could set before you as a

Miss Thornton was too much shocked to say any thing. To hear a young lady speak of a handsome military

man as a "darling," went quite beyond her experience. She was considering how much bread and water and

backboard she would have felt it her duty to give Lady Kate, or Lady Fanny, in old times, for such an

"Bless us, what a night! The equinoctial gales come back again. This rain will make up for the dry March

Unlucky words! he drew nearer to the fire, and began rubbing his knees; he had given them about three rubs,

"Thomas Jewel is worse, sir, and if you please his missis don't expect he'll last the night; and could you just

"Just stepping up," was a pretty little euphemism for walking three long miles dead in the teeth of a gale of

wind, with a fierce rushing tropical rain. One of the numerous tenders of the ship Jewel (74), had just arrived

before the wind under bare poles, an attempt to set a rag of umbrella having ended in its being blown out of

the boltropes, and the aforesaid tender Jewel was now in the vicarage harbour of refuge, reflecting what an

"Who has come with this message?" said the Vicar, entering the kitchen followed by Miss Thornton and

"Oh Loord!" said the voice in reply intending that ejaculation for a very strong affirmative. And

advancing towards the light, displayed a figure in a long brown greatcoat, reaching to the ancles, and topped

by some sort of headdress, resembling very closely a small black carpet bag, tied on with a red cotton

handkerchief. This was all that was visible, and the good Vicar stood doubting whether it was male or female,

till catching sight of an immense pair of hob nail boots peeping from the lower extremity of the coat, he

There was a cackling laugh from under the carpet bag, and a harsh grating voice replied:

"Dear me," said the Vicar, "then what do you dress yourself in that style for? So old Jewel is worse."

By which he understood her to mean Dr. Mulhaus, all foreigners being considered to be Italians in Drumston.

"Well," said the Vicar, "I will start at once, and come. It's a terrible night."

The owner of the greatcoat assented with a fiendish cackle, and departed. The Vicar, having been well

wrapped up by his sister and daughter, departed also, with a last injunction from Miss Thornton to take care

Easier said than done, such a night as this. A regular southwesterly gale, accompanied by a stinging, cutting

rain, which made it almost impossible to look to windward. Earth and sky seemed mixed together, and each

twig and bough sent a separate plaint upon the gale, indignant at seeing their freshacquired honours torn

The Vicar put his head down and sturdily walked against it. It was well for him that he knew every inch of

the road, for his knowledge was needed now. There was no turn in the road after he had passed the church,

but it took straight away over the high ground up to Hawker's farm on the woodlands.

Old Jewel, whom he was going to see, had been a hind of Hawker's for many years; but about a twelve

month before the present time he had left his service, partly on account of increasing infirmity, and partly in

consequence of a violent quarrel with Madge. He was a man of indifferent character. He had been married

once in his life, but his wife only lived a year, and left him with one son, who had likewise married and given

to the world seven as barbarous, neglected, young savages as any in the parish. The old man, who was now

lying on his deathbed, had been a sort of confi dential man to old Hawker, retained in that capacity on

account, the old man said once in his drink, of not having any wife to worm family affairs out of him. So it

was generally believed by the village folks, that old Jewel was in possession of some fearful secrets (such as

a murder or two, for instance, or a brace of forgeries), and that the Hawkers daren't turn him out of the

Perhaps some of these idle rumours may have floated through the Vicar's brain as he fought forwards against

the storm; but if any did, they were soon dismissed again, and the good man's thoughts carried into a fresh

channel. And he was thinking what a fearful night this would be at sea, and how any ship could live against

such a storm, when he came to a white gate, which led into the deep woods surrounding Hawker's house, and

Now began the most difficult part of his journey. The broader road that led from the gate up to the Hawkers'

house was plainly perceptible, but the little path which turned up to the cottage was not so easily found, and

when found, not easily kept on such a black wild night as this. But, at length, having hit it, he began to follow

it with some difficulty, and soon beginning to descend rapidly, he caught sight of a light, and, at the same

"Oh," said he to himself, "the water is come down, and I shall have a nice job to get across it. Any people but

the Jewels would have made some sort of a bridge by now; but they have been content with a fallen tree ever

He scrambled down the steep hill side with great difficulty, and not without one or two nasty slips, which, to

a man of his age, was no trifle, but at length stood trembling with exertion before a flooded brook, across

which lay a fallen tree, dimly seen in the dark against the gleam of the rushing water.

"I must stand and steady my nerves a bit after that tumble," he said, "before I venture over there. That's the

'Brig of Dread' with a vengeance. How ever, I never came to harm yet when I was after duty, so I'll chance

The cottage stood just across the brook, and he halloed aloud for some one to come. After a short time the

"Aye," rejoined the other, "it's me at present; but it won't be me long if I slip coming over that log. Here

goes," he said, as he steadied himself and crossed rapidly, while the Doctor held the light. "Ah," he added,

"You did not seem very certain about it just now," said the Doctor. "However, I am sincerely glad you are

"Not uncommon," said the Vicar, "in these parts; they are always bothering me with some of that sort of

They went in. Only an ordinary scene of poverty, dirt, and vice, such as exists to some extent, in every parish,

in every country on the globe. Nothing more than that, and yet a sickening sight enough.

A squalid, damp, close room, with the earthen floor sunk in many places and holding pools of water. The

mother smoking in the chimney corner, the eldest daughter nursing an illegitimate child, and quarrelling with

her mother in a coarse, angry tone. The children, ragged and hungry, fighting for the fireside. The father

away, at some unlawful occupation probably, or sitting drinking his wages in an alehouse. That was what

they saw, and what any man may see today for himself in his own village, whether in England or Australia,

that working man's paradise. Drink, dirt, and sloth, my friends of the working orders, will pro duce the same

As they came in the woman of the house rose and curtseyed to the Vicar, but the eldest girl sat still and turned

away her head. The Vicar, after saluting her mother, went gently up to her, and patting the baby's cheek,

asked her kindly how she did. The girl tried to answer him, but could only sob. She bent down her head again

"You must bring it to be christened," said the Vicar kindly. "Can you come on Wednesday?"

"Yes, I'll come," she said with a sort of choke. And now the woman having lit a fresh candle, ushered them

"Typhus and scarlatina!" said the Doctor. "How this place smells after being in the air. He is sensible again, I

"Quite sensible," the sick man answered aloud. "So you've come, Mr. Thornton; I'm glad of it; I've got a sad

story to tell you; but I'll have vengeance if you do your duty. You see the state I am in!"

"Why, God sent it to you," said the Vicar. "All people living in a narrow wet valley among woodlands like

"I tell you she gave it to me. I tell you she has overlooked me; and all this doctor's stuff is no use, unless you

"My good friend," said the Vicar, "you should banish such fancies from your mind, for you are in a serious

"Not die in enmity with her? I'd never forgive her till she took off the spell."

"Why, that infernal witch, Madge, that lives with old Hawker," said the man excitedly. "That's who I mean!"

"Bewitched me, I tell you! Given me these shak ing fits. She told me she would, when I left; and so she has,

to prevent my speaking. I might a spoke out anytime this year, only the old man kept me quiet with money;

"Well, I'll just relate the matter to you," said the man, speaking fast and thick, "and I'll speak the truth. A

twelvemonth agone, this Madge and me had a fierce quarrel, and I miscalled her awful, and told her of some

things she wasn't aware I knew of; and then she said, 'If ever a word of that escapes your lips, I'll put such a

spell on ye that your bones shall shake apart.' Then I says, if you do, your bastard son shall swing."

"Young George Hawker. He is not the son of old Mrs. Hawker! Madge was brought to bed of him a fortnight

before her mistress; and when she bore a stillborn child, old Hawker and I buried it in the wood, and we

gave Madge's child to Mrs. Hawker, who never knew the difference before she died."

"On the word of a dying man that's true, and this also. I says to Madge, 'Your boy shall swing, for I know

enough to hang him.' And she said, 'Where are your proofs?' and I O Lord! O Lord! she's at me again."

He sank down again in a paroxysm of shivering, and they got no more from him. Enough there was, however,

to make the Vicar a very silent and thoughtful man, as he sat watching the sick man in the close stifling room.

"You had better go home, Vicar," said the Doctor; "you will make yourself ill staying here. I do not expect

"No," said the Vicar, "I feel it my duty to stay longer. For my own sake too. What he has let out bears

"Yes, I can understand that, my friend, from what I have heard of the relations that exist between your

daughter and that young man. You have been saved from a terrible misfortune, though at the cost, perhaps, of

"I hope it may be as you say," said the Vicar. "Strange, only today Major Buckley was urging me to stop

"I should have ventured to do so too, Vicar, had I been as old a friend of yours as Major Buckley."

"He is not such a very old friend," said the Vicar; "only of two years' standing, yet I seem to have known him

At daybreak the man died, and made no sign. So as soon as they had satisfied themselves of the fact, they

departed, and came out together into the clear morning air. The rainclouds had broken, though when they

had scrambled up out of the narrow little valley where the cottage stood, they found that the wind was still

high and fierce, and that the sun was rising dimly through a yellow haze of driving scud.

They stepped out briskly, revived by the freshness of all around, and had made about half the distance home,

when they descried a horseman coming slowly towards them. It seemed an early time for any one to be

abroad, and their surprise was increased at seeing that it was George Hawker returning home.

"So late, you mean," said the Vicar; "he has not been home all night. Now I shall brace up my nerves and

"My good wishes go with you, Vicar," said the Doctor, and walked on, while the other stopped to speak with

"Is he indeed, sir," said Hawker. "He won't be much loss, sir, to the parish. A sort of happy release, one may

"Surely, sir," said he, dismounting. "Allow me to walk a little on the way back with you?"

"What I have to say, Mr. Hawker," said the Vicar, "is very short, and, I fear, also very disagree able to all

parties. I am going to request you to discontinue your visits to my house altogether, and, in fact, drop our

"This is very sudden, sir," said Hawker. "Am I to understand, sir, that you cannot be induced by any conduct

"Quite final, I assure you," said the Vicar; "nothing on earth should make me flinch from my decision."

"This is very unfortunate, sir," said George. "For I had reason to believe that you rather encouraged my visits

"I never encouraged them. It is true I permitted them. But since then circumstances have come to my ears

which render it imperative that you should drop all communication with the members of my family, more

"I make no charges of any sort," replied the Vicar. "All I say is, that I wish the intercourse between you and

my daughter to cease; and I consider, sir, that when I say that, it ought to be sufficient. I conceive that I have

"I may have been unjust, and I may have been weak, in allowing an intimacy (which I do not deny, mind you)

to spring up between my daughter and yourself. But I am not unjust now, when I require that it should cease.

There was no more to be said on either side. George stood beside his horse, after the Vicar had left him, till

"You puritanical old humbug, I'll do you yet. You've heard about Nell and her cursed brat. But the daughter

The Vicar walked on, glad enough to have got the interview over, till he overtook the Doctor, who was

walking slowly till he came up. He felt as though the battle was gained already, though he still rather dreaded

"How have you sped, friend?" asked the Doctor. "Have you given the young gentleman his cong e?"

"I have," he replied. "Doctor, now half the work is done, I feel what a culpable coward I have been not to do

it before. I have been deeply to blame. I never should have allowed him to come near us. Surely, the girl will

not be such a fool as to regret the loss of such a man. I shall tell her all I know about him, and after that I can

do no more. No more? I never had her confidence. She has always had a life apart from mine. The people in

the village, all so far below us in every way, have been to me acquaint ances, and only that; but they have

been her world, and she has seen no other. She is a kind, affectionate daughter, but she would be as good a

daughter to any of the farmers round as she is to me. She is not a lady. That is the truth. God help the man

"You do her injustice, my friend," said the Doctor. "I understand what you mean, but you do her in justice.

All the female society she has ever seen, before Mrs. Buckley and your sister came here, was of a rank

inferior to herself, and she has taken her impressions from that society to a great extent. But still she is a lady;

compare her to any of the other girls in the parish, and you will see the difference."

"Yes, yes, that is true," said the Vicar. "You must think me a strange man to speak so plainly about my own

daughter, Doctor, and to you, too, whom I have known so short a time. But one must confide in somebody,

They had arrived opposite the Vicar's gate, but the Doctor, resisting all the Vicar's offers of breakfast,

declined to go in. He walked homeward toward his cottagelodgings, and as he went he mused to himself

"What a good old man that is. And yet how weak. I used to say to myself when I first knew him, what a pity

that a man with such a noble intellect should be buried in a country village, a pastor to a lot of ignorant hinds.

And yet he is fit for nothing else, with all his intelligence, and all his learning. He has no go in him, no

back to his head. Contrast him with Buckley, and see the difference. Now Buckley, without being a

particularly clever man, sees the right thing, and goes at it through fire and water. But our old Vicar sees the

right, and leaves it to take care of itself. He can't manage his own family even. That girl is a fine girl, a very

fine girl. A good deal of character about her. But her animal passions are so strong that she would be a Tartar

for anyone to manage. She will be too much for the Vicar. She will marry that man in the end. And if he don't

use her properly, she'll hate him as much as she loves him now. She is more like an Italian than an English

The Vicar went into his house, and found no one up but the maids, who were keeping that saturnalia among

the household gods, which, I am given to under stand, goes on in every wellregulated household before the

lords of the creation rise from their downy beds. I have never seen this process myself, but I am informed, by

the friend of my heart, who looked on it once for five minutes, and then fled, horror struck, that the first act

consists in turning all the furniture upside down, and beating it with brooms. Further than this, I have no

information. If any male eye has penetrated these awful secrets beyond that, let the owner of that eye preserve

a decent silence. There are some things that it is better not to know. Only let us hope, brother, that you and I

may always find ourselves in a position to lie in bed till it is all over. In Australia, it may be worth while to

remark, this custom, with many other religious observances, has fallen into entire desuetude.

The Vicar was very cross this morning. He had been sitting up all night, which was bad, and he had been

thinking these last few minutes that he had made a fool of himself, by talking so freely to the Doctor about

his private affairs, which was worse. Nothing irritated the Vicar's temper more than the feeling of having

been too free and communicative with people who did not care about him, a thing he was very apt to do. And,

on this occasion, he could not disguise from himself that he had been led into talking about his daughter to

the Doctor, in a way which he characterised in his own mind as being "indecent."

As I said, he was cross. And anything in the way of clearing up or disturbance always irritated him, though he

generally concealed it. But there was a point at which his vexation always took the form of a protest, more or

less violent. And that point was determined by anyone meddling with his manuscript sermons.

So, on this unlucky morning, in spite of freshlit fires smoking in his face, and fenders in dark passages

throwing him headlong into lurking coalscuttles, he kept his temper like a man, until coming into his study,

he found his favourite discourse on the sixth seal lying on the floor by the window, his lectures on the 119th

Psalm on the hearthrug, and the maid fanning the fire with his chef d'oeuvre, the Waterloo thanksgiving.

Then, I am sorry to say, he lost his temper. Instead of calling the girl by her proper name, he addressed her as

a distinguished Jewish lady, a near relation of King Ahab, and, snatching the sermon from her hand, told her

The girl was frightened she had never seen her master in this state of mind before. So she ran out of the

room, and, having fetched Mary, ensconced herself outside the door to hear what was the matter.

Mary tripped into the room looking pretty and fresh. "Why, father," she said, "you have been up all night. I

"Dead," said the Vicar. "Never mind him. Mary, I want to speak to you, seriously, about something that

"Father," she said, "you frighten me. Let me get you your coffee before you begin, at all events."

"Stay where you are, I order you," said the father. "I will have no temporizing until the matter grows cold. I

She was subdued, and knew what was coming. She sat down, and waited. Had he looked in her face, instead

of in the fire, he would have seen an expression there which he would little have liked a smile of

"I am not going to mince matters, and beat about the bush, Mary," he began. "What I say I mean, and will

have it attended to. You are very intimate with young Hawker, and that intimacy is very dis pleasing to me."

"You are rather late, father," she said. "He has had the run of this house these six months. You should have

"I speak now, miss," said the Vicar, succeeding in working himself into a passion, "and that is enough. I

"I daresay you won't," said the Vicar. "But I have told him so already this morning."

"You have!" she cried. "Father, you had no right to do that. You encouraged him here. And now my love is

"I never encouraged him. You all throw that in my face. You have no natural affection, girl. I always hated

the man. And now I have heard things about him sufficient to bar him from any honest man's house."

"I daresay you won't," said the Vicar. "Because you don't want to. You are determined to make my life

miserable. There was Jim Stockbridge. Such a noble, handsome, gentlemanly young fellow, and no thing

would please you but to drive him wild, till he left the country. Now, go away, and mind what I have said.

She turned as she was going out. "Father," she said, "is James Stockbridge gone?"

"Yes; gone. Sailed a fortnight ago. And all your doing. Poor boy, I wonder where he is now."

Where is he now? Under the cliffs of Madeira. Standing on the deck of a brave ship, beneath a rustling cloud

of canvas, watching awestruck that noble island, like an a'rial temple, brown in the lights, blue in the

shadows, floating between a sapphire sea and an azure sky. Far aloft in the air is Ruivo, five thousand feet

overhead, father of the great ridges and sierras that run down jagged and abrupt, till they end in wild

surfwashed promontories. He is watching a mighty glen that pierces the mountain, dark with misty shadows.

He is watching the waterfalls that stream from among the vineyards into the sea below, and one long white

Borne upon the full north wind, the manhood and intelligence of Europe goes past, day by day, in white

winged ships. And above all, unheeding, century after century, the old monks have vegetated there, saying

AND when Mary had left the room, the Vicar sat musing before the fire in his study. "Well," said he to

himself, "she took it quieter than I thought she would. Now, I can't blame myself. I think I have shown her

that I am determined, and she seems inclined to be dutiful. Poor dear girl, I am very sorry for her. There is no

doubt she has taken a fancy to this hand some young scamp. But she must get over it. It can't be so very

serious as yet. At all events I have done my duty, though I can't help saying that I wish I had spoken before

The maid looked in timidly, and told him that break fast was ready. He went into the front parlour, and there

he found his sister making tea. She looked rather disturbed, and, as the Vicar kissed her, he asked her "where

"She is not well, brother," she answered. "She is going to stay upstairs; I fear something has gone wrong

"She and I had some words this morning," answered he, "and that happens so seldom, that she is a little upset,

"No; I have only been telling her that she must give up receiving George Hawker here. And she seems to

have taken a sort of fancy to his society, which might have grown to something more serious. So I am glad I

"My dear brother, do you think you have spoken in time? I have always imagined that you had deter mined,

for some reason which I was not master of, that she should look on Mr. Hawker as her future husband. I am

Mary was very selfwilled. She refused to come downstairs all day, and, when he was sitting down to

dinner, he sent up for her. She sent him for an answer, that she did not want any dinner, and that she was

The Vicar ate his dinner notwithstanding. He was vexed, but, on the whole, felt satisfied with himself. This

sort of thing, he said to himself, was to be expected. She would get over it in time. He hoped that the poor girl

would not neglect her meals, and get thin. He might have made himself comfortable if he had seen her at the

She could not quite make the matter out. She rather fancied that her father and Hawker had had some quarrel,

the effects of which would wear off, and that all would come back to its old course. She thought it strange too

that her father should be so different from his usual self, and this made her uneasy. One thing she was

determined on, not to give up her lover, come what would. So far in life she had always had her own way,

and she would have it now. All things con sidered, she thought that sulks would be her game. So sulks it

She sat up in her room till it was evening. Twice during the day her aunt had come up, and the first time she

had got rid of her under pretence of headache, but the second time she was forced in decency to admit her,

and listen entirely unedified to a long discourse, proving, beyond power of contradiction, that it was the duty

of every young Englishwoman to be guided entirely by her parents in the choice of a partner for life. And

how that Lady Kate, as a fearful judgment on her for marrying a captain of artillery against the wishes of her

noble relatives, was now expiating her crimes on 400l. ayear, and when she might have married a duke.

Lady Kate was Miss Thornton's "awful example," her "naughty girl." She served to point many a moral of the

old lady's. But Lady Fanny, her sister, was always represented as the pattern of all Christian virtues who

had crowned the hopes of her family and wellwishers by marrying a gouty marquis of sixtythree, with fifty

thousand ayear. On this occa sion, Mary struck the old lady dumb "knocked her cold," our American

cousins would say by announcing that she considered Lady Emily to be a fool, but that Lady Kate seemed

to be a girl of some spirit. So Miss Thornton left her to her own evil thoughts, and, as evening began to fall,

Out by the back door, and round through the shrubbery, so that she gained the front gate unper ceived from

the windows; but ere she reached it she heard the latch go, and found herself face to face with a man.

He was an immensely tall man, six foot at least. His long heavy limbs loosely hung together, and his

immense broad shoulders slightly rounded. In features he was hardly handsome, but a kindly pleasant looking

face made ample atonement for want of beauty. He was dressed in kneebreeches, and a great blue coat, with

brass buttons, too large even for him, was topped by a broadbrimmed beaver hat, with fur on it halfan

inch long. In age, this man was about fiveandtwenty, and well known he was to all the young fellows

round there for skill in all sporting matters, as well as for his kindheartedness and generosity.

When he saw Mary pop out of the little side walk right upon him, he leaned back against the gate and burst

out laughing. No, hardly "burst out." His laughter seemed to begin internally and silently, till, after one or two

rounds, it shook the vast fabric of his chest beyond endurance, and broke out into so loud and joyous a peal

"What! Thomas Troubridge," said Mary. "My dear cousin, how are you? Now, don't stand laughing there like

a great gaby, but come and shake hands. What on earth do you see to laugh at in me?"

"Nothing, my cousin Poll, nothing," he replied. "You know that is my way of expressing approval. And you

look so pretty standing there in the shade, that I would break any man's neck who didn't applaud. Shake

hands, says you, I'll shake hands with a ven geance." So saying, he caught her in his arms, and covered her

"You audacious," she exclaimed, when she writhed herself free. "I'll never come within arm'slength of you

"Only cousinly affection, I assure you, Poll. Rather more violent than usual at finding myself back in

"What you are at me with the rest, are you?" she answered. "Why, because he was a gaby, and you're

"Do you mean to say you would not have me, if I asked you? Pooh! pooh! I know better than that, you

"Now, go in, Tom, and let me get out," said Mary. "I say Tom dear, don't say you saw me. I am going out for

Tom twisted up his great face into a mixture of mystery, admiration, wonder, and acquiescence, and, having

But Mary walked quickly down a deep narrow lane, overarched with oak, and melodious with the full rich

notes of the thrush, till she saw down the long vista, growing now momentarily darker, the gleaming of a ford

Not the brook where the Vicar and the Major went fishing. Quite a different sort of stream, although they

were scarcely half a mile apart, and joined just below. Here all the soil was yellow clay, and, being less

fertile, was far more densely wooded than any of the red country. The hills were very abrupt, and the fields

but sparely scattered among the forest land. The stream itself, where it crossed the road, flowed murmuring

over a bed of loose blue slate pebbles, but both above and below this place forced its way, almost invisible,

A stone footbridge spanned the stream, and having reached this, it seemed as if she had come to her

journey's end. For leaning on the rail she began looking into the water below, though starting and look ing

She was waiting for some one. A pleasant place this to wait in. So dark, so hemmed in with trees, and the

road so little used; spring was early here, and the boughs were getting quite dense already. How pleasant to

see the broad red moon go up behind the feathery branches, and listen to the evensong of the thrush, just

departing to roost, and leaving the field clear for the woodlark all night. There were a few sounds from the

village, a lowing of cows, and the noise of the boys at play; but they were so tempered down by the distance,

There is another sound now. Horses' feet approach ing rapidly from the side opposite to that by which she

had come; and soon a horseman comes in sight, coming quickly down the hill. When he sees her he breaks

This is the man she was expecting George Hawker. Ah, Vicar! how useless is your authority when lovers

have such intelligence as this. It were better they should meet in your parlour, under your own eye, than here,

Hawker spoke first. "I guessed," he said, "that it was just possible you might come out tonight. Come down

So as he tied the horse to a gate, she came down off the bridge. He took her in his arms and kissed her. "Now,

"The quarrel has been all on one side, my love," he said; "he has got some nonsense into his head, and he told

"What has he heard, George? it must be something very shocking to change him like that. Do you know what

"Perhaps I do," he said; "but he has no right to visit my father's sins on me. He hates me, and he always did;

and he has been racking his brains to find out something against me. That rascally German doctor has found

him an excuse, and so he throws in my teeth, as fresh discovered, what he must have known years ago."

"Not naturally he wouldn't, I know; but he is under the thumb of that doctor; and you know how he hates me

"I do though; that sleeky dog Stockbridge, who is such a favourite with him, has poisoned his mind, and all

because he wanted you and your money, and because you took up with me instead of him."

"Well now," said Mary; "don't go on about him he is gone, at all events; but you must tell me what this is

"Well!" she answered; "if it was anyone but me, perhaps, you ought not to tell it; but you ought to have no

"Well, it's about her. She and my father live together like man and wife, though they ain't married; and the

Vicar must have known that these years, and yet now he makes it an excuse for getting rid of me."

"I always thought she was a bad woman," said Mary; "but you are wrong about my father. He never knew it

till now I am certain; and of course, you know, he naturally won't have me go and live in the house with a bad

"Does he think then, or do you think," replied George, with virtuous indignation, "that I would have thought

"This won't make any difference in you, Mary? No, I needn't ask it, you wouldn't have come here to meet me

"It ought to make a difference, George," she replied; "I am afraid I oughtn't to come out here and see you,

"But you will come, my little darling, for all that;" he said. "Not here though the devil only knows who

may be loitering round here. Half a dozen pair of lovers a night perhaps no, meet me up in the croft of a

night. I am often in at Gosford's of an evening, and I can see your window from there, you put a candle in the

righthand corner when you want to see me, and I'll be down in a very few minutes. I shall come every

"Indeed," she said, "I won't do anything of the sort; at least, unless I have something very particular to say.

Then, indeed, I might do such a thing. Now I must go home or they will be missing me."

"Stay a minute, Mary," said he; "you just listen to me. They will, some of them, be trying to take my

character away. You won't throw me off without hearing my defence, dear Mary, I know you won't. Let me

hear what lies they tell of me, and don't you condemn me unheard because I come from a bad house? Tell me

that you'll give me a chance of clearing myself with you, my girl, and I'll go home in peace and wait."

What girl could resist the man she loved so truly, when he pleaded so well? With his arm about her waist, and

his handsome face bent over her, lit up with what she took to be love. Not she, at all events. She drew the

"I will never believe what they say of you, love. I should die if I lost you. I will stay by you through evil

And she felt what she said, and meant it. What though the words in which she spoke were borrowed from the

trashy novels she was always reading they were true enough for all that. George saw that they were true,

and saw also that now was the time to speak about what he had been pondering over all day.

"And suppose, my own love," he said; "that your father should stay in his present mind, and not come

"What are we to do?" he asked; "are we to be always content with meeting here and there, when we dare? Is

"Oh! that's what you mean," she replied. "Oh, George, I should not have courage for that."

"I think you will, my darling, when the time comes. Go home and think about it."

He kissed her once more, and then she ran away homeward through the dark. But she did not run far before

"Fly with him," she thought. Run away and get married. What a delightfully wild idea. Not to be entertained

for a moment, of course, but still what a pleasant notion. She meant to marry George in the end; why not that

way as well as any other? She thought about it again and again, and the idea grew more familiar. At all

events, if her father should continue obstinate, here was a way out of the difficulty. He would be angry at

first, but when he found he could not help himself he would come round, and then they would all be happy.

She would shut her ears to anything they said against George. She could not believe it. She would not. He

should be her husband, come what might. She would dissemble, and keep her father's suspicions quiet. More,

she would speak lightly of George, and make them believe she did not care for him. But most of all, she

would worm from her father everything she could about him. Her curiosity was aroused, and she fancied,

perhaps, George had not told her all the truth. Perhaps he might be entangled with some other woman. She

So confusedly thinking she reached home, and approaching the door, heard the noise of many voices in the

parlour. There was evidently company, and in her present excited state nothing would suit her better; so

sliding up to her room, and changing her dress a little, she came down and entered the parlour.

"Behold," cried the Doctor, as she entered the room, "the eveningstar has arisen at last. My dear young lady,

"I have been listening to your lamentations, Doctor," she replied. "They were certainly loud, and from the

frequent bursts of laughter, I judged they were getting hysterical, so I came down."

There was quite a party assembled. The Vicar and Major Buckley were talking earnestly together. Trou

bridge and the Doctor were side by side, while next the fire was Mrs. Buckley, with young Sam asleep on her

Having saluted them all, Mary sat down by Mrs. Buckley, and began talking to her. Then the conver sation

"I mean to say, Vicar," said the Major, "that it would be better to throw the four packs into two. Then you

would have less squabbling and bickering about the different boundaries, and you would kill the same

"And you would throw a dozen men out of work, sir," replied the Vicar, "in this parish and the next, and that

is to be considered; and about half the quantity of meat and horseflesh would be consumed, which is another

"I hear they got a large sterncabin; did they, Mr. Troubridge?" said the Doctor. "I hope they'll be

comfortable. They should have got more amidships if they could. They will be sick the longer in their

"Poor boys!" said Troubridge; "they'll be more heartsick than stomachsick, I expect. They'd half repented

Mary sat down by Mrs. Buckley, and had half an hour's agreeable conversation with her, till they all rose to

go. Mrs. Buckley was surprised at her sprightliness and good spirits, for she had expected to find her in tears.

The Doctor had met the Major in the morning, and told him what had passed the night before, so Mrs.

Buckley had come in to cheer Mary up for the loss of her lover, and to her surprise found her rather more

merry than usual. This made the good lady suspect at once that Mary did not treat the matter very seriously,

or else was determined to defy her father, which, as Mrs. Buckley reflected, she was perfectly able to do,

being rich in her own right, and of age. So when she was putting on her shawl to go home, she kissed Mary,

"My love, I hope you will always honour and obey your father, and I am sure you will always, under all

And having bidden her good night, Mary went in. The Doctor was gone with the Major, but Tom Troubridge

sat still before the fire, and as she came in was just finishing off one of his thundering fits of laughter at

"My love," said the Vicar, "I am so sorry you have been poorly, though you look better tonight. Your dear

aunt has been to Tom's room, so there is nothing to do, but to sit down and talk to us."

"Why, cousin Tom," she said, laughing, "I had quite forgot you; at least, quite forgot you were going to stay

"Isn't it?" he replied; "such a very long time. If I remember right, we met last out at the gate. Let's see. How

"You ought to remember," she replied; "you're big enough. Well, good night. I'm going to bed."

She went to her room, but not to bed. She sat in the window, looking at the stars, pale in the full moonlight,

wondering. Wondering what George was doing. Wondering whether she would listen to his audacious

A MONTH went on, and May was well advanced. The lanes had grown dark and shadowy with their summer

bravery; the banks were a rich mass of verdure once more, starred with wildrose and eglantine; and on the

lesser woodland stream, the king fern was again concealing the channel with brilliant golden fronds; while

brown bare thornthickets, through which the wind had whistled savagely all winter, were now changed into

A busy month this had been for the Major. Fishing every day, and pretty near all day, determined, as he said,

to make the most of it, for fear it should be his last year. There was a beaten path worn through the growing

grass all down the side of the stream by his sole exertions; and now the Mayfly was coming, and there

would be no more fishing in another week, so he worked harder than ever. Mrs. Buckley used to bring down

her son and heir, and sit under an oak by the riverside, sewing. Pleasant, long days they were when dinner

would be brought down to the old tree, and she would spend the day there, among the long meadowgrass,

purple and yellow with flowers, bending under the soft west wind. Pleasant to hear the corn crake by the

hedgeside, or the moorhen in the water. But pleasantest of all was the time when her husband, tired of

fishing, would come and sit beside her, and the boy, throwing his latelypetted flowers to the wind, would

run crowing to the spotted beauties which his father had laid out for him on the grass.

The Vicar was busy in his garden, and the Doctor was often helping him, although the most of his time was

spent in natural history, to which he seemed entirely devoted. One evening they had been employed rather

later than usual, and the Doctor was just gone, when the Vicar turned round and saw that his sister was come

out, with her basket and scissors, to gather a fresh bouquet for the drawingroom.

So he went to join her, and as he approached her he admired her with an affectionate admiration. Such a neat,

trim figure, with the snowwhite handkerchief over her head, and her white garden gloves; what a contrast to

"Good evening, brother," began Miss Thornton. "Was not that Dr. Mulhaus went from you just now?"

"You had letters of introduction to Dr. Mulhaus, when he came to reside in this village?" asked Miss

"His real name, I daresay, is not Mulhaus. Do you know what his real name is, brother?"

How very awkward plain plump questions of this kind are. The Vicar would have liked to answer "No," but

he could not tell a lie. He was also a very bad hand at prevaricating; so with a stammer, he said "Yes!"

"I recognised him the first instant I saw him, and was struck dumb. I was very discreet, and have never said a

word even to you till now; and, lately, I have been thinking that you might know, and so I thought I would

"Yes; often," said Miss Thornton. "He came to the house several times. How well I remember the last. The

dear girls and I were in the conservatory in the morning, and all of a sudden we heard the door thrown open,

and two men coming towards us talking from the breakfastroom. We could not see them for the plants, but

when we heard the voice of one of them, the girls got into a terrible flutter, and I was very much frightened

myself. However, there was no escape, so we came round the corner on them as bold as we could, and there

"The Emperor Alexander, my dear, whose voice we had recognised; I thought you would have known whom

"My dear love," said the Vicar, "I hope you reflect how sacred that is, and what a good friend I should lose if

the slightest hint as to who he was, were to get among the gentry round. You don't think he has recognised

"How is it likely, brother, that he would re member an English governess, whom he never saw but three

times, and never looked at once? I have often wondered whether the Major recognised him."

"No; Buckley is a Peninsular man, and although at Waterloo, never went to Paris. Lans Mulhaus, I mean,

was not present at Waterloo. So they never could have met. My dear discreet old sister, what tact you have! I

have often said to myself, when I have seen you and he together, 'If she only knew who he was;' and to

"I have lived long where tact is required, my dear brother. See, there goes young Mr. Hawker!"

"I'd sooner see him going home than coming here. Now, I'd go out for a turn in the lanes, but I know I should

meet half a dozen couples courting, as they call it. Bah! So I'll stay in the garden."

The Vicar was right about the lanes being full of lovers. Never a vista that you looked down but what you

saw a ghostly pair, walking along side by side. Not arm in arm, you know. The man has his hands in his

pockets, and walks a few feet off the woman. They never speak to one another I think I don't go too far in

saying that. I have met them and overtaken them, and come sharp round corners on to them, but I never heard

them speak to one another. I have asked the young men themselves whether they ever said anything to their

sweethearts, and those young men have answered, "No; that they didn't know as they did." So that I am

inclined to believe that they are contented with that silent utterance of the heart which is so superior to the

But the Vicar had a strong dislike to lovers' walks. He was a practical man, and had studied parish statistics

for some years, so that his opinion is entitled to respect. He used to ask, why an honest girl should not receive

her lover at her father's house, or in broad daylight, and many other impertinent questions which we won't go

into, but which many a westcountry parson has asked before, and never got an answer to.

Of all pleasant places in the parish, surely one of the pleasantest for a meeting of this kind was the old oak at

the end of Hawker's plantation, where George met Nelly a night we know of. So quiet and lonely, and such

pleasant glimpses down long oaken glades, with a bright carpet of springing fern. Surely there will be a

So there is! Walking this way too! George Hawker is one of them; but we can't see who the other is. Who

should it be but Mary, though, with whom he should walk, with his arm round her waist talking so

affectionately. But see, she raises her head. Why! that is not Mary. That is old Jewel's dowdy, hand some,

"Now I'm going home to supper, Miss Jenny," he says. "So you pack off, or you'll have your amiable mother

He referred to her eldest sister the one that the Vicar and the Doctor saw nursing a baby the night that old

"Yes," replied the girl. "Her man's going to have her at last; that's his baby she's got, you know; and it seems

he'll sooner make her work for keeping it, than pay for it hisself. So they're going to be married; better late

George left her and went in; into the gloomy old kitchen, now darkening rapidly. There sat Madge before the

fire, in her favourite attitude, with her chin on her hand and her elbow on her knee.

"I hope he'll have the sense to stay there tonight, then," said George. "He'll fall off his horse in a fit coming

"You would," she said laughing. "Why, you young fool, you'd be better off in fifty ways!"

"Why, you unnatural old vixen," said he indig nantly, "do you miscall a man for caring for his own father?

"He's been a good father to you, George, and I like you the better, lad, for speaking up for him. He's an awful

"Now, stop that talk of yours, Madge, and don't go on like a mad woman, or else we shall quarrel; and that I

"Aye, and you'll get it, my pretty boy; though you never tell me aught till you are forced."

"Well, I'm going to tell you something now; so keep your ears open. Madge, where is the girl?"

"Outside, in the stable, doing down your horse. Bend over the fire, and whisper in my ear, lad!"

"Madge, old girl," he whispered, as they bent their heads together, "I've wrote the old man's name where I

"What! again!" she answered. "Three times! For God's sake, mind what you're at, George."

"Twice I know of," she said. "Once last year, and once last month. How do you think he'd have been so long

without finding it out if it hadn't been for me? And what a fool you were not to tell me before. Why, you must

be mad. I as near let the cat out of the bag coming over that last business in the book without being ready for

it, as anything could be. However, it's all right at present. But what's this last?"

"You mustn't do it again, George. You were a fool ever to do it without me. We are hardly safe now, if he

should get talking to the bank people. However, he never goes there, and you must take care he don't."

"I couldn't answer for him," said she. "He likes you best of anything next his money; and sometimes I am

afraid he wouldn't spare even you if he knew he had been robbed. You might make yourself safe for any

"Marry that little doll Thornton, and get her money. Then, if it came to a row, you could square it up."

"Well," said George, "I am pushing that on. The old man won't come round, and I want her to go off with me,

"Well, at all events," said Madge, "you should look sharp. There's a regular tightlaced mob about her, and

they all hate you. There's that Mrs. Buckley. Her conversation will be very different from yours, and she'll see

the difference, and get too proud for the like of you. That woman's a real lady, and that's very dangerous, for

she treats her like an equal. Just let that girl get over her first fancy for you, and she'll care no more about you

"And there's another thing," said George. "That Tom Troubridge is staying there again."

"That's very bad," said Madge. "She is very likely to take a fancy to him. He's a fine young fellow. You get

"Why, George," he said; "you at home. I thought you'd have been down, hanging about the parson's. You

don't get on very fast with that girl, lad. I thought you'd have had her by now. You're a fool, boy."

"Well, I like to tell you this least of all," he said. "That last money went to hush up the first matter."

"No one I know," she answered sarcastically. "Not know my old sweetheart, Bill Lee of Belston. And I the

only one that knew him when he came back. Well, I've kept that to myself, because no good was to be got by

peaching on him, and a secret's always worth money. Why, lad, I could have sent that man abroad again

quicker than he come, if I had awanted. Why hadn't you trusted me at first? You'd asaved five hundred

"None o' that now," said Madge; "that's what you were after the other night with your gun. But nothing came

of it; I saw that in your face when you came home. Now get off to bed; and if Bill Lee gives you any more

"It would be a fine thing," he thought, "to get her and her money. I am very fond of her for her own sake, but

then the money would be the making of me. I ought to strike while the iron is hot. Who knows but what Nell

might come gandering back in one of her tantrums, and spoil everything. Or some of the other girls might get

talking. And this cursed cheque, too; that ought to be provided against. What a fool I was not to tell Madge

about it before. I wonder whether she is game to come, though. I think she is; she has been very tender lately.

It don't look as if she was getting tired of me, though she might take a fancy into her head about Troubridge. I

daresay her father is putting him up to it; though, indeed, that would be sure to set her against him. If he

hadn't done that with Stockbridge, she'd have married him, I believe. Well, I'll see her tomorrow night, and

carry on like mad. Terribly awkward it will be, though, if she won't. However, we'll see. There's a way to

As Somebody would have it, the very next day the Vicar and Mary had a serious quarrel. Whether his

digestion was out of order; whether the sight of so many lovecouples passing his gate the night before had

ruffled him and made him bilious; or whether some one was behind hand with his tithe, we shall never know.

Only we know, that shortly after dinner they disagreed about some trifle, and Mary remained sulky all the

afternoon; and that at teatime, driven on by pitiless fate, little thinking what was hanging over him, he made

some harsh remark, which brought down a flood of tears. Whereat, getting into a passion, he told Mary,

somewhat unjustly, that she was always sulking, and was making his life miserable. That it was time that she

was married. That Tom Troubridge was an excellent young fellow, and that he considered it was her duty to

Mary said, with tearful indignation, that it was notorious that he was making love to Miss Burrit of Paiskow.

And that if he wasn't, she'd never, never, think of him, for that he was a great, lumbering, stupid, stupid fool.

Then the Vicar got into an unholy frame of mind, and maddened by Mary's tears, and the sight of his sister

wiping her frightened face with her handkerchief, said, with something like an asseveration, that she was

always at it. That she was moping about, and col loquing with that infamous young scoundrel, Hawker. That

he would not have it. That if he found him lurking about his premises, he'd either break his neck himself, or

find some one who could; and a great deal more frantic nonsense, such as weak men generally indulge in

when they get in a passion; much better left unsaid at any time, but which on this occa sion, as the reader

Mary left the room, and went to her own. She was in a furious passion against her father, against all the

world. She sat on the bed for a time, and cried herself quiet. It grew dark, and she lit a candle, and put it in the

right corner of the window, and soon after, wrapping a shawl around her, she slipped down the backstairs,

Not long before she heard a low whistle, to which she replied, and in a very few minutes felt George's arm

"I knew you would not disappoint me tonight, my love," he began. "I have got something particular to say to

"Not yours, George. Oh no," she said. "My father has been very cruel and unjust to me, and I have been in a

great passion and very miserable. I am so glad you came tonight, that I might tell you how very unhappy I

"I won't indeed, George. I'll tell you everything. Though some of it will make you very angry. My father

broke out about you at teatime, and said that you were hanging about the place, and that he wouldn't have it.

And then he said that I ought to marry Tom Troubridge, and that I said I'd never do. And then he went on

"The cure is in your own hands, Mary. Come off with me. I can get a licence, and we could be married in a

week or so, or two. Then, what follows? Why, your father is very angry. He is that at present. But he'll of

course make believe he is in a terrible way. Well, in a few weeks he'd see it was no use carrying on. That his

daughter had married a young man of property, who was very fond of her, and as she was very fond of. And

that matters might be a deal worse. That a bird in hand is worth two in the bush. And so he'll write a kind

affectionate letter to his only child, and say that he forgives her husband for her sake. That's how the matter

"Can you doubt it? Use your reason, my dear, and ask yourself what he would gain by holding out. You say

"Well, my darling, he wouldn't show it much if he was angry very long. You don't know what a change it will

make when the thing's once done. When I am his soninlaw he'll be as anxious to find out that I'm a saint as

"The better the day the better the deed. Come, no refusal now, it is too late, my darling. At ten o'clock I shall

WHO has not seen the misery and despair often caused in a family by the senseless selfishness of one of its

members? Who has not felt enraged at such times, to think that a man or woman should presume on the

affection and kindheartedness of their relatives, and yet act as if they were wholly without those affections

themselves? And, lastly, who of us all is guiltless of doing this? Let him that is without sin among us cast the

The Spring sun rose on the Sabbath morning, as if no trouble were in store for any mortal that day. The Vicar

rose with the sun, for he had certain arrears of the day's sermons to get through, and he was in the habit of

saying that his best and clearest passages were written with his window open, in the brisk morn ing air.

But although the air was brisk and pleasant this morning, and all nature was in full glory, the inspira tion did

not come to the Vicar quite so readily as usual. In fact, he could not write at all, and at one time was thinking

of pleading ill health, and not preaching, but afterwards changed his mind, and patched the sermons up

He felt queer and dull in the head this morning. And, after breakfast, he walked to church with his sister and

daughter, not speaking a word. Miss Thorn ton was rather alarmed, he looked so dull and stupid. But Mary

She was so busy with far other thoughts at church that she did not notice the strange halting way in which her

father read the service sometimes lisping, some times trying twice before he could pronounce a word at

all. But, after church, Miss Thornton noticed it to her; and she also noticed, as they stood waiting for him

under the lychgate, that he passed through the crowd of neighbours, who stood as usual round the porch to

receive him, without a word, merely raising his hat in salutation. Conduct so strange that Miss Thornton

began to cry, and said she was sure her brother was very ill. But Mary said it was because he was still angry

with her that he spoke to no one, and that when he had forgotten his cause of offence he would be the same

At lunch, the Vicar drank several glasses of wine, which seemed to do him good; and by the time he had, to

Miss Thornton's great astonishment, drunk half a bottle, he was quite himself again. Mary was all this time in

her room, and the Vicar asked for her. But Miss Thornton said she was not very well.

"Oh, I remember," said the Vicar, "I quarrelled with her last night. I was quite in the wrong, but, my dear

sister, all yesterday and today I have been so nervous, I have not known what I said or did. I shall keep

myself up to the afternoon service with wine, and tomorrow we will see the Doctor. Don't tell Mary I am ill.

Afternoon service went off well enough. When Mary heard his old familiar voice strong, clear, and har

monious, filling the aisles and chapels of the beautiful old church, she was quite reassured. He seemed

stronger than usual even, and never did the congrega tion listen to a nobler or better sermon from his lips,

than the one they heard that spring afternoon; the last, alas, they ever had from their kind old Vicar.

Mary could not listen to it. The old innocent interest she used to have in her father's success in preaching was

gone. As of old, sitting beneath the carved oak screen, she heard the sweet simple harmony of the evening

hymn roll up, and die in pleasant echoes among the lofty arches overhead. As of old, she could see through

the rich traceried windows the moor sloping far away, calm and peaceful, bathed in a misty halo of afternoon

sunshine. All these familiar sights and sounds were the same, but she herself was different. She was about to

break rudely through from the old world of simple routine and homely pleasure, and to cast herself

unthinking into a new world of passion and chance, and take the consequences of such a step, let them be

what they might. She felt as if she was the possessor of some guilty secret, and felt sometimes as if some one

would rise in church and denounce her. How would all these quiet folks talk of her tomorrow morning?

That was not to be thought of. She must harden her heart and think of nothing. Only that to morrow she

Poor Mary! many a woman, and many a man, who sat so quiet and calm in the old church that afternoon, had

far guiltier secrets than any you ever had, to trouble them, and yet they all drank, slept, and died, as quietly as

many honest and good men. Poor girl! let us judge as kindly of her as we can, for she paid a fearful penalty

for her selfwill. She did but break through the prejudices of her education, we may say; and if she was

undutiful, what girls are not, under the influence of passion? If such poor excuses as these will cause us to

think more kindly of her, let us make them, and leave the rest to God. Perhaps, brother, you and I may stand

in a position to have excuses made for us, one day; therefore, we will be charitable.

My Lord was at church that afternoon, a very rare circumstance, for he was mostly at his great property in the

north, and had lately been much abroad for his health. So when Miss Thornton and Mary joined the Vicar in

the main aisle, and the three went forth into the churchyard, they found the villagers drawn re spectfully

back upon the graves, and his lordship waiting in close confabulation with farmer Wreford, to receive the

A tall, courtly, grizzledlooking man he was, with clear grey eyes, and a modulated harmonious voice. Well

did their lordships of the upperhouse know that voice, when after a long sleepy debate it aroused them from

ambrosial slumbers, with biting sarcasm, and most disagreeably told truths. And most heartily did a certain

proportion of their lordships curse the owner of that voice, for a talented, eloquent, meddlesome inno vator.

But on all his great estates he was adored by the labourers and town'sfolk, though hated by the farmers and

country 'squires; for he was the earliest and fiercest of the reform and freetrade warriors.

He came up to the Vicar with a pleasant smile. "I have to thank you, Mr. Thornton, for a most charming

sermon, though having the fault common to all good things, of being too short. Miss Thornton, I hope you are

quite well; I saw Lady Dthe other day, and she begged that when I came down here, I would convey her

"I received a letter from her ladyship last week," said Miss Thornton; "informing me that dear Lady Fanny

"Happy boy," said my Lord; "fifty thousand ayear, and nothing to do for it, unless he likes. Besides a

minority of at least ten years for Lis getting very shaky, Miss Thornton, and is still devotedly given to

stewed mushrooms. Nay, my dear lady, don't look distressed, she will make a noble young dowager. This

Mary was introduced, and his Lordship addressed a few kindly commonplaces to her, to which she replied

with graceful modesty. Then he demanded of the Vicar, "where is Dr. Mulhaus, has he been at church this

At that moment the Doctor, attended by the old clerk, was head and shoulders into the old oak chest that

contained the parish registers, looking for the book of burials for sixteen hundred and something. Not being

able to get to the bottom, he got bodily in, as into a bath, and after several dives succeeded in fishing it up

from the bottom, and standing there absorbed for a few minutes, up to his middle in dusty parchments and

angry moths, he got his finger on a particular date, and dashed out of church, book in hand, and hatless,

crying, "Vicar, Vicar!" just as the villagers had cleared off, and my lord was moving away with the Vicar to

When his Lordship saw the wild dusty figure come running out of the church porch with the parish register in

his hand, and no hat on his head, he understood the position immediately. He sat down on a tombstone, and

"No need to tell me," he said through his laughter, "that he is unchanged; just as mad and energetic as ever, at

whatever he takes in hand, whether getting together impossible ministries, or searching the parish register of

"And how do you do, old democrat?" answered the Doctor. "Politics seem to agree with you; I believe you

would die without vexation just excuse me a moment. Look you here, you infidel," to the Vicar, showing

him the register; "there's his name plain 'Burrows, Curate of this parish, 1698.' Now what do you say?"

The Vicar acquiesced with a sleepy laugh, and pro posed moving homewards. Miss Thornton hoped that the

Doctor would join them at dinner as usual. The Doctor said of course, and went back to fetch his hat, my

Lord following him into the church. When the others had gone down the hill, and were waiting for the

nobleman and the Doctor at the gate, Miss Thorn ton watched the two coming down the hill. My Lord

stopped the Doctor, and eagerly demonstrated some thing to him with his forefinger on the palm of his

My Lord made himself thoroughly agreeable at dinner, as did also the Doctor. Mary was surprised too at the

calm highbred bearing of her aunt, the way she understood and spoke of every subject of conversation, and

the deference with which they listened to her. It was a side of her aunt's character she had never seen before,

and she felt it hard to believe that that intel lectual dignified lady, referred to on all subjects, was the old

maid she had been used to laugh at, and began to feel that she was in an atmosphere far above what she was

"All this is above me," she said to herself; "let them live in this sphere who are accustomed to it, I have

chosen wiser, out of the rank in which I have been brought up. I would sooner be George Hawker's wife than

Soon after dinner she retired with her aunt; they did not talk much when they were alone, so Mary soon

retired to her room, and having made a few very slight preparations, sat down at the window. The time was

soon to come, but it was very cold; the maids were out, as they always were on Sunday evening, and there

She wished to be alone, so when she saw a candle burning in the kitchen she was disappointed, but went in

nevertheless. My Lord's groom, who had been sit ting before the fire, rose up and saluted her. A hand

some young man, rather square and prominent about the jaws, but nevertheless foolish and amiable looking.

The sort of man one would suppose, who, if his lord were to tell him to jump into the pit Tophet, would

pursue one of two courses, either jump in himself, with out further to do, or throw his own brother in with

profuse apologies. From the top of his sleek round head to the sole of his perfect topboot, the model and

living exponent of what a servant should be fit to be put into a case and ticketed as such.

He saluted her as she came in, and drawing a letter from his hat, put it into her astonished hands. "My orders

She thanked him and withdrew to read it. It was a scrawl from George Hawker, the first letter she had ever

"I SHALL be in the croft tonight, according to promise, ready to make you the happiest woman in England,

so I know you won't fail. My Lord is coming to church this afternoon, and will be sure to dine with you. So I

send this present by his groom, Sam; a good young chap, which I have known since he was so high, and like

She was standing under the lamp reading this when she heard the diningroom door open, and the men

coming out from their wine. She slipped into the room opposite, and stood listening in the dark. She could see

them as they came out. There was my Lord and the Doctor first, and behind came Major Buckley, who had

dropped in, as his custom was, on Sunday evening, and who must have arrived while she was upstairs. As

they passed the door, inside which she stood, his Lordship turned round and said:

"I tell you what, my dear Major, if that old Hawker was a tenant of mine, I'd take away his lease, and, if I

could, force him to leave the parish. One man of that kind does incalculable harm in a village, by lowering

the tone of the morality of the place. That's the use of a great landlord if he does his duty. He can punish

"Don't say anything more about him," said the Doctor in a low voice. "It's a tender subject in this house."

"It is, eh!" said my Lord; "thanks for the hint, good bah! Mulhaus. Let us go up and have half an hour

They went up, and then her father followed. He seemed flushed, and she thought he must have been drinking

too much wine. After they were in the draw ingroom, she crept upstairs and listened. They were all

talking except her father. It was halfpast nine, and she wished they would go. So she went into her bedroom

and waited. The maids had come home, and she heard them talking to the groom in the kitchen. At ten

o'clock the bell was rung, and my Lord's horse ordered. Soon he went, and not long afterwards the Major and

the Doctor followed. Then she saw Miss Thornton go to her room, and her father walk slowly to his; and all

She took her hat and shawl and slipped down stairs shoeless into her father's study. She laid a note on his

chimneypiece, which she had written in the morning, and opening the backdoor fled swiftly forth, not

daring to look behind her. Quickly, under the blinking stars, under the blooming appletrees, out to the

croftgate, and there was George waiting impatiently for her, according to promise.

She scrambled over the gate, and jumped into his arms; he hurried her down the lane about a hundred yards,

"That's my gig, my dear. Once in that, and we are soon in Exeter. All right, Bob?"

"All right!" replied a strange voice in the dark, and she was lifted into the gig quickly; in another moment

George was beside her, and they were flying through the dark steep lanes at a dangerous speed.

The horse was a noble beast the finest in the country side and, like his driver, knew every stock and

stone on the road; so that ere poor Mary had recovered her first flurry, they had crossed the red ford, and were

four miles on the road towards the capital, and began to feel a little more cheerful, for she had been crying

"No fear of my giving way now, George. If I had been going to do that, I'd have done it before. Now tell us

"I think we had better go straight on to London, my dear," he replied, "and get married by licence. We could

never stop in Exeter; and if you feel up to it, I should like to get off by early coach tomorrow morning. What

They rattled through the broad streets of a small country town just as the moon rose. The noble minster,

which had for many years been used as the parish church, slept quietly among the yews and gravestones; all

the town was still; only they two were awake, flying, she thought, from the fellowship of all quiet men. Was

her father asleep now? she wondered. What would Miss Thornton say in the morning? and many other things

she was asking herself, when she was interrupted by George saying, "Only eight miles to Exeter; we shall be

So they left Crediton Minster behind them, and rolled away along the broad road by the river, beneath the

As Miss Thornton was dressing herself next morning she heard the Vicar go down into his study as usual.

She congratulated herself that he was better, from being up thus early, but determined, nevertheless, that he

Then she wondered why Mary had not been in. She generally came into her aunt's room to hookandeye

her, as she called it; but not having come this morning, Miss Thornton determined to go to her, and accord

No answer. "Could the girl have been fool enough?" thought Miss Thornton. "Nonsense! no! She must be

She opened the door and went in. Everything tidy. The bed had not been slept in. Miss Thornton had been in

at an elopement, and a famous one, before; so she knew the symptoms in a moment. Well she remembered

the dreadful morning when Lady Kate went off with Captain Brentwood, of the Artillery. Well she

remembered the Countess going into hysterics. But this was worse than that; this touched her nearer home.

"Oh you naughty girl! Oh you wicked, ungrateful girl; to go and do such a thing at a time like this, when I've

been watching the paralysis creeping over him day by day! How shall I tell him? How shall I ever tell him?

He will have a stroke as sure as fate. He was going to have one without this. I dare not tell him till breakfast,

and yet I ought to tell him at once. I was brought into the world to be driven mad by girls. Oh dear, I wish

they were all boys, and we might send them to Eton and wash our hands of them. Well, I must leave crying,

She went into his study, and at first could not see him; but he was there a heap of black clothes lay on the

hearthrug, and Miss Thornton running up, saw that it was her brother, speechless, senseless, clasping a letter

She saw that the worst was come, and nerved herself for work, like a valiant soul as she was. She got him

carried to his bed by the two sturdy maids, and sent an express for Dr. Mulhaus, and another for the profes

sional surgeon. Then she took from her pocket the letter which she had found in the poor Vicar's hand, and,

"When you get this, father, I shall be many miles away. I have started to London with George Hawker, and

God only knows whether you will see me again. Try to forgive me, father, and if not, forget that you ever had

a daughter who was only born to give you trouble. Your erring but affectionate Mary."

It will be seen by the reader that this unlucky letter, written in agitation and hurry, contained no allusion

whatever to marriage, but rather left one to infer that she was gone with Hawker as his mistress. So the Vicar

read it again and again, each time more mistily, till sense and feeling departed, and he lay before his hearth a

At that moment Mary, beside George, was rolling through the fresh morning air, up the beautiful Exe valley.

Her fears were gone with daylight and sun shine, and as he put his arm about her waist, she said,

FOR the first four weeks that the Vicar lay paralyzed, the neighbouring clergymen had done his duty; but

now arose a new difficulty at Drumston. Who was to do the duty while the poor Vicar lay there on his back

"How," asked Miss Thornton of Tom Troubridge, "are we to make head against the dissenters now? Let the

duty lapse but one single week, my dear friend, and you will see the chapels overflowing once more. My

brother has always had a hard fight to keep them to church, for they have a natural tendency to dissent here.

And a great number don't care what the denominations are, so long as there is noise enough."

"If that is the case," answered Tom, "old Mark Hook's place of worship should pay best. I'd back them against

"They certainly make the loudest noise at a Revival," said Miss Thornton. "But what are we to do?"

"That I am sure I don't know, my dearest auntie," said Troubridge, "but I am here, and my horse too, ready to

"And I see no way else," said Tom, "unless you like to dress me up as a parson, and see if I would do."

Miss Thornton wrote to the Bishop, with whom she had some acquaintance, and told him how her brother

had been struck down with paralysis, and that the parish was unprovided for; that if he would send any

Armed with this letter, Tom found himself, for the first time in his life, in an episcopal palace. A sleek

servant in black opened the door with catlike tread, and admitted him into a dark, warm hall; and on Tom's

saying, in a hoarse whisper, as if he was in church, that he had brought a note of importance, and would wait

for an answer, the man glided away, and disappeared through a springdoor, which swung to behind him.

Tom had a great awe for your peers spiritual. He could get on well enough with a peer temporal, par

ticularly if that proud aristocrat happened to be in want of a horse; but a bishop was quite another matter.

So he sat rather uncomfortable in the dark, warm hall, listening to such dull sounds as could be heard in the

gloomy mansion. A broad oak staircase led up from the hall into lighter regions, and there stood, on a landing

above, a lean, wheezy old clock, all over brass knobs, which, as he looked on it, choked, and sneezed four.

But now there was a new sound in the house. An indecent, secular sound. A door near the top of the house

was burst violently open, and there was a scuffle. A loud voice shouted twice unmistakeably and distinctly,

"Soo, good bitch!" And then the astounded Tom heard the worrying of a terrier, and the squeak of a dying

rat. There was no mistake about it; he heard the bones crack. Then he made out that a dog was induced to go

into a room on false pretences, and deftly shut up there, and then he heard a heavy step descend ing the

But, before there was time for the perpetrator of these sacrileges to come in sight, a side door opened, and the

Bishop himself came forth with a letter in his hand (a mild, clever, gentlemanlylooking man he was too,

Tom replied that he had brought a letter from his cousin the Vicar. He had rather expected to hear it

demanded, "Where is the audacious man who has dared to penetrate these sacred shades?" and was agreeably

"Dear me," said the Bishop; "I beg a thousand pardons for keeping you in the hall; pray walk into my study."

Tom bowed. "I am about the nearest relation he has besides his sister, my lord."

"Indeed," said the Bishop. "I have written to Miss Thornton to say that there is a gentleman, a relation of my

own, now living in the house with me, who will undertake Mr. Thornton's duties, and I dare say, also, without

remuneration. He has nothing to do at present. Oh, here is the gentleman I spoke of!"

Here was the gentleman he spoke of, holding a dead rat by the tail, and crying out,

"Look here, uncle; what did I tell you? I might have been devoured alive, had it not been for my faithful Fly,

He was about six feet or nearly so in height, with a highly intellectual though not a handsome face. His brown

hair, carelessly brushed, fell over a forehead both broad and lofty, beneath which shone a pair of bold, clear

grey eyes. The moment Troubridge saw him he set him down in his own mind as a "goer," by which he meant

a man who had go, or energy, in him. A man, he thought, who is thrown away as a parson.

The Bishop, ringing the bell, began again, "This is my nephew, Mr. Frank Maberly."

"My dear Frank, pray give that rat to Sanders, and let him take it away. I don't like such things in the study."

"I only brought it to convince you, uncle," said the other. "Here you are, Sanders!"

But Sanders would have as soon shaken hands with the Pope. He rather thought the rat was alive; and, taking

the tongs, he received the beast at a safe distance, while Tom saw a smile of contempt pass over the young

"You'd make a good missionary, Sanders," said he; and, turning to Troubridge, continued, "Pray excuse this

interlude, sir. You don't look as if you would refuse to shake me by my ratty hand."

Tom thought he would sooner shake hands with him than fight him, and was so won by Maberly's manner,

that he was just going to say so, when he recollected the presence he was in, and blushed scarlet.

"My dear Frank," resumed his uncle, "Mr. Thornton of Drumston is taken suddenly ill, and I want you to go

Tom replied, "Yes, certainly," and took his leave. Then the Bishop, turning to Frank, said,

"The living of Drumston, nephew, is in my gift; and if Mr. Thornton does not recover, as is very possible, I

shall give it to you. I wish you, therefore, to go to Drumston, and become acquainted with your future

Frank Maberly was the second son of a country gentleman of good property, and was a very remarkable

character. His uncle had always said of him, that whatever he chose to take up he would be first in; and his

uncle was right. At Eton he was not only the best cricketer and runner, but decidedly the best scholar of his

time. At Cambridge, for the first year, he was probably the noisiest man in his college, though he never lived

what is called "hard;" but in the second year he took up his books once more, and came forth third wrangler

and first class, and the second day after the classlist came out, made a very long score in the match with

Oxford. Few men were more popular, though the fast men used to call him crotchety; and on some subjects,

indeed, he was very impatient of contradiction. And most of his friends were a little disappointed when they

heard of his intention of going into the Church. His father went so far as to say,

Old Mr. Maberly was at first shocked by this last expression from a son who rarely or never talked on

"But," he added, "since I've been thinking of it, I'm sure Frank meant neither blague nor irreverence. He is in

earnest. I never knew him tell a lie; and since he was six years old he has known how to call a spade a spade."

At the time of John Thornton's illness, he had been ordained about a year and ahalf. He had got a title for

orders, as a curate, in a remote part of Devon, but had left it in consequence of a violent disagreement with

his rector, in which he had been most fully borne out by his uncle, who, by the bye, was not the sort of man

who would have supported his own brother, had he been in the wrong. Since then Frank Maberly had been

Miss Thornton sat in the drawingroom at Drumston the day after Tom's visit to the Bishop, waiting dinner

for the new Curate. Tom and she had been wondering how he would come. Miss Thornton said, probably in

the Bishop's carriage; but Tom was inclined to think he would ride over. The dinner time was past some ten

minutes, when they saw a man in black put his hand on the gardengate, vault over, and run breathless up to

the halldoor. Tom had recog nised him and dashed out to receive him, but ere he had time to say "good

day" even, the new comer pulled out his watch, and, having looked at it, said in a tone of vexation:

"Twentyone minutes, as near as possible; nay, a little over. By Jove! how pursy a fellow gets mewed up in

"So they told me," replied Frank Maberly. "I left my portmanteau there, and the landlordfellow had the

audacity to say in conversation that I couldn't run the four miles in twenty minutes. It's lucky a parson can't

bet, or I should have lost my money. But the last mile is very much uphill, as you must allow."

"I'll tell you what, sir," said Tom; "there isn't a man in this parish would go that four mile under twenty

Miss Thornton had listened to this conversation with wonder not unmixed with amusement. At first she had

concluded that the Bishop's carriage was upset, and that Frank was the breathless messenger sent for ward to

chronicle the mishap. But her tact soon showed the sort of person she had to deal with, for she was not

unacquainted with the performances of public school boys. She laughed when she called to mind the

bouleversement that used to take place when Lord Charles and Lord Frederick came home from Harrow, and

invaded her quiet schoolroom. So she advanced into the passage to meet the newcomer with one of her

"I must claim an old woman's privilege of intro ducing myself, Mr. Maberly," she said. "Your uncle was

"Can you forgive me, Miss Thornton?" he said, "for running up to the house in this lunatic sort of way? I am

still half a schoolboy, you know. What an old jewel she is!" he added to himself.

"If you please, do," said Frank; and added, "Get out, Fly; what are you doing here?"

But Miss Thornton interceded for the dog, a beau tiful little black and tan terrier, whose points Tom was

"That's a brave little thing, Mr. Maberly," said he, as he showed him to his room. "I should like to put in my

They stood face to face in the bedroom as he said this, and Frank, not answering him, said abruptly:

"A sight of all sorts," said Tom. "They want attracting to church here; they don't go naturally, as they do in

"I see," said Frank; "I suppose they'll come next Sunday though, to see the new parson; my best plan will be

"Why, you see," said Tom, "it's got about that there'll be no service next Sunday, so they'll make an excuse

for going to Meeting. Our best plan will be, for you and I to go about and let them know that there's a new

minister. Then you'll get them together, and after that I leave it to you to keep them. Shall we go down to

"Aye! that we shall," said Tom heartily; "you're a man's parson; that's about what you are. But," he added,

At dinner, Miss Thornton said, "I hope, Mr. Maberly, you are none the worse after your run? Are you not

"Not I, my dear madam," he said. "Let me make my defence for what, otherwise, you might consider mere

boyish folly. I am passionately fond of athletic sports of all kinds, and indulge in them as a pleasure. No real

man is without some sort of pleasure, more or less harmless. Nay, even your fanatic is a man who makes a

pleasure and an excitement of religion. My pleasures are very harmless; what can be more harmless than

keeping this shell of ours in the highest state of capacity for noble deeds? I know," he said, turning to Tom,

"what the great temptation is that such men as you or I have to contend against. It is 'the pride of life;' but if

we know that and fight against it, how can it prevail against us? It is easier conquered than the lust of the

flesh, or the lust of the eye, though some will tell you that I can't construe my Greek Testament, and that the

'pride of life' means something very different. I hold my opinion however, in spite of them. Then, again,

although I have taken a good degree (not so good as I might, though), I consider that I have only just begun to

study. Consequently, I read hard still, and shall continue to do so the next twenty years, please God. I find my

head the clearer, and my intel lect more powerful in consequence of the good digestion produced by

exercise; so I mean to use it till I get too fat, which will be a long while first."

"Ain't you afraid," said Tom, laughing, "of offend ing some of your weaker brothers' consciences, by

"Disputing with a publican might be an error of judgment," said Frank. "Bah! might be it was; but with

regard to running four miles no. It is natural and right that a man at fiveandtwenty should be both able

and willing to run four miles, a parson above all others, as a protest against effeminacy. With regard to

consciences, those very tender conscienced men oughtn't to want a parson at all."

Miss Thornton had barely left the room, to go up to the Vicar, leaving Tom and Frank Maberly over their

wine, when the halldoor was thrown open, and the wellknown voice of the Doctor was heard exclaiming in

"If! sir, if! always at if's. If Blucher had de stroyed the bridge, say you, as if he ever meant to be such a

Vandal. And if he had meant to do it, do you think that fifty Wellesleys in one would have stayed him? No,

sir; and if he had destroyed every bridge on the Seine, sir, he would have done better than to be overruled by

the counsels of Wellington (glory go with him, however! He was a good man). And why, forsooth?

because the English bore the brunt at Waterloo, in consequence of the Prussians being delayed by muddy

"And Ligny," said the laughing voice of Major Buckley. "Oh, Doctor, dear! I like to make you angry, because

then your logic is so very outrageous. You are like the man who pleaded not guilty of murder: first, because

he hadn't done it; secondly, that he was drunk when he did it; and thirdly, that it was a case of mistaken

"Ha, ha!" laughed the Doctor, merrily, recovering his good humour in a moment. "That's an Irish story for a

They were presented to Frank as the new curate. The Doctor, after a courteous salutation, put on his

spectacles, and examined him carefully. Frank looked at him all the time with a quiet smile, and in the end

"Allow me the privilege of shaking hands with you, sir." "Shall I be considered rude if I say that I seldom or

never saw a finer head than yours on a man's shoulders? And, judging by the face, it is well lined."

"Like a buckbasket," said Frank, "full of dirty linen. Plenty of it, and of some quality, but not in a state fit

The Doctor saw he had found a man after his own heart, and it was not long before Frank and he were in the

seventh heaven of discussion. Meanwhile, the Major had drawn up alongside of Tom, and said

They told him, and then it became necessary to tell Frank Maberly what he had not known before, that the

"One of the prettiest, sweetest creatures, Mr. Maberly," said the Major, "that you ever saw in your life. None

"And a very remarkable character, besides," said the Doctor. "Such a force of will as you see in few women

of her age. Obscured by passion and girlish folly, it seemed more like obstinacy to us. But she has a noble

heart, and, when she has outlived her youthful fancies, I should not be surprised if she turned out a very

ONE morning the man who went once aweek from old Hawker's, at the Woodlands, down to the post,

brought back a letter, which he delivered to Madge at the door. She turned it over and examined it more

carefully than she generally did the old man's letters, for it was directed in a clerklike hand, and was sealed

with a big and importantlooking seal, and when she came to examine this seal, she saw that it bore the

words "B. and F. Bank." "So, they are at it again, are they?" she said. "The deuce take 'em, I say: though for

that matter I can't exactly blame the folks for looking after their own. Well, there's no mistake about one

thing, he must see this letter, else some of 'em will be coming over and blowing the whole thing. He will ask

me to read it for him, and I'll do so, right an end. Lord, what a breeze there'll be! I hope I shall be able to pull

my lad through, though it very much depends on the old 'uns temper. However, I shall soon know."

Old Hawker was nearly blind, and, although an avaricious, suspicious old man, as a general rule, trusted

implicitly on ordinary occasions to George and Madge in the management of his accounts, reflecting, with

some reason, that it could not be their interest to cheat him. Of late, however, he had been uneasy in his mind.

Madge, there was no denying, had got through a great deal more money than usual, and he was not satisfied

with her account of where it had gone. She, we know, was in the habit of supplying George's extravagances

in a way which tried all her ingenuity to hide from him, and he, mistrusting her statements, had determined as

On this occasion she laid the letter on the breakfast table, and waited his coming down, hoping that he might

be in a good humour, so that there might be some chance of averting the storm from George. Madge was

Not long before she heard his heavy step coming down the stairs, and soon he came into the room, evidently

"If you don't kill or poison that black tomcat," was his first speech, "by the Lord I will. I suppose you keep

him for some of your witchwork. But, if he's the devil himself, as I believe he is, I'll shoot him. I won't be

kept out of my natural sleep by such a devil's brat as that. He's been keeping up such a growling and a

scrowling on the henhouse roof all night, that I thought it was Old Scratch come for you, and getting

impatient. If you must keep an imp of Satan in the house, get a mole, or a rat, or some quiet beast of that sort,

"Shoot him after breakfast if you like," she said. "He's no friend of mine. Get your breakfast, and don't be a

"Yah! Read it, she says, and knows I'm blind," said Hawker. "You artful minx, you want to read it your

He took the letter up, and turned it over and over. He knew the seal, and shot a suspicious glance at her. Then,

looking at her fixedly, he put it in his breast pocket, and buttoned up his coat.

"There!" he said. "I'll read it. Oh yes, believe me, I'll read it. You Jezebel!"

"You'd better eat your meat like a Christian man," she answered, "and not make such faces as them."

"Tell him I want the gig. I'm going out for a drive. A pleasure drive, you know. All down the lane, and back

She saw he was in one of his evil humours, when nothing was to be done with him, and felt very uneasy. She

went and ordered the gig, and when he had finished breakfast, he came out to the door.

"You'd best take your big coat," she said, "else you'll be getting cold, and be in a worse temper than you are,

"How careful she is!" said Hawker. "What care she takes of the old man! I've left you ten thousand pounds in

He drove off, and left her standing in the porch. What a wild, tall figure she was, standing so stern and

steadfast there in the morning sun! a woman one would rather have for a friend than an enemy.

Hawker was full of other thoughts than these. Coupling his other suspicions of Madge with the receipt of this

letter from the bank, he was growing very apprehensive of something being wrong. He wanted this letter read

to him, but whom could he trust? Who better than his old companion Burrows, who lived in the valley below

the Vicarage? So, whipping up his horse, he drove there, but found he was out. He turned back again,

puzzled, going slowly, and as he came to the bottom of the hill, below the Vicarage, he saw a tall man leaning

"He'll do for want of a better," he said to himself. "He's an honestgoing fellow, and we've always been good

friends, and done good business together, though he is one of that cursed Vicarage lot."

So he drew up when he came to the gate. "I beg your pardon, Mr. Troubridge," he said, with a very different

tone and manner to what we have been accus tomed to hear him use, "but could you do a kindness for a

blind old man? I have no one about me that I can trust since my son is gone away. I have reason to believe

"I shall be happy to oblige you, Mr. Hawker," said Tom. "I am sorry to hear that your sight is so bad."

"Yes; I'm breaking fast," said Hawker. "How ever, I shan't be much missed. I don't inquire how the Vicar is,

because I know already, and because I don't think he would care much for my inquiries, after the injury my

"SIR, May I request that you will favour me per sonally with a call, at the earliest possible oppor tunity,

at my private office, 166, Broad Street? I have reason to fear that two forged cheques, bearing your signature,

have been inadvertently cashed by us. The amount, I am sorry to inform you, is considerable. I need not

further urge your immediate attention. This is the third communication we have made to you on the subject,

and are much surprised at receiving no answer. I hope that you will be so good as to call at once.

"I thank you, Mr. Troubridge," said the old man, quietly and politely. "You see I was not wrong when I

thought that this letter was of importance. May I beg as a favour that you would not mention this to any one?"

"Certainly, Mr. Hawker. I will respect your wish. I hope your loss may not be heavy."

"The loss will not be mine though, will it?" said old Hawker. "I anticipate that it will fall on the bank. It is

surely at their risk to cash cheques. Why, a man might sign for all the money I have in their hands, and surely

"I am not aware how the law stands, Mr. Hawker," said Troubridge. "Fortunately, no one has ever thought it

"Well, I wish you a good day, sir, with many thanks," said Hawker. "Can I do anything for you in Exeter?"

Old Hawker drove away rapidly in the direction of Exeter; his horse, a fine black, clearing the ground in

splendid style. Although a cunning man, he was not quick in following a train of reasoning, and he was

halfway to Exeter before he had thoroughly compre hended his situation. And then, all he saw was that

somebody had forged his name, and he believed that Madge knew something about it.

"I wish my boy George was at home," he said. "He'd save me getting a lawyer now. I am altogether in the

hands of those Bank folks if they like to cheat me, though it's not likely they'd do that. At all events I will

Dickson was an attorney of good enough repute. A very clever, quiet man, and a good deal employed by old

Hawker, when his business was not too disrepu table. Some years before, Hawker had brought some such

excessively dirty work to his office, that the lawyer politely declined having anything to do with it, but

recommended him to an attorney who he thought would undertake it. And from that time the old fellow

treated him with marked respect, and spoke everywhere of him as a man to be trusted: such an effect had the

He reached Exeter by two o'clock, so rapidly had he driven. He went at once to Dickson's, and found him at

home, busy swinging the poker, in deep thought, before the fireplace in his inner office. He was a small man,

with an impenetrable, expressionless face, who never was known to unbend himself to a human being. Only

two facts were known about him. One was that he was the best swimmer in Exeter, and had saved several

lives from drowning, and the other was, that he gave away (for him) large sums in private charity.

Such was the man who now received old Hawker, with quiet politeness; and having sent his horse round to

the inn stable by a clerk, sat down once more by the fire, and began swinging the poker, and waiting for the

"If you are not engaged, Mr. Dickson," said Hawker, "I would be much obliged to you if you could step

round to the B. and F. Bank with me. I want you to witness what passes, and to read any letters or papers for

The attorney put down the poker, got his hat, and stood waiting, all without a word.

"You won't find it necessary to remark on anything that occurs, Mr. Dickson, unless I ask your opinion."

The attorney nodded, and whistled a tune. And then they started together through the crowded street.

The bank was not far, and Hawker pushed his way in among the crowd of customers. It was some time before

he could get hold of a clerk, there was so much business going on. When, at last, he did so, he said "I want

"He is engaged at present," said the clerk. "It is quite impossible you can see him."

"You don't know what you are talking about, man," said Hawker. "Send in and tell him Mr. Hawker, of

"Oh, I beg your pardon, Mr. Hawker. I have only just come here, and did not know you. Porter, show Mr.

They went into the formal bank parlour. There was the leather writing table, the sheet almanac, the iron safe,

and all the weapons by which bankers war against mankind, as in all other sanctuaries of the kind. More

over, there was the commanderinchief himself, sitting at the table. A bald, clever, gentlemanlylooking

man, who bowed when they came in. "Good day, Mr. Hawker. I am obliged to you for calling at last. We

thought something was wrong. Mr. Dickson, I hope you are well. Are you attending with Mr. Hawker, or are

"Ah!" said the manager. "I am, on the whole, glad that Mr. Hawker has brought a professional adviser with

him. Though," he added, laughing, "it is putting me rather at a disadvantage, you know. Two to one, eh?"

"Now, gentlemen, if you will be so good as to close the door carefully, and be seated, I will proceed to

business, hoping that you will give me your best atten tion. About six or eight months ago, let me be

particular, though," said he, referring to some papers, "that is rather a loose way of beginning. Here it is.

The fourth of September, last year yes. On that day, Mr. Hawker, a cheque was presented at this bank,

drawn 'in favour of bearer,' and signed in your name, for two hundred pounds, and cashed, the person who

"Excuse me, sir," said the manager; "allow me to come to that hereafter. You were about to say, I antici

pate, that you never drew a cheque 'on bearer' in your life? Quite true. That ought to have excited attention,

but it did not till, a very few weeks ago, our headclerk, casting his eye down your account, remarked on the

peculiarity, and, on examining the cheque, was inclined to believe that it was not in your usual handwriting.

He intended communicating with me, but was prevented for some days by my absence; and, in the meantime,

another cheque, similar, but better imitated, was pre sented by the same person, and cashed, without the

knowledge of the headclerk. On the cheque coming into his hands, he reprimanded the cashier, and he and I,

having more closely examined them, came to the conclusion that they were both forgeries. We imme diately

communicated with you, and, to our great surprise, received no answer either to our first or second

application. We, however, were not idle. We ascer tained that we could lay our hands on the utterer of the

cheques at any moment, and tried a third letter to you, which has been successful."

"The two letters you speak of have never reached me, Mr. Rollox," said Hawker. "I started off on the receipt

of yours this morning the first I saw. I am sorry, sir, that the bank should lose money through me; but, by

"I have never attempted to deny it, Mr. Hawker," said the manager. "But there are other matters to be

considered. Before I go on, I wish to give you an opportunity of sending away your professional adviser, and

They both turned and looked at the lawyer. He was sitting with his hands in his pockets, and one would have

thought he was whistling, only no sound came. His face showed no signs of intelligence in any feature save

his eyes, and they were expressive of the wildest and most unbounded astonishment.

"I have nothing to do in this matter, sir," said Hawker, "that I should not wish Mr. Dickson to hear. He is an

"So be it, then, Mr. Hawker," said the manager. "I have as high an opinion of my friend Mr. Dickson as you

have; but I warn you, that some part of what will follow will touch you very unpleasantly."

"Will you be good enough to examine these two cheques, and say whether they are genuine or not?"

"I have only to look at the amount of this large one, to pronounce it an impudent forgery," said Hawker. "I

have not signed so large a cheque for many years. There was one last January twelvemonth of �400, for the

"There can be no doubt they are forgeries. Your sight, I believe, is too bad to swear easily to your own

signature; but that is quite enough. Now, I have laid this case before our governor, Lord C, and he went

so far as to say that, under the painful circumstances of the case, if you were to refund the money, the bank

might let the matter drop; but that, otherwise, it would be their most painful duty to prosecute."

"I refund the money!" laughed Hawker; "you are playing with me, sir. Prosecute the dog; I will come and see

"It will be a terrible thing if we prosecute the utterer of these cheques," said the manager.

"Why?" said Hawker. "Bythebye, you know who he is, don't you? Tell me who it is?"

Hawker rose and glared at them with such a look of deadly rage that they shrank from him appalled. Then, he

tottered to the mantelpiece and leant against it, trying to untie his neckcloth with feeble, trembling fingers.

"Open your confounded window there, Rollox," cried the lawyer, starting up. "Where's the wine? Look sharp,

Hawker waved to him impatiently to sit down, and then said, at first gasping for breath, but after wards

"Certainly, sir," said the manager. "You may be sure it was he. Had it been any one else, they would not have

been cashed without more examination; and on the last occasion he accounted rather elaborately for your

"Don't be frightened, gentlemen," he said. "Not this time. I've something to do before that comes. It won't be

long, the doctor says, but I must transact some business first. O Lord! I see it all now. That cursed, cursed

woman and her boy have been hood winking me and playing with me all this time, have they? Oh, but I'll

have my vengeance on 'em one to the stocks, and another to the gallows. I, unfortu nately, can't give you

any information where that man is that has the audacity to bear my name, sir," said he to the manager. "His

mother at one time persuaded me that he was a child of mine; but such infernal gipsy drabs as that can't be

depended on, you know. I have the honour to wish you a very good afternoon, sir, thanking you for your

information, and hoping your counsel will secure a speedy conviction. I shall pro bably trouble you to meet

me at a magistrate's to morrow morning, where I will take my oath in his presence that those cheques are

forgeries. You will find alterations in my banker's book, too, I expect. We'll look into it all tomorrow. Come

along, Dickson, my sly little weasel; I've a gay night's work for you; I'm going to leave all my property to my

cousin Nick, my bitterest enemy, and a lawsuit with it that'll break his heart. There's fun for the lawyers,

So talking, the old man strode firmly forth, with a bitter, malignant scowl on his flushed face. The lawyer

followed him, and, when they were in the street, Hawker again asked him to come to the inn and make his

"I'll stay by you, Hawker, and see that you don't make a fool of yourself. I wish you would not be so

vindictive. It's indecent; you'll be ashamed of it to morrow; but, in the meantime, it's indecent."

"Ha, ha!" laughed Hawker; "how quietly he talks! One can see that he hasn't had a bastard child fathered on

him by a gipsy hag. Come along, old fellow; there's fifty pounds' worth of work for you this week, if I only

He took the lawyer to the inn, and they got dinner. Hawker ate but little, for him, but drank a good deal.

Dickson thought he was getting drunk; but when dinner was over, and Hawker had ordered in spirits

"Now, Mr. Dickson," said he, "I am going to make a fresh will tomorrow morning, and I shall want you to

draw it up for me. After that I want you to come home with me and transact business. You will do a good

day's work, I promise you. You seem to me now to be the only man in the world I can trust. I pray you don't

"As I said before," replied the lawyer, "I won't desert you; but listen to me. I don't half like the sudden way

you have turned against your own son. Why don't you pay this money, and save the disgrace of that unhappy

young man? I don't say anything about your disinheriting him that's no business of mine but don't be

witness against him. The bank, or rather my Lord C, has been very kind about it. Take advantage of

"I know you ain't in the pay of the bank," said Hawker, "so I won't charge you with it. I know you better than

to think you'd lend yourself to any thing so mean; but your conduct looks suspicious. If you hadn't done me

a few disinterested kindnesses lately, I should say that they'd paid you to persuade me to stop this, so as they

might get their money back, and save the cost of a prosecution. But I ain't so far gone as to believe that; and

so I tell you, as one man to another, that if you'd come suddenly on such a mine of treason and conspiracy as

I have this afternoon, and found a lad that you have treated as, and tried to believe was, your own son, you'd

be as bad as me. Every moment I think of it, it comes out clearer. That woman that lives with me has palmed

that brat of hers on me as my child; and he and she have been plundering me these years past. The money that

woman has made away with would build a ship, sir. What she's done with it, her master, the devil, only

knows; and I've said nought about it, because she's a witch, and I was afraid of her. But now I've found her

out. She has stopped the letters that they wrote to me about this boy's forgery, and that shows she was in it.

She shall pack. I won't prosecute her; no. I've reasons against that; but I'll turn her out in the world without a

"You're quiet enough," said the lawyer, "and you've stated your case very well. But are you sure this lad is

"If I was sure that he was," said Hawker, "it wouldn't make any difference, as I know on. Ah, man, you don't

know what a rage I'm in. If I chose, I could put myself into such an infernal passion at this moment as would

bring on a 'plectic fit, and lay me dead on the floor. But I won't do it, not yet. I'll have another drop of brandy,

"I'll have you go to bed, and not take any more brandy," said the lawyer. "If you sing, get in one of the

waiters, and sing to him; he'd enjoy it. I'm going home, but I shall come to breakfast tomorrow morning, and

"Good night, old mole," said Hawker; "good night, old bat, old parchment skin, old sixty per cent. Ha, ha! If

a wench brings a brat to thee, old lad, chuck it out o' window, and her after it. Thou can only get hung for it,

man. They can only hang thee once, and that is better than to keep it and foster it, and have it turn against

Dickson came to him in the morning, and found him in the same mind. They settled down to business, and

Hawker made a new will. He left all his property to his cousin (a man he had had a bitter quarrel with for

years), except �100 to his groom, and �200 to Tom Troubridge, "for an act of civility" (so the words ran), "in

reading a letter for a man who ought to have been his enemy." And when the will (a very short one) was

finished, and the lawyer proposed getting two of his clerks as witnesses, Hawker told him to fold it up and

"You're coming home with me," he said, "and we'll get it witnessed there. You'll see why, when it's done."

Then they went to the manager of the bank, and got him to go before a magistrate with him, whilst he

deposed on oath that the two cheques, before mentioned, were forgeries, alleging that his life was so

uncertain that the criminal might escape justice by his sudden death. Then he and Dickson went back to the

They had been so engaged with business that they had taken no notice of the weather. But when they were

clear of the northern suburbs of the town, and were flying rapidly along the noble turnpikeroad that turning

eastward skirts the broad Exe for a couple of miles before turning north again, they remarked that a dense

black cloud hung before them, and that every thing foreboded a violent thunderstorm.

"We shall get a drowning before we reach your place, Hawker," said the lawyer. "I'm glad I brought my

"Lawyers never get drowned," said Hawker, "though I believe you have tried it often enough."

When they crossed the bridge, and turned to the north, along the pretty banks of the Creedy, they began to

hope that they would leave it on the right; but ere they reached Newton St. Cyres they saw that it was

creeping up overhead, and, stopping a few minutes in that village, perceived that the folks were all out at their

doors talking to one another, as people do for company's sake when a storm is coming on.

Before they got to Crediton they could distinguish, above the sound of the wheels, the thunder groaning and

muttering perpetually, and as they rattled quickly past the grand old minster a few drops of rain began to fall.

The boys were coming out of the Grammar School in shoals, laughing, running, whooping, as the manner of

boys is. Hawker drove slowly as he passed through the crowd, and the lawyer took that opportunity to put on

"We've been lucky so far," he said, "and now we are going to pay for our good luck. Before it is too late,

Hawker, pull up and stay here. If we have to stop all night, I'll pay expenses; I will indeed. It will be dark

"Not for a thousand pound," said Hawker. "I wouldn't baulk myself now for a thousand pound. Hey! fancy

turning her out such a night as this without sixpence in her pocket. Why, a man like you, that all the county

knows, a man who has got two gold medals for bravery, ain't surely afraid of a thunder storm?"

"I ain't afraid of the thunderstorm, but I am of the rheumatism," said the other. "As for a thunderstorm, you're

as safe out of doors as in; some say safer. But you're mistaken if you suppose I don't fear death, Hawker. I

"It didn't look like it that time you soused in over the weir after the groom lad," said Hawker.

"Bah! man," said the lawyer; "I'm the best swimmer in Devon. That was proved by my living at that weir in

flood time. So I have less to fear than any one else. Why, if that boy hadn't been as quiet and plucky as he

was, I knew I could kick him off any minute, and get ashore. Hallo! that's nearer."

The storm burst on them in full fury, and soon after it grew dark. The good horse, however, stepped out

gallantly, though they made but little way; for, having left the high road and taken to the narrow lanes, their

course was always either up hill or down, and every bottom they passed grew more angry with the flooding

waters as they proceeded. Still, through darkness, rain, and storm, they held their way till they saw the lights

"How far is it to your house, Hawker?" said the lawyer. "This storm seems to hang about still. It is as bad as

"It's three miles to my place, but a level road, at least all uphill, gently rising. Cheer up! We won't be long."

They passed through the village rapidly, lighted by the lightning. The last three miles were done as quickly as

any part of the journey, and the lawyer rejoiced to find himself before the white gate that led up to Hawker's

It was not long before they drew up to the door. The storm seemed worse than ever. There was a light in the

kitchen, and when Hawker had halloed once or twice, a young man ran out to take the horse.

"Is that you, my boy?" said Hawker. "Rub the horse down, and come in to get something. This ain't a night fit

"No, indeed, sir," said the man. "I hope none's out in it but what likes to be."

They went in. Madge looked up from arranging the table for supper, and stared at Hawker keenly. He laughed

"A terrible night, ain't it? Wouldn't she have been anxious if she'd a' known I'd been out?"

"Don't know as I should," she said. "That gentle man had better get dried, and have his supper."

A crash of thunder shook the house, heard loud above the rain, which beat furiously against the windows.

Madge immediately returned with the servant girl, a modest, quietlooking creature, evidently in terror at the

The lawyer produced the will, and Madge and the servant girl were made to witness it. Dickson, having dried

the signatures, took charge of it again; and then Hawker turned round fiercely to Madge.

"That's my new will," he said; "my new will, old woman. Oh, you cat! I've found you out."

Madge saw a storm was coming, worse than the one which raged and rattled outside, and she braced her

"I've found out that you and that young scoundrel have been robbing and cheating me in a way that would

bring me to the workhouse in another year. I have found out that he has forged my name for nearly a

thousand pounds, and that you've helped him. I find that you yourself have robbed me of hundreds of pounds,

and that I have been blinded, and cozened, and hoodwinked by two that I kept from the work house, and

"So I say," said Hawker; "it is very well. The mother to the streets, and the boy to the gallows."

"Oh, William," she cried, throwing herself on her knees; "don't look like that. I confess everything; visit it on

"You confess, do you?" he said. "Get up. Get out of my house; you shan't stay here."

But she would not go, but, hanging round him, kept saying, "Spare the boy, William, spare the boy!" over and

"Get out and herd with the gipsies you belong to," he said. "You witch, you can't cry now."

"But," she moaned, "oh, not such a night as this, William; not tonight. I am frightened of the storm. Let me

stay tonight. I am frightened of the lightning. Oh, I wouldn't turn out your dog such a night as this."

He had got the heavy door open, and she passed out, moaning low to herself. Out into the fierce rain and the

black darkness; and the old man held open the door for a minute, to see if she were gone.

No. A broad, flickering riband of light ineffable wavered for an instant of time before his eyes, lighting up the

country far and wide; but plainly visible between him and the blaze was a tall, dark, bareheaded woman,

wildly raising her hands above her head, as if imploring vengeance upon him, and, ere the terrible explosion

which followed had ceased to shake the old house to its foundations, he shut the door, and went muttering

The next morning the groom came into the lawyer's room, and informed him that when he went to call his

master in the morning, he had found the bed untouched, and Hawker sitting half undressed in his armchair,

MAJOR BUCKLEY and his wife stood together in the verandah of their cottage, watching the storm. All the

afternoon they had seen it creeping higher and higher, blacker and more threatening up the eastern heavens,

until it grew painful to wait any longer for its approach. But now that it had burst on them, and night had

come on dark as pitch, they felt the pleasant change in the atmosphere, and, in spite of the continuous gleam

of the lightning, and the eternal roll and crackle of the thunder, they had come out to see the beauty and

They stood with their arms entwined for some time, in silence; but after a crash louder than any of those

"Why not, James?" she said; "you cannot avoid the lightning, and the thunder won't harm you. Most women

fear the sound of the thunder more than anything, but I suspect that Ciudad Rodrigo made more noise than

"It did indeed, my dear. More noise than I ever heard in any storm yet. It is coming nearer."

"I am afraid it will shake the poor Vicar very much," said Mrs. Buckley. "Ah, there is Sam, crying."

They both went into the sittingroom; little Sam had petitioned to go to bed on the sofa till the storm was

over, and now, awakened by the thunder, was sitting up in his bed, crying out for his mother.

The Major went in and lay down by the child on the sofa, to quiet him. "What!" said he, "Sammy, you're not

"Yes! I am," said the child; "very much indeed. I am glad you are come, father."

That was a poser; so the Major thought it best to counterfeit sleep; but he overdid it, and snored so loud, that

the boy began to laugh, and his father had to practise his deception with less noise. And by degrees, the little

hand that held his moustache dropped feebly on the bedclothes, and the Major, ascertaining by the child's

regular breathing that his son was asleep, gently raised his vast length, and proposed to his wife to come into

"The storm is breaking, my love," said he; "and the air is deliciously cool out there. Put your shawl on and

They went out again; the lightning was still vivid, but the thunder less loud. Straight down the garden from

them stretched a broad gravel walk, which now, cut up by the rain into a hundred water chan nels, showed

at each flash like rivers of glittering silver. Looking down this path toward the black wood during one of the

longest continued illuminations of the lightning, they saw for an instant a dark, tall figure, apparently

advancing towards them. Then all the prospect was wrapped again in tenfold gloom.

Mrs. Buckley uttered an exclamation, and held tighter to her husband's arm. Every time the garden was lit up,

they saw the figure, nearer and nearer, till they knew that it was standing before them in the darkness; the

Major was about to speak, when a hoarse voice, heard indistinctly above the rushing of the rain, demanded:

At the same minute the stormlight blazed up once more, and fell upon an object so fearful and startling that

they both fell back amazed. A woman was stand ing before them, tall, upright, and bareheaded; her long

black hair falling over a face as white and ghastly as a three days' corpse; her wild countenance rendered

more terrible by the blue glare of the lightning shining on the rain that streamed from every lock of her hair

and every shred of her garments. She looked like some wild daughter of the storm, who had lost her way, and

"I am Major Buckley," was the answer. "What do you want? But in God's name come in out of the rain."

"Come in and get your things dried, my good woman," said Mrs. Buckley. "What do you want with my

"Before I dry my things, or come in, I will state my business," said the woman, coming under the verandah.

"After that I will accept your hospitality. This is a night when polecats and rabbits would shelter together in

peace; and yet such a night as this, a man turns out of his house the woman who has lain beside him twenty

"They call me Madge the Witch," she said; "I lived with old Hawker, at the Woodlands, till tonight, and he

has turned me out. I want to put you in pos session of some intelligence that may save much misery to some

"I can readily believe that you can do it," said the Major, "but pray don't stand there; come in with my wife,

"I thought you would have known that. The Vicar does. Well, this son of mine has run off with the Vicar's

"Well, he has committed forgery. It'll be known all over the country tomorrow, and even now I fear the

runners are after him. If he is taken before he marries that girl, things will be only worse than they are. But

never mind whether he does or not, perhaps you differ with me; perhaps you think that, if you could find the

girl now, you could stop her and bring her home; but you don't know where she is. I do, and if you will give

me your solemn word of honour as a gentleman to give him warning that his forgery for five hundred pounds

"If you reflect a moment, you must see how straight forward my story is. What possible cause can I have to

"I think I ought to say yes, my love," said the Major to his wife; "if it turned out afterwards that I neglected

any opportunity of saving this poor girl (par ticularly if this tale of the forgery be true), I should never

"I agree with you, my dear," said Mrs. Buckley. "Give your promise, and go to seek her."

"Well, then," said the Major; "I give you my word of honour that I will give Hawker due warning of his

forgery being discovered, if you will give me his direction. I anticipate that they are in London, and I shall

start tonight, to be in time for the morning coach. Now, will you give me the address?"

"Yes!" said Madge. "They are at the Nag's Head, Buckingham Street, Strand, London; can you remember

"I know where the street is," said the Major; "now will you go into the kitchen, and make yourself com

fortable? My dear, you will see my valise packed? Ellen, get this person's clothes dried, and get her some hot

wine. Bythebye," said he, following her into the kitchen, "you must have had a terrible quarrel with

"It was about this matter," she said: "the boy forged on his father, and I knew it, and tried to screen him. My

"It was natural enough," said the Major. "You are not deceiving me, are you? I don't see why you should,

"You must sleep here tonight," said the Major; "and tomorrow you can go on your way, though, if you

cannot conveniently get away in the morning, don't hurry, you know. My house is never shut against

unfortunate people. I have heard a great deal of you, but I never saw you before; you must be aware, how

ever, that the character you have held in the place is not such as warrants me in asking you to stay here for

The Major left the kitchen, and crossed the yard. In a bedroom above the stable slept his groom, a man who

had been through his campaigns with him from first to last. It was to waken him that the Major took his way

The man was out of bed in a moment, and while he was dressing, the Major continued:

"You know Buckingham Street, Strand, Jim, don't you? When you were recruiting you used to hang out at a

"Exactly so, sir! We did; and a many good chaps we picked up there, gents and all sorts. Why, it was in that

werry place, Major, as we 'listed Lundon; him as was afterwards made sergeant for being the first man into

Sebastian, and arterwards married Skettles; her as fell out of eighteen stories at Brussels looking after the

Duke, and she swore at them as came to pick her up, she did; and walked in at the front door as bold as

"There, my good lad," said the Major; "what's the good of telling such stories as that? Nobody believes them,

you know. Do you know the Nag's Head there? It's a terribly low place, is it not?"

"It's a much changed if it ain't, sir," said Jim, putting on his breeches. "I was in there not eighteen months

since. It's a fightinghouse; and there used to be a dog show there, and a reunion of vocal talent, and all sorts

"Well, see to the horse, Jim, and I'll sing out when I'm ready," said the Major, and went back into the house.

He came back through the kitchen, and saw that Madge was being treated by the maids with that respect that

a reputed witch never fails to command; then, having sat for some time talking to his wife, and finding that

the storm was cleared off, he kissed his sleeping child and its mother, and, mounting his horse in the

In the morning, when Mrs. Buckley came down stairs, she inquired for Madge. They told her she had been up

some time, and, having got some breakfast, was walking up and down in front of the house. Going there, Mrs.

Buckley found her. Her dress was re arranged with picturesque neatness, and a red hand kerchief pinned

over her rich dark hair, that last night had streamed wild and wet in the tempest. Altogether, she looked an

utterly different being from the strange, stormbeaten creature who had craved their hospitality the night

before. Mrs. Buckley admired the bold, upright, handsome figure before her, and gave her a cheery "good

"I only stayed," said Madge, "to wish you good bye, and thank you for your kindness. When they who

"You are heartily welcome," said Mrs. Buckley. "Cannot I do more for you? Do you want money? I fear you

"The blessing of God," she said, "shall be upon the house of the Buckleys, and more especially upon you and

your husband, and the boy that is sleeping inside. He shall be a brave and a good man, and his wife shall be

the fairest and best in the country side. Your kine shall cover the plains until no man can number them, and

your sheep shall be like the sands of the sea. When misfortune and death and murder fall upon your

neighbours, you shall stand between the dead and the living, and the troubles that pass over your heads shall

be like the shadow of the light clouds that fly across the moor on a sunny day. And when in your ripe and

honoured old age you shall sit with your husband, in a garden of your own planting, in the lands far away,

and see your grandchildren playing around you, you shall think of the words of the wild, lost gipsy woman,

Mrs. Buckley tried to say "Amen," but found herself crying. Something there was in that poor creature,

homeless, penniless, friendless, that made her heart like wax. She watched her as she strode down the path,

and afterwards looked for her reappearing on a high exposed part of the road, a quarter of a mile off,

thinking she would take that way. But she waited long, and never again saw that stern, tall figure, save in her

"Oh, missis," she said, "you're a lucky woman to day. There's some in this parish would have paid a hundred

"I hope it may, you silly girl," said Mrs. Buckley; and then she went in and knelt beside her sleeping boy, and

It was quite late on the evening of his second day's journey that the Major, occupying the boxseat of the

"Exterminator," dashed with cometlike speed through so much of the pomps and vanities of this wicked

"Hah!" he soliloquized, passing Hydepark Corner, "these should be the folks going out to dinner. They dine

later and later every year. At this rate they'll dine at halfpast one in twenty years' time. That's the Duke's

new house; eh, coachman? By George, there's his Grace himself, on his brown cob; God bless him! There are

a pair of goodstepping horses, and old Lady Ebehind 'em, by Jove! in her war paint and feathers

pinker than ever. She hasn't got tired of it yet. She'd dance at her own funeral if she could. And there's

Charley Bridgenorth in the club balcony I wonder what he finds to do in peace time? and old

Btalking to him. What does Charley mean by letting himself be seen in the same balcony with that

disreputable old fellow? I hope he won't get his morals corrupted! Ah! So here we are! eh?"

He dismounted at the White Horse Cellar, and took a hasty dinner. His great object was speed; and so he

hardly allowed himself ten minutes to finish his pint of port before he started into the street, to pursue the

It was nearly nine o'clock, and he thought he would be able to reach his destination in ten minutes. But it was

otherwise ordered. His evil genius took him down St. James Street. He tried to persuade himself that it was

the shortest way, though he knew all the time that it wasn't. And so he was punished in this way: he had got

no further than Crockford's, when, in the glare of light opposite the door of that establish ment, he saw three

men standing, one of whom was talking and laughing in a tone perhaps a little louder than it is customary to

use in the streets nowadays. Buckley knew that voice well (better, perhaps, among the crackle of musketry

than in the streets of London), and, as the broadshouldered owner of it turned his jolly, handsome face

towards him, he could not suppress a low laugh of satisfaction. At the same moment the beforementioned

"Busaco Buckley, by the Lord," he said, "revisiting once more the glimpses of the gaslamps! My dear old

The Major found himself quickly placed under a lamp for inspection, and surrounded by three old and

wellbeloved fellowcampaigners. What could a man do under the circumstances? Nothing, if human and

fallible, I should say, but what the Major did stay there, laughing and joking, and talking of old times, and

freshen up his honest heart, and shake his honest sides with many an old halfforgotten tale of fun and

"Now," he said at last, "you must let me go. You Barton (to the first man he had recognised), you are a

"The same as you are," said the other, "standing outside the door. The pavement's free, I suppose. I

The Major told them, and they agreed to meet at breakfast next morning. Then, after many farewells, and

callings back, he pursued his way towards the Strand, finding to his disgust that it was nearly ten o'clock.

He, nevertheless, held on his way undiscouraged, and turning by degrees into narrower and narrower streets,

It was a quiet street, save at one point, and that was where a blaze of gas (then recently introduced, and a

great object of curiosity to the Major) was thrown across the street, from the broad ornamented windows of a

flash publichouse. Here there was noise enough. Two men fighting, and three or four more encouraging,

while a halfdrunken woman tried to separate them. >From the inside, too, came a noise of singing, quarrel

ling, and swearing, such as made the Major cross the road, and take his way on the darker side of the street.

But when he got opposite the aforesaid publichouse, he saw that it was called the "Nag's Head," and that it

was kept by one J. Trotter. "What an awful place to take that girl to!" said the Major. "But there may be some

private entrance, and a quiet part of the house set by for a hotel." Nevertheless, having looked well about him,

But he stood irresolute for a moment. It looked such a very low place, clean and handsome enough, but still

the company about the door looked so very disreputable. "J. Trotter!" he reflected. "Why, that must be Trotter

So he crossed. When he came within the sphere of the gas lamps, those who were assisting at the fight grew

silent, and gazed upon him with open eyes. As he reached the door one of them remarked, with a little

flourish of oaths as a margin or garland round his re mark, that "of all the swells he'd ever seen, that 'un was

Similarly, when they in the bar saw that giant form, the blue coat and brass buttons, and, above all, the

moustache (sure sign of a military man in those days), conversation ceased, and the Major then and there

became the event of the evening. He looked round as he came in, and, through a door leading inwards, he saw

The Major was not deceived as to the identity of J. Trotter. J. Trotter, the hero of a hundred fights, stood

himself behind his own bar, a spectacle for the gods. A chest like a bull, a red neck, straight up and down

with the back of his head, and a fist like a seal's flipper, proclaimed him the prizefighter; and his bright grey

eye, and ugly laughing face, proclaimed him the merry, goodhumoured varlet that he was.

What a wild state of amazement he was in when he realized the fact that Major Buckley of the th was

actually towering aloft under the chandelier, and looking round for some one to address! With what

elephantine politeness and respect did he show the Major into a private parlour, sweeping off at one round

nearly a dozen pintpots that covered the table, and then, shut ting the door, stand bowing and smiling

"And so you are gone into business, John, are you?" said the Major. "I'm glad to see it. I hope you are doing

"Much better than that," said the prizefighter. "Much better than that, sir, I assure you."

"Well, I'm going to get you to do something for me," said the Major. "Do you know, John, that you are

"The business allus does make flesh, sir. More especially to coves as has trained much."

"Yes, yes, John, I am going from the point. There is a young man of the name of Hawker here?"

The prizefighter remained silent, but a grin gathered on his face. "I never contradicts a gentleman," he said.

"And if you say he's here, why, in course, he is here. But I don't say he's here; you mind that, sir."

"Oh, indeed," said the other; "then that absolves me from any responsibility. He told me to deny him to

anybody but one, and you ain't she. He spends a deal of money with me, sir; so, in course, I don't want to

The Major saw that he had got hold of the right man, and waited willingly. The fightingman went to the

door, and called out, "My dear." A tall, good looking woman came to the bar, who made a low curtsey on

being presented to the Major. "My dear," repeated Trotter, "the south side." "The particular, I suppose," she

said. "In course," said he. So she soon appeared with a bottle of Madeira, which was of such quality that the

Major, having tasted it, winked at the prizefighter, and the latter laughed, and rubbed his hands.

"Now," said the Major, "do you mind telling me whether this Hawker is here alone?"

"He don't live here. He only comes here of a day, and sometimes stays till late. This evening a pretty young

lady yes, a lady come and inquired for him in my bar, and I was struck all of a heap to see such a

creature in such a place, all frightened out of her wits. So I showed her through in a minute, and up stairs to

where my wife sits, and she waited there till he come in. And she hadn't been gone ten minutes when you

The Major swore aloud, without equivocation or disguise. "Ah," he said, "if I had not met Barton! Pray,

"Not the least in the world, further than it's some where Hampstead way. That's a thing he evidently don't

"Do you think it likely that he and that young lady live in the same house? I need not disguise from you that I

"I know they don't live in the same house," said Trotter, "because I heard her say, tonight, before she went

away, 'Do look round, George,' she says, 'at my house, for ten minutes, before you go home.'"

"You have done me a great kindness," said the Major, "in what you have told me. I don't know how to thank

"It's only one," said the prizefighter, "in return for a many you done me; and you are welcome to it, sir.

Through many passages, past many doors, he followed him, until they left the noise of the revelry behind,

and at last, at the end of a long dark passage, the prize fighter suddenly threw open a door, and announced

There were four men playing at cards, and the one opposite to him was George Hawker. The Major saw at a

glance, almost before anyone had time to speak, that George was losing money, and that the other three were

The prizefighter went up to the table and seized the cards; then, after a momentary examination, threw both

"When gents play cards in my house, I expect them to use the cards I provides at the bar, and not private

packs, whether marked or not. Mr. Hawker, I warned you before about this; you'll lose every sixpence you're

worth, and then you will say it was done at my house, quite forgetting to mention that I warned you of it

But George took no notice of him. "Really, Major Buckley," he began, "this is rather "

"Rather an intrusion, you would say eh, Mr. Hawker?" said the Major; "so it is, but the urgency of my

George rose and came out with them. The prize fighter showed them into another room, and the Major

asked him to stand in the passage, and see that no one was listening; "you see, John," he added, "we are very

"I am not at all particular myself," said George Hawker. "I have nothing to conceal."

George didn't like the look of affairs. How came it that the Major and the prizefighter knew one another

so well? What did the former mean by all this secrecy? He determined to put a bold face on the matter.

"Not at all, sir; Miss Thornton is in lodgings of her own. I have the privilege of seeing her for a few hours

every day. In fact, I may go as far as to say that I am engaged to be married to her, and that that auspi cious

"I am sorry to disoblige you, Major Buckley, but I must really decline;" answered George. "I am not unaware

how disinclined her family are to the con nexion; and, as I cannot but believe that you come on their behalf,

I cannot think that an interview would be anything but prejudicial to my interest. I must remind you, too, that

While George had been speaking, it passed through the Major's mind: "What a checkmate it would be, if I

were to withhold the information I have, and set the runners on him, here! I might save the girl, and further

the ends of justice; but my hands are tied by the promise I gave that woman, how unfortunate!"

"Then, Mr. Hawker," he said aloud, "I am to under stand that you refuse me this address?"

"I am sorry for it. I leave it to your conscience. Now, I have got a piece of intelligence to give you, which I

fear will be somewhat unpalatable I got your address at this place from a woman of the name of Madge

"Who was turned out of doors by your father, the night before last, in consequence, I understood, of some

misdeeds of hers having come to light. She came im mediately to my house, and offered to give me your

direction, on condition of my passing my word of honour to deliver you this message: 'that the forgery (�500

was the sum mentioned, I think) was discovered, and that the Bank was going to prosecute.' I of course form

no judgment as to the truth or falsehood of this: I leave you to take your own measures about it only I

"Then," replied the Major, "I must call you to wit ness that I have performed my errand to you faithfully. I

beg, also, that you will carry all our kindest remem brances to Miss Thornton, and tell her that her poor

father was struck with paralysis when he missed her, and that he is not expected to live many weeks. And I

He passed out, and down the stairs; as he passed the public parlourdoor, he heard a man bawling out a song,

two or three lines of which he heard, and which made him blush to the tips of his ears, old soldier as he was.

As he walked up the street, he soliloquised: "A pretty mess I've made of it done him all the service I

could, and not helped her a bit I see there is no chance of seeing her, though I shall try. I will go round

Hampstead tomorrow, though that is a poor chance. In Paris, now, or Vienna, one could find her directly.

GEORGE HAWKER just waited till he heard the re tiring footsteps of the Major, and then, leaving the

house, held his way rapidly towards Mary's lodgings, which were in Hampstead; but finding he would be too

late to gain admittance, altered his course when he was close to the house, and went to his own house, which

was not more than a few hundred yards distant. In the morning he went to her, and she ran down the garden

to meet him before the servant had time to open the door, looking so pretty and bright. "Ah, George!" said

she, "you never came last night, after all your promises. I shall be glad when it's all over, George, and we are

"It won't be long first, my dear," he answered; "we must manage to get through that time as well as we can,

"I expected you," she said; "come in and we will have such a pleasant chat, and after that you must take me

"Now, my love," said George; "I've got to tell you something that will vex you; but you must not be

downhearted about it, you know. The fact is, that your friends, as they call themselves, moving heaven and

earth to get you back, by getting me out of the way, have hit on the expedient of spreading false reports about

me, and issuing scandals against me. They found out my address at the Nag's Head, and came there after me

not half an hour after you were gone, and I only got out of their way by good luck. You ought to give me

credit for not giving any living soul the secret of our whereabouts, so that all I have got to do is to keep quiet

here until our little business is settled, and then I shall be able to face them boldly again, and set everything

"How cruel!" she said; "how unjust! I will never believe anything against you, George."

"I am sure of that, my darling;" he said, kissing her. "But now, there is another matter I must speak about,

"I have got nearly a hundred pounds, George," she said; "and, as I told you, I have five thousand pounds in

All that week George stayed with her quietly, till the time of residence necessary before they could be

married was expired. He knew that he was treading on a mine, which at any time might burst and blow his

clumsy schemes to the wind. But circumstances were in his favour, and the time came to an end at last. He

drank hard all the time without letting Mary suspect it, but afterwards, when it was all over, wondered at his

nerve and selfpossession through all those trying days, when he was forced eternally to have a smile or a

laugh ready, and could not hear a step behind him without thinking of an officer, or look over his head

It was during this time that he nursed in his heart a feeling of desperate hatred and revenge against William

Lee, which almost became the leading passion of his life. He saw, or thought he saw, that this man was the

author of all the troubles that were gathering so thick around his head, and vowed, if chance threw the man in

his way again, that he would take ample and fearful vengeance, let it cost what it might. And though this

feeling may have sometimes grown cold, yet he never to the last day forgot or forgave the injuries this man

Mary was as innocent of business as a child, and George found little difficulty in persuading her, that the best

thing she could do under present circumstances, was to sell out the money she had in the funds, and place it in

a bank, to be drawn on as occasion should require; saying that they should be so long perhaps, before they

had any other fund to depend on, that they might find it necessary to undertake some business for a living, in

which case, it would be as well to have their money under command at a moment's notice.

There was, not far from the bank, an old Stock broker, who had known her father, and herself, for many

years, and was well acquainted with all their affairs, though they had but little intercourse by letter. To him

she repaired, and, merely informing him that she was going to marry without her father's consent, begged him

to manage the business for her; which he, complimenting her upon her good fortune in choosing a time when

the funds were so high, immediately under took; at the same time recommended her to a banker, where she

On the same day that this business was concluded, a licence was procured, and their wedding fixed for the

next day. "Now," thought George, as he leapt into bed on that night, "let only tomorrow get over safely, and

And in the morning they were married in Hampstead church. Parson, clerk, pewopener, and beadle, all

remarked what a handsome young couple they were, and how happy they ought to be; and the parson

departed, and the beadle shut up the church, and the mice came out again and ate the Bibles, and the happy

pair walked away down the road, bound together by a strong chain, which nothing could loose but death.

They went to Brighton. Mary had said she would so like to see the sea; and the morning after they arrived

there the morning after their wedding Mary wrote an affectionate penitential letter to her father, telling

They were quite gay at Brighton, and she recovered her spirits wonderfully at first. George soon made

acquaintances, who soon got very familiar, after the manner of their kind, greasy, tawdry, bedizened

bucks, never asleep, always proposing a game of cards, always carrying off her husband. Mary hated

Such were the eagles that gathered round the carcass of George Hawker; and at last these eagles began to

bring the henbirds with them, who frightened our poor little dove with the amplitude and splendour of their

feathers, and their harsh, strange notes. George knew the character of those women well enough, but already

he cared little enough about his wife, even before they had been a month married, going on the principle that

the sooner she learned to take care of herself, the better for her; and after they had been married little more

than a month, Mary thought she began to see a change in her husband's behaviour to her.

He grew sullen and morose, even to her. Every day almost he would come to her with a scowl upon his face;

and when she asked if he was angry with her, would say, "No, that he wasn't angry with her; but that things

were going wrong altogether wrong; and if they didn't mend, he couldn't see his way out of it at all."

But one night he came home cheerful and hilarious, though rather the worse for liquor. He showed her a roll

of notes which he had won at roulette over a hun dred pounds and added, "That shall be the game for

"So I will, some of these fine days, my dear. I only do it to pass the time. It's cursed dull having nothing to

"Tomorrow is the great day at the races, George. I wish you would take me; I never saw a horse race."

"Ay, to be sure," said he; "we'll go, and, what's more, we'll go alone. I won't have you seen in public with

So they went alone. Such a glorious day as it was the last happy day she spent for very long! How

delightful it was, all this rush and crush, and shouting and hubbub around, while you were seated in a

phaeton, secure above the turmoil! What delight to see all the beautiful women in the carriages, and, grandest

sight of all, which struck awe and admiration into Mary's heart, was the great Prince himself, that noble

gentleman, in a guttersided hat, and a wig so fearfully natural that Mary secretly longed to pull his hair.

But princes and duchesses were alike forgotten when the course was cleared for the great event of the day,

and, one by one, the sleek beauties came floating along, above the crowd, towards the startingpost. Then

George, leaving Mary in the phaeton to the care of their landlady, pushed his way among the crowd, and, by

dint of hard squeezing, got against the rail. He had never seen such horses as these; he had never known what

firstclass horseracing was. Here was a new passion for him, which, like all his others, should only by its

He had got some money on one of the horses, though he, of course, had never seen it. There was a cheer all

along the line, and a dark bay fled past towards the startingpost, seeming rather to belong to the air than the

ground. "By George," he said, aloud, as the blood mounted to his face, and tingled in his ears, "I never saw

He was ashamed of having spoken aloud in his excitement, but a groom who stood by said, for his

"I don't suppose you ever did, sir, nor no man else. That's young Velocipede, and that's Chiffney aridin' him.

But now the horses came down, five of them abreast; at a walk, amid a dead silence from the crowd, three of

them, steady old stagers, but two jumping and pulling. "Back, Velocipede; back, Lara!" says the starter; down

goes the flag, they dart away, and then there is a low hum of conversation, until a murmur is heard down the

course, which swells into a roar as you notice it. The horses are coming. One of the royal huntsmen gallops

by, and then, as the noise comes up towards you, you can hear the maddening rush of the horses' feet upon

the turf, and, at the same time, a bay and a chestnut rush past in the last fierce struggle, and no man knows yet

Then the crowd poured once more over the turf, and surged and cheered round the winning horses. Soon it

came out that Velocipede had won, and George, turning round delighted, stood face to face with a gipsy

She had her hood low on her head, so that he could not see her face, but she said, in a low voice, "Let me tell

"It is told already, mother," said George. "Veloci pede has won; you won't tell me any better news than that

"No, George Hawker, I shan't," replied the gipsy, and, raising her hood for an instant, she discovered to his

"What, Madge, old girl! By Jove, you shall. Well, who'd a' thought of seeing you here?"

"I've been following you, and looking for you ever so long," she said. "They at the Nag's Head didn't know

where you were gone, and if I hadn't been a gipsy, and o' good family, I'd never have found you."

"I mean," she said, "that he has left all his money to your cousin. He found out everything, all in a minute, as

it were; and he brought a new will home from Exeter, and I witnessed it. And he turned me out of doors, and,

next morning, after I was gone, he was found dead in his bed. I got to London, and found no trace of you

there, till, by an accident, I heard that you had been seen down here, so I came on. I've got my living by

casting fortins, and begging, and cadging, and such like. Sometime I've slept in a barn, and sometime in a

hedge, but I've fought my way to you, true and faithful, through it all, you see."

"So he's gone," said George, between his teeth, "and his money with him. That's awful. What an unnatural old

"He knew you weren't his wife's son, you see, and he had heard some stories about me before I came to live

"That you are my boy," she said, "my own boy. Why, lad, who but thy own mother would a' done for thee

"Good God!" said George. "And if I had only known that before, how differently I'd have gone on. How I'd

have sneaked and truckled, and fetched and carried for him! Bah, it's enough to drive one mad. All this

hideandseek work don't pay, old woman. You and I are bowled out with it. How easy for you to have

given me a hint of this years ago, to make me careful! But you delight in mystery and conglomera tion, and

you always will. There I ain't ungrateful, but when I think of what we've lost, no wonder I get wild. And

"Not so very much of it," he replied. "I tell you I've been playing like never mind what, this last month,

and I've lost every night. Then I've got another woman in tow, that costs oh curse her, what don't she cost,

what with money and bother? In short, if I don't get something from somewhere, in a few months I shall

"It don't matter much to you when he dies, I ex pect," said she, "for you may depend that those that's got

hold of him won't let his money come into your hands. He's altered his will, you may depend on it."

"I should think it more probable than not. You see that old matter with the Bank is known all over the

country, although they don't seem inclined to push it against you, for some reason. Yet it's hardly likely that

the Vicar would let his money go to a man who couldn't be seen for fear of a rope."

"Ha, ha! Well, I'll think of it. You must want some money, old girl! Here's a fipunnote."

He kissed her forehead, and bent down his head reflecting. When he looked up she was gone.

He ran out of the booth and looked right and left, but saw her nowhere. Then he went sulkily back to his wife.

He hardly noticed her, but said it was time to go home. All the way back, and after they had reached their

lodgings, he kept the same moody silence, and she, frightened at some unheardof calamity, forbore to

question him. But when she was going to bed she could withhold her anxiety no longer, and said to him:

"Oh, George, you have got some bad news; let me share it with you. If it is anything about my father, I

implore you to tell me. How is it I have got no answer to the letter I wrote a month ago?"

He answered her savagely: "I don't know any thing about your father, and I don't care. I've got bad news, d

d bad news, if that will make you sleep the sounder. And, once for all, you'll find it best, when you see me

He had never spoken to her like that before. She went to her bed crushed and miserable, and spent the night in

crying, while he went forth and spent the night with some of his new companions, playing wildly and losing

recklessly, till the summer morning sun streamed through the shutters, and shone upon him desperate and

LET us hurry over what is to follow. I who knew her so well can have no pleasure in dwelling over her

misery and degradation. And he who reads these pages will, I hope, have little sympathy with the minor

Some may think that she has been punished enough already, for leaving her quiet happy home to go away

with such a man. "She must have learnt already," such would say, "that he cares nothing for her. Let her leave

her money behind, and go back to her father to make such amends as she may for the misery she has caused

him." Alas, my dear madam, who would rejoice in such a termination of her troubles more than myself? But

it is not for me to mete out degrees of punishment. I am trying with the best of my poor abilities to write a

true history of certain people whom I knew. And I, no more than any other human creature, can see the

consequences that will follow on any one act of folly or selfishness, such as this poor foolish girl has

committed. We must wait and watch, judging with all charity. Let you and me go on with her, even to the

Good men draw together very slowly. Yet it is one of the greatest happinesses one is capable of, to intro

duce two such to one another, and see how soon they become friends. But bad men congregate like crows or

jackals, and when a new one appears, he is received into the pack without question, as soon as he has given

This was the case with George Hawker. His facility for making acquaintance with rogues and blacklegs was

perfectly marvellous. Any gentleman of this class seemed to recognise him instinctively, and became familiar

immediately. So that soon he had round him such a circle of friends as would have gone hard to send to the

When a new boy goes to school, his way is smoothed very much at first by the cakes and pocketmoney he

brings with him. Till these are gone he must be a weak boy indeed who cannot (at a small school) find some

one to fight his battles and fetch and carry for him. Thackeray has thought of this (what does he not think of?)

in his little book, "Dr. Birch," where a young sycophant is represented saying to his friend, who has just

received a hamper, "Hurrah, old fellow, I'll lend you my knife." This was considered so true to nature, on

board a ship in which I once made a long voyage, that it passed into a proverb with us, and if any one was

seen indulging in a luxury out of the way at dinner, say an extra bottle of wine out of his private store,

halfadozen would cry out at once, "Hurrah, old fellow, I'll lend you my knife:" a modest way of requesting

In the same way, George Hawker was treated by the men he had got round him as a man who had a little

property that he had not got rid of, and as one who was to be used with some civility, until his money was

gone, and he sank down to the level of the rest of them to the level of living by his wits, if they were sharp

enough to make a card or billiard sharper; or otherwise to find his level among the proscribed of society, let

And George's wits were not of the first order, or the second; and his manners and education were certainly

not those of a gentleman, or likely to be useful in attracting such unwary persons as these Arabs of the

metropolis preyed upon. So it happened that when all his money was played away, which came to pass in a

month or two, the higher and cleverer class of rascals began to look uncommonly cold upon him.

At first poor crushed Mary used to entertain of an evening some of the lite among the cardsharpers of

London men who actually could have spoken to a gentleman in a public place, and not have got kicked.

These men were polite, and rather agreeable, and one of them, a Captain Saxon, was so deferential to her, and

seemed so entirely to understand her position, that she grew very fond of him, and was always pleased to see

Though, indeed, she saw but little of any men who came there soon after any of them arrived, she used to

receive a signal from George, which she dared not disobey, to go to bed. And when she lay there, lonely and

sleepless, she could detect, from the absence of conversation, save now and then a low, fierce oath, that they

were playing desperately, and at such times she would lie trembling and crying. Once or twice, during the

time she remembered these meetings, they were rudely broken upon by oaths and blows, and on one

particular occasion, she heard one of the gamesters, when infuriated, call her husband "a d d swindling

In these times, which lasted but a few months, she began to reflect what a fool she had been, and how to

gratify her fancy she had thrown from her everything solid and worth keeping in the world. She had brought

herself to confess, in bitterness and anguish, that he did not love her, and never had, and that she was a

miserable, unhappy dupe. But, notwithstanding, she loved him still, though she dreaded the sight of him, for

It was soon after their return from Brighton that he broke out, first on some trivial occasion, and cursed her

aloud. He said he hated the sight of her pale face, for it always reminded him of ruin and misery; that he had

the greatest satisfaction in telling her that he was utterly ruined; that his father was dead, and had left his

money elsewhere, and that her father was little better; that she would soon be in the workhouse; and, in fine,

She never tempted another outbreak of the kind; that one was too horrible for her, and crushed her spirit at

once. She only tried by mildness and submission to deprecate his rage. But every day he came home looking

fiercer and wilder; as time went on her heart sunk within her, and she dreaded something more fearful than

As I said, after a month or two, his first companions began to drop off, or only came, bullying and swearing,

to demand money. And now another class of men began to take their place, the sight of whom made her

blood cold worse dressed than the others, and worse mannered, with strange, foul oaths on their lips. And

then, after a time, two ruffians, worse looking than any of the others, began to come there, of whom the one

He was always very civil to her; but there was something about him, his lowering, evil face, and wild looks,

which made him a living nightmare to her. She knew he was flying from justice, by the way he came and

went, and by the precaution always taken when he was there. But when he came to live in the room over

theirs, and when, by listening at odd times, she found that he and her husband were engaged in some great

villany, the nature of which she could not understand, then she saw that there was nothing to do, but in sheer

About this time she made another discovery, that she was penniless, and had been so some time. George had

given her money from time to time to carry on household expenses, and she contrived to make these sums

answer well enough. But one day, determined to know the worst, she asked him, at the risk of another

explosion, how their account stood at the bank? He replied in the best of his humours, apparently, "that the

five thousand they had had there had been overdrawn some six weeks, and that, if it hadn't been for his

"You must take your chance, and the baby too. As long as there's any money going you'll get some of it. If

Things remained like this till it came to be nearly ten months from their marriage. Mary had never written

home but once, from Brighton, and then, as we know, the answer had miscarried; so she, conceiving she was

cast off by her father, had never attempted to communicate with him again. The time grew nigh that she

should be confined, and she got very sick and ill, and still the man Maitland lived in the house, and he and

Yet poor Mary had a friend who stayed by her through it all Captain Saxon, the great billiard sharper.

Many a weary hour, when she was watching up anxious and ill for her husband, this man would come and sit

with her, talking agreeably and well about many things; but chiefly about the life he used to lead before he

He used to say, "Mrs. Hawker, you cannot tell what a relief and pleasure it is to me to have a lady to talk to

"Surely, Captain Saxon," she would say, "you have some relations left. Why not go back to them?"

"They wouldn't own me," he said. "I smashed everything, a fine fortune amongst other things, by my goings

on; and they very properly cast me off. I never got beyond the law, though. Many wellknown men speak to

me now, but they won't play with me, though; I am too good. And so you see I play dark to win from young

fellows, and I am mixed up with a lot of scoun drels. A man brought an action against me the other day to

recover two hundred pounds I won of him, but he couldn't do anything. And the judge said, that though the

law couldn't touch me, yet I was mixed up notori ously with a gang of sharpers. That was a pleasant thing to

"It has often surprised me to see how temperate you are, Captain Saxon," she said.

"I am forced to be," he said; "I must keep my hand steady. See there; it's as firm as a rock. No; the con

solation of drink is denied me; I have something to live for still. I'll tell you a secret. I've insured my life very

high in favour of my little sister whom I ruined, and who is out as a governess. If I don't pay up to the last,

you see, or if I commit suicide, she'll lose the money. I pay very high, I assure you. On one occasion not a

year ago, I played for the money to pay the premium only two nights before it would have been too late.

There was touch and go for you. But my hand was as steady as a rock, and after the last game was over I

"Good Lord," she said, "what a terrible life! But, suppose you fall into sickness and poverty. Then you may

He laughed aloud. A strange wild laugh. "No," said he; "I am safe there, if physicians are to be believed.

Sometimes, when I am falling asleep, my head begins to flutter and whirl, and I sit up in bed, breathless and

perspiring till it grows still again. Then I laugh to myself, and say, 'Not this time then, but it can't be long

now.' Those palpitations, Mrs. Hawker, are growing worse and worse each month. I have got a desperate

incurable heart complaint, that will carry me off, sudden and sure, without warning, I hope to a better sort of

"I am sorry for you, Captain Saxon," she said, sobbing, "so very, very sorry for you!"

"I thank you kindly, my good friend," he replied. "It's long since I had so good a friend as you. Now change

the subject. I want to talk to you about yourself. You are going to be confined."

"My husband seems to have money enough at present, but we have none to fall back upon."

"H'm," he said. "Well, you must make use of me, and as far as I can manage it of my purse too, in case of an

emergency. I mean, you know, Mrs. Hawker," he added, looking full at her, "to make this offer to you as I

would to my own sister. Don't in God's name refuse my protection, such as it is, from any mistaken motives

of jealousy. Now tell me, as honestly as you dare, how do you believe your husband gets his living?"

"You do right," he said. "Forewarned is forearmed, and, at the risk of frightening you, I must bid you pre

pare for the worst. Although I know nothing about what he is engaged in, yet I know that the man Maitland,

who lives above, and who you say is your husband's constant companion, is a desperate man. If anything

happens apply to me straightway, and I will do all I can. My principal hope is in putting you in communi

cation with your friends. Could you not trust me with your story, that we might take advice together?"

She told him all from beginning to the end, and at the last she said, "If the worst should come, whatever that

may be, I would write for help to Major Buckley, for the sake of the child that is to come."

"Oh, Lord!" he said, growing pale, "I've got one of these spasms coming on. A glass of water, my dear lady,

He held both hands on his heart, and lay back in his chair a little, with livid lips, gasping for breath. By

degrees his white hands dropped upon his lap, and he said with a sigh, "Nearer still, old friend, nearer than

But he soon recovered and said, "Mrs. Hawker, if you ever see that man Buckley again, tell him that you saw

Charley Biddulph, who was once his friend, fallen to be the consort of rogues and thieves, cast off by

everyone, and dying of a heart complaint; but tell him he could not die without sending a tender love to his

"And I shall say too," said Mary, "when all neg lected me, and forgot me, this Charles Biddulph helped and

cheered me; and when I was fallen to the lowest, that he was still to me a courteous gentleman, and a faith

ful adviser; and that but for him and his goodness I should have sunk into desperation long ago. Be sure that I

"Good evening, Captain Saxon," said he. "My wife seems to make herself more agreeable to you than she

does to me. I hope you are pleased with her. However, you are welcome to be. I thank God I ain't jealous.

"Curse him then. Give me a candle; I'm going upstairs. Don't go on my account, Captain Saxon. Well, if you

Saxon bade him goodnight, and went. George went up into Maitland's room, where Mary was never ad

mitted; and soon she heard him hammer, hammering at metal, overhead. She was too used to that sound to

take notice of it; so she went to bed, but lay long awake, thinking of poor Captain Saxon.

Less than a week after that she was confined. She had a boy, and that gave her new life. Poorly provided for

as that child was, he could not have been more tenderly nursed or more prized and loved if he had been born

in the palace, with his Majesty's right honourable ministers in the anteroom, drinking dry Sillery in honour

Now she could endure what was to come better. And less than a month after, just as she was getting well

She was sitting before the fire, about ten o'clock at night, nursing her baby, when she heard the streetdoor

"Sit quiet, now, or I'll knock your brains out with the poker," said George; and, seizing a china ornament from

"We're caught like rats, you fool, if they have tracked us," said Maitland; "and nothing but your consummate

folly to thank for it. I deserve hanging for mixing myself up with such a man in a thing like this. Now, are

George never answered that question. There was a noise of breaking glass downstairs, and a moment after a

"Make a fight for it," said Maitland, "if you can do nothing else. Make for the backdoor."

But George stood aghast, while Mary trembled in every limb. The door was burst open, and a tall man

coming in said, "In the King's name, I arrest you, George Hawker and William Maitland, for coining."

Maitland threw himself upon the man, and they fell crashing over the table. George dashed at the door, but

was met by two others. For a minute there was a wild scene of confusion and struggling, while Mary

crouched against the wall with the child, shut her eyes, and tried to pray. When she looked round again she

saw her husband and Maitland securely handcuffed, and the tall man, who first came in, wiping the blood

"Poor woman!" said the tall man. "She has been lately confined, too. I don't think it will be necessary to take

He began his search by taking the tongs and pulling the fire to pieces. Soon he came to the remnants of the

china ornament which George had thrown in; and, after a little more raking, two or three round pieces of

"A very green trick," he remarked. "Well, they must stay there to cool before I can touch them;" and turning

to Mary said, "Could you oblige me with some stickingplaster? Your husband's confederate has given me an

She got some, and put it on for him. "Oh, sir!" she said, "Can you tell me what this is all about?"

"Easy, ma'am," said he. "Maitland is one of the most notorious coiners in England, and your husband is his

confederate and assistant. We've been watching, just to get a case that there would be no trouble about, and

He looked very serious. "Mrs. Hawker, I know your history, as well as your husband's, the same as if you told

it to me. So I am sorry to give a lady who is in misfortune more pain than I can help; but you know coining is

She rocked herself wildly to and fro, and the chair where she sat, squeezing the child against her bosom till he

cried. She soothed him again without a word, and then said to the officer, who was searching every nook and

"You can stay as long as you please, madam," he said; "that's a matter with your landlady, not me. But if I

was you I'd communicate with my friends, and get some money to have my husband defended."

"They'd sooner pay for the rope to hang him," she said. "You seem a kind and pitiful sort of man; tell me

"Honestly, none. There may be some chance of his life; but there is evidence enough on this one charge,

leave alone others, mind you, to convict twenty men. Why, we've evidence of two forgeries committed on his

father before ever he married you; so that, if he is acquitted on this charge, he'll be arrested for another

All night long she sat up nursing the child before the fire, which from time to time she replenished. The

officers in possession slept on sofas, and dozed in chairs; but when the day broke she was still there, pale and

thoughtful, sitting much in the same place and attitude as she did before all this happened, the night before,

which seemed to her like a year ago, so great was the change since then. "Then," thought she, "he was

nothing but a villain after all. He had merely gained her heart for money's sake, and cast her off when it was

gone. What a miserable fool she had been, and how rightly served now, to be left penniless in the world!"

Penniless, but not friendless. She remembered Captain Saxon, and determined to go to him and ask his

advice. So when the strange weird morning had crept on to such time as the accustomed crowd began to

surge through the street, she put on her bonnet, and went away for the first time to seek him at his lodgings,

An old woman answered the door. "The Captain was gone," she said, "to Boulogne, and wouldn't be back yet

She hardly thought it worth while. All the world seemed to have deserted her now; but she said, more in

absence of mind than for any other reason, "Tell him that Mrs. Hawker called, if you please."

"Mrs. Hawker!" the old woman said; "there's a letter for you, ma'am, I believe; and something par ticular

too, 'cause he told me to keep it in my desk till you called. Just step in, if you please."

Mary followed her in, and she produced a letter directed to Mrs. Hawker. When Mary opened it, which she

did in the street, after the door was shut, the first thing she saw was a banknote for five pounds, and behind

"I am forced to go to Boulogne, at a moment's notice, with a man whom I must not lose sight of. Should you

have occasion to apply to me during my absence (which is fearfully probable), I have left this, begging your

acceptance of it, in the same spirit as that in which it was offered; and I pray you to accept this piece of

"Apply instantly to your friends, and go back to them at once. Don't stop about London on any excuse. You

have never known what it is to be without money yet; take care you never do. When a man or a woman is

poor and hungry, there is a troop of devils who always follow such, whispering all sorts of things to them.

They are all, or nearly all, known to me: take care you do not make their acquaintance.

What a strange letter, she thought. He must be mad. Yet there was method in his madness, too. Devils such as

he spoke of had leant over her chair and whispered to her before now, plain to be heard. But that was in the

old times, when she sat brooding alone over the fire at night. She was no longer alone now, and they had fled

She went home and spoke to the landlady. But little was owing, and that she had money enough to pay

without the five pounds that the kind gambler had given her. However, when she asked the landlady whether

she could stay there a week or two longer, the woman prayed her with tears to begone; that she and her

But there was still a week left of their old tenancy, so she held possession in spite of the landlady; and from

the policeofficers, who were still about the place, she heard that the two prisoners had been committed for

trial, and that that trial would take place early in the week at the Old Bailey.

Three days before the trial she had to leave the lodgings, with but little more than two pounds in the world.

For those three days she got lodging as she could in coffeehouses and such places, always meeting,

however, with that sort of kindness and sympathy from the women belonging to them which could not be

bought for money. She was in such a dull state of despair, that she was happily insensible to all smaller

discomforts, and on the day of the trial she endeavoured to push into the court with her child in her arms.

The crowd was too dense, and the heat was too great for her, so she came outside and sat on some steps on

one side of a passage. Once she had to move as a great personage came up, and then one of the officers said,

"Come, my good woman, you mustn't sit there, you know. That's the judge's private door."

"I beg pardon," she said, "and I will move, if you wish me. But they are trying my husband for coining, and

the court is too hot for the child. If you will let me sit there, I will be sure to get out of the way when my lord

The man looked at her as if it was a case somewhat out of his experience, and went away. Soon, how ever,

"I am much obliged to you, nothing," she said; "but if you can tell me how the trial is going on, I shall be

He shook his head and went away, and when he returned, telling her that the judge was summing up, he bade

her follow him, and found her a place in a quiet part of the court. She could see her husband and Maitland

standing in the dock, quite close to her, and before them the judge was calmly, slowly, and distinctly giving

the jury the history of the case from beginning to end. She was too much bewildered and desperate to listen to

it, but she was attracted by the buzz of conversation which arose when the jury retired. They seemed gone a

bare minute to her, when she heard and understood that the prisoners were found guilty. Then she heard

Maitland sentenced to death, and George Hawker condemned to be transported beyond the seas for the term

of his natural life, in consideration of his youth; so she brought herself to understand that the game was

The officer who had been kind to her stopped her, and asked her "where she was going?" She answered "to

Devonshire," and passed on, but almost immedi ately pushed back to him through the crowd, which was

pouring out of the doors, and thanked him for his kindness to her. Then she went out with the crowd into the

Through the western streets, roaring with carriages, crowded with foot passengers like one in a dream

past the theatres, and the arches, and all the great, rich world, busy seeking its afternoon pleasure, through the

long suburbs, getting more scattered as she went on, and so out on to the dusty broad western highway; a

lonely wanderer, with only one thought in her throb bing head, to reach such home as was left her, before

At the first quiet spot she came to she sat down and forced herself to think. Two hundred miles to go, and

fifteen shillings to keep her. Never mind, she could beg; she had heard that some made a trade of begging,

and did well; hard if she should die on the road. So she pushed on through the evening toward the sinking

sun, till the milestones passed slower and slower, and then she found shelter in a tramps' lodginghouse, and

got what rest she could. In a week she was at Taunton. Then the weather, which had hitherto been fair and

pleasant, broke up, and still she held on, with the rain beating from the westward in her face, as though to stay

her from her refuge, dizzy and confused, but determined still, along the miry highroad.

She had learnt from a gipsy woman, with whom she had walked in company for some hours, how to carry her

child across her back, slung in her shawl. So, with her breast bare to the storm, she fought her way over the

high bleak downs, glad and happy when the boy ceased his wailing, and lay warm and sheltered behind her,

Late on a wild rainy night she reached Exeter, utterly penniless, and wet to the skin. She had had nothing to

eat since noon, and her breast was failing from want of nourishment and overexertion. Still it was only

twenty miles further. Surely, she thought, God had not saved her through two hundred such miles, to perish at

last. The child was dry and warm, and fast asleep, if she could get some rest in one of the doorways in the

lower part of the town, till she was stronger she could fight her way on to Drumston; so she held on to St.

Thomas's, and finding an archway drier than the others sat down, and took the child upon her lap.

Rest! rest was a fiction; she was better walking such aches, and cramps, and pains in every joint! She

would get up and push on, and yet minute after minute went by, and she could not summon courage.

She was sitting with her beautiful face in the light of a lamp. A woman well and handsomely dressed was

"I am cold, hungry, ruined; that's why I sit under the arch," replied Mary, rising up.

"Are you sure they will be glad to see you, my dear," said the woman, "with that pretty little pledge at your

"Desperate, my pretty love," said the woman; "a girl with beauty like yours should never be desperate; come

Mary stepped forward and struck her, so full and true that the woman reeled backwards, and stood

"Out! you false jade," said Mary; "you are one of those devils that Saxon told me of, who come whisper ing,

and peering, and crowding behind those who are penniless and deserted; but I have faced you, and struck you,

The woman went crying and frightened down the street, thinking that she had been plying her infamous trade

But the wind changed a little, and the rain began to beat in on her shelter; she arose, and went down the street

She found a deep arch, well sheltered, and, what was better, a lamp inside, so that she could sit on the stone

step, and see her baby's face. Dainty quarters, truly! She went to take possession, and started back with a

scream. What delusion was this? There, under the lamp, on the step, sat a woman, her own image, nursing a

baby so like her own that she looked down at her bosom to see if it was safe. It must be a fancy of her own

disordered brain; but no for when she gathered up her courage, and walked towards it, a woman she knew

"That's me, dear," replied the other; "you're welcome, my love, welcome to the cold stones, and wet streets,

and to hunger and drunkenness, and evil words, and the abomination of desolation. That's what we all come

"Hush, my dear!" said the other; "we never mention his name in our society, you know. This is his too a

far finer one than yours. Cis Jewell had one of his too, a poor little rat of a thing that died, and now the minx

is flaunting about the Highstreet every night, in her silks and her feathers as bold as brass. I hope you'll have

nothing to say to her; you and I will keep house together. They are looking after me to put me in the

"Exactly so, my dear," the poor lunatic replied. "Of course He will. But about him you know. You heard the

"Why, about him you know, G H, Madge the witch's son. He sold himself to the deuce, my dear,

on condition of ruining a poor girl every year. And he has kept his contract hitherto. If he don't, you know

The poor girl whispered rapidly in her ear; but Mary broke away from her and fled rapidly down the street,

"Let me get out of this town, O Lord!" she prayed most earnestly, "if I die in the fields." And so she sped on,

and paused not till she was full two miles out of the town towards home, leaning on the parapet of the noble

The night had cleared up, and a soft and gentle westerly breeze was ruffling the broad waters of the river,

where they slept deep, dark, and full above the weir. Just below where they broke over the low rocky barrier,

The cool breeze and the calm scene quieted and soothed her, and, for the first time for many days, she began

She was going back, but to what? To a desolated home, to a heartbroken father, to the jeers and taunts of her

neighbours. The wife of a convicted felon, what hope was left for her in this world? None. And that child that

was sleeping so quietly on her bosom, what a mark was set on him from this time forward! the son of

Hawker the coiner! Would it not be better if they both were lying below there in the cold still water, at rest?

But she laughed aloud. "This is the last of the devils he talked of," said she. "I have fought the others and beat

She paused abashed, for a man on horseback was standing before her as she turned. Had she not been so

deeply engaged in her own thoughts she might have heard him merrily whistling as he approached from the

town, but she heard him not, and was first aware of his presence when he stood silently regarding her, not two

"My girl," he said, "I fear you're in a bad way. I don't like to see a young woman, pretty as I can see you are

"You mistake me," she said, "I was not going to do that; I was resting and thinking."

"See here," he said; "my waggon is coming up behind. I can give you a lift as far as there. Are you hungry?"

They waited for the waggon's coming up, for they could hear the horses' bells chiming cheerily across the

valley. "I had an only daughter went away once," he said. "But, glory to God! I got her back again, though

she brought a child with her. And I've grown to be fonder of that poor little baseborn one than any thing in

"I am married," she said; "this is my lawful boy, though it were better, perhaps, he had never been born."

"Don't say that, my girl," said the old farmer, for such she took him to be, "but thank God you haven't been

The waggon came up and was stopped. He made her take such refreshment as was to be got, and then get in

and lie quiet among the straw till in the grey morning they reached Crediton. The weather had grown bad

again, and long before sunrise, after thanking and blessing her benefactor, poor Mary struck off once more,

with what strength she had left, along the deep red lanes, through the driving rain.

BUT let us turn and see what has been going forward in the old parsonage this long weary year. Not much

that is noteworthy, I fear. The chronicle of a year's sickness and unhappiness, would be rather uninterest ing,

The Vicar only slowly revived from the fit in which he fell on the morning of Mary's departure to find

himself hopelessly paralytic, unable to walk without support, and barely able to articulate distinctly. It was

when he was in this state, being led up and down the garden by the Doctor and Frank Maberly, the former of

whom was trying to attract his attention to some of their old favourites, the flowers, that Miss Thornton came

to him with the letter which Mary had written from Brighton, immediately after their marriage.

It was, on the whole, a great relief for the Vicar. He had dreaded to hear worse than this. They had kept from

him all knowledge of Hawker's forgery on his father, which had been communicated to them by Major

Buckley. So that he began to prepare his mind for the reception of George Hawker as a sonin law, and to

"Dear Girl, In sickness or sorrow, remember that I am still your father. I hope you will not stop long in

London, but come back and stay near me. We must forget all that has passed, and make the best of it.

"My dearest foolish Mary, How could you leave us like that, my love! Oh, if you had only let us know

what was going on, I could have told you such things, my dear. But now you will never know them, I hope. I

hope Mr. Hawker will use you kindly. Your father hopes that you and he may come down and live near him,

but we know that is impossible. If your father were to know of your husband's fearful delinquencies, it would

kill him at once. But when trouble comes on you, my love, as it must in the end, remember that there is still a

These letters she never received. George burnt them without giving them to her, so that for a year she

remained under the impression that they had cast her off. So only at the last did she, as the sole hope of

warding off poverty and misery from her child, deter mine to cast herself upon their mercy.

The year had nearly passed, when the Vicar had another stroke, a stroke that rendered him childish and

helpless, and precluded all possibility of his leaving his bed again. Miss Thornton found that it was necessary

to have a man servant in the house now, to move him, and so on. So one evening, when Major and Mrs.

Buckley and the Doctor had come down to sit with her, she asked, did they know a man who could undertake

"I do," said the Doctor. "I know a man who would suit you exactly. A strong knave enough. An old soldier."

"I don't think we should like a soldier in the house, Doctor," said Miss Thornton. "They use such very odd

"But soldiers are apt to drink sometimes, you know, Doctor," said Miss Thornton. "And that wouldn't do in

"I've known the man all my life," said the Doctor, with animation. "And I never saw him drunk."

"No, he is not faultless, but he has his qualifications for the office, nevertheless. He can read passably, and

might amuse our poor old friend in that way. He is not evil tempered, though hasty, and I think he would be

tender and kindly to the old man. He had a father once himself, this man, and he nursed him to his latest day,

as well as he was able, after his mother had left them and gone on the road to destruction. And my man has

picked up some knowledge of medicine too, and might be a useful ally to the physician."

"A paragon!" said Mrs. Buckley, laughing. "Now let us hear his faults, dear Doctor."

"They are many," he replied, "I don't deny. But not such as to make him an ineligible person in this matter.

To begin with, he is a fool a dreaming fool, who once mixed himself up with politics, and went on the

assumption that truth would prevail against humbug. And when he found his mistake, this fellow, instead of

staying at his post, as a man should, he got disgusted, and beat a cowardly retreat, leaving his duty unful

filled. When I look at one side of this man's life, I wonder why such useless fellows as he were born into the

world. But I opine that every man is of some use, and that my friend may still have manhood enough left in

"And his name, Doctor? You must tell us that," said Mrs. Buckley, looking sadly at him.

"I am that man," said the Doctor, rising. "Dear Miss Thornton, you will allow me to come down and stay with

you. I shall be so glad to be of any use to my old friend, and I am so utterly useless now."

What could she say, but "yes," with a thousand thanks, far more than she could express? So he took up his

The Sunday morning after he came to stay there, he was going down stairs, shortly after daybreak, to take a

walk in the fresh morning air, when on the staircase he met Miss Thornton, and she, putting sixpence into his

"My dear Doctor, I looked out of window just now, and saw a tramper woman sitting on the doorstep. She

has black hair and a baby, like a gipsy. And I am so nervous about gipsies, you know. Would you give her

The Doctor stepped down with the sixpence in his hand to do as he was bid. Miss Thornton followed him. He

opened the front door, and there sure enough sat a woman, her hair, wet with the last night's rain, knotted

loosely up behind her hatless head. She sat upon the doorstep rocking herself to and fro, partly it would

seem from disquietude, and partly to soothe the baby which was lying on her lap crying. Her back was

towards him, and the Doctor only had time to notice that she was young, when he began,

"You are right, sir, I have no business here. But if you will tell him that I only came back for the child's sake,

Miss Thornton ran forward, laughing wildly, and hugged her to her honest heart. "My darling!" she said, "My

own darling! I knew she would find her home at last. In trouble and in sorrow I told her where she was to

"Aunt! aunt!" said Mary, "don't kill me. Scold me a little, aunt dear, only a little."

"Scold you, my darling! Never, never! Scold you on this happy Sabbath morn! Oh! never, my love."

And the foolishness of these two women was so great that the Doctor had to go for a walk. Right down the

garden, round the cowyard, and in by the back way to the kitchen, where he met Frank, and told him what

had happened. And there they were at it again. Miss Thornton kneeling, wiping poor Mary's blistered feet

before the fire. While the maid, foolishly giggling, had got possession of the baby, and was talking more

Mary held out her hand to him, and when he gave her his vast brown paw, what does she do, but put it to her

lips and kiss it? as if there was not enough without that. And, to make matters worse, she quoted

Scripture, and said, "Forasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto me." So our

good Doctor had nothing left but to break through that cloak of cynicism which he delighted to wear, (Lord

knows why!) and to kiss her on the cheek, and to tell her how happy she had made them by coming back, let

Then she told them, with bursts of wild weeping, what those circumstances were. And at last, when they were

all quieted, Miss Thornton boldly volun teered to go up and tell the Vicar that his darling was returned.

So she went up, and Mary and the Doctor waited at the bedroom door and listened. The poor old man was

far gone beyond feeling joy or grief to any great extent. When Miss Thornton raised him in his bed, and told

him that he must brace up his nerves to hear some good news, he smiled a weary smile, and Mary looking in

"I know," he said, lisping and hesitating painfully, "what you are going to tell me, sister. She is come home. I

knew she would come at last. Please tell her to come to me at once; but I can't see him yet. I must get stronger

first." So Mary went in to him, and Miss Thornton came out and closed the door. And when Mary came

downstairs soon afterwards she could not talk to them, but remained a long time silent, crying bitterly.

The good news soon got up to Major Buckley's, and so after church they saw him striding up the path,

leading the pony carrying his wife and baby. And while they were still busy welcoming her back, came a ring

Who but Tom Troubridge! Who else was there to raise her four good feet off the ground, and kiss her on both

cheeks, and call her his darling little sister! Who else was there who could have changed their tears into

laughter so quick that their merriment was wafted up to the Vicar's room, and made him ring his bell, and tell

them to send Tom up to him! And who but Tom could have lit the old man's face up with a smile, with the

That was her welcome home. To the home she had dreaded coming to, expecting to be received with scorn

and reproaches. To the home she had meant to come to only as a penitent, to leave her child there and go

forth into the world to die. And here she found herself the honoured guest treated as one who had been

away on a journey, whom they had been waiting and praying for all the time, and who came back to them

sooner than expected. None hold the force of domestic affection so cheap as those who violate it most rudely.

How many proud unhappy souls are there at this moment, voluntarily absenting themselves from all that love

them in the world, because they dread sneers and cold looks at home! And how many of these, going back,

would find only tears of joy to welcome them, and hear that ever since their absence they had been spoken of

"Now, my dear Mary, you must hear all the news. My husband has had a letter from Stockbridge."

"He and Hamlyn are quite well," said Mrs. Buckley, "and settled. He has written such an account of that

country to Major Buckley, that he, half persuaded before, is now wholly determined to go there himself."

"We shall see," said Mrs. Buckley; "I have my ideas. Now, who do you think is going beside?"

"Half Devonshire, I should think," said Mary; "at least, all whom I care about."

"It would seem so, indeed, my poor girl," said Mrs. Buckley; "for your cousin Troubridge has made up his

"There was a time when I could have stopped him," she thought; "but that is gone by now." And she

"Aunt and I will stay here, and think of you all. Shall we ever hear from you? It is the other side of the world,

"It is a long way; but we must wait, and see how things turn out. We may not have to separate after all. See,

my dear; are you fully aware of your father's state? I fear you have only come home to see the last of him. He

probably will be gone before this month is out. You see the state he is in. And when he is gone, have you

Mary, weeping bitterly, said, "No; only that she could never live in Drumston, or anywhere where she was

"That is wise, my love," said Mrs. Buckley, "under the circumstances. Have you made up your mind where to

"I have made up my mind," answered Miss Thornton, "to go wherever Mary goes, if it be to the other end of

the earth. We will be Ruth and Naomi, my dear. You would never get on without me."

"That is what I say," said Mrs. Buckley. "Never leave her. Why not come away out of all unhappy

associations, and from the scorn and pity of your neigh bours, to live safe and happy with all the best friends

"Come away with us," said Mrs. Buckley, with animation; "come away with us, and begin a new life. There

is Troubridge looking high and low for a partner with five thousand pounds. Why should not Miss Thornton

"Ah me!" said Miss Thornton. "And think of the voyage! But I shall not decide on anything; Mary shall

Scarcely more than a week elapsed from the day that Mary came home, when there came a third messenger

for old John Thornton, and one so peremptory that he arose and followed it in the dead of night. So, when

they came to his bedside in the morning, they found his body there, laid as it was when he wished them good

night, but cold and dead. He himself was gone, and nothing remained but to bury his body decently beside his

wife's, in the old churchyard, and to shed some tears, at the thought that never, by the fireside, or in the

And then came the disturbance of household gods, and the rupture of lifeold associations. And although

they were begged by the new comer not to hurry or incommode themselves, yet they too wished to be gone

Their kind true friend Frank was presented with the living, and they accepted Mrs. Buckley's invitation to

stay at their house till they should have decided what to do. It was two months yet before the Major intended

to sail, and long before those two months were past, Mary and Miss Thornton had determined that they would

not rend asunder the last ties they had this side of the grave, but would cast in their lot with the others, and

One more scene, and we have done with the Old World for many a year. Some of these our friends will never

see it more, and those who do will come back with new thoughts and associations, as strangers to a strange

land. Only those who have done so know how much effort it takes to say, "I will go away to a land where

none know me or care for me, and leave for ever all that I know and love." And few know the feeling which

comes upon all men after it is done, the feeling of isolation, almost of terror, at having gone so far out of

the bounds of ordinary life; the feeling of selfdistrust and cowardice at being alone and friendless in the

A golden summer's evening is fading into a soft cloud less summer's night, and Doctor Mulhaus stands upon

Mount Edgecombe, looking across the trees, across the glassy harbour, over the tall menofwar, out beyond

the silver line of surf on the breakwater, to where a tall ship is rapidly spreading her white wings and

speeding away each moment more rapidly for a fair wind, towards the southwest. He watches it growing

more dim minute by minute in distance and in darkness, till he can see no longer; then brushing a tear from

"There goes my English microcosm, all my new English friends with whom I was going to pass the rest of

my life, peaceful and contented, as a village surgeon. Pretty dream, two years long! Truly man hath no sure

abiding place here. I will go back to P, and see if they are all dead, or only sleeping."

So he turned down the steep path under the darkening trees, towards where he could see the town lights along

A NEW heaven and a new earth! Tier beyond tier, height above height, the great wooded ranges go rolling

away westward, till on the lofty skyline they are crowned with a gleam of everlasting snow. To the east

ward they sink down, breaking into isolated forests, fringed peaks, and rockcrowned eminences, till with

rapidly straightening lines they disappear gradually into broad grey plains, beyond which the Southern Ocean

All creation is new and strange. The trees, sur passing in size the largest English oaks, are of a species we

have never seen before. The graceful shrubs, the brightcoloured flowers, ay, the very grass itself, are of

species unknown in Europe; while flaming lories and brilliant parroquets fly whistling, not unmusically,

through the gloomy forest, and over head in the higher fields of air, still lit up by the last rays of the sun,

countless cockatoos wheel and scream in noisy joy, as we may see the gulls do about an English headland.

To the northward a great glen, sinking suddenly from the saddle on which we stand, stretches away in long

vista, until it joins a broader valley, through which we can dimly see a fullfed river winding along in

gleaming reaches, through level meadow land, inter spersed with clumps of timber.

We are in Australia. Three hundred and fifty miles south of Sydney, on the great watershed which divides the

Belloury from the Maryburnong, since better known as the Snowyriver of Gippsland.

As the sun was going down on the scene I have been describing, James Stockbridge and I, Geoffry Hamlyn,

reined up our horses on the ridge abovementioned, and gazed down the long gully which lay stretched at our

feet. Only the tallest trees stood with their higher boughs glowing with the gold of the departing day, and we

stood undetermined which route to pursue, and half inclined to camp at the next waterhole we should see. We

had lost some cattle, and among others a valuable imported bull, which we were very anxious to recover. For

five days we had been passing on from run to run, making inquiries without success, and were now fifty long

miles from home in a southerly direction. We were beyond the bounds of all settlement; the last station we

had been at was twenty miles to the north of us, and the occupiers of it, as they had told us the night before,

had only taken up their country about ten weeks, and were as yet the furthest pioneers to the southward.

At this time Stockbridge and I had been settled in our new home about two years, and were beginning to get

comfortable and contented. We had had but little trouble with the blacks, and, having taken possession of a

We had never heard from home but once, and that was from Tom Troubridge, soon after our departure,

telling us that if we succeeded he should follow, for that the old place seemed changed now we were gone.

We had neither of us left any near relations behind us, and already we began to think that we were cut off for

ever from old acquaintances and associations, and were beginning to be resigned to it.

Let us return to where he and I were standing alone in the forest. I dismounted to set right some strap or

another, and, instead of getting on my horse again at once, stood leaning against him, looking at the prospect,

Stockbridge sat in his saddle immoveable and silent as a statue, and when I looked in his face I saw that his

heart had travelled further than his eye could reach, and that he was looking far beyond the horizon that

bounded his earthly vision, away to the pleasant old home which was home to us no longer.

Below us, in the valley, a mob of jackasses were shouting and laughing uproariously, and a magpie was

"Yes, old boy, I do," he replied; "I can't help it; I was thinking of her then I am always thinking of her,

and, what's more, I always shall be. Don't think me a fool, old friend, but I love that girl as well now as ever I

"I fear there is but little doubt of it," I said; "try to forget her, James. Get in a rage with her, and be proud

He laughed. "That's all very well, Jeff, but it's easier said than done. Do you hear that? There are cattle

There was some noise in the air, beside the evening rustle of the south wind among the treetops. Now it

sounded like a faroff hubbub of waters, now swelled up harmonious, like the booming of cathedral bells

"There are cattle down there, certainly," I said, "and a very large number of them; they are not ours, depend

upon it: there are men with them, too, or they would not make so much noise. Can it be the blacks driving

them off from the strangers we stayed with last night, do you think? If so, we had best look out for

"Blacks could hardly manage such a large mob as there are there," said James. "I'll tell you what I think it is,

old Jeff; it's some new chums going to cross the watershed, and look for new country to the south. If so, let us

James was right. All doubt about what the new comers were was solved before we reached the river, for we

could hear the rapid detonation of the stock whips loud above the lowing of the cattle; so we sat and

watched them debouche from the forest into the broad river meadows in the gathering gloom: saw the scene

so venerable and ancient, so seldom seen in the Old World the patriarchs moving into the desert with all

their wealth, to find new pastureground. A simple primitive action, the first and simplest act of colonization,

yet producing such great results on the history of the world, as did the parting of Lot and Abraham in times

First came the cattle lowing loudly, some trying to stop and graze on the rich pasture after their long day's

travel, some heading noisily towards the river, now beginning to steam with the rising evening mist. Now a

lordly bull, followed closely by two favourite heifers, would try to take matters into his own hands, and cut

out a route for himself, but is soon driven ignominiously back in a lumbering gallop by a quickeyed

stockman. Now a silly calf takes it into his head to go for a small excursion up the range, followed, of course,

by his doting mother, and has to be headed in again, not with out muttered wrath and lowerings of the head

from madame. Behind the cattle came horsemen, some six or seven in number, and last, four drays, bearing

We had time to notice that there were women on the foremost dray, when it became evident that the party

intended camping in a turn of the river just below. One man kicked his feet out of the stirrups, and, sitting

loosely in his saddle, prepared to watch the cattle for the first few hours till he was relieved. Another lit a fire

against a fallen tree, and while the bullockdrivers were busy unyoking their beasts, and the women were

clambering from the dray, two of the horsemen separated from the others, and came forward to meet us.

Both of them I saw were men of vast stature. One rode upright, with a military seat, while his companion had

his feet out of his stirrups, and rode loosely, as if tired with his journey. Further than this, I could distin

guish nothing in the darkening twilight; but, looking at James, I saw that he was eagerly scanning the

strangers, with elevated eyebrow and opened lips. Ere I could speak to him, he had dashed forward with a

shout, and when I came up with him, wondering, I found myself shaking hands, talking and laughing,

"Range up alongside here, Jeff, you rascal," said Tom, "and let me get a fair hug at you. What do you think of

this for a lark; eh? to meet you out here, all pro miscuous, in the forest, like Prince Arthur! We could not

go out of our way to see you, though we knew where you were located, for we must hurry on and get a piece

of country we have been told of on the next river. We are going to settle down close by you, you see. We'll

"This is a happy meeting, indeed, old Tom," I said, as we rode towards the drays, after the Major and James.

"We shall have happy times, now we have got some of our old friends round us. Who is come with you? How

"Mrs. Buckley is as well as ever, and as handsome. My pretty little cousin, Mary Hawker, and old Miss

"Hardly, old friend. We travel in better company," said he. "George Hawker is transported for life."

"Coining," he answered. "I'll tell you the story another time. Tonight let us rejoice."

I could not but watch James, who was riding before us, to see how he would take this news. The Major, I

saw, was telling him all about it, but James seemed to take it quite quietly, only nodding his head as the other

went on. I knew how he would feel for his old love, and I turned and said to Troubridge

"That's what we all say," said Tom. "I am sorry for poor Jim. He is about the best man I know, take him all in

We reached the drays. There sat Mrs. Buckley on a log, a noble, happy matron, laughing at her son as he

toddled about, busy gathering sticks for the fire. Beside her was Mary, paler and olderlooking than when we

had seen her last, with her child upon her lap, looking sad and worn. But a sadder sight for me was old Miss

Thornton, silent and frightened, glancing uneasily round, as though expecting some new horror. No child for

her to cling to and strive for. No husband to watch for and anticipate every wish. A poor, timid, nervous old

maid, thrown adrift in her old age upon a strange sea of anomalous wonders. Every old favourite prejudice

She told me in confidence that evening that she had been in sad trouble all day. At dinnertime, some naked

blacks had come up to the dray, and had fright ened and shocked her. Then the dray had been nearly upset,

and her hat crushed among the trees. A favourite and precious bag, which never left her, had been dropped in

the water; and her Prayerbook, a parting gift from Lady Kate, had been utterly spoiled. A hundred petty

annoyances and griefs, which Mary barely remarked, and which brave Mrs. Buckley, in her strong

determination of following her lord to the ends of the earth, and of being as much help and as little

incumbrance to him as she could, had laughed at, were to her great misfortunes. Why, the very fact, as she

told me, of sitting on the top of a swinging jolting dray was enough to keep her in a continual state of agony

and terror, so that when she alit at night, and sat down, she could not help weeping silently, dreading lest any

"Aunt," she said, "dearest aunt, don't break down. It is all my wicked fault. You will break my heart, auntie

"How could I leave you in your trouble, my love?" said Miss Thornton. "You did right to come, my love. We

are among old friends. We have come too far for trouble to reach us. We shall soon have a happy home again

So she, who needed so much comforting herself, courageously dried her tears and comforted Mary. And

when we reached the drays, she was sitting with her hands folded before her in serene misery.

He had no time to say more, for she, recognising Jim, sprang up, and, running to him, burst into hys terical

"Oh, my good old friend!" she cried; "oh, my dear old friend! Oh, to meet you here in this lonely wilderness!

I saw how his big heart yearned to comfort his old sweetheart in her distress. Not a selfish thought found

place with him. He could only see his old love injured and abandoned, and nought more.

"Mary," he said, "what happiness to see you among all your old friends come to live among us again! It is

almost too good to believe in. Believe me, you will get to like this country as well as old Devon soon, though

it looks so strange just now. And what a noble boy, too! We will make him the best bushman in the country

So he took the child of his rival to his bosom, and when the innocent little face looked into his, he would see

no likeness to George Hawker there. He only saw the mother's countenance as he knew her as a child years

"Is nobody going to notice me or my boy, I wonder?" said Mrs. Buckley. "Come here immediately, Mr.

In a very short time all our party were restored to their equanimity, and were laying down plans for pleasant

meetings hereafter. And long after the women had gone to bed in the drays, and the moon was riding high in

the heavens, James and myself, Troubridge and the Major, sat before the fire; and we heard, for the first time,

of all that had gone on since we left England, and of all poor Mary's troubles. Then each man rolled himself

In the bright cool morning, ere the sun was up, and the belated opossum had run back to his home in the

hollow log, James and I were afoot, looking after our horses. We walked silently side by side for a few

"Jeff, old fellow, of course you will go on with them, and stay until they are settled?"

"Jim, old fellow," I replied, "of course you will go on with them, and stay till they are settled?"

He pondered a few moments, and then said, "Well, why not? I suppose she can be to me still what she always

When we returned to the dray we found them all astir, preparing for a start. Mrs. Buckley, with her gown

tucked up, was preparing breakfast, as if she had been used to the thing all her life. She had an imperial sort

of way of manoeuvring a fryingpan, which did one good to see. It is my belief, that if that woman had been

While James went among the party to announce his intention of going on with them, I had an opportunity of

looking at the son and heir of all the Buckleys. He was a sturdy, handsome child about five years old, and

was now standing apart from the others, watching a bullockdriver yokingup his beast. I am very fond of

children, and take great interest in studying their cha racters; so I stood, not unamused, behind this young

ster, as he stood looking with awe and astonishment at the man, as he managed the great, formidable beasts,

and brought each one into his place; not, however, without more oaths than one would care to repeat.

Suddenly, the child, turning and seeing me behind him, came back, and took my hand.

"Why is he so angry with them?" the child asked at once. "Why does he talk to them like that?"

"But they don't understand him," said the boy. "That black and white one would have gone where he wanted

it in a minute; but it couldn't understand, you know; so he hit it over the nose. Why don't he find out how they

"I remember you when you were a baby," I said. "I hope you may grow to be as good a man as your father,

"No further than we can help," said the Major. "I stayed a night with my old friend Captain Brent wood, by

the way; and there I found a man who knew of some unoccupied country down here, which he had seen in

some bush expedition. We found the ground he mentioned taken up; but he says there is equally good on the

"We saw good country away to the south yesterday," I said. "But are you wise to trust this man? Do you

"Brentwood has known him these ten years, and trusts him entirely; though, I believe, he has been a convict.

If you are determined to come with us, Stock bridge, I will call him up and examine him about the route.

A swarthy and very powerfully built man came up. No other than the man I have spoken of under that name

before. He was quite unknown either to James or myself, although, as he told us afterwards, he had recog

nised us at once, but kept out of our sight as much as possible, till by the Major's summons he was forced to

"South and by east across the range. We ought to get down to the river by night if we're lucky."

So, while the drays were getting under way, the Major, Tom, James, and myself rode up to the saddle where

we had stood the night before, and gazed south east across the broad prospect, in the direction that the

"That," said the Major, "to the right there must be the great glen out of which the river comes; and there,

please God, we will rest our weary bodies and build our house. Odd, isn't it, that I should have been saved

from shot and shell when so many better men were put away in the trench, to come and end my days in a

place like this? Well, I think we shall have a pleasant life of it, watching the cattle spread further across the

plains year after year, and seeing the boy grow up to be a good man. At all events, for weal or woe, I have

The cattle were past, and the drays had arrived at where we stood. With many a hearty farewell, having given

a promise to come over and spend Christmasday with them, I turned my horse's head homewards and went

I MUST leave them to go their way towards their new home, and follow my own fortunes a little, for that

afternoon I met with an adventure quite trifling indeed, but which is not altogether without interest in this

I rode on till high noon, till having crossed the valley of the Belloury, and followed up one of its tributary

creeks, I had come on to the water system of another main river, and the rapid widening of the gully whose

course I was pursuing assured me that I could not be far from the main stream itself. At length I entered a

broad flat, intersected by a deep and tortuous creek, and here I determined to camp till the noonday heat was

past, before I continued my journey, calculating that I could easily reach home the next day.

Having watered my horse, I turned him loose for a graze, and, making such a dinner as was possible under

the circumstances, I lit a pipe and lay down on the long grass, under the flowering wattletrees, smoking and

watching the manoeuvres of a little tortoise, who was dis porting himself in the waterhole before me.

Getting tired of that I lay back on the grass, and watched the green leaves waving and shivering against the

clear blue sky, given up entirely to the greatest of human enjoyments the after dinnerpipe, the pipe of

Which is the pleasantest pipe in the day? We used to say at home that a man should smoke but four pipes

aday: the matutinal, another I don't specify, the postprandial, and the symposial or convivial, which last

may be infi nitely subdivided, according to the quantity of drink taken. But in Australia this division won't

obtain, parti cularly when you are on the tramp. Just when you wake from a dreamless sleep beneath the

forest boughs, as the east begins to blaze, and the magpie gets musical, you dash to the embers of last night's

fire, and after blowing many firesticks find one which is alight, and proceed to send abroad on the morning

breeze the scent of last night's dottle. Then, when breakfast is over and the horses are caught up and saddled,

and you are jogging across the plain, with the friend of your heart beside you, the burnt incense once more

goes up, and conversation is unnecessary. At ten o'clock when you cross the creek (you always cross a creek

about ten if you are in a good country), you halt and smoke. So after dinner in the lazy noontide, one or

perhaps two pipes are necessary, with, perhaps, another about four in the afternoon, and last, and perhaps best

of all, are the three or four you smoke before the fire at night, when the day is dying and the opossums are

beginning to chatter in the twi light. So that you find that a fig of Barret's twist, seventeen to the pound, is

gone in the mere hours of daylight without counting such a casualty as waking up cold in the night, and

So I lay on my back dreaming, wondering why a locust who was in full screech close by, took the trou ble

to make that terrible row when it was so hot, and hoping that his sides might be sore with the exertion, when

to my great astonishment I heard the sound of feet brushing through the grass towards me. "Black fellow," I

said to myself; but no, those were shodden feet that swept along so wearily. I raised myself on my elbow,

There approached me from down the creek a man, hardly reaching the middle size, lean and activelooking,

narrow in the flanks, thin in the jaws, his knees well apart; with a keen bright eye in his head; his clothes

looked as if they had belonged to ten different men; and his gait was heavy, and his face red, as if from a long

hurried walk; but I said at once, "Here comes a riding man, at all events, be it for peace or war."

"You're rather off the tracks for a footman;" said I. "Are you looking for your horse?"

"Deuce a horse have I got to my name, sir, have you got a feed of anything? I'm nigh starved."

"Ay, surely: the tea's cold; put it on the embers and warm it a bit; here's beef, and damper too, plenty."

I lit another pipe and watched his meal. I like feeding a real hungry man; it's almost as good as eating one

"That, indeed! You haven't seen anything of three bullock drays and a mob of cattle going south?"

"They crossed the range at daylight this morning; they're thirty miles away by now."

He threw his hat on the ground with an oath: "I shall never catch them up. I daren't cross that range on foot

into the new country, and those black devils lurking round. He shouldn't have left me like that; all my own

fault, though, for staying behind! No, no, he's true enough all my own fault. But I wouldn't have left him

I saw that the man was in earnest, for his eyes were swimming; he was too dry for tears; but though he

"You seem vexed you couldn't catch them up; were you going along with the Major, then?"

"No, sir; I wasn't hired with him; but an old mate of mine, Bill Lee, is gone along with him to show him some

country, and I was going to stick to him and see if the Major would take me; we haven't been parted for many

years, not Bill and I haven't; and the worst of it is, that he'll think I've slipped away from him, instead of

following him fifty mile on foot to catch him. Well! it can't be helped now; I must look round and get a job

"No, I'm after some cattle I've lost; a fine imported bull, too, worse luck! We'll never see him again, I'm

afraid, and if I do find them how I am to get them home single handed, I don't know."

"Do you mean, a shorthorned Durham bull with a key brand? Why, if that's him, I can lay you on to him at

once; he's up at Jamieson's, here to the west. I was staying at Watson's last night, and one of Jamieson's men

staid in the hut a young hand; and, talking about beasts, he said that there was a fine shorthorned bull

come on to their run with a mob of heifers and cows, and they couldn't make out who they belonged to; they

"That's our lot for a thousand," says I; "a lot of store cattle we bought this year from the Hunter, and haven't

"If you could get a horse and saddle from Jamieson's, sir," said he, "I could give you a hand home with them:

"Done with you," said I; "Jamieson's isn't ten miles from here, and we can do that tonight if we look sharp.

So I caught up the horse, and away we went. Start ing at right angles with the sun, which was nearly

overhead, and keeping to the left of him holding such a course, as he got lower, that an hour and half, or

there abouts, before setting he should be in my face, and at sundown a little to the left; the best direction

I can give you for going about due west in November, without a compass which, by the way, you always

My companion was footsore, so I went slowly; he, however, shambled along bravely when his feet got

"You've got a nice place up at the Durnongs, sir," said he; "I stayed in your huts one night. It's the

comfortablest bachelor station on this side. You've got a smart few sheep, I expect?"

"I was sent out when I was eighteen; spared, as the old judge said, on account of my youth: that's eleven years

"Ay, but," he replied, "there was a horse at the end of the rope. I was brought up in a training stable, and

somehow there's something in the smell of a stable is sure to send a man wrong if he don't take care. I got

betting and drinking, too, as young chaps will, and lost my place, and got from bad to worse till I shook a

nag, and got bowled out and lagged. That's about my history, sir; will you give me a job, now?" and he

"Ay, why not?" said I. "Because you tried hard to go to the devil when you were young and foolish, it don't

follow that you should pursue that line of conduct all your life. You've been in a training stable, eh? If you

"I'll break horses against any man in this country though that's not saying much, for I ain't seen not what I

call a breaker since I've been here; as for riding, I'd ridden seven great winners before I was eighteen; and

that's what ne'er a man alive can say. Ah, those were the rosy times! Ah for old Newmarket!"

"Me? Oh, no; I'm a Devonshire man. I come near from where Major Buckley lived some years. Did you

"I knew her husband well," he said, "and an awful rascal he was: he was lagged for coining, though he might

"Just so," he said; "he had better not show Bill Lee much of his face, or there'll be mischief."

"Not exactly that," said my communicative friend, "but I don't think that Hawker will show much where Lee

"I am very glad to hear it," I thought to myself. "I hope Mary may not have some trouble with her husband

"And you belong there too?" I knew very well however, that he did not, or I must have known him.

"No," he answered; "Okehampton is my native place. But you talk a little Devon yourself, sir."

The conversation came to a close, for we heard the barking of dogs, and saw the station where we were to

spend the night. In the morning I went home, and my new acquaintance, who called himself Dick, along with

me. Finding that he was a firstrate rider, and gentle and handy among horses, I took him into my service

ALL through November and part of December, I and our Scotch overseer, Georgy Kyle, were busy as bees

among the sheep. Shearers were very scarce, and the poor sheep got fearfully "tomahawked" by the new

hands, who had been a very short time from the bar racks. Dick, however, my new acquaintance, turned out

a valuable ally, getting through more sheep and taking off his fleece better than any man in the shed. The

prisoners, of course, would not work effectually without extra wages, and thus gave a deal of trouble;

knowing that there was no fear of my sending them to the magistrate (fifty miles off) during such a busy time.

However, all evils must come to an end some time or another, and so did shearing, though it was nearly

Then came a breathing time. So I determined, having heard nothing of James, to go over and spend my

Christmas with the Buckleys, and see how they were getting on at their new station; and about noon on the

day before Boxingday, having followed the track made by their drays from the place I had last parted with

them, I reined up on the cliffs above a noble river, and could see their new huts, scarce a quarter of a mile off,

They say that Christmasday is the hottest day in the year in those countries, but some days in January are, I

think, generally hotter. Today, however, was as hot as a salamander could wish. All the vast extent of

yellow plain to the eastward quivered beneath a fiery sky, and every little eminence stood like an island in a

lake of mirage. Used as I had got to this phenomenon, I was often tempted that morning to turn a few hundred

yards from my route, and give my horse a drink at one of the broad glassy pools that seemed to lie right and

left. Once the faint track I was following headed straight towards one of these apparent sheets of water, and I

was even meditating a bathe, but, lo! when I was a hundred yards or so off, it began to dwindle and dis

appear, and I found nothing but the same endless stretch of grass, burnt up by the midsummer sun.

For many miles I had distinguished the new huts, placed at the apex of a great cape of the continent of timber

which ran down from the mountains into the plains. I thought they had chosen a strange place for their

habitation, as there appeared no signs of a water course near it. It was not till I pulled up within a quarter of

a mile of my destination, that I heard a hoarse roar as if from the bowels of the earth, and found that I was

standing on the edge of a glen about four hundred feet deep, through which a magnificent snowfed river

poured ceaselessly, here flashing bright among bars of rock, there lying in dark, deep reaches, under tall,

The scene was so beautiful and novel that I paused and gazed at it. Across the glen, behind the houses, rolled

up a dark mass of timbered ranges, getting higher and steeper as far as the eye could reach, while to the

northeast the river's course might be traced by the timber that fringed the water's edge, and sometimes

feathered some tributary gully almost to the level of the flat lofty tableland. On either side of it, down

behind, down folded one over the other, and, bordered by great forests, led the eye towards the river's source,

till the course of the valley could no longer be distinguished, lost among the distant ranges; but above where

I rode down a steep pathway, and crossed a broad gravelly ford. As my horse stopped to drink, I looked

delighted up the vista which opened on my sight. The river, partly overshadowed by tall trees, was hurrying

and spouting through upright columns of basalt, which stood in groups everywhere like the pillars of a ruined

city; in some places solitary, in others, clustered together like fantastic buildings, while a hundred yards

above was an island, dividing the stream, on which, towering above the variety of low green shrubs which

covered it, three noble fern trees held their plumes aloft, shaking with the concussion of the falling water.

I crossed the river. A gully, deep at first, but getting rapidly shallower, led up by a steep ascent to the table

land above, and as I reached the summit I found myself at Major Buckley's front door. They had, with good

taste, left such trees as stood near the house a few deepshadowed lightwoods and black wattles, which

formed pretty groups in what I could see was marked out for a garden. Behind, the land began to rise, at first,

in parklike timbered forest glades, and further back, closing into dense deep woodlands.

"What a lovely place they will make of this in time!" I said to myself; but I had not much time for cogitation.

A loud, cheerful voice shouted: "Hamlyn, you are welcome to Baroona!" and close to me I saw the Major,

carrying his son and heir in his arms, ad vancing to meet me from the housedoor.

"You are welcome to Baroona!" echoed the boy; "and a merry Christmas and a happy Newyear to you!"

I went into the house and was delighted to find what a change a few weeks of busy, quiet, and home had

made in the somewhat draggletailed and disconsolate troop that I had parted with on their road. Miss

Thornton, with her black mittens, white apron, and spectacles, had found herself a cool corner by the empty

fireplace, and was stitching away happily at baby linen. Mrs. Buckley, in the character of a duchess, was

picking raisins, and Mary was helping her; and, as I entered, laughing loudly, they greeted me kindly with all

"I very much pity you, Mr. Hamlyn," said Mrs. Buckley, "at having outlived the novelty of being scorched to

death on Christmasday. My dear husband, please refresh me with reading the thermometer!"

"Ah, dear!" said Mrs. Buckley, "If the dear old rheumatic creatures from the almshouse at Clere could only

spend tomorrow with us, how it would warm their old bones! Fancy how they are crouching before their

"Hardly that, Mrs. Buckley," I said laughing; "they are all snug in bed now. It is three o'clock in the morning,

or thereabouts, at home, you must remember. Miss Thornton, I hope you have got over your journey."

"Yes, and I can laugh at all my mishaps now," she replied; "I have just got homely and comfortable here, but

we must make one more move, and that will be the last for me. Mary and Mr. Troubridge have taken up their

country to the southwest, and as soon as he has got our house built, we are going to live there."

"A trifle: not more than ten miles," said Miss Thornton; "they call the place Toonarbin. Mary's run joins the

Major's on two sides, and beyond again, we already have neighbours, the Mayfords. They are on the river

again; but we are on a small creek towards the ranges. I should like to have been on the river, but they say we

"I am so glad to see you," said Mary; "James Stockbridge said you would be sure to come; other wise, we

She produced him from an inner room. He was certainly a beautiful child, though very small, and with a

certain painful likeness to his father, which even I could see, and I could not help comparing him

unfavourably, in my own mind, with that noble sixyearold Sam Buckley, who had come to my knee where

He blushed, and turned his handsome gray eyes to a silverhandled ridingwhip that I had in my hand "I'll

take such care of it," he whispered, and, having got it, was soon astride of a stick, full gallop for Banbury

James and Troubridge came in. To the former I had much to tell that was highly satisfactory about our

shearing; and from the latter I had much to hear about the state of both the new stations, and the adventures of

a journey he had had back towards Sydney to fetch up his sheep. But these particulars will be but little

interesting to an English reader, and perhaps still less so to an Australian. I am writing a history of the people

themselves, not of their property. I will only say, once for all, that the Major's run contained very little short

of 60,000 acres of splendidly grassed plainland, which he took up originally with merely a few cattle, and

about 3,000 sheep; but which, in a few years, carried 28,000 sheep comfortably. Mrs. Hawker and Troubridge

had quite as large a run; but a great deal of it was rather worthless forest, badly grassed; which Tom, in his

wisdom, like a great many other new chums, had thought superior to the bleak plains on account of the

shelter. Yet, notwithstanding this disadvantage, they were never, after a year or two, with less than 15,000

sheep, and a tolerable head of cattle. In short, in a very few years, both the Major and Troubridge, by mere

Christmas morn rose bright; but ere the sun had time to wreak his fury upon us every soul in the household

was abroad, under the shade of the lightwood trees, to hear the Major read the Litany.

A strange group we were. The Major stood with his back against a treestem, and all his congregation were

ranged around him. To his right stood Miss Thornton, her arms folded placidly before her; and with her,

Mary and Mrs. Buckley, in front of whom sat the two boys: Sam, the elder, trying to keep Charles, the

younger, quiet. Next, going round the circle, stood the old housekeeper, servant of the Buckleys for thirty

years; who now looked askance off her Prayerbook to see that the two convict women under her charge

were behaving with decorum. Next, and exactly opposite the Major, were two free servants: one a broad,

brawny, athletic looking man, with, I thought, not a bad countenance; and the other a tall, handsome,

foolishlooking Devon shire lad. The round was completed by five convict manservants, standing vacantly

The service, which he read in a clear manly voice, was soon over, and we returned to the house in groups. I

The short thickset man I had noticed before touched his hat and said that he was. That touching of the hat is a

very rare piece of courtesy from working men in Australia. The convicts are forced to do it, and so the free

"Oh!" said I, "I have got a groom who calls him self Dick. I found him sorefooted in the bush the day I met

the Major. He was trying to pick you up. He asked me to tell you that he was afraid to cross the range alone

on account of the blacks, or he would have come up with you. He seemed anxious lest you should think it

"Poor chap!" said Lee. "What a faithful little fellow it is! Would it be asking a liberty if you would take back

"I am much obliged to you, sir," he said. "I am glad Dick has got with a gentleman."

That letter was of some importance to me, though I did not know it till after, but I may as well say why now.

Lee had been a favourite servant of my father's, and when he got into trouble my father had paid a counsel to

defend him. Lee never forgot this, and this letter to Dick was shortly to the effect that I was one of the right

sort, and was to be taken care of, which injunction Dick obeyed to the very letter, doing me services for pure

After breakfast arose the question, "What is to be done?" Which Troubridge replied to by saying: "What

could any sensible man do such weather as this, but get into the water and stop there?"

"You won't be without company," said Mrs. Buckley, "for the black fellows are camped in the bend, and they

So James and Troubridge started for the river with their towels, the Major and I promising to follow them

immediately, for I wanted to look at my horse, and the Major had also something to do in the paddock. So we

"Major," said I, when we had gone a little way, "do you never feel anxious about Mary Hawker's husband

"Oh, no!" said he. "The man is safe in Van Diemen's Land. Besides, what could he gain? I, for one, without

"By the bye, Major," I said, "have you heard from our friend Doctor Mulhaus since your arrival? I suppose he

"Oh dear, no!" said he. "He is gone back to Germany. He is going to settle there again. He was so sickened of

England when all his friends left, that he determined to go home. I understood that he had some sort of

patrimony there, on which he will end his days. Wherever he goes, God go with him, for he is a noble

"Amen," I answered. And soon after, having got towels, we proceeded to the river; making for a long reach a

"Look there!" said the Major. "There's a bit for one of your painters! I wish Wilkie or Martin were here."

I agreed with him. Had Etty been on the spot he would have got a hint for one of his finest pictures; though I

can give but little idea of it in writing, how ever, let me try. Before us was a long reach of deep, still water,

unbroken by a ripple, so hemmed in on all sides by walls of deep green black wattle, teatree, and delicate

silver acacia, that the water seemed to flow in a deep shoreless rift of the forest, above which the taller forest

trees towered up two hundred feet, hiding the lofty cliffs, which had here receded a little back from the river.

The picture had a centre, and a strange one. A little ledge of rock ran out into deep water, and upon it, rising

from a heap of lightcoloured clothing, like a white pillar, in the midst of the sombre green foliage, rose the

naked carcass of Thomas Troubridge, Esq., preparing for a header, while at his feet were grouped three or

four black fellows, one of whom as we watched slid off the rock like an otter. The reach was covered with

black heads belonging to the savages, who were swimming in all directions, while groups of all ages and both

We had a glorious bathe, and then sat on the rock, smoking, talking, and watching the various manoeuvres of

the blacks. An old lady, apparently about eighty, with a head as white as snow, topping her black body (a

flourbag cobbler, as her tribe would call her), was punting a canoe along in the shallow water on the opposite

side of the river. She was entirely without clothes, and in spite of her decrepitude stood upright in the

cockleshell, handling it with great dexterity. When she was a little above us, she made way on her barque,

and shot into the deep water in the middle of the stream, evidently with the intention of speaking us. As,

however, she was just halfway across, floating helplessly, unable to reach the bottom with the spear she had

used as a puntpole in the shallower water, a mischievous black imp canted her over, and souse she went into

the river. It was amazing to see how boldly and well the old woman struck out for the shore, keeping her

white head well out of the water; and, having reached dry land once more, sat down on her haunches, and

began scolding with a volubility and power which would soon have silenced the loudest tongue in old

Her anger, so far from wearing out, grew on what fed it; so that her longdrawn yells, which seemed like

parentheses in her jabbering discourse, were getting each minute more and more acute, and we were just

"Hallo, Major! Having a little music, eh? What a sweet song that old girl is singing! I must write it down

from dictation, and translate it, as Walter Scott used to do with the old wives' ballads in Scotland."

"I have no doubt it would be quite Ossianic equal to any of the abusive scenes in Homer. But, my dear

Harding, how are you? You are come to eat your Christmas dinner with us, I hope?"

"That same thing, Major," answered the new comer. "Troubridge and Stockbridge, how are you? This, I

We went back to the house. Harding, I found, was halfowner of a station to the northeast, an Oxford man,

a great hand at skylarking, and an inveterate writer of songs. He was goodlooking too, and gentleman like,

Dinner was to be at six o'clock, in imitation of home hours; but we did not find the day hang heavy on our

hands, there was so much to be spoken of by all of us. And when that important meal was over we gathered

"What is your last new song, eh, Harding?" said the Major; "now is the time to ventilate it."

Soon after this we went in, and there we sat till nearly ten o'clock, laughing, joking, singing, and drinking

punch. Mary sat between James Stockbridge and Tom, and they three spoke together so exclusively and so

low, that the rest of us were quite forgotten. Mary was smiling and laughing, first at one and then at the other,

in her old way, and now and then as I glanced at her I could hardly help sighing. But I soon re membered

certain resolutions I had made, and tried not to notice the trio, but to make myself agreeable to the others.

Still my eyes wandered towards them again intuitively. I thought Mary had never looked so beautiful before.

Her complexion was very full, as though she were blushing at something one of them had said to her, and

while I watched I saw James rise and go to a jug of flowers, and bring back a wreath of scarlet Kennedia,

She blushed deeper than before, but she did it, and Tom helped her. There was no harm in that, you say, for

was he not her cousin? But still I could not help saying to myself, "Oh Mary, Mary, if you were a widow,

"What a gathering it is, to be sure!" said Mrs. Buckley! "all the old Drumstonians who are alive collected

"Ah, yes, dear Doctor Mulhaus. I am so sad sometimes to think that we shall never see him again."

"I miss him more than any one," said the Major. "I have no one to contradict me now."

"I shall have to take that duty upon me, then," said his wife. "Hark! there is Lee come back from the sheep

station. Yes, that must be his horse. Call him in and give him a glass of grog. I was sorry to send him out

"He is coming to make his report," said Mrs. Buckley; "there is his heavy tramp outside the door."

The door was opened, and the new comer advanced to where the glare of the candles fell full upon his face.

Had the Gentleman in Black himself advanced out of the darkness at that moment, with his blue bag on his

arm and his bundle of documents in his hand, we should not have leapt to our feet and cried out more

suddenly than we did then. For Doctor Mulhaus stood in the middle of the room, looking around him with a

HE stood in the candlelight, smiling blandly, while we all stayed for an instant, after our first exclamation,

The Major was the first who showed signs of con sciousness, for I verily believe that one half of the com

pany at least believed him to be a ghost. "You are the man," said the Major, "who in the flesh called him

self Maximilian Mulhaus! Why are you come to trouble us, O spirit? not that we shouldn't be glad to see

Then we crowded round him, all speaking at once and trying to shake hands with him. Still he remained

silent, and smiled. I, looking into his eyes, saw that they were swimming, and divined why he would not trust

himself to speak. No one hated a show of emotion more than the Doctor, and yet his brave warm heart would

He walked round to the fireplace, and, leaning against the board that answered for a chimneypiece, stood

"Ah!" he said at length, with a deep sigh, "this does me good. I have not made my journey in vain. A man

who tries to live in this world without love must, if he is not a fool, commit suicide in a year. I went to my

own home, and my own dogs barked at me. Those I had raised out of the gutter, and set on horse back,

splashed mud on me as I walked. I will go back, I said, to the little English family who loved and respected

me for my own sake, though they be at the ends of the earth. So I left those who should have loved me with

an illconcealed smile on their faces, and when I come here I am welcomed with tears of joy from those I

have not known five years. Bah! Here is my home, Buckley: let me live and die with you."

"Live!" said the Major "ay, while there's a place to live in; don't talk about dying yet, though, we'll

think of that presently. I can't find words enough to give him welcome. Wife, can you?"

"Not I, indeed," she said; "and what need? He can see a warmer welcome in our faces than an hour's clumsy

talk could give him. I say, Doctor, you are welcome, now and for ever. Will that serve you, husband?"

I could not help looking at Miss Thornton. She sat silently staring at him through it all, with her hands

clasped together, beating them upon her knee. Now, when all was quiet, and Mrs. Buckley and Mary had run

off to the kitchen to order the Doctor some supper, he seemed to see her for the first time, and bowed pro

The Doctor had eaten his supper, and Mrs. Buckley had made him something to drink with her own hands;

the Doctor had lit his pipe, and we had gathered round the empty fireplace, when the Major said,

"Now, Doctor, do tell us your adventures, and how you have managed to drop upon us from the skies on

"Soon told, my friend," he answered. "See here. I went back to Germany because all ties in England were

broken. I went to Lord C: I said, 'I will go back and see the palingenesis of my country; I will see what

they are doing, now the French are in the dust.' He said, 'Go, and God speed you!' I went. What did I find?

Beggars on horseback everywhere, riding posthaste to the devil not as good horsemen, either, but as

tailors of Brentford, and crowding one another into the mud to see who would be there first. 'Let me get out

of this before they ride over me,' said I. So I came forth to England, took ship, and here I am."

"A most lucid and entirely satisfactory explanation of what you have been about, I must say," answered the

At this moment, little Sam, who had made his escape in the confusion, came running in, breathless. "Papa!

papa!" said he, "Lee has come home with a snake seven feet long." Lee was at the door with the reptile in his

hand a black snake, with a deep salmoncoloured belly, deadly venomous, as I knew. All the party went

out to look at it, except the Doctor and Miss Thornton, who stayed at the fireplace.

"Mind your hands, Lee!" I heard James say; "though the brute is dead, you might prick your fingers with

I was behind all the others, waiting to look at the snake, which was somewhat of a large one, and worth

seeing, so I could not help overhearing the conversation of Miss Thornton and the Doctor, and having heard

the first of it my ears grew so unnaturally quickened, that I could not for the life of me avoid hearing the

"My God, sir!" I heard her say, "what new mad ness is this? Why do you persist in separating yourself from

"No madness at all, my dear madam," he answered; "you would have done the same under the circumstances.

My brother was civil, but I saw he would rather have me away, and continue his stewardship. And so I let

Miss Thornton put another question which I did not catch, and the sense of which I could not supply, but I

"Of course I did, my dear lady, and, just as you may suppose, when I walked up the Ritter Saal, there was a

buzz and giggle, and not one held out his hand save noble Von H ; long life to him!"

"I saw him bend over to M as I came up to the Presence, and they both laughed. I saw a slight was

intended, made my devoirs, and backed off. The next day he sent for me, but I was off and away. I heard of it

"When I can with honour, not before; and that will never be till he is dead, I fear; and his life is as good as

mine. So, hey for natural history, and quiet domes tic life, and happiness with my English friends! Now, am

The Doctor laughed, and taking her hand, kissed it gallantly; by this time we had all turned round, and were

"Now, Doctor," said the Major, "If you have done flirting with Miss Thornton, look at this snake."

"A noble beast, indeed," said the Doctor. "Friend," he added to Lee, "if you don't want him, I will take him

"He is very venomous, sir," said Lee. "The blacks eat 'em, it's true, but they always cut the head off first. I'd

We all laughed at Lee's supposing that the Doctor meant to make a meal of the deadly serpent, and Lee

"You see, sir," he said, "I've always heard that you French gents ate frogs, so I didn't know as snakes would

"Pray, don't take me for a Frenchman, my good lad," said the Doctor; "and as for frogs, they are as good as

"Well, I've eaten guaners myself," said Lee, "though I can't say much for them. They're uglier than snakes

Lee was made to sit down and take a glass of grog. So, very shortly, the conversation flowed on into its old

"You know well enough, you old humbug," I said; "with regard to Mary Hawker, n e Thornton!"

"I doubt it, my lad," he said. "I very much doubt it indeed; and, perhaps, you have heard that there must be

two parties to a bargain, so that even if she were willing to take me, I very much doubt if I would ask her."

"No one could blame you for that," I said, "after what has happened. There are but few men who would like

"You mistake me, Jeff. You mistake me altogether," he answered, walking up and down the room, with one

boot off. "That would make but little difference to me. I've no relations to sing out about a m salliance, you

know. No, my dear old fellow, not that; but Jeff, Jeff! You are the dearest friend I have in the world."

"I have no secrets from you, Jeff," he said; "so I don't mind telling you." Another hesitation! I grew rather

anxious. "What the deuce is coming?" I thought. "What can she have been up to? Go on, old fellow," I added

He stood at the end of the room, looking rather sheepish. "Why, the fact is, old fellow, that I begin to suspect

that I have outlived any little attachment I had in that quarter. I've been staying in the house two months with

"James Stockbridge," I said, sitting up in bed, "you atrocious humbug; two months ago you informed me,

with a sigh like a groggy pair of bellows, that her image could only be effaced from your heart by death. You

have seduced me, whose only fault was loving you too well to part with you, into coming sixteen thousand

miles to a barbarous land, far from kindred and country, on the plea that your blighted affections made

England less endurable than France, I'll say for argument; and, now having had two months'

opportunity of studying the character of the beloved one, you coolly inform me that the whole thing was a

"If you don't hold your tongue, and that quick," he replied, "I'll send this boot at your ugly head. Now, then!"

I ducked, fully expecting it was coming, and laughed silently under the bedclothes. I was very happy to hear

this I was very happy to hear that a man, whom I really liked so well, had got the better of a passion for a

woman who I knew was utterly incapable of being to him what his romantic highflown notions required a

wife to be. "If this happy result," I said to myself, "can be rendered the more sure by ridicule, that shall not be

I rose again and saw he had got his other boot half off, and was watching for me. "Jim," said I, "you ain't

"Angry!" he answered. "I am never angry with you, and you know it. I've been a fool, and I ought to be

"Pooh!" said I, "no more a fool than other men have been before you, from father Adam downwards."

"There," I interrupted: "don't abuse your ancestors. Tell me why you have changed your mind so quick?"

"That's a precious hard thing to do, mind you;" he answered. "A thousand trifling circumstances, which taken

apart are as worthless straws, when they are bound up together become a respectable truss, which is

marketable, and ponderable. So it is with little traits in Mary's character, which I have only noticed lately,

nothing separately, yet when taken together, to say the least, different to what I had imagined while my eyes

were blinded. To take one instance among fifty; there's her cousin Tom, one of the finest fellows that ever

stepped; but still I don't like to see her, a married woman, allowing him to pull her hair about, and twist

This was very true, but I thought that if James instead of Tom had been allowed the privilege of deco rating

her hair, he might have looked on it with different eyes. James, I saw, cared too little about her to be very

jealous, and so I saw that there was no fear of any coolness between him and Troubridge, which was a thing

to be rejoiced at, as it would have been a terrible blow on our little society, and which I feared at one time

"Jim," said I, "I have got something to tell you. Do you know, I believe there is some mystery about Doctor

"He is a walking mystery," said Jim; "but he is a noble good fellow, though unhappily a frogeater."

"I make this of it," he said: "that it is no earthly business of ours, or we should have been informed of it; and

if I were you, I wouldn't breathe a word of it to any mortal soul, or let the Doctor suspect that you overheard

anything. Secrets where kings are con cerned are precious sacred things, old Jeff. Good night!"

THIS narrative which I am now writing is neither more nor less than an account of what befell certain of my

acquaintances during a period extending over nearly, or quite, twenty years, interspersed, and let us hope

embel lished, with descriptions of the country in which these circumstances took place, and illustrated by

conversa tions well known to me by frequent repetition, selected as throwing light upon the characters of the

persons concerned. Episodes there are, too, which I have thought it worth while to introduce as being more or

less interesting, as bearing on the manners of a country but little known, out of which materials it is difficult

to select those most proper to make my tale coherent; yet such has been my object, neither to dwell on the

one hand unnecessarily on the more unimportant passages, nor on the other hand to omit anything which may

Now, during all the time above mentioned, I, Geoffry Hamlyn, have happened to lead a most uninteresting,

and with few exceptions prosperous existence. I was but little concerned, save as a hearer, in the catalogue of

exciting accidents and offences which I chronicle. I have looked on with the deepest interest at the love

making, and ended a bachelor; I have witnessed the fighting afar off, only joining the battle when I could not

help it, yet I am a steady old fogey, with a mortal horror of a disturbance of any sort. I have sat drink ing

with the winebibbers, and yet at sixty my hand is as steady as a rock. Money has come to me by mere

accumulation; I have taken more pains to spend it than to make it; in short, all through my life's drama, I have

been a spectator, and not an actor, and so in this story I shall keep myself as much as possible in the

Acting on this resolve I must now make my cong , and bid you farewell for a few years, and go back to those

few sheep which James Stockbridge and I own in the wilderness, and continue the history of those who are

more important than myself. I must push on too, for there is a long period of dull stupid prosperity coming to

our friends at Baroona and Toonarbin, which we must get over as quickly as is decent. Little Sam Buckley

also, though at present a most delightful child, will soon be a mere uninteresting boy. We must teach him to

read and write, and ride, and what not, as soon as possible, and see if we can't find a young lady well, I

won't anticipate, but go on. Go on, did I say? jump on, rather two whole years at once.

See Baroona now. Would you know it? I think not. That hut where we spent the pleasant Christmasday you

know of is degraded into the kitchen, and seems moved backward, although it stands in the same place, for a

new house is built nearer the river, quite over whelming the old slab hut in its grandeur a long low

wooden house, with deep cool verandahs all round, already festooned with passionflowers, and young

grape vines, and fronted by a flower garden, all ablaze with petunias and geraniums.

It was a summer evening, and all the French win dows reaching to the ground were open to admit the cool

south wind, which had just come up, deliciously icily cold after a scorching day. In the verandah sat the

Major and the Doctor over their claret (for the Major had taken to dining late again now, to his great

comfort), and in the garden were Mrs. Buckley and Sam watering the flowers, attended by a man who drew

"I think, Doctor," said the Major, "that the habit of dining in the middle of the day is a gross abuse of the gifts

of Providence, and I'll prove it to you. What does a man dine for? answer me that."

"Pooh! pooh! stuff and nonsense, my good friend," said the Major; "you are speaking at random. I suppose

"Highly capable, as far as I can judge from what I have seen," replied the Doctor. "A fullgrown fighting

"And you call that dining?" said the Major. "I call it gorging. Why, those fellows are more uncomfortable

after food than before. I have seen them sitting close before the fire and rubbing their stomachs with mutton

"Then if you don't dine to satisfy your hunger, what the deuce do you eat dinners for at all?" asked the

"Why," said the Major, spreading his legs out before him with a benign smile, and leaning back in his chair,

"I eat my dinner, not so much for the sake of the dinner itself, as for the afterdinnerish feeling which

follows: a feeling that you have nothing to do, and that if you had you'd be shot if you'd do it. That, to return

"All the most amiable feelings in the human breast," continued the Major, "are brought out in their full

perfection by dinner. If a fellow were to come to me now and ask me to lend him ten pounds, I'd do it,

"Laziness is nothing," said the Doctor, "unless well carried out. I only contradicted you, however, to draw

you out; I agree entirely. Do you know, my friend, I am getting marvellously fond of this climate."

"So am I. But then you know, Doctor, that we are sheltered from the north wind here by the snowranges.

The summer in Sydney, now, is perfectly infernal. The dust is so thick you can't see your hand before you."

"So I believe," said the Doctor. "By the bye, I got a new butterfly today; rather an event, mind you, here,

"You seem to be making quite a naturalist of my boy, Doctor. I am sincerely obliged to you. If we can make

"He will never get into much," said the Doctor, "unless I am mistaken; he is the most docile child I ever came

"He must go to school, I am afraid," said the Major with a sigh, "I can't bring my heart to part with him; but

his mother has taught him all she knows, so I suppose he must go to school and fight, and get flogged, and

come home with a pipe in his mouth, and an oath on his lips, with his education completed. I don't fancy his

staying here among these convict servants, when he is old enough to learn mischief."

"He'll learn as much mischief at a colonial school, I expect," said the Doctor, "and more too. All the evil he

hears from these fellows will be like the water on a duck's back; whereas, if you send him to school in a town,

"That is easier said than done, Doctor. It is very hard to get a respectable tutor in the colony."

"My dear friend," said the Major, jumping up, "I would not have dared to ask such a thing. If you would

"I will undertake the boy's education altogether. Potztausend, and why not! It will be a labour of love, and

"A weighty responsibility," said the Doctor. "No Latin or Greek, I suppose? They will be no use to him here."

"Well no; I suppose not. But I should like him to learn his Latin grammar. You may depend upon it there's

"Why, the least advantage it has been to me is to give me an insight into the construction of languages, which

is some use. But while I was learning the Latin grammar, I learnt other things besides, of more use than the

construction of any languages, living or dead. First, I learnt that there were certain things in this world that

must be done. Next, that there were people in this world, of whom the Masters of Eton were a sample, whose

orders must be obeyed without question. Third, I found that it was pleasanter in all ways to do one's duty than

to leave it undone. And last, I found out how to bear a moderate amount of birching without any indecent

"All very useful things," said the Doctor. "Teach a boy one thing well, and you show him how to learn others.

"As much as you like, Doctor. His mother has taught him his catechism, and all that sort of thing, and she is

the fit person, you know. With the excep tion of that and the Latin grammar, I trust everything to your

"There is one thing I leave to you, Major, if you please, and that is corporal chastisement. I am not at all sure

that I could bring myself to flog Sam, and, if I did, it would be very inefficiently done."

"Oh, I'll undertake it," said the Major, "though I believe I shall have an easy task. He won't want much

At this moment Mrs. Buckley approached with a basket ful of freshgathered flowers. "The roses don't

flower well here, Doctor," she said, "but the geraniums run mad. Here is a salmoncoloured one for your

"He has earned it well, Agnes," said her husband. "He has decided the discussion we had last night by

"And God's blessing on him for it!" said Mrs. Buckley warmly. "You have taken a great load off my mind,

Doctor. I should never have been happy if that boy had gone to school. Come here, Sam."

Sam came bounding into the verandah, and clam bered up on his father, as if he had been a tree. He was

now eleven years old, and very tall and well formed for his age. He was a goodlooking boy, with regular

features, and curly chestnut hair. He had, too, the large greyblue eye of his father, an eye that never lost for

a moment its staring expression of kindly honesty, and the lad's whole countenance was one which, without

being particularly handsome, or even very intelligent, won an honest man's regard at first sight.

"My dear Sam," said his mother, "leave off playing with your father's hair, and listen to me, for I have

something serious to say to you. Last night your father and I were debating about sending you to school, but

Doctor Mulhaus has himself offered to be your tutor, thereby giving you advantages, for love, which you

never could have secured for money. Now, the least we can expect of you, my dear boy, is that you will be

"I will try, Doctor dear," said Sam. "But I am very stupid sometimes, you know."

So the good Doctor, whose head was stored with nearly as much of human knowledge as mortal head could

hold, took simple, guileless little Sam by the hand, and led him into the garden of knowledge. Unless I am

mistaken, these two will pick more flowers than they will dig potatoes in the aforesaid garden, but I don't

think that two such honest souls will gather much unwholesome fruit. The danger is that they will waste their

I believe that such an education as our Sam got from the Doctor would have made a slattern and a faineant

out of half the boys in England. If Sam had been a clever boy, or a conceited boy, he would have ended with

a superficial knowledge of things in general, imagining he knew everything when he knew nothing, and

would have been left in the end, without a faith either religious or political, a useless, careless man.

This danger the Doctor foresaw in the first month, and going to the Major abruptly, as he walked up and

"See here, Buckley. I have undertaken to educate that boy of yours, and every day I like the task better, and

yet every day I see that I have undertaken some thing beyond me. His appetite for knowledge is insati able,

but he is not an intellectual boy; he makes no deductions of his own, but takes mine for granted. He has no

commentary on what he learns, but that of a dissatisfied idealist like me, a man who has been thrown among

circumstances sufficiently favourable to make a prime minister out of some men, and yet who has ended by

doing nothing. Another thing: this is my first attempt at education, and I have not the schoolmaster's art to

keep him to details. Every day I make new reso lutions, and every day I break them. The boy turns his great

eyes upon me in the middle of some humdrum work, and asks me a question. In answering, I get off the

turnpike road, and away we go from lane to lane, from one subject to another, until lessontime is over, and

nothing done. And, if it were merely time wasted, it could be made up, but he remembers every word I say,

and believes in it like gospel, when I myself couldn't remember half of it to save my life. Now, my dear

fellow, I consider your boy to be a very sacred trust to me, and so I have mentioned all this to you, to give

you an opportunity of removing him to where he might be under a stricter discipline, if you thought fit. If he

was like some boys, now, I should resign my post at once but, as it is, I shall wait till you turn me out, for two

reasons. The first is, that I take such delight in my task, that I do not care to relinquish it; and the other is, that

the lad is naturally so orderly and gentle, that he does not need discipline, like most boys."

"My dear Doctor," replied Major Buckley, "listen to me. If we were in England, and Sam could go to Eton,

which, I take it you know, is the best school in the world, I would still earnestly ask you to continue your

work. He will probably inherit a great deal of money, and will not have to push his way in the world by his

brains; so that close scholarship will be rather unnecessary. I should like him to know history well and

thoroughly; for he may mix in the political life of this little colony by and by. Latin grammar, you know," he

said, laughing, "is indispensable. Doctor, I trust my boy with you because I know that you will make him a

So, the Doctor buckled to his task again, with renewed energy; to Euclid, Latin grammar, and fractions. Sam's

good memory enabled him to make light of the gram mar, and the fractions too were no great difficulty, but

the Euclid was an awful trial. He couldn't make out what it was all about. He got on very well until he came

nearly to the end of the first book, and then getting among the parallelogram "props," as we used to call them

(may their fathers' graves be defiled!), he stuck dead. For a whole evening did he pore patiently over one of

them till A B, setting to C D, crossed hands, poussetted, and whirled round "in Sahara waltz" through his

throb bing head. Bedtime, but no rest! Whether he slept or not he could not tell. Who could sleep with that

longbodied, illtemperedlooking parallelogram A H standing on the bedclothes, and crying out, in tones

loud enough to waken the house, that it never had been, nor never would be equal to the fat jolly square C K?

So, in the morning, Sam woke to the consciousness that he was farther off from the solution than ever, but,

No good! Breakfast time, and matters much worse! That long peakednose vixen of a triangle A H C, which

yesterday Sam had made out was equal to half the paral lelogram and half the square, now had the audacity

to declare that she had nothing to do with either of them; so what was to be done now?

After breakfast Sam took his book and went out to his father, who was sitting smoking in the verandah. He

"Father, dear, see here; can you understand this? You've got to prove, you know, oh, dear! I've forgot that

"Let's see," said the Major; "I am afraid this is a little above me. There's Brentwood, now, could do it; he was

in the Artillery, you know, and learnt fortification, and that sort of thing. I don't think I can make much hand

"Come, come, my old man," said the Major, "don't give way, you know; don't be beat."

"I can't make it out at all," said Sam, sobbing. "I've got such a buzzing in my head with it! And if I can't do it

I must stop; because I can't go on to the next till I understand this. Oh, dear me!"

"Lay your head there a little, my boy, till it gets clearer; then perhaps you will be able to make it out. You

may depend on it that you ought to learn it, or the good Doctor wouldn't have set it to you: never let a thing

So Sam cried on his father's shoulder a little, and then went in with his book; and not long after, the Doctor

looked in unperceived, and saw the boy with his elbows on the table and the book before him. Even while he

looked a big tear fell plump into the middle of A H; so the Doctor came quietly in and said,

Sam complied without word or comment; the Doctor sent it flying through the open window, half way down

the garden. "There!" said he, nodding his head, "that's the fit place for him this day: you've had enough of

him at present; go and tell one of the blacks to dig some worms, and we'll make holiday and go a fishing."

Sam looked at the Doctor, and then through the win dow at his old enemy lying in the middle of the flower

bed. He did not like to see the poor book, so lately his master, crumpled and helpless, fallen from its high

estate so suddenly. He would have gone to its assistance, and picked it up and smoothed it, the more so as he

The Doctor seemed to see everything. "Let it lie here, my child," he said; "you are not in a position to assist a

He went, and when he came back he found the Doc tor sitting beside his father in the verandah, with a pen

knife in one hand and the ace of spades in the other. He cut the card into squares, triangles, and parallelo

grams, while Sam looked on, and, demonstrating as he went, fitted them one into the other, till the boy saw

"Why," said Sam, "that's all as clear as need be. I understand it. Now may I pick the book up, Doctor?"

History was the pleasantest part of all Sam's tasks, for they would sit in the little room given up for a study,

with the French windows open looking on the flowergarden, Sam reading aloud and the Doctor making

"My boy, we are making too much of a pleasure of this: you must really learn your dates. Now tell me the

"Ah! I thought so: we must not be so discursive. We'll learn the dates of the Grecian History, as being an

But this plan was rather worse than the other; for one morning, Sam having innocently asked, at halfpast

eleven, what the battle of Thermopylae was, Mrs. Buckley coming in, at one, to call them to lunch, found the

Doctor, who had begun the account of that glorious fight in English, and then gone on to German, walking up

and down the room in a state of excitement, reciting to Sam, who did not know from , the soulmoving

account of it from Herodotus in good sonorous Greek. She asked, laughing, "What language are you talking

"And what does Sam think of it? I should like you to learn Greek, my boy, if you can."

"I thought he was singing, mother," said Sam; but after that the lad used to sit delighted, by the river side,

when they were fishing, while the Doctor, with his musical voice, repeated some melodious ode of Pindar's.

And so the intellectual education proceeded, with more or less energy; and meanwhile the physical and moral

part was not forgotten, though the two latter, like the former, were not very closely attended to, and left a

good deal to Providence. (And, having done your best for a boy, in what better hands can you leave him?)

But the Major, as an old soldier, had gained a certain faith in the usefulness of physical training; so, when

Sam was about twelve, you might have seen him any afternoon on the lawn, with his father, the Major,

patiently teaching him singlestick, and Sam as patiently learning, until the boy came to be so marvellously

active on his legs, and to show such rapidity of eye and hand, that the Major, on one occasion, having

received a more than usually agonizing cut on the forearm, remarked that he thought he was not quite so

active on his pins as formerly, and that he must hand the boy over to the Doctor.

"Doctor," said he that day, "I have taught my boy ordinary sword play till, by Jove, sir, he is getting quicker

"Why, I don't know; no one, I think. I have judged, I fancy, more by seeing you flourish your walkingstick

The Doctor laughed. He was, in fact, a consummate ma"tre d'armes; and Captain Brentwood, before spoken

of, no mean fencer, coming to Baroona on a visit, found that our friend could do exactly as he liked with him,

to the Captain's great astonishment. And Sam soon improved under his tuition, not indeed to the extent of

being a master of the weapon; he was too large and loosely built for that; but, at all events, so far as to gain an

The Major issued an edict, giving the most positive orders against its infringement, that Sam should never

mount a horse without his special leave and licence. He taught him to ride, indeed, but would not give him

much opportunity for practising it. Once or twice aweek he would take him out, but seldom oftener. Sam,

who never dreamt of questioning the wisdom and excellence of any of his father's decisions, rather wondered

at this; pondering in his own mind how it was that, while all the lads he knew around, now getting pretty

numerous, lived, as it were, on horse back, never walking a quarter of a mile on any occasion, he alone

should be discouraged from it. "Perhaps," he said to himself one day, "he doesn't want me to make many

acquaintances. Its true, Charley Delisle smokes and swears, which is very ungentlemanly; but Cecil Mayford,

Dad says, is a perfect little gentle man, and I ought to see as much of him as possible, and yet he wouldn't

give me a horse to go to their muster. Well, I suppose he has some reason for it."

One holiday the Doctor and the Major were sitting in the verandah after breakfast, when Sam entered to

"See here, father! Harry is getting in some young beasts at the stockyard hut, and Cecil Mayford is coming

"I know all about it, my child," said the Major; "Cecil will be there on Blackboy, and you would like to show

him that Bronsewing is the superior pony of the two. That's all very natural; but still I say, get your hat, Sam,

and trot through the forest on your own two legs, and bring Cecil home to dinner."

Sam still looked disappointed, though he tried not to show it. He went and got his hat, and, meeting the dogs,

got such a wild welcome from them that he forgot all about Bronsewing. Soon his father saw him merrily

crossing the paddock with the whole kennel of the establishment, Kangaroo dogs, cattle dogs, and colleys,

"There's a good lesson manfully learnt, Doctor," said the Major; "he has learnt to sacrifice his will to mine

without argument, because he knows I have always a reason for things. I want that boy to ride as little as

possible, but he has earned an exception in his favour today. Jerry!" (After a few calls the stableman

appeared.) "Put Mr. Samuel's saddle on Bronsewing, and mine on Ricochette, and bring them round."

So Sam, walking cheerily forward singing, under the light and shadow of the old forest, surrounded by his

dogs, hears horses' feet behind him, and looking back sees his father riding and leading Bronsewing saddled.

"Jump up, my boy," said the Major; "Cecil shall see what Bronsewing is like, and how well you can sit him.

The reason I altered my mind was that I might reward you for acting like a man, and not arguing. Now, I

don't want you to ride much yet for a few years. I don't want my lad to grow up with a pair of bow legs like a

groom, and probably something worse, from living on horseback before his bones are set. You see I have a

But I think that the lessons Sam liked best of all were the swimming lessons, and at a very early age he could

swim and dive like a black, and once when dis porting himself in the water, when not more than thirteen,

poor Sam nearly had a stop put to his bathing for ever, and that in a very frightful manner.

His father and he had gone down to bathe one hot noon; the Major had swum out and was standing on the

rock wiping himself while Sam was still disporting in the midriver; as he watched the boy he saw what

seemed a stick upon the water, and then, as he perceived the ripple around it, the horrible truth burst on the

affrighted father: it was a large black snake crossing the river, and poor little Sam was swimming straight

The Major cried out and waved his hand; the boy, seeing something was wrong, turned and made for the

shore, and the next moment his father, bending his body back, hurled himself through the air and alighted in

the water alongside of him, clutching him round the body, and heading down the river with furious strokes.

The lad, although terribly frightened at he knew not what, with infinite courage seconded his father's efforts

although he felt sinking. In a few minutes they were safe on the bank, in time for them to see the reptile land,

"God has been very good to us, my son. You have been saved from a terrible death. Mind you don't breathe a

That night Sam dreamt that he was in the coils of a snake, but waking up found that his father was laid beside

him in his clothes with one arm round his neck, so he went to sleep again and thought no more of the snake.

"My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not" a saying which it is just possible you have heard before.

I can tell you where it comes from: it is one of the apothegms of the king of a little eastern nation who at one

time were settled in Syria, and whose writings are not much read nowadays, in consequence of the vast

mass of literature of a superior kind which this happy century has produced. I can recommend the book,

however, as containing some original remarks, and being generally worth reading. The meaning of the above

quotation (and the man who said it, mind you, had at one time a reputation for shrewdness) is, as I take it, that

a man's morals are very much influenced by the society he is thrown among; and although in these

parliamentary times we know that kings must of necessity be fools, yet in this instance I think that the man

shows some glimmerings of reason, for his remark tallies singularly with my own personal observation; so,

acting on this, while I am giving you the history of this little wild boy of the bush, I cannot do better than

give some account of the companions with whom he chiefly assorted out of schoolhours.

With broad intelligent forehead, with large loving hazel eyes, with a frill like Queen Elizabeth, with a brush

like a fox; deep in the brisket, perfect in mark ings of black, white, and tan; in sagacity a Pitt, in courage an

Anglesey, Rover stands first on my list, and claims to be king of Colleydogs. In politics I should say

Conservative of the high Protectionist sort. Let us have no strange dogs about the place to grub up sacred

bones, or we will shake out our frills and tumble them in the dust. Domestic cats may mioul in the garden at

night to a certain extent, but a line must be drawn; after that they must be chased up trees and barked at, if

necessary, all night. Opossums and native cats are unfit to cumber the earth, and must be hunted into holes,

wherever possible. Cows and other horned animals must not come into the yard, or even look over the garden

fence, under penalties. Black fellows must be barked at, and their dogs chased to the uttermost limits of the

habitable globe. Such were the chief points of the creed subscribed to by Sam's dog Rover.

All the love that may be between dog and man, and man and dog, existed between Sam and Rover. Never a

fresh cheery morning when the boy arose with the consciousness of another happy day before him, but that

the dog was waiting for him as he stepped from his window into clear morning air. Never a walk in the forest,

but that Rover was his merry companion. And what would lessons have been without Rover looking in now

and then with his head on one side, and his ears cocked, to know when he would be finished and come out to

Oh, memorable day, when Sam got separated from his father in the Yass, and, looking back, saw a cloud of

dust in the road, and dimly descried Rover, fighting valiantly against fearful odds, with all the dogs in the

township upon him! He rode back, and prayed for assistance from the men lounging in front of the public

house; who, pitying his distress, pulled off all the dogs till there were only left Rover and a great white

bulldog to do battle. The fight seemed going against Sam's dog; for the bulldog had him by the neck, and held

him firm, so that he could do nothing. Nevertheless, mind yourself, master bulldog; you've only got a

mouthful of long hair there; and when you do let go, I think, there is danger for you in those fierce gleaming

Sam was crying; and the men round were saying, "Oh! take the bulldog off; the colley's no good to him,"

Halfadozen fivepound notes were ready for him at once; and he had barely got the stakes posted before

the event proved he was right. In an evil moment for him the bulldog loosed his hold, and, ere he had time to

turn round, Rover had seized him below the eye, and was dragging him about the road, worrying him as he

would worry an opossum: so the discomfited owner had to remove his bulldog to save his life. Rover, after

showing his teeth and shaking himself, came to Sam as fresh as a daisy; and the new comer pocketed his five

"I am so much obliged to you," said Sam, turning to him, "for taking my dog's part! They were all against

"I'm much obliged to your dog, sir, for winning me five pound so easy. But there ain't a many bad dogs, or

Well, as I am going to write Rover's life, in three volumes post octavo, I won't any further entrench on my

subject matter, save to say that, while on the subject of Sam's education, I could not well omit a notice of the

aforesaid Rover. For, I think that all a man can learn from a dog, Sam learnt from him; and that is something.

Who is this glorious, blueeyed, curlyheaded boy, who bursts into the house like a whirlwind, making it

ring again with merry laughter? This is Jim Brent wood, of whom we shall see much anon.

At Waterloo, when the French cavalry were coming up the hill, and our artillerymen were running for the

squares, deftly trundling their gunwheels before them, it happened that there came running towards the

square where Major Buckley stood like a tower of strength (the tallest man in the regiment), an artillery

officer, begrimed with mud and gunpowder, and drag ging a youth by the collar, or rather, what seemed to

be the body of a youth. Some cried out to him to let go; but he looked back, seeming to measure the distance

between the cavalry and the square, and then, never loosing his hold, held on against hope. Every one thought

he would be too late; when some one ran out of the square (men said it was Buckley), and, throwing the

wounded lad over his shoulder, ran with him into safety; and a cheer ran along the line from those who saw

him do it. Small time for cheering then; for neither could recover his breath before there came a volley of

musketry, and all around them, outside the bayonets, was a wild sea of fierce men's faces, horses' heads,

gleaming steel, and French blasphemy. A strange scene for the commencement of an acquaint ance! And yet

it throve; for that same evening, Buckley, talking to his Colonel, saw the artillery officer coming towards

"That," said the Colonel, "is Brentwood of the Artillery, who ran away with Lady Kate Bingley, and they

haven't a rap to bless themselves with, sir. It was her brother that you and he fetched into the square today."

And so began a friendship which lasted the lives of both men; and, I doubt not, will last their sons' lives too.

For Brentwood lived within thirty miles of the Major, and their sons spent much of their time together,

Captain Brentwood's son Jim was a very different boy to Sam, though a very fine fellow too. Mischief and

laughter were the apparent objects of his life; and when the Doctor saw him approaching the house, he used

to put away Sam's lessonbooks with a sigh and wait for better times. The Captain had himself undertaken

his son's education, and, being a somewhat dreamy man, excessively attached to mathematics, Jim had got,

altogether, a very remarkable education indeed; which, however, is hardly to our purpose just now.

Brentwood, I must say, was a widower, and a kind hearted, easygoing man; he had, besides, a daughter,

The next of Sam's companions who takes an important part in this history is Cecil Mayford a delicate,

clever little dandy, and courageous withal; with more brains in his head, I should say, than Sam and Jim

could muster between them. His mother was a widow, who owned the station next down the river from the

Buckleys', distant about five miles, and which, since the death of her husband, Doctor Mayford, she had

managed with the assistance of an overseer. She had, besides Cecil, a little daughter of great beauty.

Also, I must here mention that the next station below Mrs. Mayford's, on the river, distant by the windings of

the valley fifteen miles, and yet, in con sequence of a bend, scarcely ten from Major Buckley's at Baroona,

was owned and inhabited by Yahoos (by name Donovan), with whom we had nothing to do. But this

aforesaid station, which is called Garoopna, will shortly fall into other hands, when you will see that many

events of deep importance will take place there, and many pleasant hours spent there by all our friends, more

"There is one other left of whom I must say some thing here, and more immediately. The poor, puling little

Toonarbin was but a short ten miles from Baroona, and, of course, the two families were as one. There was

always a hostage from the one house staying as a visitor in the other; and, under such circumstances, of

course, Charles and Sam were much together, and, as time went on, got to be firm friends.

Charles was two years younger than Sam; the smallest of all the lads, and perhaps the most unhappy. For the

truth must be told: he was morose and uncer tain in his temper; and although all the other boys bore with

him most generously, as one whom they had heard was born under some great misfortune, yet he was hardly

a favourite amongst them; and the poor boy, sometimes perceiving this, would withdraw from his play, and

sulk alone, resisting all the sober, kind inducements of Sam, and the merry, impetuous per suasions of Jim,

But he was a kind, goodhearted boy, nevertheless. His temper was not under control; but, after one of his

fierce, volcanic bursts of illhumour, he would be acutely miserable and angry with himself for days,

particularly if the object of it had been Jim or Sam, his two especial favourites. On one occasion, after a

causeless fit of anger with Jim, while the three were at Major Buckley's together, he got his pony and rode

away home, secretly speaking to no one. The other two lamented all the afternoon that he had taken the

matter so seriously, and were debating even next morning going after him to propitiate him, when Charles

re appeared, having apparently quite recovered his temper, but evidently bent upon something.

He had a bird, a white corrella, which could talk and whistle surprisingly, probably, in fact, the most precious

thing he owned. This prodigy he had now brought back in a basket as a peaceoffering, and refused to be

"But see, Charley," said Jim, "I was as much in the wrong as you were" (which was not fact, for Jim was

But Charles said that his mother approved of it, and if Jim didn't take it he'd let it fly.

"Well, if you will, old fellow," said Jim, "I'll tell you what I would rather have. Give me Fly's dun pup

So this was negotiated after a time, and the corrella was taken back to Toonarbin, wildly excited by the

Those who knew the sad circumstances of poor Charles's birth (the Major, the Doctor, and Mrs. Buck ley)

treated him with such kindness and consideration, that they won his confidence and love. In any of his

Berserk fits, if his mother were not at hand, he would go to Mrs. Buckley and open his griefs; and her

motherly tact and kindness seldom failed to still the wild beatings of that poor, sensitive, silly little heart, so

Such is my brief and imperfect, and I fear tedious account of Sam's education, and of the companions with

whom he lived, until the boy had grown into a young man, and his sixteenth birthday came round, on which

day, as had been arranged, he was considered to have finished his education, and stand up, young as he was,

Happy morning, and memorable for one thing at least that his father, coming into his bedroom and kissing

his forehead, led him out to the front door, where was a groom holding a horse handsomer than any Sam had

seen before, which pawed the gravel impatient to be ridden, and ere Sam had exhausted half his expressions

of wonder and admiration that his father told him the horse was his, a birthdaypresent from his mother.

"BUT," I think I hear you say, "What has become of Mary Hawker all this time? You raised our interest

about her somewhat, at first, as a young and beautiful woman, villainbeguiled, who seemed, too, to have a

temper of her own, and promised, under circumstances, to turn out a bit of a b mst ne. What is she

doing all this time? Has she got fat, or had the smallpox, that you neglect her like this? We had rather more

than we wanted of her and her villanous husband in the first volume; and now nothing. Let us, at all events,

hear if she is dead or alive. And her husband, too, although we hope, under Providence, that he has left

this wicked world, yet we should be glad to hear of it for certain. Make inquiries, and let us know the result.

To all this I answer humbly, that I will do my best. If you will bring a dull chapter on you, duller even than

all the rest, at least read it, and exonerate me. The fact is, my dear sir, that women like Mary Hawker are not

particularly interesting in the piping times of peace. In volcanic and explosive times they, with their wild

animal passions, become tragical and remarkable, like baronesses of old. But in tranquil times, as I said, they

fall into the background, and show us the value and excellence of such placid, noble helpmates, as the

A creek joined the river about a mile below the Buckleys' station, falling into the main stream with rather a

pretty cascade, which even at the end of the hottest summer poured a tiny silver thread across the black rocks.

Above the cascade the creek cut deep into the table land, making a charming glen, with precipitous blue stone

walls, some eighty or ninety feet in height, fringed with black wattle and lightwood, and here and there,

among the fallen rocks nearest the water, a fern tree or so, which last I may say are no longer there, Dr.

Mulhaus having cut the hearts out of them and eaten them for cabbage. Should you wander up this little gully

on a hot summer's day, you would be charmed with the beauty of the scenery, and the shady coolness of the

spot; till coming upon a black snake coiled away among the rocks, like a rope on the deck of a man of war,

you would probably withdraw, not without a strong inclination to "shy" at every black stick you saw for the

rest of the day. For this lower part of the Moira creek was, I am sorry to say, the most troubled locality for

But following this creek you would find that the banks got rapidly less precipitous, and at length it swept in

long curves through open forest glades, spreading, too, into deep dark waterholes, only connected by

gravelly fords, with a slender stream of clear water running across the yellow pebbles. These waterholes

were the haunts of the platypus and the tortoise. Here, too, were flocks of black duck and teal, and as you

rode past, the merry little snipe would rise from the water's edge, and whisk away like lightning through the

trees. Altogether a pleasant woodland creek, alongside of which, under the mighty boxtrees, ran a sandy

road, bordered with deep beds of bracken fern, which led from Baroona of the Buckleys to Toonarbin of the

A pleasant road, indeed, winding through the old forest straight towards the mountains, shifting its course so

often that every minute some new vista opened upon you, till at length you came suddenly upon a clear space,

beyond which rose a picturesque little granite cap, at the foot of which you saw a charming house, covered

with green creepers, and backed by huts, sheep yards, a woolshed, and the usual concomitants of a

flourishing Australian sheep station. Behind all again towered lofty, dark hanging woods, closing the

This is Toonarbin, where Mary Hawker, with her leal and trusty cousin Tom Troubridge for partner, has

pitched her tent, after all her spasmodic, tragical troubles, and here she is leading as happy, and by

consequence as uninteresting, an existence as ever fell to the lot of a handsome woman yet.

Mary and Miss Thornton had stayed with the Buckleys until good cousin Tom had got a house ready to

receive them, and then they moved up and took possession. Mary and Tom were from the first co partners,

and, latterly, Miss Thornton had invested her money, about �2,000, in the station. Matters were very

prosperous, and, after a few years, Tom began to get weighty and didactic in his speech, and to think of

To Mary the past seemed like a dream as an old dream, wellnigh forgotten. The scene was so changed

that at times she could hardly believe that all those dark old days were real. Could she, now so busy and

happy, be the same woman who sat worn and frightened over the dying fire with poor Captain Saxon? Is she

the same woman whose husband was hurried off one wild night, and transported for coining? Or is all that a

No. Here is the pledge and proof that it is all too terribly real. This boy, whom she loves so wildly and

fiercely, is that man's son, and his father, for aught she knows, is alive, and only a few poor hundred miles

off. Never mind; let it be forgotten as though it never was. So she forgot it, and was happy.

But not always. Sometimes she could not but remember what she was, in spite of the many kind friends who

surrounded her, and the new and busy life she led. Then would come a fit of despondency, almost of despair,

but the natural elasticity of her temper soon dispersed these clouds, and she was her old self again.

Her very old self, indeed. That delicateminded, intellectual old maid, Miss Thornton, used to remark with

silent horror on what she called Mary's levity of behaviour with men, but more especially with honest Tom

Troubridge. Many a time, when the old lady was sitting darning (she was always darning; she used to begin

darning the things before they were a week out of the draper's shop), would her tears fall upon her work, as

she saw Mary sitting with her child in her lap, smiling, while the audacious Tom twisted a flower in her hair,

in the way that pleased him best. To see anything wrong, and to say nothing, was a thing impos sible. She

knew that speaking to Mary would only raise a storm, and so, knowing the man she had to deal with, she

She was not long without her opportunity. Duly darning one evening, while Mary was away putting her boy

to bed, Tom entered from his wine. Him, with a combination of valour and judgment, she immediately

attacked, acting upon a rule once laid down to Mary "My dear, if you want to manage a man, speak to him

"Mr. Troubridge," said Miss Thornton. "May I speak a few words to you on private affairs?"

"A younger woman," said Miss Thornton, "might feel some delicacy in saying what I am going to say. But

"Dear Miss Thornton," said Tom, "you must be going to say something very extraordinary if it requires

"Nay, my dear kinsman," said Miss Thornton; "if we begin exchanging compliments, we shall talk all night,

and never get to the gist of the matter after all. Here is what I want to say. It seems to me that your attentions

to our poor Mary are somewhat more than cousinly, and it behoves me to remind you that she is still a

"Nay no," said Tom; "you could never offend me. I think you are right too. It shall be amended, madam."

And after this Mary missed many delicate little attentions that Tom had been used to pay her. She thought he

was sulky on some account at first, but soon her good sense showed her that, if they two were to live

For, after all, Tom had but small place in her heart. Heart filled almost exclusively with this poor sulky little

lad of hers, who seemed born to trouble, as the sparks went upward. In teething even, aggravating beyond

experience, and afterwards suffering from the whole list of juvenile evils, in such a way as boy never did

before; coming out of these troubles too, with a captious, disagreeable temper, jealous in the extreme, not

a member who, on the whole, adds much to the pleasure of the little household, yet, with the blindest

passionate love towards some folks. Instance his mother, Thomas Troubridge, and Sam Buckley.

For these three the lad had a wild hysterical affection, and yet none of them had much power over him. Once

by one unconsidered word arouse the boy's obstinacy, and all chance of controlling him was gone. Then, your

only chance was to call in Miss Thornton, who had a way of managing the boy, more potent than Mary's

For instance, once, when he was about ten years old, his mother set him to learn some lesson or another,

when he had been petitioning to go off somewhere with the men. He was furiously naughty, and threw the

book to the other end of the room, all the threats and scoldings of his mother proving insufficient to make

him pick it up again. So that at last she went out, leaving him alone, triumphant, with Miss Thornton, who

said not a word, but only raised her eyes off her work, from time to time, to look reproachfully on the

rebellious boy. He could stand his mother's anger, but he could not stand those steady wondering looks that

came from under the old lady's spectacles. So that, when Mary came in again, she found the book picked up,

and the lesson learned. Moreover, it was a fortnight before the lad misbehaved himself again.

In sickness and in health, in summer and in winter, for ten long years after they settled at Toonarbin, did this

noble old lady stand beside Mary as a rock of refuge in all troubles, great or small. Always serene, patient,

and sensible, even to the last; for the time came when this true and faithful servant was removed from among

One morning she confessed herself unable to leave her bed; that was the first notice they had. Doctor

Mayford, sent for secretly, visited her. "Break up of the constitution," said he, "no organic disease,"

but shook his head. "She will go," he added, "with the first frost. I can do nothing." And Dr. Mulhaus, being

consulted, said he was but an amateur doctor, but con curred with Dr. Mayford. So there was nothing to do

During the summer she got out of bed, and sat in a chair, which Tom used to lift dexterously into the

verandah. There she would sit very quietly; some times getting Mrs. Buckley, who came and lived at

Toonarbin that summer, to read a hymn for her; and, during this time, she told them where she would like to

On a little knoll, she said, which lay to the right of the house, barely two hundred yards from the window.

Here the grass grew shorter and closer than elsewhere, and here freshened more rapidly beneath the autumn

rains. Here, on winter's evenings, the slanting sunbeams lingered longest, and here, at such times, she had

been accustomed to saunter, listening to the sighing of the wind, in the dark funeral sheoaks and cypresses,

like the faroff sea upon a sandy shore. Here, too, came oftener than elsewhere a flock of lories, making the

dark low trees gay with flying living blossoms. And here she would lie with her feet towards the east, her

One fresh spring morning she sat up and talked serenely to Mrs. Buckley, about matters far higher and more

sacred than one likes to deal with in a tale of this kind, and, after a time, expressed a wish for a blossom of a

Mrs. Buckley got the flower for her, and so holding the crimsonstriped lily in her delicate, wasted fingers,

the good old lady passed from this world without a struggle, as decently and as quietly as she had always

This happened when Charles was about ten years old, and, for some time, the lad was subdued and sad. He

used to look out of the window at night towards the grave, and wonder why they had put her they all loved so

well, to lie out there under the wildsweeping winter rain. But, by degrees, he got used to the little square

white railing on the sheoak knoll, and, ere half a year was gone, the memory of his aunt had become very dim

Poor Mary, too, though a long while prepared for it, was very deeply and sincerely grieved at Miss

Thornton's death; but she soon recovered from it. It came in the course of nature, and, although the house

looked blank and dull for a time, yet there was too much life all around her, too much youthful happy life, to

make it possible to dwell very long on the death of one who had left them full of years and honour. But Lord

Frederick, before spoken of inciden tally in this narrative, playing billiards at Gibraltar, about a year after

this; had put into his hand a letter, from which, when opened, there fell a lock of silver grey hair on the green

cloth, which he carefully picked up, and, leaving his game, went home to his quarters. His comrades thought

it was his father who was dead, and when they heard it was only his sister's old gover ness, they wondered

And now, in a year or two, it began to be very difficult to keep Master Charley in order. When he was about

thirteen, there was a regular guerillawar between him and his mother, on the subject of learning, which

ended, ultimately, in the boy flatly refusing to learn anything. His natural capacities were but small, and,

under any circumstances, knowledge would only have been acquired by him with infinite pains. But, as it

was, with his selfishness fostered so excessively by his mother's indulgence, and Tom's goodhumoured

carelessness, it became totally impossible to teach him anything. In vain his mother scolded and wept, in vain

Tom represented to him the beauties and ex cellences of learning learn the boy would not; so that at

fourteen he was given up in despair by his mother, having learnt nearly enough of reading, writing, and

ciphering, to carry on the most ordinary business of life, a most lamentable state of things for a lad who,

in after life, would be a rich man, and who, in a young and rapidlyrising country, might become, by the help

I think that when Samuel Buckley and James Brentwood were grown to be young men of eighteen or

nineteen, and he was about seventeen or so, a stranger would have seen a great deal of difference between the

two former and the latter, and would, probably, have remarked that James and Sam spoke and behaved like

two gentlemen, but that Charles did not, but seemed as though he had come from a lower grade in society,

with some truth too, for there was a circumstance in his bringing up which brought him more harm than all

Both Major Buckley and Captain Brentwood made it a law of the Medes and Persians that neither of their

sons should hold any conversation with the convict servants, save in the presence of competent authorities;

and, indeed, they both, as soon as increased emigration enabled them, removed their old household servants,

and replaced them by free men, newly arrived: a lazy independent class, certainly, with exaggerated notions

of their own importance in this new phase of their life, but without the worse vices of the convicts. This rule,

even in such wellregulated households, was a very hard one to get observed, even under flogging penalties;

and, indeed, formed the staple affliction of poor thoughtless Jim's early life, as this little anecdote will show:

One day going to see Captain Brentwood, when Jim was about ten years old, I met that young gentle man

(looking, I thought, a little out of sorts) about two hundred yards from the house. He turned with me to go

"I've been catching it," said Jim, in a whisper, coming close alongside of me. "A teastick as thick as my

forefinger all over." Here he entered into par ticulars, which, however harmless in themselves, were not

"Why, I slipped off with Jerry to look after some colts on the black swamp, and was gone all the after noon;

and so Dad missed me; and when I got home didn't I catch it! Oh lord, I'm all over blue wales; but that ain't

"Why, when he got hold of me he said, 'Is this the first time you have been away with Jerry, sir?' and I said,

'Yes' (which was the awfullest lie ever you heard, for I went over to Barker's with him two days before); then

he said, 'Well, I must believe you if you say so. I shall not disgrace you by making inquiries among the men;'

and then he gave it to me for going that time, and since then I've felt like Cain and Abel for telling him such a

"Ah, but then I shall catch it again, don't you see! Hadn't I better wait till these wales are gone down?"

"I wonder why he is so particular," said Jim; "the Delisles and the Donovans spend as much of their time in

"And fine young blackguards they'll turn out," I said; in which I was right in those two instances. And

although I have seen young fellows brought up among convicts who have turned out respectable in te end, yet

But at Toonarbin no such precautions as these were taken with regard to Charles. Tom was too careless, and

Mary too indulgent. It was hard enough to restrain the boy during the lesson hours, falsely so called. After

that he was allowed to go where he liked, and even his mother sometimes felt relieved by his absence; so that

he was continually in the men's huts, listening to their yarns sometimes harmless bush adventures,

sometimes, perhaps, ribald stories which he could not understand; but one day Tom Troubridge coming by

the hut looked in quietly, and saw master Charles smoking a black pipe, (he was not more than fourteen,) and

heard such a conversation going on that he advanced suddenly upon them, and ordered the boy home in a

sterner tone than he had ever used to him before, and looked out of the door till he had disappeared. Then he

There were three of them, all convicts, one of whom, the one he had heard talking when he came in, was a

large, desperatelooking fellow. When these men mean to deprecate your anger, I have remarked they always

look you blankly in the face; but if they mean to defy you and be impudent, they never look at you, but

always begin fumbling and fidgetting with something. So when Tom saw that the big man before mentioned

(Daniel Harvey by name) was stooping down before the fire, he knew he was going to have a row, and

"So boss," began the ruffian, not looking at him, "we ain't fit company for the likes of that kinchin, eh?"

"You're not fit company for any man except the hangman," said Tom, looking more like sixfootsix than

"Oh my(colonial oath!)" said the other; "oh my'cabbage tree!' So there's going to be a coil about

that scrubby little myrnonger; eh? Don't you fret your bingy, boss; he'll be as good a man as his father yet."

"So," he thought, "these fellows know all about George Hawker, eh? Well, never mind; what odds if they

do?" And then he said aloud, turning round on Harvey, "Look you here, you dog; if I ever hear of your

talking in that style before that boy, or any other boy, by George I'll twist your head off!"

He advanced towards him, as if to perform that feat on the spot; in a moment the convict had snatched his

Very suddenly indeed; but not quite quick enough to take the champion of Devon by surprise. Ere he was

well within reach Tom had seized the hand that held the knife, and with a backward kick of his left foot sent

the embryo assassin sprawling on his back on the top of the fire, whence Tom dragged him by his heels, far

more astonished than burnt. The other two men had, meanwhile, sat taking no notice, or seeming to take

"I'm sure, sir, you didn't hear me say nothing wrong to the young gent," and so on, in a whining tone, till Tom

cut him short by saying that, "if he had any more nonsense among them, he would send 'em all three over to

After this little meute Charles did not dare to go into the huts, and soon after these three men were

exchanged. But there remained one man whose con versation and teaching, though not, perhaps, so openly

outrageously villanous as that of the worthy Harvey, still had a very unfortunate effect on his character.

This was a rather small, wiry, active man, by name Jackson, a native, colonially convicted, very clever among

horses, a capital lightweight boxer, and in running superb, a pupil and prot g of the immortal "flying

pieman," (May his shadow never be less!) a capital cricketer, and a supreme humbug. This man, by his

various accomplishments and great tact, had won a high place in Tom Troubridge's estimation, and was put in

a place of trust among the horses; consequently having continual access to Charles, to whom he made himself

highly agreeable, as being heir to the property; giving him such insights into the worst side of sporting life,

and such truthful accounts of low life in Sydney, as would have gone far to corrupt a lad of far stronger moral

And so, between this teaching of evil and neglect of good, Mary Hawker's boy did not grow up all that might

be desired. And at seventeen, I am sorry to say, he got into a most disreputable connexion with a High land

girl, at one of the Donovans' outstation huts; which caused his kindly guardian, Tom Troubridge, a great

deal of vexation, and his mother the deepest grief, which was much increased at the same time by something I

So sixteen years rolled peacefully away, chequered by such trifling lights and shadows as I have spoken of.

The new generation, the children of those whom we knew at first, are now ready to take their places, and bear

themselves with more or less credit in what may be going on. And now comes a period which in the memory

of all those whom I have introduced to you ranks as the most important of their lives. To me, looking back

upon nearly sixty years of memory, the events which are coming stand out from the rest of my quiet life, well

defined and remarkable, above all others. As looking on our western moors, one sees the long straight

SIXTEEN years of peace and plenty had rolled over the heads of James Stockbridge and myself, and we had

grown to be rich. Our agent used to rub his hands, and bow, whenever our high mightinesses visited town.

There was money in the bank, there was claret in the cellar, there were racehorses in the paddock; in short,

November set in burning hot, and by the tenth the grass was as dry as stubble; still we hoped for a

thunderstorm and a few days' rain, but none came. December wore wearily on, and by Christmas the smaller

creeks, except those which were snowfed, were reduced to a few muddy pools, and vast quantities of cattle

were congregated within easy reach of the river, from other people's runs, miles away.

Of course, feed began to get very scarce, yet we were hardly so bad off yet as our neighbours, for we had just

parted with every beast we could spare, at high prices, to Port Phillip, and were only waiting for the first rains

to start after store cattle, which were somewhat hard to get near the new colony.

No rain yet, and we were in the end of January; the fountains of heaven were dried up, but now all round the

northern horizon the bush fires burn continually, a pillar of smoke by day, and a pillar of fire by night.

Nearer, night by night, like an enemy creeping up to a beleaguered town. The weather had been very still for

some time, and we took precaution to burn great strips of grass all round the paddocks to the north, but, in

spite of all our precautions, I knew that, should a strong wind come on from that quarter, nothing short of a

But as yet the weather was very still, not very bright, but rather cloudy, and a dense haze of smoke was over

everything, making the distances look ten times as far as they really were, and rendering the whole landscape

as grey and melancholy as you can conceive. There was nothing much to be done, but to sit in the verandah,

On the third of February the heat was worse than ever, but no wind; and as the sun went down among the

lurid smoke, red as blood, I thought I made out a few brushshaped white clouds rising in the north.

Jim and I sat there late, not talking much. We knew that if we were to be burnt out our loss would be very

heavy; but we thanked God that even were we to lose everything it would not be irreparable, and that we

should still be wealthy. Our brood mares and racing stock were our greatest anxiety. We had a good stack of

hay, by which we might keep them alive for another month, supposing all the grass was burnt; but if we lost

"Jim, we may make up our minds to have the run swept. The fire is burning up now."

"Yes, it is brightening," said he, "but it must be twenty miles off still, and if it comes down with a gentle wind

we shall save the paddocks and hay. There is a good deal of grass in the lower paddock. I am glad we had the

We went to bed, and, in spite of anxiety, mosquitoes, and heat, I feel asleep. In the grey morning I was

awakened, nearly suffocated, by a dull continuous roar. It was the wind in the chimney. The north wind, so

long imprisoned, had broke loose, and the boughs were crashing, and the trees were falling, before the

I ran out, and met James in the verandah. "It's all up," I said. "Get the women and children into the river, and

let the men go up to windward with the sheepskins. I'll get on horseback, and go out and see how the

Morgan was a stockman of ours, who lived, with a wife and two children, about eight miles to the north

ward. We always thought it would have been better for him to move in, but he had put it off, and now the fire

I rode away, deadup wind. Our station had a few large trees about it, and then all was clear plain and short

grass for two miles; after that came scrubby ranges, in an open glade of which the Morgans' hut stood. I

feared, from the density of the smoke, that the fire had reached them already, but I thought it my duty to go

I had seen many bushfires, but never such a one as this. The wind was blowing a hurricane, and, when I had

ridden about two miles into scrub, high enough to brush my horse's belly, I began to get frightened. Still I

persevered, against hope; the heat grew more fearful every moment; but I reflected that I had often ridden up

close to a bushfire, turned when I began to see the flame through the smoke, and cantered away from it

Then it struck me that I had never yet seen a bush fire in such a hurricane as this. Then I remembered stories

of men riding for their lives, and others of burnt horses and men found in the bush. And, now, I saw a sight

I was in lofty timber, and, as I paused, I heard the mighty cracking of fire coming through the wood. At the

same instant the blinding smoke burst into a million tongues of flackering flame, and I saw the fire not

where I had ever seen it before not creeping along among the scrub but up aloft, a hundred and fifty

feet overhead. It had caught the dry bituminous tops of the higher boughs, and was flying along from treetop

to treetop like lightning. Below, the wind was compara tively moderate, but, up there, it was travelling

twenty miles an hour. I saw one tree ignite like guncotton, and then my heart grew small, and I turned and

I rode as I never rode before. There were three miles to go ere I cleared the forest, and got among the short

grass, where I could save myself three miles! Ten minutes nearly of intolerable heat, blinding smoke, and

mortal terror. Any death but this! Drowning were pleasant, glorious to sink down into the cool sparkling

water. But, to be burnt alive! Fool that I was to venture so far! I would give all my money now to be naked

The maddened, terrified horse, went like the wind, but not like the hurricane that was too swift for us. The

fire had outstripped us overhead, and I could see it dimly through the infernal choking reek, leaping and

blazing a hundred yards before me, among the feathery foliage, devouring it, as the south wind devours the

thunder clouds. Then I could see nothing. Was I clear of the forest? Thank the Lord, yes I was riding over

I managed to pull up the horse, and as I did so, a mob of kangaroos blundered by, blinded, almost against me,

noticing me no more in their terror than if I had been a stump or a stone. Soon the fire came hissing along

through the grass scarcely six inches high, and I walked my horse through it; then I tumbled off on the

I lay there on the hot black ground. My head felt like a block of stone, and my neck was stiff so that I could

not move my head. My throat was swelled and dry as a sandhill, and there was a roaring in my ears like a

cataract. I thought of the cool waterfalls among the rocks far away in Devon. I thought of everything that was

cold and pleasant, and then came into my head about Dives praying for a drop of water. I tried to get up, but

It grew cooler, and the atmosphere was clearer. I got up, and, mounting my horse, turned homeward. Now I

began to think about the station. Could it have escaped? Impossible! The fire would fly a hundred yards or

more such a day as this even in low plain. No, it must be gone! There was a great roll in the plain between me

and home, so that I could see nothing of our place all around the country was black, without a trace of

vegetation. Behind me were the smoking ruins of the forest I had escaped from, where now the burntout

trees began to thunder down rapidly, and before, to the south, I could see the fire raging miles away.

So the station is burnt, then? No! For as I top the ridge, there it is before me, standing as of old a bright

oasis in the desert of burnt country round. Ay! the very haystack is safe! And the paddocks? all right!

"I was getting terribly frightened, old man," said he. "I thought you were caught. Lord save us, you look ten

I tried to answer, but could not speak for drought. He ran and got me a great tumbler of claretandwater;

and, in the evening, having drunk about an imperial gallon of water, and taken afterwards some claret, I felt

Men were sent out at once to see after the Morgans, and found them perfectly safe, but very much frightened;

they had, however, saved their hut, for the fire had passed before the wind had got to its full strength.

So we were delivered from the fire; but still no rain. All day, for the next month, the hot north wind would

blow till five o'clock, and then a cool southerly breeze would come up and revive us; but still the heavens

On the eighteenth of March, we sat in the verandah looking still over the blackened unlovely prospect, but

now cheerfully and with hope; for the eastern sky was piled up range beyond range with the scarlet and

purple splendour of cloudland, and, as darkness gathered, we saw the lightning, not twinkling and

glimmering harm lessly about the horizon, as it had been all the summer, but falling sheer in

violetcoloured rivers behind the dark curtain of rain that hung from the black edge of a teeming

We had asked our overseer in that night, being Saturday, to drink with us; he sat very still, and talked but

"Do you remember, Geordie, that muff in Thalaba who chose the wrong cloud? He should have got you or

me to choose for him; we wouldn't have made a mis take, I know. We would have chosen such a one as yon

"It's just come," said he, "without the praying for. When the fire came owre the hill the other day, I just put up

a bit prayer to the Lord, that He'd spare the haystack, and He spared it. (I didna stop working, ye ken; I

worked the harder; if ye dinna mean to work, ye should na pray.) But I never prayed for rain, I didna, ye

see, like to ask the Lord to upset all his gran' laws of electricity and evaporation, just because it would suit us.

I thocht He'd likely ken better than mysel. Hech, sirs, but that chiel's riding hard!"

A horseman appeared making for the station at full speed; when he was quite close, Jim called out, "By Jove,

Before any one had time to speak, he shouted out: "My dear boys, I'm so glad I am in time: we are going to

see one of the grandest electrical disturbances it has ever been my lot to witness. I reined up just now to look,

and I calculated that the southern point of explosion alone is discharging nine times in the minute. How is

"Never mind, sir, we have got you safe and snug out of the thunderstorm. It is going to be very heavy I

"Not much doubt of it," said he. "Now, come into the verandah and let us watch the storm."

We went and sat there; the highest peaks of the great cloud alps, lately brilliant red, were now cold silver

grey, harshly defined against a faint crimson background, and we began to hear the thunder rolling and

"Mark the lightning!" said the Doctor; "that which is before the rainwall is white, and that behind violet

A fierce blast of wind came hurrying on, carrying a cloud of dust and leaves before it. It shook the four

corners of the house and passed away. And now it was a fearful sight to see the rainspouts pouring from the

black edge of the lower cloud as from a pitcher, nearly overhead, and lit up by a continuous blaze of

lightning: another blast of wind, now a few drops, and in ten minutes you could barely distinguish the thunder

It warred and banged around us for an hour, so that we could hardly hear one another speak. At length the

"We shall have a crack closer than any yet, you'll see; we always have one particular one; our atmosphere

The curtains were drawn, and yet, for an instant, the room was as bright as day. Simultaneously there came a

crack and an explosion, so loud and terrifying, that, used as I was to such an event, I involuntarily jumped up

"Are you all right here?" said the Doctor; and, running out into the kitchen, shouted, "Any one hurt?"

The kitchen girl said that the lightning had run all down her back like cold water, and the housekeeper

averred that she thought the thunder had taken the roof of the house off. So we soon perceived that nothing

was the matter, and sat down again to our discourse, and our supper. "Well," began I, "here's the rain come at

last. In a fortnight there will be good grass again. We ought to start and get some store cattle."

"But where?" replied James. "We shall have to go a long way for them; everyone will be wanting the same

thing now. We must push a long way north, and make a dep t somewhere westward. Then we can pick them

"I think I will come with you," said the Doctor. "I have not been a journey for some time."

"Your conversation, sir," I said, "will shorten the journey by onehalf" which was sincerely said.

Away we went northward, with the mountains on our left, leaving snowstreaked Kosciusko nearly behind

us, till a great pass, through the granite walls, opened to the westward, up which we turned, Mount Murray

towering up the south. Soon we were on the Murrum bidgee, sweeping from side to side of his mountain

valley in broad curves, sometimes rushing hoarse, swollen by the late rains, under belts of high timber, and

sometimes dividing broad meadows of rich grass, growing green once more under the invigorating hand of

autumn. All nature had awakened from her deep summer sleep, the air was brisk and nimble, and seldom did

Good Doctor! How he beguiled the way with his learning! in ecstasies all the time, enjoying every thing,

animate or inanimate, as you or I would enjoy a new play or a new opera. How I envied him! He was like a

man always reading a new and pleasant book. At first the stockmen rode behind, talking about beasts, and

horses, and what not often talking about nothing at all, but riding along utterly without thought, if such a

thing could be. But soon I noticed they would draw up closer, and regard the Doctor with some sort of

attention, till toward the evening of the second day, one of them, our old acquaintance, Dick, asked the

Doctor a question, as to why, if I remember right, certain trees should grow in certain localities, and there

only. The Doctor reined up alongside him directly, and in plain forcible language explained the matter: how

that some plants required more of one sort of substance than an other, and how they get it out of particular

soils; and how, in the lapse of years, they had come to thrive best on the soil that suited them, and had got

stunted and died out in other parts. "See," said he, "how the turkey holds to the plains, and the pheasant

(lyrebird) to the scrub, because each one finds its food there. Trees cannot move; but by time, and by

positively refusing to grow on unkindly soils, they arrange them selves in the localities which suit them

So after this they rode with the Doctor always, both hearing him and asking him questions, and at last, won

by his blunt kindliness, they grew to like and respect him in their way, even as we did.

So we fared on through bad weather and rough coun try, enjoying a journey which, but for him, would have

been a mere trial of patience. Northward ever, through forest and plain, over mountain and swamp, across

sand stone, limestone, granite, and rich volcanic land, each marked distinctly by a varying vegetation.

Sometimes we would camp out, but oftener managed to reach a station at night. We got well across the dry

country between the Murrumbidgee and the Lachlan, now abounding with pools of water; and, having

crossed the latter river, held on our course toward Croker's Range, which we skirted; and, after having been

about a fortnight out, arrived at the lowest station on the Macquarrie late in the afternoon.

This was our present destination. The owner was a friend of ours, who gave us a hearty welcome, and, on our

inquiries as to store cattle, thought that we might pick up a good mob of them from one station or another.

"We might," said he, "make a dep t for them, as we collected them, on some unoccupied land down the river.

It was poor country, but there was grass enough to keep them alive. He would show us a good place, in a

fork, where it was impossible to cross on two sides, and where they would be easily kept together; that was, if

"Blacks," said he. "They are mortal troublesome just now down the river. I thought we had quieted them, but

they have been up to their old games lately, spearing cattle, and so on. I don't like, in fact, to go too far down

there alone. I don't think they are Mac quarrie blacks; I fancy they must have come up from the Darling,

We thought we should have no reason to be afraid with such a strong party as ours; and Owen, our host,

having some spare cattle, we were employed for the next three days in getting them in. We got nearly a

The first morning we got there the Doctor had vanished; but the third evening, as we were sitting down to

supper, in he came, dead beat, with a great bag full of stones. When we had drawn round the fire, I said:

"Do not you think, sir," said Owen, our host, "that there are some ores of metals round this country? The

reason I ask you is, we so often pick up curious coloured stones, like those we get from the miners at home,

"I think you will find some rich mines near here soon. Stay; it can do you no harm. I will tell you something:

three days ago I followed up the river, and about twenty miles above this spot I became attracted by the

conformation of the country, and remarked it as being very similar to some very famous spots in South

America. 'Here,' I said to myself, 'Maximilian, you have your volcanic disturbance, your granite, your clay,

slate, and sandstone upheaved, and seamed with quartz; why should you not discover here, what is

certainly here, more or less?' I looked patiently for two days, and I will show you what I found."

He went to his bag and fetched an angular stone about as big as one's fist. It was white, stained on one side

with rustcolour, but in the heart veined with a bright yellow metallic substance, in some places run ning in

I looked again; it was certainly different to iron pyrites; it was brighter, it ran in veins into the stone; it was

"Gold!" said he, triumphantly, getting up and walking about the room in an excited way; "that little stone is

worth a pound; there is a quarter of an ounce in it. Give me ten tons, only ten cartloads such stone as that, and

"He asks me if I know gold, when I see it, me, you understand, who have scientifically examined all the

best mines in Peru, not to mention the Minas Gera s in the Brazils! My dear fellow, to a man who has once

seen it, native gold is unmistakeable, utterly so; there is nothing at all like it."

"But this is a remarkable discovery, sir," said Owen. "What are you going to do?"

I had better mention here that he afterwards did go to the Government, and announce his discovery. Rather to

the Doctor's disgust, however, though he acknow ledged the wisdom of the thing, the courteous and able

gentleman who then represented his Majesty informed him that he was perfectly aware of the existence of

gold, but that he for one should assert the preroga tive of the Crown, and prevent any one mining on

Crownlands: as he considered that, were the gold abundant, the effects on the convict population would be

eminently disastrous. To which obvious piece of good sense the Doctor bowed his head, and the whole thing

passed into oblivion so much so, that when I heard of Hargreave's discovery in 1851, I had nearly

forgotten the Doctor's gold adventure; and I may here state my belief that the knowledge of its existence was

confined to very few, and those welleducated men, who never guessed (how could they without

considerable workings?) how abundant it was. As for the stories of shepherds finding gold and selling it to

the Jews in Sydney, they are very mythical, and I for one entirely disbelieve them.

In time we had collected about 250 head of cattle from various points into the fork of the river, which lay

further down, some seven miles, than his house. As yet we had not been troubled by the blackfellows. Those

we had seen seemed pretty civil, and we had not allowed them to get familiar; but this pleasant state of things

was not to last. James and the Doctor, with one man, were away for the very last mob, and I was sitting

before the fire at the camp, when Dick, who was left behind with me, asked for my gun to go and shoot a

duck. I lent it him, and away he went, while I mounted my horse and rode slowly about, heading back such of

I heard a shot, and almost immediately another; then I heard a queer sort of scream, which puzzled me

extremely. I grew frightened and rode towards the quarter where the shots came from, and almost

immediately heard a loud call. I replied, and then I saw Dick limping along through the bushes, peering about

him and holding his gun as one does when expecting a bird to rise. Suddenly he raised his gun and fired. Out

dashed a black fellow from his hiding place, running across the open, and with his second barrel Dick rolled

him over. Then I saw halfadozen others rise, shaking their spears; but, seeing me riding up, and supposing

"Well," he said, "I just fired at a duck, and the moment my gun was gone off, up jumped halfadozen of

them, and sent a shower of spears at me, and one has gone into my leg. They must a' thought that I had a

singlebarrel gun and waited till I'd fired it; but they found their mistake, the devils; for I gave one of them a

charge of shot in his stomach at twenty yards, and dropped him; they threw a couple more spears, but both

missed, and I hobbled out as well as I could, loading as I went with a couple of tallow cartridges. I saw this

other beast skulking, and missed him first time, but he has got something to remember me by now."

"Do you think you can ride to the station and get some help?" said I. "I wish the others were back."

"One must stay," I said, "and better the sound man than the wounded one. Come, start off, and let me get to

I started him off and ran back to the camp. Every thing was safe as yet, and the ground round being clear,

and having a doublebarrel gun and two pistols, I was not so very much frightened. It is no use to say I was

perfectly comfortable, because I wasn't. A Frenchman writing this, would represent himself as smoking a

cigar, and singing with the greatest nonchalance. I did neither. Being an Englishman, I may be allowed to

I had fully made up my mind to fire on the first black who showed himself, but I did not get the opportunity.

In about two hours I heard a noise of men shouting and whips cracking, and the Doctor and James rode up

I told them what had happened, and we agreed to wait and watch till news should come from the station, and

then to start. There was, as we thought, but little danger while there were four or five together; but the worst

of it was, that we were but poorly armed. How ever, at nightfall, Owen and one of his men came down,

reporting that Dick, who had been speared, was getting all right, and bringing also three swords, and a brace

"Lord bless you!" I said, "we were in the Yeomanry (Landwehr you call it); weren't we, Jim? I was a

"I wish," said Owen, "that, now we are together, five of us, you would come and give these fellows a lesson;

"Indeed," I said, "I think they have had lesson enough for the present. Dick has put down two of them.

"I am sorry," said James, "that any of our party has had this collision with them. I cannot bear shooting the

Just before dark, who should come riding down from the station but Dick! evidently in pain, but making

"Why, Dick, my boy," I said, "I thought you were in bed; you ought to be, at any rate."

"Oh, there's nothing much the matter with me, Mr. Hamlyn," he said. "You will have some trouble with these

fellows, unless I am mistaken. I was told to look after you once, and I mean to do it."

That night Owen stayed with us at the camp. We set a watch, and he took the morning spell. Every thing

passed off quietly; but when we came to examine our cattle in the morning, the lot that James had brought in

The river, flooded when we first came, had now lowered considerably, so that the cattle could cross if they

really tried. These last, being wild and restless, had gone over, and we soon found the marks of them across

The Doctor, James, Dick, and I started off after them, having armed ourselves for security. We took a sword

apiece, and each had a pistol. The ground was moist, and the beasts easily tracked; so we thought an easy

Following on the trail of the cattle, we very soon came on the footsteps of a black fellow, evidently more

recent than the hoofmarks; then another footstep joined in, and another, and at last we made out that above a

Still we followed the trail as fast as we could. I was uneasy, for we were insufficiently armed, but I found

time to point out to the Doctor, what he had never remarked before, the wonderful difference between the

naked footprint of a white man and a savage. The white man leaves the impression of his whole sole, every

toe being distinctly marked, while your black fellow leaves scarce any toemarks, but seems merely to spurn

I felt very ill at ease. The morning was raw, and a dense fog was over everything. One always feels wretched

on such a morning, but on that one I felt miserable. There was an indefinable horror over me, and I talked

Once, the Doctor turned round and looked at me fixedly from under his dark eyebrows. "Hamlyn," he said, "I

don't think you are well; you talk fast, and are evidently nervous. We are in no danger, I think, but you seem

Jim was riding first, and he turned and said, "I have lost the black fellows' track entirely: here are the

The fog was very thick, so that we could see nothing above a hundred yards from us. We had come through

forest all the way, and were wet with pushing through low shrubs. As we paused came a puff of air, and in

five minutes the fog had rolled away, and a clear blue sky and a bright sun were overhead.

Now we could see where we were. We were in the lower end of a precipitous mountaingully, narrow where

we were, and growing rapidly narrower as we advanced. In the fog we had followed the cattletrack right

into it, passing, unobserved, two great heaps of tumbled rocks which walled the glen; they were thickly

fringed with scrub, and, it immediately struck me that they stood just in the place where we had lost the

I should have mentioned this, but, at this moment, James caught sight of the lost cattle, and galloped off after

them; we followed, and very quickly we had headed them down the glen, and were posting home ward as

I remember well there was a young bull among them that took the lead. As he came nearly opposite the two

piles of rock which I have mentioned, I saw a black fellow leap on a boulder, and send a spear into him.

He headed back, and the other beasts came against him. Before we could pull up we were against the cattle,

and then all was confusion and disaster. Two hundred black fellows were on us at once, shouting like devils,

and sending down their spears upon us like rain. I heard the Doctor's voice, above all the infernal din, crying

"Viva! Swords, my boys; take your swords!" I heard two pistol shots, and then, with deadly wrath in my

heart, I charged at a crowd of them, who were huddled together, throwing their spears wildly, and laid about

I saw them scrambling up over the rocks in wild confusion; then I heard the Doctor calling me to come on.

He had reined up, and a few of the discomfited savages were throwing spears at him from a long distance.

When he saw me turn to come, he turned also, and rode after James, who was two hundred yards ahead,

reeling in his saddle like a drunken man, grinding his teeth, and making fierce clutches at a spear which was

buried deep in his side, and which at last he succeeded in tearing out. He went a few yards further, and then

We were both off in a moment, but when I got his head on my lap, I saw he was dying. The Doctor looked at

the wound, and shook his head. I took his right hand in mine, and the other I held upon his true and faithful

Then I broke down altogether. "Oh! good old friend! Oh! dear old friend, could you not wait for me? Shall I

Yes! I think that I shall see him again. When I have crossed the dark river which we must all cross, I think he

will be one of those who come down to meet me from the gates of the Everlasting City.

"A man," said the Doctor to me, two days after, when we were sitting together in the station parlour, "who

approached as nearly the model which our Great Master has left us as any man I know. I studied and admired

him for many years, and now I cannot tell you not to mourn. I can give you no comfort for the loss of such a

man, save it be to say that you and I may hope to meet him again, and learn new lessons from him, in a better

ONE evening towards the end of that winter Mrs. Buckley and Sam sat alone before the fire, in the

quicklygathering darkness. The candles were yet unlighted, but the cheerful flickering light produced by the

combustion of three or four logs of sheoak, topped by one of dead gum, shone most pleasantly on the well

ordered diningroom, on the closedrawn curtains, on the nicelypolished furniture, on the dinnertable, laid

with fair array of white linen, silver, and glass, but, above all, on the honest, quiet face of Sam, who sat

While she is alternately casting glances of pride and affection towards her sleeping son, and keen looks on the

gum log, in search of centipedes, let us take a look at her ourselves, and see how sixteen years have behaved

to that handsome face. There is change here, but no deterioration. It is a little rounder perhaps, and also a

little fuller in colour, but there are no lines there yet. "Happiness and ceaseless good temper don't make many

wrinkles, even in a warmer climate than old England," says the Major, and says, also, confidentially, to

Brent wood, "Put a red camelia in her hair, and send her to the opera even now, and see what a sensation she

would make, though she is nearer fifty than forty," which was strictly true, although said by her husband,

for the raven hair is as black as it was when decorated with the mossroses of Clere, and the eye is as brilliant

Now, the beautiful profile is turned again towards the sleeper as he moves. "Poor boy!" she said. "He is quite

knocked up. He must have been twentyfour hours in the saddle. However, he had better be after cattle than

Suddenly Sam awoke. "Heigho!" said he. "I'm nice company, mother. Have I been asleep?"

"Only for an hour or so, my boy," said she. "See; I've been defending you while you slumbered. I have killed

three centipedes, which came out of that old gum log. I cut this big one in half with the fireshovel, and the

head part walked away as if nothing had happened. I must tell the man not to give us rotten wood, or some of

us will be getting a nip. It's a long fifty miles from Captain Brentwood's," said Mrs. Buckley after a time.

"And that's a very good day's work for little Bronsewing, carrying your father."

"Why, the greatest news is that the Donovans have sold their station, and are off to Port Phillip."

There was the noise of horses' feet and merry voices in the little gravelled yard behind the house, heard above

a joyous barking of dogs. Sam ran out to hold his father's horse, and soon came into the room again,

After the first greetings were over, candles were lighted, and the three men stood on the hearthrug together

a very remarkable group, as you would have said, had you seen them. You might go a long while in any

Captain Brentwood, of Artillery renown, was a square, powerfully built man, say fivefootten in height. His

face, at first sight, appeared rather a stupid one beside the Major's, expressing rather determination than intel

ligence; but once engage him in a conversation which interested him, and you would be surprised to see how

animated it could become. Then the man, usually so silent, would open up the storehouse of his mind,

speaking with an eloquence and a force which would surprise one who did not know him, and which made

the Doctor often take the losing side of an argument for the purpose of making him speak. Add to this that he

was a thoroughly amiable man, and, as Jim would tell you (in spite of a certain severe whipping you wot of),

Major Buckley's shadow had grown no less, nay, rather greater, since first we knew him. In other respects,

very little alteration, except that his curling brown hair had grown thinner about the temples, and was

receding a little from his forehead. But what cared he for that! He was not the last of the Buckleys.

One remarks now, as the two stand together, that Sam, though but nineteen, is very nearly as tall as his father,

and promises to be as broad across the shoulders some day, being an exception to coloniallybred men in

"Well, Sam," said the Major, "so you're back safe, eh, my boy! A rough time, I don't doubt. Strange

storecattle are queer to drive at any time, particularly such weather as you have had."

"And such a lot, too!" said Sam. "Tell you what, father: it's lucky you've got them cheap, for the half of them

"Scrubbers, eh?" said the Major; "well, we must take what we can catch, with this Port Phillip rush. Let's sit

down to dinner; I've got some news that will please you. Fish, eh? See there, Brentwood! What do you think

"Seven pounds and a half, as the black fellows brought him in," said Mrs. Buckley.

"Ha! ha!" laughed the Major. "Why, we have come from there today. Why, we were there last night at a

grand party. All the Irishmen in the country side. Such a turmoil I haven't seen since I was quar tered at

"And so you stepped on there without calling at home, did you?" said Mrs. Buckley. "And perhaps you know

"No, indeed!" said Mrs. Buckley. "I have been trying to find out these two days. It would be very pleasant to

have a good neighbour there, not that I wish to speak evil of the Donovans; but really they did go on in

such terrible style, you know, that one could not go there. Now, tell me who has bought Garoopna."

"Nonsense!" said Mrs. Buckley. "Is he not joking now, Captain Brentwood? That is far too good news to be

"It is true, nevertheless, madam," said Captain Brentwood. "I thought it would meet with your approval, and I

can see by Sam's face that it meets with his. You see, my dear lady, Buckley has got to be rather necessary to

me. I miss him when he is absent, and I want to be more with him. Again, I am very fond of my son Jim, and

my son Jim is very fond of your son Sam, and is always coming here after him when he ought to be at home.

So I think I shall see more of him when we are ten miles apart than when we are fifty. And, once more, my

daughter Alice, now completing her education in Sydney, comes home to keep house for me in a few months,

and I wish her to have the advantage of the society of the lady whom I honour and respect above all others.

"If that courtly bow is intended for me, my dear Captain," said Mrs. Buckley, "as I cannot but think it is,

"Teach her to be in some slight degree like yourself, Mrs. Buckley," said the Captain, "and you will put me

"Altogether, wife," said the Major, "it is the most glorious arrangement that ever was come to. Let us take a

glass of sherry all round on it. Sam, my lad, your hand! Brentwood, we have none of us ever seen your

There went across the table a bright electric spark out of Mrs. Buckley's eye into her husband's, as rapid as

those which move the quivering telegraph needles, and yet not unobserved, I think, by Captain Brentwood,

for there grew upon his face a pleasant smile, which, rapidly broadening, ended in a low laugh, by no means

disagreeable to hear, though Sam wondered what the joke could be, until the Captain said,

"An altogether comical party that last night at the Donovans', Buckley! The most comical I ever was at."

"A capital party!" said the Major, laughing. "Do you know, Brentwood, I always liked those Donovans, under

the rose, and last night I liked them better than ever. They were not such very bad neighbours, although old

Donovan wanted to fight a duel with me once. At all events, the welcome I got last night will make me

"I must go down and call there before they go," said Mrs. Buckley. "People who have been our neighbours so

"Fact, my dear, I assure you, according to Mrs. Donovan, who told me that the De Novans and the

Desboroughs were cognate Norman families, who settled in Ireland together, and have since frequently inter

"Not at all, my dear: as he said to me privately, 'Buckley, never deny a relationship with a man worth forty

thousand pounds, the least penny, though your ancestors' bones should move in their graves.' "

"As usual, my dear! He made even Brentwood laugh; he danced all the evening with that giddy girl Lesbia

Burke, who let slip that she remembered me at Naples in 1805, when she was there with that sad old set, and

"Indeed I did, my dear. And she wore a wreath of yellow chrysanthemum, no other flowers being obtain

They were all laughing at the idea of the Major danc ing, when Sam exclaimed, "Good Lord!"

"I must cry peccavi," said Sam. "Father, you will never forgive me! I forgot till this moment a most im

portant message. I was rather knocked up, you see, and went to sleep, and that sent it out of my head."

"You are forgiven, my boy, be it what it may. I hope it is nothing very serious."

"Well, it is very serious," said Sam. "As I was coming by Hanging Rock, I rode up to the door a minute, to

see if Cecil was at home, and Mrs. Mayford came out and wanted me to get off and come in, but I hadn't

time; and she said, 'The Dean is coming here tonight, and he'll be with you tomorrow night, I expect. So

"Tomorrow night!" said Mrs. Buckley, aghast. "Why, my dear, boy, that is tonight! What shall I do?"

"Nothing at all, my love," said the Major, "but make them get some supper ready. He can't have ex pected

"So he is," said the Major. "But this is a new one. The good old Dean has resigned."

"I don't know," said the Major. "Desborough said it was a Doctor Maypole, and that he was very like one in

appearance. But you can't trust Desborough, you know; he never remembers names. I hope he may be as

"I hope he may be no worse," said Captain Brent wood; "but I hope, in addition, that he may be better able

"It looks like it," said the Major, "to be down as far as this, before he has been three months installed."

Mrs. Buckley went out to the kitchen to give orders; and after that, they sat for an hour or more over their

Then, as if they had heard him, the dogs began to bark. Rover, who had, against rules, sneaked into the house,

and lain perdu under the sofa, discovered his retreat by low growling, as though determined to do his duty, let

the consequences be what they might. Every now and then, too, when his feelings overpowered him, he

He ran out; a tall black figure was sitting on horseback before the door, and a pleasant cheery voice said,

He called for the groom and held the stranger's horse while he dismounted. Then he assisted him to unstrap

The Major, Mrs. Buckley, and the Captain had risen, and were standing ready to greet the Church dignitary as

he came in, in the most respectful manner. But when the Major had looked for a moment on the tall figure in

black, which advanced towards the fire, instead of saying, "Sir, I am, highly honoured by your visit," or, "Sir,

I bid you most heartily welcome," he dashed forward in the most undignified fashion, upsetting a chair, and

seizing the reverend Dean by both hands, exclaimed, "God bless my heart and soul! Frank Maberly!"

It was he: the mad curate, now grown into a colonial dean, sobered, apparently, but unchanged in any

material point: still elastic and upright, looking as if for twopence he would take off the black cutaway coat

and the broadbrimmed hat, and row seven in the University eight, at a moment's notice. There seems

something the matter with him though, as he holds the Major's two hands in his, and looks on his broad

hand some face. Something like a shortness of breath pre vented his speech, and, strange, the Major seems

And Mrs. Buckley says, laying her hand upon his arm, "It seems as if all things were arranged to make my

husband and myself the happiest couple in the world. If we had been asked tonight, whom of all people in

the world we should have been most glad to see as the new Dean, we should have answered at once, Frank

"Not we, indeed," said the Major. "Desborough said the new Dean was a Doctor Maypole; and I pic tured to

myself an old schoolmaster with a birch rod in his coat tailpocket. And we have been in such a stew all the

"And will you introduce me to this gentleman?" said the Dean, moving towards Sam, who stood behind his

"This," said the Major, with a radiant smile, "is my son Samuel, whom, I believe, you have seen before."

"So, the pretty boy that I knew at Drumston," said the Dean, laying his hands on Sam's shoulders, "has grown

into this noble gentleman! It makes me feel old, but I am glad to feel old under such circumstances. Let me

turn your face to the light and see if I can recog nise the little lad whom I used to carry pickaback across

Sam looked in his face such a kindly good placid face, that it seemed beautiful, though by some rules it

was irregular and ugly enough. The Dean laid his hand on Sam's curly head, and said, "God bless you,

All this time Captain Brentwood had stood with his back against the chimneypiece, perfectly silent, having

banished all expression from his countenance; now, however, Major Buckley brought up the Dean and

"My dear Brentwood, the Dean of B; not Dean to us though, so much as our dear old friend Frank

"Involved grammar," said the Captain to himself, but, added aloud: "A Churchman of your position, sir, will

do me an honour by using my house; but the Mr. Maberly of whom I have so often heard from my friend

Buckley will do me a still higher honour if he will allow me to enrol him among the number of my friends."

Frank the Dean thought that Captain Brentwood's speech would have made a good piece to turn into Greek

prose, in the style of Demosthenes; but he didn't say so. He looked at the Captain's stolid face for a moment,

"I think, sir, that you and I shall get on very well together when we understand one another."

The Captain made no reply in articulate speech, but laughed internally, till his sides shook, and held out his

"So I guessed partly from the name, and partly from a certain look about the eyes, rather unmistake able.

Allow me to say, sir, that I never remember to have seen such remarkable beauty in my life."

They sat Frank down to supper, and when he had done, the conversation was resumed.

"Bythebye, Major Buckley," said he, "I miss an old friend, who I heard was living with you; a very dear

"Dear Doctor," said Mrs. Buckley; "this is his home indeed, but he is away at present on an expedi tion with

"Oh!" said Frank, "I have heard of those men; they came out here the year before the Vicar died. I never

knew either of them, but I well remember how kindly Stockbridge used to be spoken of by everyone in

"You will make the acquaintance of one of the finest fellows in the world, Dean," said the Major; "I know no

"And I hear," said Frank. "that the pretty Mary is your next door neighbour, in partnership with that excellent

giant Troubridge. I must go and see them tomorrow. I will produce one of those great roaring laughs of his,

"I am sorry to say," said the Major, "that Tom is away at Port Phillip, with cattle."

"Port Phillip, again," said Frank; "I have heard of nothing else throughout my journey. I am getting bored

"Well," said the Major, "it lies about 250 miles south of this, though we cannot get at it without cross ing the

mountains, in consequence of some terribly dense scrub on some low ranges close to it, which they call, I

believe, the Dandenong. It appears, however, when you are there, that there is a great harbour, about forty

miles long, surrounded with splendid pastures, which stretch west further than any man has been yet. Take it

all in all, I should say it was the best watered, and most available piece of country yet discovered in New

"Plenty of small ones, only one of any size, apparently, which seems to rise somewhere in this direction, and

goes in at the head of the bay. They tried years ago to form a settlement on this bay, but Collins, the man

entrusted with it, could find no fresh water, which seems strange, as there is, according to all accounts, a fine

"There are a few wooden houses gone up by the river side. I believe they are going to make a town there, and

The Major has lived to see his words fulfilled ful filled in such marvellous sort, that bald bare statistics

read like the wildest romance. At the time he spoke, twentytwo years ago from this present year 1858, the

Yarra rolled its clear waters to the sea through the unbroken solitude of a primeval forest, as yet unseen by

the eye of a white man. Now there stands there a noble city, with crowded wharves, containing with its

suburbs not less than 120,000 inhabitants. 1,000">vessels have lain at one time side by side, off the mouth of

that little river, and through the low sandy heads that close the great port towards the sea, thirteen millions

sterling of exports is carried away each year by the finest ships in the world. Here, too, are water works

constructed at fabulous expense, a service of steamships, between this and the other great cities of Australia,

vieing in speed and accommodation with the coasting steamers of Great Britain; noble churches, handsome

theatres. In short, a great city, which, in its amazing rapidity of growth, utterly surpasses all human

I never stood in Venice contemplating the decay of the grand palaces of her old merchant princes, whose time

has gone by for ever. I never watched the slow downfal of a great commercial city; but I have seen what to

him who thinks aright is an equally grand subject of contemplation the rapid rise of one. I have seen what

but a small moiety of the world, even in these days, has seen, and what, save in this generation, has never

been seen before, and will, I think, never be seen again. I have seen Melbourne. Five years in suc cession

did I visit that city, and watch each year how it spread and grew until it was beyond recognition. Every year

the press became denser, and the roar of the congregated thousands grew louder, till at last the scream of the

flying engine rose above the hubbub of the streets, and two thousand miles of electric wire began to move the

Unromantic enough, but beyond all conception won derful. I stood at the east end of Bourke Street, not a

year ago, looking at the black swarming masses, which thronged the broad thoroughfare below. All the town

lay at my feet, and the sun was going down beyond the distant mountains; I had just crossed from the front of

the new Houses of Legislature, and had nearly been run over by a great omnibus. Partly to recover my breath,

and partly, being not used to large cities, to enjoy the really fine scene before me, I stood at the corner of the

street in contemplative mood. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and looked round, it was Major Buckley.

"When you think of it," I said, "really think of it, you know, how wonderful it is!"

"Brentwood," said the Major, "has calculated by his mathematics that the progress of the species is

"So I should be prepared to believe," I said; "where will it all end? Will it be a grand universal republic, think

you, in which war is unknown, and universal prosperity has banished crime? I may be too sanguine, but such

a state of things is possible. This is a sight which makes a man look far into the future."

"Prosperity," said the Major, "has not done much towards abolishing crime in this town, at all events; and it

"Two rattling good thumps of an earthquake," said the Major, "would pitch Melbourne into the middle of

Port Phillip, and bury all the gold far beyond the reach even of the Ballarat deepsinkers. Come down and

CAPTAIN Brentwood went back to Garoopna next morning; but Frank Maberly kept to his resolution of

going over to see Mary; and, soon after breakfast, they were all equipped ready to accompany him, standing

in front of the door, waiting for the horses. Frank was remarking how handsome Mrs. Buckley looked in her

"My dear Dean, I suppose you never jump over fivebarred gates nowadays? Do you remember how you

used to come over the white gate at the Vicarage? I suppose you are getting too dignified for any such thing?"

There was a threerailed fence dividing the lower end of the yard from the paddock. He rammed his hat on

tight, and took it flying, with his black coat tails fluttering like wings; and, coming back laughing, said,

"There's a bit of the old Adam for you, Mrs. Buckley! Be careful how you defy me again."

The sun was bright overhead, and the land in its full winter verdure, as they rode along the banks of the creek

that led to Toonarbin. Frank Maberly was as humorous as ever, and many a merry laugh went ringing through

the woodland solitudes, sending the watchman cockatoo screaming aloft to alarm the flock, or startling the

brilliant thickclustered lories (richest coloured of all parrots in the world), as they hung chattering on some

silverleaved acacia, bending with their weight the fragile boughs down towards the clear still water, lighting

up the dark pool with strange, bright reflections of crimson and blue; startling, too, the feeding

doekangaroo, who skipped slowly away, followed by her young one so slowly that the watch ing

travellers expected her to stop each moment, and could scarcely believe she was in full flight till she topped a

"That is a strange sight to a European, Mrs. Buckley," said Frank; "a real wild animal. It seems so strange to

me, now, to think that I could go and shoot that beast, and account to no man for it. That is, you know,

supposing I had a gun, and powder and shot, and, also, that the kangaroo would be fool enough to wait till I

was near enough; which, you see, is pre supposing a great deal. Are they easily approached?"

"Easily enough, on horseback," said Sam, "but very difficult to come near on foot, which is also the case with

all wild animals and birds worth shooting in this country. A footman, you see, they all mistake for their

hereditary enemy, the blackfellow; but, as yet, they have not come to distinguish a man on horseback from a

fourfooted beast. And, this seems to show that animals have their traditions like men."

"On sheepruns, very nearly so. Sheep drive them off directly; but on cattleruns, so far from becoming

extinct, they are becoming so numerous as to be a nuisance; consuming a most valuable quantity of grass."

"Very easily," said Sam; "their enemies are all removed. The settlers have poisoned, in wellsettled districts,

the native dogs and eaglehawks, which formerly kept down their numbers. The blacks prefer the beef of the

settlers to bad and hardearned kangaroo venison; and, lastly, the settlers never go after them, but leave them

to their own inventions. So that the kangaroo has better times of it than ever."

"But Sam is right, Dean," said the Major. "People judge from seeing none of them on the plains, from which

they have been driven by the sheep; but there are as many in the forest as ever."

"They will soon be among the things of the past," said the Major; "and I am sorry for it, for they are a

"Five," said the Major. "Four shepherds' huts, and one stockkeeper's in the range, which we call the heifer

"You have no church here, I know," said Frank; "but do these men get any sort of religious in struction?"

"None whatever," said the Major. "I have service in my house on Sunday, but I cannot ask them to come to it,

though sometimes the stockmen do come. The shepherds, you know, are employed on Sunday as on any

"All the shepherds," said the Major. "The stock man and his assistant are free men, but their hutkeeper is

"Two of the shepherds; the rest single; but I must tell you that on our run we keep up a regular circula tion

of books among the huts, and my wife sticks them full of religious tracts, which is really about all that we can

"No," said Mrs. Buckley, "with the exception, per haps, of 'Black Giles the Poacher,' which always comes

home very dirty. Narrative tracts they will read when there is nothing more lively at hand; but such treatises

as 'Are You Ready?' and 'The Sinner's Friend,' fall dead. One copy lasts for years."

"One copy of either of them," said Frank, "would last. Then these fellows, Major, are entirely godless, I

"Well, I'll tell you, Dean," said the Major, stopping short, "it's about as bad as bad can be; it can't be worse,

sir. If by any means you could make it worse, it would be by sending such men round here as the one who

was sent here last. He served as a standing joke to the hands for a year or more; and I believe he was sincere

"I must invade some of these huts, and see what is to be done," said Frank. "I have had a hard spell of work in

London since old times; but I have seen enough already to tell me that that work was not so hopeless as this

will be. I think, however, that there is more chance here than among the little farmers in the settled districts.

Here, at all events, I shan't have the rumbottle eternally standing between me and my man. What a glorious,

independent, happy set of men are those said small freeholders, Major! What a happy exchange an English

peasant makes when he leaves an old, wellordered society, the ordinances of religion, the various

giveandtake relations between rank and rank, which make up the sum of English life, for inde pendence,

godlessness, and rum! He gains, say you! Yes, he gains meat for his dinner every day, and voila tout!

Contrast an English workhouse schoolboy I take the lowest class for example, a class which should not

exist with a small farmer's son in one of the settled districts. Which will make the most useful citizen?

"Oh, but you are overstating the case, you know, Dean," said the Major. "You must have a class of small

farmers! Wherever the land is fit for cultivation it must be sold to agriculturists; or, otherwise, in case of a

war, we shall be dependent on Europe and America for the bread we eat. I know some excellent and exem

"Of course! of course!" said Frank. "I did not mean quite all I said; but I am angry and disap pointed. I

pictured to myself the labourer, English, Scotch, or Irish a man whom I know, and have lived with and

worked for some years, emigrating, and, after a few years of honest toil, which, compared to his old hard

drudgery, was child'splay, saving money enough to buy a farm. I pictured to myself this man accumulating

wealth, happy, honest, godly, bringing up a family of brave boys and good girls, in a country where,

theoretically, the temptations to crime are all but removed: this is what I imagined. I come out here, and what

do I find? My friend the labourer has got his farm, and is prospering, after a sort. He has turned to be a

drunken, godless, impudent fellow, and his wife little better than himself; his daughters dowdy hussies; his

sons lanky, lean, pastyfaced, blaspheming blackguards, drinking rum before breakfast, and living by

"Yes," said the Major, "I can disprove it by many happy instances, and yet, to say the truth, it is fearfully true

in as many more. There is no social influence in the settled districts; there are too many men without masters.

"This is not to the purpose at present, though," said Mrs. Buckley. "See what you can do for us in the bush,

"The more hopeless, the greater glory, madam," said Frank, taking off his hat and waving it; called, chosen,

"Let us see," said Mrs. Buckley, "if she will know him. If she does not recognise him, let no one speak before

When they had ridden up and dismounted, Mrs. Buckley presented Frank. "My dear," said she, "the Dean is

honouring us by staying at Baroona for a week, and proposes to visit round at the various stations.

Mary bowed respectfully to Frank, and said, "that she felt highly honoured," and so forth. "My partner is

gone on a journey, and my son is away on the run, or they would have joined with me in bidding you

Mary started, and looked at him again. "Mr. Maberly! Mr. Maberly!" she said, "your face is changed, but

"Now," said Mrs. Buckley to herself, "she is going to give us one of her tantrums. I wish she would behave

like a reasonable being. She is always bent on making a scene;" but she kept this to herself, and only said

"I am sorry to hear you say so, Mrs. Hawker," said Frank; "but it is just and natural."

"Natural," said Mary, "and just. You are con nected in my mind with the most unhappy and most degraded

period of my life. Can you expect that I should be glad to see you? You were kind to me then, as is your

nature to be, kind and good above all men whom I know. I thought of you always with love and admiration,

as one whom I deeply honoured, but would not care to look upon again. As the one of all whom I would have

forget me in my disgrace. And now, today of all days; just when I have found the father's vices confirmed in

the son, you come before me, as if from the bowels of the earth, to remind me of what I was."

Mrs. Buckley was very much shocked and provoked by this, but held her tongue magnanimously. And what

do you think, my dear reader, was the cause of all this hysteric tragic nonsense on the part of Mary? Simply

this. The poor soul had been put out of temper. Her son Charles, as I mentioned before, had had a scandalous

liason with one Meg Macdonald, daughter of one of the Donovans' (now Brentwood's) shepherds. That

morning, this brazen hussy, as Mary very properly called her, had come coolly up to the station and asked for

Charles. And on Mary's shaking her fist at her, and bidding her be gone, had then and there rated poor Mary

in the best of Gaelic for a quarter of an hour; and Mary, instead of venting her anger on the proper people,

had taken her old plan of making herself disagreeable to those who had nothing to do with it, which naturally

made Mrs. Buckley very angry, and even ruffled the placid Major a little, so that he was not sorry when he

saw in his wife's face, the expression of which he knew so well, that Mary was going to "catch it."

"I wish, Mary Hawker," said Mrs. Buckley, "that you would remember that the Dean is our guest, and that on

our account alone there is due to him some better welcome than what you have given him."

"Well, I am angry with you," said Mrs. Buckley. "If that was the truth, you should not have spoken it now.

"You are very unkind to me," said Mary. "Just when after so many years' peace and quietness my troubles are

beginning again, you are all turning against me." And so she laid down her head and wept.

"Dear Mrs. Hawker," said Frank, coming up and taking her hand, "if you are in trouble, I know well that my

visit is well timed. Where trouble and sorrow are, there is my place, there lies my work. In prosperity my

friends sometimes forget me, but my hope and prayer is, that when affliction and disaster come, I may be

with them. You do not want me now; but when you do, God grant I may be with you! Remember my words."

Frank made an excuse to go out, and Mary, crying bitterly, went into her bedroom. When she was gone, the

"My dear wife, that boy of hers is aggravating her. Don't be too hard upon her."

"My dear husband," said Mrs. Buckley, "I have no patience with her, to welcome an old friend, whom she has

"You see, my love," said the Major, "that her nerves have been very much shaken by misfortune, and at times

"And I tell you what, mother dear," said Sam, "Charles Hawker is going on very badly. I tell you, in the

strictest confidence, mind, that he has not be haved in a very gentlemanlike way in one particular, and if he

"Well, my dear husband and son," said Mrs. Buckley, "I will go in and make the amende to her. Sam, go and

Sam went out, and saw Frank across the yard playing with the dogs. He was going towards him, when a man

It was William Lee grown older, and less wild looking, since we saw him first at midnight on Dartmoor,

but a striking person still. His hair had become grizzled, but that was the only sign of age he showed. There

was still the same vigour of motion, the same expression of enormous strength about him as formerly; the

principal change was in his face. Eighteen years of honest work, among people who in time, finding his real

value, had got to treat him more as a friend than a servant, had softened the old expression of reckless

ferocity into one of goodhumoured independence. And Tom Troubridge, no careless observer of men, had

said once to Major Buckley, that he thought his face grew each year more like what it must have been when a

Such was William Lee, as he stopped Sam in the yard, and, with a bold, honest look of admiration, said

"It makes me feel young to look at you, Mr. Buckley. You are a great stranger here lately. Some young lady

"True for you, sir," said Lee. "That was wrote up in Drumston church, I mind, and some other things

alongside of it, which I could say by heart once on a time all on black boards, with yellow letters. And

also, I remember a spick and span new board, about how Anthony Hamlyn (that's Mr. Geoffry Hamlyn's

father) 'repaired and beautified this church;' which meant that he built a handsome new pew for himself in the

chancel. Lord, I think I see him asleep in it now. But never mind that I've kept a pup of Fly's for you, sir,

"Oh, thank you," said Sam. "I am really much obliged to you. But you must let me know the price, you know,

"Well, Mr. Buckley," said Lee, "I have been cosseting this little beast up in the hopes you'd accept it as a

present. And then, says I to myself, when he takes a new chum out to see some sport, and the dog pulls down

a flying doe, and the dust goes up like smoke, and the dead sticks come flying about his ears, he will say to

his friends, 'That's the dog Lee gave me. Where's his equal?' So don't be too proud to take a present from an

"Who is this long gent in black, sir?" said Lee, looking towards Frank, who was standing and talking with the

"Ah! so," said Lee, "come to give us some good advice? Well, we want it bad enough, I hope some on

"My father says," said Sam, "that he was formerly one of the best boxers he ever saw."

Any further discussion of Frank's physical powers was cut short, by his coming up to Sam and saying,

"I was thinking of riding out to one of the outlying huts, to have a little conversation with the men. Will you

"I beg your pardon, sir," said Lee, "but I under stood you to say that you were going to one of our huts to

give the men a discourse. Would you let me take you out to one of them? I'd like well to hear what you'd got

to say myself, sir, and I promise you the lads I'll show you want good advice as well as any."

"You will do me infinite service," said Frank. "Sam, if you will excuse me, let me ask you to stay behind. I

have a fancy for going up alone. Let me take these men in the rough, and see what I can do unassisted."

"You will be apt to find them uncivil, sir," said Sam. "I am known, and my presence would ensure you out

"Just what I thought," said Frank. "But I want to see what I can do alone and unassisted. No; stay, and let me

"You will find, sir," said Lee, "that these men, in this here hut, are a rougher lot than you think for. Very like

they'll be cheeky. I would almost have wished you'd a' let Mr. Buckley come. He's a favourite round here,

"You see," said Frank, turning confidentially to Lee, "I am not an ordinary parson. I am above the others.

And what I want is not so much to see what I can do myself, but what sort of a reception any parson coming

haphazard among these men will get. That is why I left Mr. Buckley behind. Do you understand me?"

"That all!" said Frank. "Laughter breaks no bones. What are these men that we are going to see?"

"Why, one," said Lee, "is a young Jimmy (I beg your pardon, sir, an emigrant), the other two are old

prisoners. Now, see here. These prisoners hate the sight of a parson above all mortal men. And, for why?

Because, when they're in prison, all their indulgences, and half their hopes of liberty, depend on how far they

can manage to humbug the chaplain with false piety. And so, when they are free again, they hate him worse

"That all!" said Frank. "Then, you were the victim of a villanous old law. Do you know," he added, laughing,

"that I rather believe I have earned trans portation myself? I have a horrible schoolboy recollec tion of a

hare who would squeak in my pocket, and of a keeper passing within ten yards of where I lay hidden. If that

Lee shook his head. "That is what I was sent out for," said he, "but since then there are precious few villanies

Frank laid his hand kindly on his shoulder. "I am not a judge," he said. "I am a priest. We must talk together

They had been riding through splendid open forest, growing denser as they approached the ranges. They had

followed a creek all the way, or nearly so, and now came somewhat suddenly on a large reedy waterhole,

walled on all sides by dense stringy barktimber, thickly undergrown with scrub. Behind them opened a long

vista, formed by the gully, through which they had been approaching, down which the black burnt stems of

the stringy bark were agreeably relieved by the white stems of the red and blue gum, growing in the moister

and more open space near the creek. In front of them was a slab hut of rich mahogany colour, by no means an

unpleasing object among the dull unbroken green of the forest. In front of it was a trodden space littered with

the chips of firewood. A pile of the last article lay a few yards in front of the door. And against the walls of

the tenement was a long bench, on which stood a calabash, with a lump of soap and a coarse towel; a lamp

oven, and a pair of black topboots, and under neath which lay a noble cattle dog, who, as soon as he saw

Frank laughed and jumped off. The dog was unpre pared for this. It was irregular. The proper and usual

mode of proceeding would have been for the stranger to have stayed on horseback, and for him (the dog) to

have barked himself hoarse, till some one came out of the hut and pacified him by throwing billets of wood at

him. No conversation possible till his barking was turned into mourning. He was not up to the emergency. He

had never seen a man clothed in black from head to foot before. He probably thought it was the D. His

sense of duty not being strong enough to outweigh considerations of personal safety, he fled round the house,

and being undecided whether to bark or to howl, did both, while Frank opened the door and went in.

The hut was like most other bush huts, consisting of one undivided apartment, formed of split logs, called

slabs, set upright in the ground. The roof was of bark, and the whole interior was stained by the smoke into a

rich dark brown, such as Teniers or our own beloved Cattermole would delight in. You entered by a door in

one of the long sides, and saw that the whole of the end on your right was taken up by a large fire place, on

which blazed a pile of timber. Round the walls were four bed places, like the bunks on board ship, each filled

with a heap of frouzy blankets, and in the centre stood a rough table, surrounded by logs of wood, sawn

The living occupants of the hut were scarcely less rude than the hut itself. One of the bed places was occupied

by a sleepy, not badlooking young fellow, clad in greasy red shirt, greasy breeches and boots, and whose

shabby plated spurs were tangled in the dirty blankets. He was lying on his back, playing with a beautiful

little parrot. Opposite him, sitting up in his bunk, was another young fellow, with a singularly coarse,

repulsive countenance, long yellow hair, halfway down his back, clothed like the other in greasy breeches.

This last one was puffing at a short black pipe, in an affected way, making far more noise than was neces

sary in that operation, and seemed to be thinking of something insolent to say to the last speaker, whoever he

Another man was sitting on the end of the bench before the fire, with his legs stretched out before it. At the

first glance Frank saw that this was a superior person to the others. He was dressed like the others in black

topboots, but, unlike the others, he was clean and neat. In fact the whole man was clean and neat, and had a

cleanshaved face, and looked respectable, so far as outward appearances were concerned. The fourth man

Frank looked at the sleepy young man with the parrot, and said to himself, "There's a bad case." He looked at

the flash, yellowhaired young snob who was smoking, and said, "There's a worse." He looked at the

villanous greyheaded old hutkeeper, and said, "There's a hopeless case altogether." But when he looked at

the dry, neatlydressed man, who sat in front of the fire, he said, "That seems a more likely person. There is

He stood with his towering tall black figure in the doorway. The sleepy young man sat up and looked in

wonder, while his parrot whistled and chattered loudly. The yellowhaired young man looked round to see if

he could get the others to join him in a laugh. The hutkeeper said, "Oh, h !" and attended once more to

the cooking; but the neatlooking man rose up, and gave Frank courteously "good day."

"I am a clergyman," said Frank, "come to pay you a visit, if you will allow me."

Blackhair looked as if astonishment were a new sensation to him, and he was determined to have the most

of it. Meanwhile, little parrot taking advantage of his absence of mind, clambers up his breast and nips off a

shirtbutton, which he holds in his claw, pretending it is immensely good to eat. Hutkeeper clatters pots and

pans, while yellow hair lies down whistling insolently. These last two seem inclined to constitute themselves

his Majesty's Opposition in the present matter, while Blackhair and the neat man are evidently inclined

towards Frank. There lay a boot in front of the fire, which the neat man, without warn ing, seized and hurled

at Yellowhair, with such skill and precision that the young fellow started upright in bed and demanded, with

"I'll teach you to whistle when a gentleman comes into the hut you Possumguts! Lie down now, will

Yellowhair lay down, and there was no more trouble with him. Hutkeeper, too, seeing how matters were

"Very glad to see you, sir," says the neat man; "very seldom we get a visit from a gentleman in a black coat, I

Frank shook hands with him and thanked him, and then, turning suddenly upon Blackhair, who was sitting

with his bird on his knee, one leg out of his bunk, and his great black vacant eyes fixed on Frank, said,

"What an exceedingly beautiful bird you have got there! Pray, what do you call it?"

Now it so happened that Blackhair had been vacantly wondering to himself whether Frank's black coat

would meet across his stomach, or whether the lower buttons and buttonholes were "dummies." So that when

Frank turned suddenly upon him he was, as it were, caught in the fact, and could only reply in a guilty

"Whistle," says Blackhair, still in a whisper, and then, clearing his throat continued, in his natural tone,

"Whistle beautiful. Black fellows gets 'em young out of the dead trees. I'll give you this one if you've a

Frank couldn't think of it; but could Blackhair get him a young cockatoo, and leave it with Mr. Sam Buckley

Yes, Blackhair could. Thinks, too, what a pleasant sort of chap this parson was. "Will get him a cockatoo

Then Frank asks may he read them a bit out of the Bible, and neat man says they will be highly honoured.

And Blackhair gets out of his bunk and sits listening in a decently respectful way. Opposition are by no

means won over. The old hutkeeper sits sulkily smoking, and the yellowhaired man lies in his bunk with

his back towards them. Lee had meanwhile come in, and, after recognitions from those inside, sat quietly

down close to the door. Frank took for a text, "Servants, obey your masters," and preached them a sermon

about the relations of master and servant, homely, plain, sensible and interesting, and had suc ceeded in

awakening the whole attention and interest of the three who were listening, when the door was opened and a

Lee was next the door, and cast his eyes upon the new comer. No sooner had their eyes met than he uttered a

"What can be the matter with our friend, I wonder?" asked Frank. "He seems much disturbed."

The neat man went to the door and opened it. Lee and the man who had opened the door were stand ing

with their backs towards them, talking earnestly. Lee soon came back without a word, and, having caught and

saddled his horse, rode away with the stranger, who was on foot. He was a large, shabbilydressed man, with

black curly hair; this was all they could see of him, for his back was always towards them.

"Never saw Bill take on like that before," said the neat man. "That's one of his old pals, I reckon. He ain't

very fond of meeting any of 'em, you see, since he has been on the square. The best friends in prison, sir, are

"I will make you another visit if I can," said Frank. "I am much obliged to you for the patience with which

The other ran out to get his horse for him, and had it saddled in no time. "If you will send a parson round," he

"And God speed you!" says Frank. But, lo! as he turned to ride away, Blackhair the sleepyheaded comes to

the hutdoor, looking important, and says, "Hi!" Frank is glad of this, for he likes the stupidlooking young

fellow better than he fancied he would have done at first, and says to himself, "There's the making of a man

in that fellow, unless I am mistaken." So he turns politely to meet him, and, as he comes towards him,

remarks what a fine, goodhumoured young fellow he is, Blackhair ranges alongside, and, putting his hand

"I'll tie his wings together, and send him down on the ration dray," says Blackhair. "You'll come round and

So Frank fares back to Toonarbin, wondering where Lee has gone. But Blackhair goes back into the hut,

and taking his parrot from the bedplace, puts it on his shoulder, and sits rubbing his knees before the fire.

Yellowhair and the hutkeeper are now in loud conver sation, and the former is asking, in a loud,

authoritative tone (the neat man being outside), "whether a chap is to be hunted and badgered out of his bed

by a parcel of parsons?" To which the Hutkeeper says, "No, by ! A man might as well be in

barracks again." Yellowhair, morally comforted and sustained by this opinion, is proceeding to say, that, for

his part, a parson is a useless sort of animal in general, who gets his living by frightening old women, but that

this particular parson is an unusually offensive specimen, and that there is nothing in this world that he

(Yellowhair) would like better than to have him out in front of the house for five minutes, and see who was

best man, when Blackhair, usually a taciturn, peaceable fellow, astonishes the pair by turning his black

"You dd humbug! Talk about fighting him! Always talking about fighting a chap when he is out of the

way, when you know you've no more fight in you than a bronsewing. Why, he'd kill you, if you only waited

for him to hit you! And see here: if you don't stop your jaw about him, you'll have to fight me, and that's a

This last was told me by the man distinguished above as "the neat man," who was standing outside, and heard

But Frank arrived in due time at Toonarbin, and found all there much as he had left it, save that Mary Hawker

had recovered her serenity, and was standing expecting him, with Charles by her side. Sam asked him,

"Where was Lee?" and Frank, thinking more of other things, said he had left him at the hut, not think ing it

worth while to mention the circumstance of his having been called out a circumstance which became of

great significance hereafter; for, though we never found out for certain who the man was, we came in the end

However, as I said, all clouds had cleared from the Toonarbin atmosphere, and, after a pleasant meal, Frank,

Major and Mrs. Buckley, Sam, and Charles Hawker, rode home to Baroona under the forest arches, and

The boys were staying behind at the stable as the three elders entered the darkened sittingroom. A figure

was in one of the easy chairs by the fire a figure which seemed familiar there, though the Major could not

It was the Doctor. They both welcomed him warmly home, and waited in the gloom for him to speak, but

"Sound in wind and limb, my dear madam, but rather sad at heart. We have had some very severe black

"Oh, poor James!" cried Mrs. Buckley. "He, of all men! The man who was their champion. To think that he,

Charles Hawker rode home that night, and went into the room where his mother was. She was sitting sew

"Mother," said he, "there is bad news to tell. We have lost a good friend. James Stockbridge is killed by the

She answered not a word, but buried her face in her hands, and very shortly rose and left the room. When she

"Some more fruit of the old cursed tree! If he had never seen me, he would have died at home, among his old

ON a summer's morning, almost before the dew had left the grass on the north side of the forest, or the

belated opossum had gone to his nest, in fact just as the East was blazing with its brightest fire, Sam started

off for a pleasant canter through the forest, to visit one of their outstation huts, which lay away among the

ranges, and which was called, from some old arrange ment, now fallen into disuse, "the heifer station."

There was the hut, seen suddenly down a beautiful green vista in the forest, the chimney smoking cheerily.

"What a pretty contrast of colours!" says Sam, in a humour for enjoying everything. "Dark brown hut among

the green shrubs, and blue smoke rising above all; prettily, too, that smoke hangs about the foliage this still

A lean longlegged cleverlooking fellow, rather wide at the knees, with a brown complexion, and not un

pleasant expression of face, stood before the door plaiting a cracker for his stockwhip. He looked pleased

when he saw Sam, and indeed it must be a surly fellow indeed, who did not greet Sam's honest phiz with a

"You're abroad early this morning, sir," said the man; "nothing the matter; is there, sir?"

"Nothing," said Sam, "save that one of Captain Brentwood's bulls is missing, and I came out to tell you to

"Well, you see, sir, I was coming into the home station to see if the Major could spare me for a few days."

"What, going a courting, eh? Well, I'll make that all right for you. Who is the lady, eh?"

"Ay, yes, sir. I know what you mean, but she ain't like her sister; and that was more Mr. Charles Hawker's

fault than her own. No; Elsy is good enough for me, and I'm not very badly off, and begin to fancy I would

like some better sort of welcome in the evening than what a cranky old brute of a hut keeper can give me.

"I wish you well, Matt," said Sam; "I hope you are not going to leave us though."

"Well, I'll get the hut coopered up a bit for you, and you shall be as comfortable as circumstances will permit.

"Good morning, sir; I hope I may see you happily married yourself some of these days."

Sam laughed, "that would be a fine joke," he thought, "but why shouldn't it be, eh? I suppose it must come

some time or another. I shall begin to look out; I don't expect I shall be very easily suited. Heigh ho!"

I expect, however, Mr. Sam, that you are just in the state of mind to fall headlong in love with the first girl

you meet with a nose on her face; let us hope, therefore, that she may be eligible.

But here is home again, and here is the father stand ing majestic and broad in the verandah, and the mother

with her arm round his neck, both waiting to give him a hearty morning's welcome. And there is Doctor

Mulhaus kneeling in spectacles before his new Grevillea Victoria, the first bud of which is just bursting into

life; and the dogs catch sight of him and dash forward, barking joyfully; and as the ready groom takes his

horse, and the fat housekeeper looks out all smiles, and retreats to send in breakfast, Sam thinks to himself,

that he could not leave his home and people, not for the best wife in broad Australia; but then you see, he

"What makes my boy look so happy this morning?" asked his mother. "Has the bay mare foaled, or have you

"None of these things have happened, mother; but I feel in rather a holiday humour, and I'm thinking of going

"I will throw a shoe after you for luck," said his mother. "See, the Doctor is calling you."

Sam went to the Doctor, who was intent on his flower. "Look here, my boy; here is something new: the

"Ah!" said Sam, "this is the one that came from the Quartz Ranges, last year; is it not? It has not flowered

"If Linnaeus wept and prayed over the first piece of English furze which he saw," said the Doctor, "what

everlasting smellingbottle hysterics he would have gone into in this country! I don't sympathise with his

tears much, though, myself; though a new flower is a source of the greatest pleasure to me."

"And so you are going to Garoopna, Sam?" said his father, at breakfast. "Have you heard, my dear, when the

"Next month, I understand, my dear," said Mrs. Buckley. "When she does come I shall go over and make her

So, behold Sam starting for his visit. The very Brummel of bushdandies. Hunt might have made his

wellfitting cord breeches, Hoby might have made those black topboots, and Chifney might have worn

them before royalty, and not been shamed. It is too hot for coat or waistcoat; so he wears his snowwhite

shirt, topped by a blue "bird'seyehandkerchief," and keeps his coat in his valise, to be used as occasion

shall require. His costume is completed with a cabbagetree hat, neither too new nor too old; light, shady,

well ventilated, and three pounds ten, the production, after months of labour, of a private in her Majesty's

Fortieth Regiment of Foot: not with long streaming ribands down his back, like a Pitt Street bully, but with

short and modest ones, as became a gentleman, altogether as fine a looking young fellow, as well dressed,

Let me say a word about his horse, too; horse Wid derin. None ever knew what that horse had cost Sam.

The Major even had a delicacy about asking. I can only discover by inquiry that, at one time, about a year

before this, there came to the Major's a traveller, an Irishman by nation, who bored them all by talking about

a certain "Highflyer" colt, which had been dropped to a happy proprietor by his mare "Larkspur," among the

Shoalhaven gullies; described by him as a colt the like of which was never seen before; as indeed he should

be, for his sire Highflyer, as all the world knows, was bought up by a great Hunterriver horsebreeder from

the Duke of C; while his dam, Larkspur, had for grand sire the great Bombshell himself. What more

would you have than that, unless you would like to drive Veno in your dogcart? However, it so happened

that, soon after the Irishman's visit, Sam went away on a journey, and came back riding a new horse; which

when the Major saw, he whistled, but discreetly said nothing. A very large colt it was, with a neck like a

rainbow, set into a splendid shoulder, and a marvellous way of throwing his legs out; very dark chestnut

in colour, almost black, with longish ears, and an eye so full, honest, and impu dent, that it made you laugh

in his face. Widderin, Sam said, was his name, price and history being sup pressed; called after Mount

Widderin, to the northward there, whose loftiest sublime summit bends over like a horse's neck, with two

peaked crags for ears. And the Major comes somehow to connect this horse with the Highflyer colt

mentioned by our Irish friend, and observes that Sam takes to wearing his old clothes for a twelvemonth, and

never seems to have any ready money. We shall see some day whether or no this horse will carry Sam ten

miles, if required, on such direful emer gency, too, as falls to the lot of few men. However, this is all to

come. Now in holiday clothes and in holiday mind, the two noble animals cross the paddock, and so down by

the fence towards the river; towards the old gravel ford you may remember years ago. Here is the old flood,

spouting and streaming as of yore, through the basalt pillars. There stand the three fern trees, too, above the

dark scrub on the island. Now up the rock bank, and away across the breezy plains due North.

Brushing through the long grass tussocks, he goes his way singing, his dog Rover careering joyously before

him. The horse is clearly for a gallop, but it is too hot today. The tall flattopped volcanic hill which hung

before him like a grey faint cloud, when he started, now rears its fluted columns overhead, and now is getting

dim again behind him. But ere noon is high he once more hears the brawling river beneath his feet, and

The river, as it left Major Buckley's at Baroona, made a sudden bend to the west, a great arc, including with

its minor windings nearly twentyfive miles, over the chord of which arc Sam had now been riding, making,

from point to point, ten miles, or thereabouts. The Mayfords' station, also, lay to the left of him, being on the

curved side of the arc, about five miles from Baroona. The reader may, if he please, remember this.

Garoopna was an exceedingly pretty station; in fact, one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. It stood at a

point where the vast forests which surround the mountains in a belt, from ten to twenty miles broad, run

down into the plains and touch the river. As at Baroona, the stream runs in through a deep cleft in the table

land, which here, though precipitous on the eastern bank, on the western breaks away into a small natural

amphitheatre bordered by fine hanging woods just in advance of which, about two hundred yards from the

river, stood the house, a long, low building densely covered with creepers of all sorts, and fronted by a

beautiful garden. Right and left of it were the woolsheds, sheepyards, stockyards, men's huts giving it almost

the appearance of a little village; and behind the wooded ranges begin to rise, in some places broken

beautifully by sheer scarps of grey rock. The forest crosses the river a little way, so Sam, gradually

descending from the plains to cross, went the last quar ter of a mile through a shady sandy forest tract,

fringed with bracken, which leads down to a broad crossing place, where the river sparkles under tall

overarching red gums and boxtrees; and then following the garden fence, found himself before a deep

A groom came out and took his horse. Rover has enough to do; for there are three or four sheep dogs in the

yard, who walk round him on tiptoe, slowly, with their frills out and their tails arched, growling. Rover, also,

walks about on tiptoe, arches his tail, and growls with the best of them. He knows that the slightest mistake

would be disastrous, and so manoeuvres till he gets to the porch, where, a deal of gravel having been kicked

backwards, in the same way as the ancients poured out their wine when they drank a toast, or else (as I think

is more probable) as a symbol that animosities were to be buried, Rover is admitted as a guest, and Sam feels

A cool, shady hall, hung round with coats, hats, stockwhips; a gun in the corner, and on a slab, the most

beautiful nosegay you can imagine. Remarkable that for a bachelor's establishment; but there is no time to

think about it, for a tall, comfortablelooking housekeeper, whom Sam has never seen before, comes in from

Sam got his coat out of his valise, and went in. He wished that he had put on his plain blue necktie instead of

the blue one with white spots. He would have liked to have worn his new yellow ridingtrousers, instead of

breeches and boots. He hoped his hair was in order, and tried to arrange his handsome brown curls without a

glass, but, in the end, concluded that things could not be mended now, so he looked round the room.

What a charming room it was! A couple of good pictures, and several fine prints on the walls. Over the

chimneypiece, a sword, and an old goldlaced cap, on which Sam looked with reverence. Three French

windows opened on to a dark cool verandah, beyond which was a beautiful flower garden. The floor of the

room, uncarpeted, shone dark and smooth, and the air was perfumed by vases of magnificent flowers, a

hundred pounds worth of them, I should say, if you could have taken them to Coventgarden that December

morning. But what took Sam's attention more than anything was an open piano, in a shady recess, and on the

"White kid gloves, eh, my lady?" says Sam; "that don't look well." So he looked through the book shelves,

and, having lighted on "Boswell's Johnson," proceeded into the verandah. A colley shedog was lying at one

end, who banged her tail against the floor in welcome, but was too utterly prostrated by the heat and by the

persecution of her puppy to get up and make friends. The pup, however, a ball of curly black wool, with a

brownstriped face, who was sitting on the top of her with his head on one side, seemed to conclude that a

game of play was to be got out of Sam, and came blundering towards him; but Sam was, by this time, deep in

a luxurious rockingchair, so the puppy stopped half way, and did battle with a great black tarantula spider

Sam went to the club with his immortal namesake, bullied Bennet Langton, argued with Beauclerk, put down

Goldsmith, and extinguished Boswell. But it was too hot to read; so he let the book fall on his lap, and lay

What a delicious verandah is this to dream in! Through the tangled passionflowers, jessamines and

magnolias, what a soft gleam of bright hazy distance, over the plains and far away! The deep riverglen

cleaves the tableland, which, here and there, swells into breezy downs. Beyond, miles away to the north, is a

great forestbarrier, above which there is a blaze of late snow, sending strange light aloft into the burning

haze. All this is seen through an arch in the dark mass of verdure which clothed the trelliswork, only broken

through in this one place, as though to make a frame for the picture. He leans back, and gives himself up to

See here. A magpie comes furtively out of the house with a key in his mouth, and, seeing Sam, stops to

consider if he is likely to betray him. On the whole he thinks not; so he hides the key in a crevice, and

Now enters a cockatoo, waddling along confortably and talking to himself. He tries to enter into conversa

tion with the magpie, who, however, cuts him dead, and walks off to look at the prospect.

Flop, flop, a great foolishlooking kangaroo comes through the house and peers round him. The cockatoo

addresses a few remarks to him, which he takes no notice of, but goes blundering out into the garden, right

over the contemplative magpie, who gives him two or three indignant pecks on his clumsy feet, and sends

Two brighteyed little kangaroo rats come out of their box peering and blinking. The cockatoo finds an

audience in them, for they sit listening to him, now and then catching a flea, or rubbing the backs of their

heads with their forepaws. But a buck 'possum, who stealthily descends by a pillar from unknown realms of

mischief on the top of the house, evidently discredits cocky's stories, and departs down the garden to see if he

An old cat comes up the garden walk, accompanied by a wicked kitten, who ambushes round the corner of

the flowerbed, and pounces out on her mother, knocking her down and severely maltreating her. But the old

lady picks herself up without a murmur, and comes into the verandah followed by her unnatural offspring,

ready for any mischief. The kangaroo rats retire into their box, and the cockatoo, rather nervous, lays him

But the puppy, born under an unlucky star, who has been watching all these things from behind his mother,

thinks at last, "Here is some one to play with," so he comes staggering forth and challenges the kitten to a

She receives him with every symptom of disgust and abhorrence; but he, regardless of all spitting, and tail

swelling, rolls her over, spurring and swearing, and makes believe he will worry her to death. Her scratch

ing and biting tell but little on his woolly hide, and he seems to have the best of it out and out, till a new ally

appears unexpectedly, and quite turns the tables. The magpie hops up, ranges alongside of the combatants,

and catches the puppy such a dig over the tail as sends him howling to his mother with a flea in his ear.

Sam lay sleepily amused by this little drama; then he looked at the bright green arch which separated the dark

verandah from the bright hot garden. The arch was darkened, and looking he saw something which made his

Under the arch between the sunlight and the shade, bareheaded, dressed in white, stood a girl, so amazingly

beautiful, that Sam wondered for a few moments whether he was asleep or awake. Her hat, which she had

just taken off, hung on her left arm, and with her delicate right hand she arranged a vagrant tendril of the

passionflower, which in its luxuriant growth had broken bounds and fallen from its place above. A girl

so beautiful that I in all my life never saw her superior. They showed me the other day, in a carriage in the

park, one they said was the most beautiful girl in England, a descendant of I know not how many noblemen.

But, looking back to the times I am speaking of now, I said at once and decidedly, "Alice Brentwood twenty

A Norman style of beauty, I believe you would call it. Light hair, deep brilliant blue eyes, and a very fair

complexion. Beauty and highbred grace in every limb and every motion. She stood there an instant on

tiptoe, with the sunlight full upon her, while Sam, buried in gloom, had time for a delighted look, before she

She floated towards him through the deep shadow. "I think," she said in the sweetest, most musical little

voice, "that you are Mr. Buckley. If so, you are a very old friend of mine by report." So she held out her little

Father and mother, retire into the chimney corner and watch. Your day is done. Doctor Mulhaus, put your

good advice into your pocket and smoke your pipe. Here is one who can exert a greater power for good or

evil than all of you put together. It was written of old, "A man shall leave his father and mother and cleave

He had risen to meet her. "And you, Miss Brent wood," he said, "are tolerably well known to me. Do you

know now that I believe by an exertion of memory I could tell you the year and the month when you began to

learn the harp? My dear old friend Jim has kept me quite au fait with all your accomplishments."

"I have not had time to tell yet," she said. "I will see how you behave at lunch, which we shall have in half an

hour t teat te. You have been often here before, I believe? Do you see much change?"

"Not much. I noticed a new piano, and a little glove that I had never seen before. Jim's menagerie o wild

"And so would you and I, Mr. Buckley," she answered, laughing, "if we had been caught in the flood."

"Well, it requires a good deal of administrative faculty to keep the kitten and the puppy from open collision,

and to prevent the magpie from pecking out the cockatoo's eye and hiding it in the flower bed. Last Sunday

morning he (the magpie) got into my father's room, and stole thirtyone shillings and six pence. We got it

The bird thus alluded to broke into a gush of melody, so rich, full, and metallic, that they both turned to look

at him. Having attracted attention, he began dancing, crooning a little song to himself, as though he would

say, "I know where it is." And lastly he puffed out his breast, put back his bill, and swore two or three oaths

that would have disgraced a London scavenger, with such remarkable distinctness too, that there was no

misunderstanding him; so Sam's affectation of not having caught what the bird said, was a dead failure.

"Mr. Buckley," said she, "if you will excuse me I will go and see about lunch. Can you amuse your self

there for half an hour?" Well, he would try. So he retired again to the rockingchair, about ten years older

He had fallen over head and ears in love, and all in five minutes, fallen deeply, seriously in love, to the

exclusion of all other sublunary matters, before he had well had time to notice whether she spoke with an

Irish brogue or a Scotch (happily she did neither). Sudden, you say: well, yes; but in lat. 34�, and lower,

whether in the southern or northern hemisphere, these sort of affairs come on with a rapidity and violence

only equalled by the thunderstorms of those regions, and utterly surprising to you who perhaps read this

book in 52� north, or perhaps higher. I once went to a ball with as free andeasy, heartwhole a young

fellow as any I know, and agreed with him to stay half an hour, and then come away and play pool. In

twentyfive minutes by my watch, which keeps time like a ship's chronometer, that man was in the tragic or

cutthroat stage of the passion with a pretty little thing of forty, a cattle dealer's widow, who stopped his

poolplaying for a time, until she married the great ironmonger in George Street. Romeo and Juliet's little

matter was just as sudden, and very Australian in many points. Only mind, that Romeo, had he lived in

At least such would have been the case in many instances, but not in all. With some men these sud

denlyconceived passions last their lives, and, I should be inclined to say longer, were there not strong

But Sam? He saw the last twinkle of her white gown disappear, and then leant back and tried to think. He

could only say to himself, "By Jove, I wonder if I can ever bring her to like me. I wish I had known she was

here; I'd have dressed myself better. She is a precious superior girl. She might come to like me in time. Heigh

The idea of his having a rival, or of any third person stepping in between him and the young lady to whom he

had thrown his handkerchief, never entered into his Sultanship's head. Also, when he came to think about it,

he really saw no reason why she should not be brought to think well of him. "As well me as another," said he

Why was she gone so long? He begins to doubt whether he has not after all been asleep and dreaming. There

she comes again, however, for the arch under the creepers is darkened again, and he looks up with a pleasant

"God save us! What imp's trick is this?" There, in the porch, in the bright sun, where she stood not an hour

ago in all her beauty and grace, stands a hideous, old savage, black as Tophet, grinning; showing the sharp

The colley shakes out her frill, and, raising the hair all down her back, stands grinning and snarling, while her

puppy barks potvaliantly between her legs. The little kangaroo rats ensconce themselves once more in their

box, and gaze out amazed from their bright little eyes. The cockatoo hooks and clambers up to a safe place in

the trellis, and Sam, after standing thunderstruck for a moment, asks, what she wants?

"Make a light," says the old girl, in a pathetic squeak. Further answer she makes none, but squats down

outside, and begins a petulant whine: sure sign that she has a tale of woe to unfold, and is going to ask for

"Can that creature," thinks Sam, "be of the same species as the beautiful Alice Brentwood? Surely not! There

seems as much difference between them as be tween an angel and an ordinary good woman." Hard to

believe, truly, Sam: but perhaps, in some of the great European cities, or even nearer home, in some of the

prison barracks, you may chance to find a white woman or two fallen as low as that poor, starved, illtreated,

Alice comes out once more, and brings sunshine with her. She goes up to the old lubra with a look of divine

compassion on her beautiful face; the old woman's whine grows louder as she rocks herself to and fro. "Yah

"What! old Sally!" says the beautiful girl. "What is the matter? Have you been getting waddy again?"

Alice had evidently vibrated the right chord. The "Yarah Moorah" coronach was begun again; and then

suddenly, as if her indignation had burst bounds, she started off with a shrillness and rapidity astonishing to

one not accustomed to blackfellows, into something like the following: "Oh Yah (very loud), oh Mah!

Barkmaburrawurrah, Barkmamurrahwurrah, Oh Ya Barkmanurrawah Yee (in a scream. Then a pause). Oh

Alice looked as if she understood every word of it, and waited till the poor old soul had "blown off the

"Oh dear! Young lubra Betty (big thief that one) tear it up and stick it along a fire. Oh, plenty cold this old

"There! go round to the kitchen," said Alice, "and get something to eat. Is it not abominable, Mr. Buckley? I

cannot give anything to this old woman but the young lubras take it from her. However, I will 'put the screw

on them.' They shall have nothing from me till they treat her better. It goes to my heart to see a woman of that

age, with nothing to look for ward to but kicks and blows. I have tried hard to make her understand

something of the next world: but I can't get it out of her head that when she dies she will go across the water

and come back a young white woman with plenty of money. Mr. Sandford, the mis sionary, says he has

never found one who could be made to comprehend the existence of God. However, I came to call you to

Such a selfpossessed, intrepid little maiden, not a bit afraid of him, but seeming to understand and trust him

so thoroughly. Not all the mockmodesty and blushing in the world would have won him half so surely, as

did her bold, quiet, honest look. Although a very young man, and an inexperienced, Sam could see what a

candid, honest, gentle soul looked at him from those kind blue eyes; and she, too, saw something in Sam's

broad noble face which attracted her marvellously, and in all innocence she told him so, plump and plain, as

"I fancy I shall like you very much, Mr. Buckley. We ought to be good friends, you know; your father saved

"I dare say not," said Alice. "Your father is not the man to speak of his own noble deeds; yet he ran out of his

square and pulled my father and uncle almost from under the hoofs of the French cavalry at Waterloo. It

Indeed it did. Sam thought that if it brought such a beautiful flush to her face, and such a flash from her eyes,

But lunch! Don't let us starve our new pair of turtledoves, in the outset. Sam is but a growing lad; and needs

carbon for his muscles, lime for his bones, and all that sort of thing; a glass of wine won't do him any harm

either, and let us hope that his new passion is not of such lamentable sort as to prevent his using a knife and

Here, in the dark, cool parlour, stands a banquet for the gods, white damask, pretty bright china, and clean

silver. In the corner of the table is a frosted claretjug, standing, with freezing politeness, upright, his hand on

his hip, waiting to be poured out. In the centre, the grandfather of watermelons, halfhidden by peaches and

pomegranates, the whole heaped over by a confusion of ruby cherries (oh, for Lance to paint it!) Are you

hungry, though? If so, here is a mould of pottedhead and a cold wild duck, while, on the sideboard, I see a

bottle of pale ale. My brother, let us breakfast in Scot land, lunch in Australia, and dine in France, till our

And the banquet being over, she said, as pleasantly as possible, "Now, I know you want to smoke in the

verandah. For my part, I should like to bring my work there and sit with you, but, if you had rather not have

me, you have only to say that 'you could not think,' and I will obediently take myself off."

But Sam didn't say that. He said that he couldn't conceive anything more delightful, if she was quite sure she

Not she, indeed! So she brought her work out, and they sat together. A cool wind came up, bending the

flowers, swinging the creepers to and fro, and raising a rushing sound, like the sea, from the distant forest.

The magpie having been down the garden when the wind came on, and having been blown over, soon joined

them in a very captious frame of mind; and, when Alice dropped a ball of red worsted, he seized it as lawful

prize, and away in the house with a hop and a flutter. So both Sam and Alice had to go after him, and hunt

him under the sofa, and the bird, finding that he must yield, dropped the ball suddenly, and gave Sam two

vicious digs on the fingers to remember him by. But when Alice just touched his hand in taking it from him,

So the ball of worsted was recovered, and they sat down again. He watched her nimble fingers on the delicate

embroidery; he glanced at her quiet face and downturned eyelids, wondering who she was thinking of.

Suddenly she raised her eyes and caught him in the fact. You could not swear she blushed; it might only be a

trifling reflection from one of the red China roses that hung between her and the sun; yet, when she spoke, it

Sam had thought for an instant of saying "yes," and then to prove his words true of going to Sydney, and

enlisting in the "Half Hundred." Truth, however, prompting him to say "no," he compromised the matter by

"I am rather glad of that, do you know," she said. "Unless in India, now, a man had better be anything than a

soldier. I am afraid my brother Jim will be begging for a commission some day. I wish he would stay quietly

That was comforting. He gave up all thoughts of enlisting at once. But now the afternoon shadows were

beginning to slant longer and longer, and it was nearly time that the Captain and Jim should make their

appearance. So Alice proposed to walk out to meet them, and, as Sam did not say no, they went forth

Down the garden, faint with the afternoon scents of the flowers before the western sun, among petunias and

roses, oleander and magnolia; here a towering Indian lily, there a thicket of scarlet geranium and fuschia. By

shady young orange trees, covered with fruit and blossom, between rows of trellissed vines, bearing rich

promise of a purple vintage. Among fig trees and pomegranates, and so leaving the garden, along the dry

slippery grass, towards the hoarse rushing river, both silent till they reached it. There is a silence that is

"My father and Sam will come home by the track across there. Shall we cross and meet them? We can get

A little lower down, all the river was collected into one headlong race; and a giant tree, undermined by winter

floods, had fallen from one bank to the other, offering a giddy footway across the foaming water.

So he ran across, and then looked back to see the beautiful figure tripping fearlessly over, with out stretched

arms, and held out his great brown hand to take her tiny fingers as she stepped down from the upturned roots

on to the soft white sand. He would like to have taken them again, to help her up the bank, but she sprang up

like a deer, and would not give him the opportunity. Then they had a merry laugh at the magpie, who had

fluttered down all this way before them, to see if they were on a foraging expedition, and if there were any

plunder going, and now could not summon courage to cross the river, but stood crooning and cursing by the

brink. Then they sauntered away, side by side, along the sandy track, among the knolls of braken, with the

sunlit boughs whispering knowingly to one another in the evening breeze as they passed beneath. An

"Oh see ye not that pleasant road, That winds along the ferny brae? Oh that's the road to fairy land, Where

"Oh dear, no. Stay though, I am speaking too fast. I can remember some few places. I remember a steep, red

road, that led up to the church, and have some dim recollection of a vast grey building, with a dark porch,

which must have been the church itself. I can see too, at this moment, a broad green flat, beside a creek,

which was covered with yellow and purple flowers, which mother and I made into nosegays. That must be

the place my father speaks of as the Hatherleigh Meadows, where he used to go fishing, and, although I must

have been there often, yet I can only remember it on one occasion, when he emptied out a basket of fish on

the grass for me to look at. My impression of England is, that everything was of a brighter colour than here;

"A glorious country," said Alice; "what would I give to see it? so ancient and venerable, and yet so

amazingly young and vigorous. It seems like a waste of existence for a man to stay here tending sheep, when

his birthright is that of an Englishman: the right to move among his peers, and find his fit place in the greatest

empire in the world. Never had any woman such a noble destiny before her as this young lady who has just

But the conversation changed here, and her Majesty escaped criticism for the time. They came to an open

space in the forest, thickly grown with thickets of bracken fern, prickly acacia, and here and there a solitary

darkfoliaged lightwood. In the centre rose a few blackened posts, the supports of what had once been a hut,

and as you looked, you were surprised to see an English rose or two, flowering among the dull coloured

prickly shrubs, which were growing around. A place, as any casual traveller would have guessed, which had a

"This," she said, "is the Donovans' old station, where they were burnt out by the blacks."

Sam knew the story well enough, but he would like to hear her tell it; so he made believe to have heard some

faint reports of the occurrence, and what could she do, but give him the particulars?

"They had not been here a year," she said; "and Mrs. Donovan had been confined only three days; there was

not a soul on the station but herself, her son Murtagh, and Miss Burke. All day the blackfellows were

prowling about, and getting more and more insolent, and at night, just as Murtagh shut the door, they raised

their yell, and rushed against it. Murtagh Donovan and Miss Burke had guessed what was coming all day, but

had kept it from the sick woman, and now, when the time came, they were cool and prepared. They had two

doublebarrelled guns loaded with slugs, and with these they did such fearful execution from two loopholes

they had made in the slabs, that the savages quickly retired; but poor Miss Burke, incautiously looking out to

get a shot, received a spear wound on her shoulder, which she bears the mark of to this day. But the worst

was to come. The black fellows mounted on the roof, tried to take off the bark, and throw their spears into

the hut, but here they were foiled again. Wherever a sheet of bark was seen to move they watched, and on the

first appearance of an enemy, a charge of shot at a few yards' distance told with deadly effect. Mrs. Donovan,

who lay in bed and saw the whole, told my father that Lesbia Burke loaded and fired with greater rapidity and

"Why, the foolish blacks fired the woolshed, and brought the Delisles upon them; they tried to fire the roof of

the hut, but it was raining too hard; otherwise it would have gone hard with poor Miss Burke. See, here is a

peachtree they planted, covered with fruit; let us gather some; it is pretty good, for the Donovans have kept

"That pile of earth there, is the remains of the old turf chimney. They moved across the river after it

But peaches, when they grow on a high tree, must be climbed for, particularly if a young and pretty girl

expresses a wish for them. And so it fell out, that Sam was soon astride of one of the lower boughs, throwing

the fruit down to Alice, who put them one by one into the neatest conceivable little basket that hung on her

And so they were employed, busy and merry, when they heard a loud cheery voice, which made both of them

"Quite a scene from 'Paradise Lost,' I declare; only Eve ought to be up the tree handing down the apples to

Adam, and not vice vers . I miss a carpet snake, too, who would represent the D, and make the thing

It was Captain Brentwood who had come on them so inaudibly along the sandy track, on horseback, and

beside him was son Jim, looking rather mischievously at Sam, who did not show to the best of advantage up

in the peachtree; but, having descended, and greetings being exchanged, father and son rode on to dress for

dinner, the hour for which was now approaching, leav ing Sam and Alice to follow at leisure, which they

did; for Captain Brentwood and Jim had time to dress and meet in the verandah, before they saw the pair

"And so I think, too," said Jim. "Hallo! you two; dinner is ready, so look sharp."

After dinner the Captain retired silently to the chimneycorner, and read his book, leaving the three young

people to amuse themselves as they would. Nothing the Captain liked so much as quiet, while he read some

abstruse work on Gunnery, or some scientific voyage; but I am sorry to say he had got very little quiet of an

evening since Alice came home, and Jim had got some one to chatter to. This evening, however, seemed to

promise well, for Alice brought out a great book of coloured prints, and the three sat down to turn them over,

The book was "Wild Sports of the East," a great volume of coloured lithographs, worth some fiveand

twenty guineas. One never sees such books as that nowadays, somehow; people, I fancy, would not pay

that price for them. What modern travels have such plates as the old editions of "Cook's Voyages"? The

number of illustrated books is increased tenfold, but they are hardly improved in quality.

But Sam, I think, would have considered any book beautiful in such company. "This," said Alice, "is what we

call the 'Tiger Book' why, you will see directly. You turn over, Jim, and don't crease the pages."

So Jim turned over, and kept them laughing by his simple remarks, more often affected than real, I suspect.

Now they went through the tangled jungle, and seemed to hear the last mad howl of the dying tiger, as the

elephant knelt and pinned him to the ground with his tusks. Now they chased a lordly buffalo from his damp

lair in the swamp; now they saw the English officers flying along on their Arabs through the high grass with

wellpoised spears after the snorting hog. They have come unexpectedly on a terrible old tiger; one of the

horses swerves, and a handsome young man, losing his seat, seems just falling into the monster's jaws, while

"He has been in that position ever since I can remember," says Alice; "so I think he is pretty safe."

Now they are with the British army on the march. A scarlet bar stretches across the plain, of which the further

end is lost in the white mirage all in order, walking irresistibly on to the conquest of an empire greater

than Haroun Al Raschid's, so naturally done, that as you look, you think you see the columns swing as they

advance, and hear the heavy, weary tramp of the troops above the din and shouting of the cloud of

campfollowers, on camels and elephants, which surrounds them. Beyond the plain the faint blue hills pierce

the grey air, barred with a few long white clouds, and far away a gleaming river winds through a golden

"Would you like to be a countess," said Jim, "and ride on an elephant in a howitzer?"

"Howdah, you goose!" said Alice. "Besides, that is not a countess; that is one of the soldiers' wives.

"What a pleasant job for them," said Jim, "when her Most Gracious Majesty has got the toothache! I wonder

Captain Brentwood looked up. "My dear boy," he said, "does it not strike you that you are talking nonsense?"

"Once only, and then he was mad. He was sitting up with her Majesty, waiting for intelligence which I

brought. His Royal Highness took the despatches from me, but the King insisted on seeing me."

"Little enough, my love," said the Captain, leaning back. "He asked, 'Is this the officer who brought the

despatches, York?' And his Royal Highness said 'Yes.' Then the King said, 'You bring good news, sir; I was

going to ask you some questions, but they are all gone out of my head. Go and get your supper; get your

supper, sir.' Poor old gentleman. He was a kindly old man, and I had a great respect for him. Alice, sing us a

She sang them "The Burial of Sir John Moore" with such perfect taste and pathos that Sam felt as if the

candle had gone out when she finished. Then she turned round and said to him, "You ought to like that song;

"He has often told me the story," said Sam, "but I never knew what a beautiful one it was till I heard you sing

All pleasant evenings must end, and at last she rose to go to bed. But Sam, before he went off to the land of

happy dreams, saw that the little white glove which he had noticed in the morning was lying neglected on the

floor; so he quietly secured and kept it. And, last year, opening his family Bible to refer to certain entries,

now pretty numerous, in the beginning; I found a little white glove pinned to the flyleaf, which I believe to

I NEED hardly say that Sam was sorry when the two days which he had allowed himself for his visit were

over. But that evening, when he mentioned the fact that he was going away in the morning, the Captain,

Alice, and Jim, all pressed him so eagerly to stay another week, that he consented; the more as there was no

And the second morning from that on which he should have been at home, going out to the stable before

breakfast, he saw his father come riding over the plain, and, going to meet him, found that he, too, meditated

"I thought you were come after me, father," said Sam. "By the bye, do you know that the Captain's daughter,

"Oh, she is well enough. Something like Jim. Plays very well on the piano, and all that sort of thing, you

"Oh, well, I suppose she is," said Sam. "Yes; I should say that a great many people would consider her

They had arrived at the door, and the groom had taken the Major's horse, when Alice suddenly stepped out

The Major had been prepared to see a pretty girl, but he was by no means prepared for such a radiant, lovely,

blushing creature as stepped out of the darkness into the fresh morning to greet him, clothed in white,

As he told his wife, a few days after, he was struck "all of a heap;" and Sam heard him whisper to himself,

"My dear young lady, you and I ought not to be strangers, for I recognise you from my recollections of your

"I recognise you from my recollections of your son, sir," said Alice, with a sly look at Sam; "I should say that

The Major laughed, and, taking her hand, carried it to his lips: a piece of oldfashioned courtesy she had

"Come, come, Buckley!" said the quiet voice of Captain Brentwood from the dark passage; "what are you at

there with my daughter? I shall have to call out and fight some of you young fellows yet, I see."

Alice went in past her father, stopping to give him a kiss, and disappeared into the breakfastroom. The

"I never saw such beauty before," answered the Major; "never, by Jove! I tell you what, Brent wood, I wish

"Let us get her a rougepot and a French governess, and send her home by the next ship; eh, Buckley?" said

the Captain, with his most sardonic smile. "She would be the better for a little polishing; wouldn't she, eh?

Too hoydenish and forward, I am afraid; too fond of speaking the truth. Let's have her taught to amble, and

The Major laughed heartily at this tirade of the Captain's. He was fond of teasing him, and I believe the

"And what are you three going to do with your selves today, eh?" asked the Captain at breakfast. "It is a

matter of total indifference to me, so long as you take yourselves off somewhere, and leave me in peace."

Alice was spokesman: "We are going up to the Limestone Gates; Mr. Samuel Buckley has expressed a

This was rather a jesuitical speech. The expedition to the Limestone Gates involved a long ride through very

pretty scenery, which she herself had proposed. As for Sam, bless you! he didn't care whether they rode east,

west, north, or south, so long as he rode beside her; however, having got his cue, he expressed a strong wish

to examine, geologically, the great band of limestone which alternated with the slate towards the mountains,

the more particularly as he knew that the Captain and the Major intended to ride out in another direction, to

If Major Buckley thought Alice beautiful as he had seen her in the morning, he did not think her less so when

she was seated on a beautiful little horse, which she rode gracefully and courageously, in a blue riding habit,

and a sweet little grey hat with a plume of companion's feathers hanging down on one side. The cockatoo was

on the doorstep to see her start, and talked so incessantly in his excitement, that even when the magpie

assaulted him and pulled a feather out of his tail, he could not be quiet. Sam's horse Widderin capered with

delight, and Sam's dog Rover coursed far and wide before them, with joyful bark. So they three went off

through the summer's day as happy as though all life were one great summer's holiday, and there were no

storms below the horizon to rise and over whelm them; through the grassy flat, where the quail whirred

before them, and dropped again as if shot; across the low rolling forest land, where a million parrots fled

whistling to and fro, like jewels, in the sun; past the old stockyard, past the sheepwash hut, and then

through forest which grew each moment more dense and lofty, along the faint and narrow track which led

into one of the most abrupt and romantic gullies which pierce the Australian Alps.

All this became classic ground to them afterwards, and the causes which made it so were now gathering to

their fulfilment, even now, while these three were making happy holiday together, little dreaming of what

was to come. Afterwards, years after, they three came and looked on this valley again; not as now, with

laughter and jokes, but silently, speaking in whispers, as though they feared to wake the dead.

The road they followed, suddenly rising from the forest, took over the shoulder of a rocky hill, and then,

plunging down again, followed a little running creek up to where a great ridge of slate, crossing the valley,

hemmed them in on either side, leaving only room for the creek and the road. Following it further, the glen

opened out, sweeping away right and left in broad curves, while straight before them, a quarter of a mile

distant, there rose out of the low scrub and fern a mighty wall of limestone, utterly barring all further progress

save in a single spot to the left, where the vast grey wall was split, giving a glimpse of another glen beyond.

This great natural cleft was the lime stone gate which they had come to see, and which was rendered the

more wonderful by a tall pinnacle of rock, which stood in the centre of the gap about 300 feet in height, not

"I don't think I ever saw anything so beautiful," said Alice. "How fine that spire of rock is, shooting up from

the feathered shrubs at the base! I will come here some day and try to draw it."

He led them through the narrow pass, among the great boulders which lined the creek. The instant they came

beyond, a wind, icy cold, struck upon their cheeks, and Alice, dropping her reins, uttered a cry of awe and

wonder, and Sam too exclaimed aloud; for before them, partly seen through crowded tree stems, and partly

towering above the forest, lay a vast level wall of snow, flecked here and there by the purple shadow of some

A sight so vast and magnificent held them silent for a little; then suddenly, Jim, looking at Alice, saw that she

"What is the matter, Alice, my dear?" he said; "let us come away; the snowwind is too much for you."

"Oh, that's all!" said Jim; "they are always at it with me, in cold weather. Let 'em. It won't hurt, that I know

But they turned homeward nevertheless; and coming through the rock walls again, Jim said,

"Sam, what was that battle the Doctor and you were reading about one day, and you told me all about it

"No; something like that, though. Where they got bailed up among the rocks, you know, and fought till they

"Now, I should imagine," said Sam, pointing to the natural glacis formed by the decay of the great wall which

they had seen fronting them as they came up, "that a few determined men with rifles, posted among those

"But, Sam," said Jim, "they might be cut up by cavalry. Horses could travel right up the face of the slope

there. Now, suppose a gang of bushrangers in that fernscrub; do you think an equal number of police could

not turn them out of it? Why, I have seen the place where Moppy's gang turned and fought Des borough on

the Macquarrie. It was stronger than this, and yet you know what he did with them, only kept one small

"But I ain't talking of bushrangers," said Sam. "I mean such fellows as the Americans in the War of

"My dear friend," said Sam, testily, "how can you, an officer's son, ask me, an officer's son, such a question?

"You would never have the honour of speaking to your sweet sister again, if you were not," said Alice.

"But I don't think those Americans were in the wrong; do you, Miss Brentwood?" said Sam.

"Why no; I don't suppose that such a man as General Washington, for instance, would have had much to do

"However," said Sam, "we are talking of what will never occur here. To begin with, we could never stand

alone against a great naval power. They would shut us up here to starve. We have everything to lose, and

nothing to gain by a separation. I would hardly like myself, for the sake of a few extra pounds taxes, to sell

"Conceive," said Alice, "being in some great Euro pean city, and being asked if you were British, having to

They were coming through the lower pass, and turned to look back on the beautiful rockwalled amphi

theatre, sleeping peaceful and still under the afternoon sun. The next time (so it happened) that Sam and Jim

looked at that scene together, was under very different circumstances. Now the fronds of the fern trees were

scarce moved in the summer's breeze, and all was silent as the grave. They saw it again; when every fern

tuft blazed with musketry, and the ancient cliffs echoed with the shouts of fighting, and the screams of dying

"It is very early," said Alice. "Let us ride to the left, and see the great waterfall you speak of, Jim."

It was agreed. Instead of going home they turned through the forest, and debouched on the plains about two

miles above Garoopna, and, holding their course to the river, came to it at a place where a great trap dike,

crossing, formed a waterfall, over which the river, now full with melting snow, fell in magnificent confu

sion. They stood watching the grand scene with delight for a short time, and then, crossing the river by a

broad, shallow ford, held their way homeward, along the eastern and more level bank, sometimes reining up

their horses to gaze into the tremendous glen below them, and watch the river crawling on through many

impediments, and beginning to show a golden light in its larger pools beneath the sloping, westering sun.

Just as they sighted home, on the opposite side of the river, they perceived two horsemen before them,

evidently on the track between Major Buckley's and Garoopna. They pushed on to "overhaul them," and

found that it was Doctor Mulhaus, whom they received with boisterous welcome, and a tall, handsome young

"A young gentleman, Sam," said the Doctor, "Mr. Halbert by name, who arrived during your father's absence

with letters of introduction. I begged him to follow your father over here, and, as his own horse was knocked

up, I mounted him at his own request on Jezebel, he preferring her to all the horses in the paddock on account

of her beauty, after having been duly warned of her wickedness. But Mr. Halbert seems of the Centaur

Politeness to strangers was one of the first articles of faith in the Buckley and Brentwood families; so the

"Indeed," said the young man, "I have only landed in the country six weeks. I have got three years' leave of

absence from my regiment in India, and, if I can see a chance, I shall cut the army and settle here."

"I have that honour, Miss Brentwood. I am a lieutenant in the Bengal Horse Artillery."

"That is delightful. I am a soldier's daughter, and Mr. Buckley here also, as you know, I suppose."

Sam, and Jim too, had some disrespectful ideas about soldiers' riding qualities; Sam could not help saying,

"I hope you will be careful with that mare, Mr. Halbert; I should not like a guest of ours to be damaged. She's

"I think I know the length of her ladyship's foot," said Halbert, laughing goodnaturedly.

As they were speaking, they were passing through a narrow way in a wattle scrub. Suddenly a blundering

kangaroo, with Rover in full chase, dashed right under the mare's nose and set her plunging furiously. She

tried to wheel round, but, finding herself checked, reared up three or four times, and at last seemed to stand

Halbert sat like a statue till he saw there was a real chance of her falling back on him; then he slipped his

right foot quickly out of the stirrup, and stood with his left toe in the iron, balancing himself till she was

quieter; then he once more threw his leg across the saddle, and regained his seat, laughing.

Jim clapped his hands; "By Jove, Sam, we must get some of these army men to teach us to ride, after all!"

"We must do so," said Sam. "If that had been you or I, Jim, with our rough clumsy hands, we should have

"Indeed," said Alice, "you are a splendid rider, Mr. Halbert: but don't suppose, from Mr. Buckley's account of

himself, that he can't ride well; I assure you we are all very proud of him. He can sit some bucking horses

"And that same bucking, Miss Brentwood," said Halbert, "is just what puzzles me utterly. I got on a bucking

horse in Sydney the other day, and had an ignominious tumble in the saleyard, to everybody's great

"We must give one another lessons, then, Mr. Halbert," said Sam; "but I can see already, that you have a

Soon after they got home, where the rest of the party were watching for them, wondering at their late

absence. Halbert was introduced to the Major by the Doctor, who said, "I deliver over to you a guest, a young

conqueror from the Himalayas, and son of an old brotherwarrior. If he now breaks his neck horseriding,

After dinner the three young ones, Sam, Alice, and Jim, gathered round the fire, leaving Halbert with the

Major and the Captain talking military, and the Doctor looking over an abstruse mathematical calculation,

with which Captain Brentwood was not altogether satisfied. Alice and Sam sat in chairs side by side, like

Christians, but Jim lay on the floor, between the two, like a black fellow; they talked in a low voice about

"I say," said Jim, "ain't he a handsome chap, and can't he ride? I dare say, he's a devil to fight too, hear

him tell how they pounded away at those Indians in that battle. I expect they'd have made a general of him

before now, only he's too young. Dad says he's a very distinguished young officer. Alice, my dear, you

should see the wound he's got, a great seam all down his side. I saw it when he was changing his shirt in my

"Well, we can have a capital hunt tomorrow: Sam has got his dog Fly here, and I'll take one of my best

"I shall come, too," said Alice: "that is," added she, looking shyly at Sam, "if you would be kind enough to

take care of me, and let Mr. Halbert and Jim do the riding. But I'm afraid I shall be sadly in your way."

At this minute, the housekeeper came in bearing jugs and glasses. "Eleanor," said Jim, "is Jerry round?"

"A tame black belonging to us. He is great at all sorts of hunting; I want to see if he can find us a flying doe

Jerry entered, and advanced with perfect selfposses sion towards the fire. He was a tall savage, with a big

black beard, and wavy hair like a Cornishman. He was dressed in an old pair of dandy riding breeches of

Jim's, which reached a short way below the knees, fitting closely, and a blue check shirt rolled up above the

elbow showing his lean wiry forearm, seamed and scarred with spear wounds and bruises. He addressed

nobody, but kept his eyes wandering all over the room; at length he said, looking at the ceiling,

"Ahhh! Mine make a light flying doe along a stockyard this morning; close by, along a fent, you see!"

"That'll do," says Jim. "We'll be up round the old stockyard after breakfast tomorrow. You, Jerry, come with

It was a fresh breezy autumn morning in April, when the four sallied forth, about nine o'clock, for their hunt.

The old stockyard stood in the bush, a hundred yards from the corner of the big paddock fence, and among

low rolling ranges and gullies, thickly timbered with gum, cherry, and sheoak: a thousand parrots flew swiftly

in flocks, whistling and screaming from tree to tree, while wattledbirds and numerous other honey eaters

clustered on the flowering basksias. The spur winged plover and the curlew ran swiftly among the grass,

and on a tall dead tree white cockatoos and blue cranes watched the intruders curiously.

Alice and Sam rode together soberly, and before them were Halbert and Jim, just up, ready for the chase.

Before them, again, was the active blackfellow, holding the dogs in a leash, two tall hounds, bred of

A mob of kangaroos crosses their path, but they are all small; so the dogs, though struggling fiercely, are still

held tight by Jerry: now he crosses a little ridge before them and looks down into the gully beyond, holding

The two young men gather up their reins and settle themselves in their seats. "Now, Halbert," says Jim, "sit

They ride up to the blackfellow; through the low wattles, they can see what is in the gully before them,

"Baal, flying doe this one," says Jerry in a whisper. "Old man this fellow, cobbon matong, mine think it."

A great sixfoot kangaroo was standing about two hundred yards from them, staring stupidly about him.

"Let go, Jerry," said Jim. The dogs released; sprang forward, and, in an instant, saw their quarry, which, with

a loud puff of alarm, bounded away up the opposite slope at full speed, taking twenty feet at each spring.

Halbert and Jim dashed off after the dogs, who had got a good start of them, and were laying themselves out

to their work right gallantly; Sam's dog, Fly, slightly leading. Both dogs were close on the game, and Halbert

Over range after range they hold their headlong course. Now a bandicoot scuttles away from under their feet

to hide in his hollow log; now a mob of terrified cattle huddle together as they sweep by; now they are flying

past a shepherd's hut, and the mother runs out to snatch up a child, and bear him out of harm's way, after they

are safe past. A puppy, three weeks old, joins the chase with heart and soul, but "eaves in" at about fifty

yards, and sits him down to bark. Now they are rushing on through a broad flat, with another great range

before them. Still always the grey bounding figure holds on, through sunlight and shadow, with the dogs grim

The work begins to tell on the horses. Fat Jezebel, who could hardly be held at first, now is none the worse

for a little spur; and Jim's lean, longlegged horse, seems to consider that the entertainment ought to con

clude shortly. "Well done, Fly!" he shouts; "bravely tried, my girl!" She had drawn herself ahead, and made a

bold strike at the kangaroo, but missed him. Now the other dog, Bolt, tries it, but without luck; and now they

Well done, lass! there she goes again! With a furious effort she pushes ahead, and seizes the flying beast

by the hock this time with some luck, for down he goes in a cloud of dust and broken sticks, and both the

dogs are on him at once. Now he is up again and running, but feebly. And see, what is the matter with the

young dog? He runs on, but keeps turning, snapping fiercely at his side, and his footsteps are marked with

blood. Poor lad! he has got a bad wound in that last tumble, the kangaroo has ripped up his flank with a

kick from his hind foot. But now the chase is over, the hunted beast has turned, and is at bay against a

He balanced it for a second, and in another the kangaroo was lying quivering on the ground, shot through the

All his flank along the ribs was laid open, and Jim, producing a needle and thread, proceeded to sew it up.

"I wish you would. I'm fond of the poor thing, and my hand shakes. You've seen the surgeons at work, I

"Yes, indeed." And he tenderly and carefully stitched up the dog's side, while Jim held him.

"Oh, Jerry will be along on our tracks presently," said Jim. "He brings me the tail, and does what he likes

"Oh, they are right enough," said Halbert, laughing. "I dare say they are not very anxious about the kangaroo,

"Never, Jim. Let me tell you a story as we ride home. You and I shall be good friends, I know. I like you

already, though we have only known one another two days. I can see well what you are made of. They say it

eases a man's mind to tell his grief. I wish it would mine. Well; before I left England I had secretly engaged

myself to marry a beautiful girl, very much like your sister, a governess in my brother inlaw's family. I

went off to join my regiment, and left her there with my sister and her husband, Lord Carstone, who treated

her as if she was already one of the family God bless them! Two years ago my father died, and I came into

twenty thousand pounds; not much, but enough to get married on in India, parti cularly as I was getting on

in my profession. So I wrote to her to come out to me. She sailed in the Assam, for Calcutta, but the ship

never arrived. She was spoken off the Mauritius, but never seen after. The underwriters have paid up her

insurance, and everyone knows now that the Assam went down in a typhoon, with all hands."

"Thank you. I have come here for change of scene more than anything, but I think I shall go back soon."

"I shall come with you," said Jim. "I have deter mined to be a soldier, and I know the governor has interest

enough to get me into some regiment in India." (I don't believe he had ever thought of it before that morning.)

"If you are determined, he might. His services in India were too splendid to have been forgotten yet."

"I wonder," said Jim, "if he will let me go? I'd like to see Alice married first."

They jogged on in silence for a little, and slowly, on account of the wounded dogs. Then Jim said,

"Very much, indeed; but I thought bushriding was harder work. We have only had one or two leaps over

"My father was a master of hounds," replied Halbert. "On the first day of the season, when the hounds met at

home, there would be two hundred horsemen on our terrace, fifty of them, at least, in pink. It was a regular

holiday for all the country round. Such horses, too. My father's horse, the Elk, was worth �300, and there

"You don't know Charley I can see," said Halbert. "Poor little fox, indeed! Why, it's as fair a match between

the besttried pack of hounds in England, and an old dogfox, as one would wish to see. And as hard work as

it is to ride up to them, even without a stiff fence at every two hundred yards, to roll you over on your head, if

your horse is blown or clumsy. Just con sider how many are run, and how few are killed. I consider a fox to

be the noblest quarry in the world. His speed, courage, and cunning are wonderful. I have seen a fox run

fifteen miles as the crow flies, and only three of us in at the death. That's what I call sport."

"Yes. Pigsticking is pretty very pretty, I may say, if you have two or three of the right sort with you. All

the Griffins ought to hunt together though. There was a young fellow, a King'sofficer, and a nobleman too,

came out with us the other day, and rode well for ward, but as the pig turned he contrived to spear my horse

through the pastern. He was full of apologies, and I was outwardly highly polite and indifferent, but internally

cursing him up hill and down dale. I went home and had the horse shot; but when I got up next morning,

there was a Syce leading up and down a magnificent Australian, a far finer beast than the one which I had

lost, which my Lord had sent up to replace my unfortunate nag. I went down to his quarters and refused to

accept it; but he forced me in the end, and it gave me a good lesson about keeping my temper over an

unavoidable accident, which I don't mean to forget. Don't you think it was prettily done?"

"Yes, I do," said Jim; "but you see these noblemen are so rich that they can afford to do that sort of thing,

"There are just as large a proportion of good noble men as there are of any other class more than that you

have no right to expect. I'm a Liberal, as my father was before me, and a pretty strong one too; but I think that

a man with sixty thousand acres, and a seat in the House of Lords, is entitled to a certain sort of respect. A

Grand Seigneur is a very capital institution if he will only stay on his estates some part of the year."

"Ay!" said Jim; who was a shrewd fellow in his way. "They know that here, well enough: look at our

Macarthurs and Wentworths, but then they must be men, and not snobs, as the governor says."

When they got home, they found Sam and Alice sitting in the verandah as comfortable as you please.

"Poor Bolt is cut up, and we couldn't go out of a walk. Now give us something to eat, will you, Alice?"

But just as Jim rang the bell, there was a loud voice outside, and the three young men went out to see who it

One, who was still sitting on his horse, was a dark haired slight young man, Charles Hawker in fact, whom

we know already, but the other, who had dismounted, and was leaning against his horse, was a highbred,

He was a slight lad, perhaps not more than eighteen, with one of the pleasantest, handsomest faces of his own

that you could wish to see, and also a very in tellectual look about him, which impressed you at once with

the idea that if he lived he would have made some sort of figure in life. He was one of the greatest dandies,

also, in those parts, and after the longest ride used to look as if he had been turned out of a bandbox. On the

present occasion he had on two articles of dress which attracted Jim's attention amaz ingly. The first was a

new white hat, which was a sufficiently remarkable thing in those parts at that time; and the second, a pair of

"Why, Cecil Mayford!" said Sam, "How do you do? Charley, how are you? Just in time for lunch. Come in."

Jim was walking round and round Cecil without speaking a word. At last the latter said, "How do you do,

"How do your breeches do, Cecil?" answered Jim; "that is a much more important question, Bythebye, let

me introduce you to Mr. Halbert. Also, allow me to have the honour to inform you that my sister Alice is

"I am aware of that, and am come over to pay my respects. Sam, leave me alone. If I were to dis arrange my

dress before I was presented to Miss Brent wood, I would put a period to my existence. Jim, my dear soul,

So Jim took Cecil in, and the other young fellows lounged about the door in the sun. "Where have you come

"I have been staying at the Mayfords'; and this morning, hearing that you and your father were here, we

"Bythebye," said Sam, "Ellen Mayford was to have come home from Sydney the same time as Alice

"Well, I call her an uncommonly pretty girl. A very nice girl indeed, I should say. Have you heard the news

"Bushrangers! Nine or ten devils, loose on the upper Macquarrie, caught the publican at Marryong alone in

the bush; he had been an overlooker, or some such thing, in old times, so they stripped him, tied him up, gave

him four dozen, and left him to the tender mercies of the blowflies, in consequence of which he was found

dead next day, with the cords at his wrists cutting down to the bone with the struggles he made in his agony."

"Whew!" said Sam. "We are going to have some of the oldfashioned work over again. Let us hope

"Some of our fellowcountrymen," said Halbert, "are, it seems to me, more detestably ferocious than

"Much of a muchness no better, and perhaps no worse," said Sam. "All men who act entirely with out

any law in their actions arrive at much the same degree, whether white or black."

"And will this Captain Desborough, whom you speak of, have much chance of catching these fellows?" asked

"They will most likely disperse on his approach if he takes any force against them," said Sam. "I heard him

say, myself, that the best way was to tempt them to stay and show fight, by taking a small force against them,

as our admirals used to do to the French, in the war. Bythebye, how is Tom Troubridge? He is quite a

stranger to me. I have only seen him twice since he was back from Port Phillip."

THAT week one of those runs upon the Captain's hospitality took place which are common enough in the

bush, and, although causing a temporary inconveni ence, are generally as much enjoyed by the entertainer

as entertained. Everybody during this next week came to see them, and nobody went back again. So by the

end of the week there were a dozen or fourteen guests assembled, all uninvited, and apparently bent on

Alice, who had expected to be rather put out, conducted everything with such tact and dignity that Mrs.

Buckley remarked to Mrs. Mayford, when they were alone together, "that she had never seen such beauty and

such charming domestic grace combined, and that he would be a lucky young fellow who got her for a wife."

"Well, yes, I should be inclined to say so too," answered Mrs. Mayford. "Rather much of the board

ingschool as yet, but that will wear off, I dare say. I don't think the young lady will go very long without an

Yes, Mrs. Buckley had remarked something on her arrival the day before yesterday. She had remarked Sam

and Alice come riding over the paddock, and Sam, by way of giving a ridinglesson, holding the little white

hand in his, teaching it (the dog!) to hold the reins properly. And on seeing Alice she had said to herself,

"That will do." But all this was not what Mrs. Mayford meant, in fact, these two good ladies were at

"Well, I thought I did," replied Mrs. Buckley, referring to Sam. "But one must not be premature. They are

"They seem as if they did," said Mrs. Mayford. "Look there!" Outside the window they saw some thing

There was no one in the garden visible but Cecil Mayford and Alice, and she was at that moment busily

engaged in pinning a rose into his buttonhole. "The audacious girl!" thought Mrs. Buckley; "I am afraid she

will be a daughter of debate among us. I wish she had not come home." While Mrs. Mayford continued,

"I am far from saying, mind you, my dear Mrs. Buckley, that I don't consider Cecil might do far better for

himself. The girl is pretty, very pretty, and will have money. But she is too decided, my dear. Fancy a girl of

her age expressing opinions! Why, if I had ventured to express opinions at her age, II don't know what

"Depend very much on what sort of opinions they were; wouldn't it?" said Mrs. Buckley.

"No; I mean any opinions. Girls ought to have no opinions at all. There, last night when the young men were

talking all together, she must needs get red in the face and bridle up, and say, 'She thought an Englishman

who wasn't proud of Oliver Cromwell was unworthy of the name of an Englishman.' Her very words, I assure

you. Why, if my daughter Ellen had dared to express herself in that way about a murderous Papist, I'd have

"A Dissenter, then, or something of that sort," said Mrs. Mayford. "But that don't alter the matter. What I

don't like to see is a young girl thrusting her oar in in that way. However, I shall make no opposition, I can

assure you. Cecil is old enough to choose for himself, and a mother's place is to submit. Oh, no; I assure you,

"I shouldn't think you would," said Mrs. Buckley, as the other left the room: "rather a piece of luck for your

boy to marry the handsomest and richest girl in the country. However, madam, if you think I am going to

play a game of chess with you for that girl, or any other girl, why, you are mistaken."

And yet it was very provoking. Ever since she had begun to hear from various sources how handsome and

clever Alice was, she had made up her mind that Sam should marry her, and now to be put out like this by

people whom they had actually introduced into the house! It would be a great blow to Sam too. She wished

he had never seen her. She would sooner have lost a limb than caused his honest heart one single pang. But,

after all, it might be only a little flirtation between her and Cecil. Girls would flirt; but then there would be

Mrs. Mayford manoeuvring and scheming her heart out, while she, Agnes Buckley, was constrained by her

Now, there arose a coolness between Agnes Buckley and the Mayfords, mother and son, which was never

made up never, oh, never! Not very many months after this she would have given ten thousand pounds to

But now, going out into the garden, she found the Doctor busy planting some weeds he had found in the

bush, in a quiet corner, with an air of stealth, intending to pri vately ask the gardener to see after them till he

could fetch them away. The magpie, having seen from the window a process of digging and burying going

on, had attended in his official capacity, standing behind the Doctor, and encouraging him every now and

then with a dance, or a few flutelike notes of music. I need hardly mention that the moment the Doctor's

back was turned the bird rooted up every one of the plants, and buried them in some secret spot of his own,

To the Doctor she told the whole matter, omitting nothing, and then asked his advice. "I suppose," she said,

"Quite so, my dear madam. If she loves Sam, she will marry him; if she don't, he is better without her."

"That is true," said Mrs. Buckley. "I hope she will have good taste enough to choose my boy."

"I hope so too, I am sure," said the Doctor. "But we must not be very furious if she don't. Little Cecil

Mayford is both handsomer and cleverer than Sam. We must not forget that, you know."

That evening was the first thoroughly unhappy evening, I think, that Sam ever passed in his life. I am inclined

to imagine that his digestion was out of order. If any of my readers ever find themselves in the same state of

mind that he was in that night, let them be comforted by considering that there is always a remedy at hand,

before which evil thoughts and evil tempers of all kinds fly like mist before the morning sun. How many

serious family quarrels, marriages out of spite, alterations of wills, and secessions to the Church of Rome,

might have been prevented by a gentle dose of blue pill! What awful instances of chronic dyspepsia are

presented to our view by the immortal bard in the characters of Hamlet and Othello! I look with awe on the

digestion of such a man as the present King of Naples. Banish dyspepsia and spirituous liquors from society,

and you would have no crime, or at least so little that you would not consider it worth mentioning.

However, to return to Sam. He, Halbert, Charles Hawker, and Jim had been away riding down an emu, and

had stayed out all day. But Cecil Mayford, having made excuse to stay at home, had been making himself in

many ways agreeable to Alice, and at last had attended her on a ride, and on his return had been rewarded

with a rose, as we saw. The first thing Sam caught sight of when he came home was Alice and Cecil walking

up and down the garden very comfortably together, talking and laughing. He did not like to see this. He

dreaded Cecil's powers of entertainment too much, and it made him angry to hear how he was making Alice

laugh. Then, when the four came into the house, this offending couple took no notice of them at all, but

continued walking up and down in the garden, till Jim, who, not being in love, did'nt care twopence whether

"Then you won't get me, impudence," said Alice, and began walking up and down again. But not long after,

having to come in, she just said, "How do, Mr. Halbert?" and passed on, never speaking to Sam. Now there

was no reason why she should have spoken to him, but "Good evening, Mr. Buckley," would not have hurt

anybody. And now in came Cecil, with that unlucky rose, and Jim immediately began,

"No secret at all," said Alice, coming back. "I gave it to him. He had the civility to stay and take me out for a

ride, instead of going to run down those poor pretty emus. And that is his reward. I pinned it into his coat for

Sam was very sulky, but he couldn't exactly say with whom. With himself more than anybody, I believe.

"Like Cecil's consummate impudence!" was his first thought; but after he had gone to his room to dress, his

better nature came to him, and before dinner came on he was his old self again, unhappy still, but not sulky,

"What right have I to be angry, even suppose she does come to care more for him than for me? What can be

more likely? He is more courtly, amusing, betterlooking, they say, and certainly cleverer; oh, decidedly

cleverer. He might as well make me his enemy as I make him mine. No; dash it all! He has been like a

brother to me ever since he was so high, and I'll be dd if there shan't be fair play between us two, though

So he watched at dinner and afterwards, but saw little to comfort him. Saw one thing, nay, two things, most

clearly. One was, that Cecil Mayford was madly in love with Alice; and the other was, that poor Cecil was

madly jealous of Sam. He treated him differently to what he had ever done before, as though on that evening

he had first found his rival. Nay, he became almost rude, so that once Jim looked suddenly up, casting his

shrewd blue eyes first on one and then on the other, as though to ask what the matter was. But Sam only said

to himself, "Let him go on. Let him say what he will. He is beside himself now, and some day he will be

But it was hard for our lad to keep his temper sometimes. It was hard to see another man sitting alongside of

her all the evening, paying her all those nameless little attentions which somehow, however un reasonably,

he had brought himself to think were his right, and no one else's, to pay. Hard to wonder and wonder whether

or no he had angered her, and if so, how? Halbert, good heart! saw it all, and sitting all the evening by Sam,

made himself so agreeable, that for a time even Alice herself was forgotten. But then, when he looked up, and

saw Cecil still beside her, and her laughing and talking so pleasantly, while he was miserable and unhappy,

the old chill came on his heart again, and he thought was the last happy week only a deceitful gleam of

Once or twice more during the evening Cecil was almost insolent to him, but still his resolution was strong.

"If he is a fool, why should I be a fool? I will wait and see if he can win her. If he does, why, there is India for

me. If he does not, I will try again. Only I will not quarrel with Cecil, because he is blinded. Little Cecil, who

used to bathe with me, and ride pickaback round the garden! No; he shall have fair play. By Jove, he shall

And he had some little comfort in the evening. When they had all risen to go to bed, and were standing about

in confusion lighting candles, he sud denly found Alice by his side, who said in a sweet, low, musical tone,

"What have I to forgive, my dear young lady?" he said softly. "I was thinking of asking your forgiveness for

"I have behaved so ill to you today," she said, "the first of my new friends! I was angry at your going out

after our poor emus, and I was cross to you when you came home. Do let us be friends again."

There was a chance for a reconciliation! But here was Cecil Mayford thrusting between them with a lit candle

just at the wrong moment; and she gave him such a sweet smile, and such kind thanks, that Sam felt nearly as

And next morning everything went wrong again. Whether it was merely coquetry, or whether she was angry

at their hunting the emus, or whether she for a time preferred Cecil's company, I know not; but she, during

the next week, neglected Sam altogether, and refused to sit beside him, making a most tiresome show of

being unable to get on without Cecil Mayford, who squired her here, there, and everywhere, in the most

But it so happened that the Doctor and the Major sat up later than the others that night, taking a glass of

"There will be mischief among the young fellows about that girl. It is a long while since I saw one man look

at another as young Mayford did at our Sam to night. I wish she were out of the way. Sam and Mayford are

both desperately in love with her, and one must go to the wall. I wish that boy of mine was keener; he stayed

"Don't you see his intention?" said the Doctor. "I am very much mistaken if I do not. He is determined to

leave the field clear for all comers, unless she herself makes some sort of advances to him. 'If she prefers

Mayford,' says Sam to himself, 'in the way she appears to, why, she is welcome to him, and I can go home as

soon as I am assured of it.' And go home he would, too, and never say one word of complaint to any living

So Sam kept to his resolution of finding out whether or no Alice was likely to prefer Cecil to him. And, for

all his watching and puzzling, he couldn't. He had never confided one word of all this to his mother, and yet

Meanwhile, Cecil was quite changed. He almost hated Sam, and seldom spoke to him, and at the same time

hated himself for it. He grew pale, too, and never could be persuaded to join any sport what ever; while

Sam, being content to receive only a few words in the day from My Lady, worked harder than ever, both in

the yards and riding. All day he and Jim would be working like horses, with Halbert for their constant

companion, and, half an hour before dinner, would run whooping down to the river for their bathe, and then

come in clean, happy, hungry so full of life and youth, that in these sad days of deficient grinders,

indigestion, and liver, I can hardly realize that once I myself was as full of blood and as active and hearty as

There was much to do the week that Alice and Sam had their little tiff. The Captain was getting in the

"scrubbers" cattle, which had been left, under the not very careful rule of the Donovans, to run wild in the

mountains. These beasts had now to be got in, and put through such processes as cattle are born to undergo.

The Captain and the Major were both fully stiff for working in the yards, but their places were well sup

plied by Sam and Jim. The two fathers, with the assistance of the stockman, and sometimes of the sons, used

to get them into the yards, and then the two young men would go to work in a style I have never seen sur

passed by any two of the same age. Halbert would sometimes go into the yard and assist, or rather hinder; but

he had to give up just when he was beginning to be of some use, as the exertion was too violent for an old

Meanwhile Cecil despised all these things, and, though a capital hand among cattle, was now grown

completely effeminate, hanging about the house all day, making, in fact, "rather a fool of himself about that

girl," as Hal bert thought, and thought, besides, "What a confounded fool she will make of herself if she

takes that little dandy! not that he isn't a very gentlemanlike little fellow, but that Sam is worth five

One day, it so happened that every one was out but Cecil and Alice; and Alice, who had been listening to the

"I have never been," she said; "I should so like to go! I know I am not allowed, but you need not betray me,

Cecil blushed scarlet. If women only knew what awk ward questions they ask sometimes! In this instance he

"Come along!" said she; "you are going to say that it is dangerous (nothing was further from his

"I am afraid," said Cecil, "that Jim will be very angry with me;" which was undoubtedly very likely.

So they went, and in the rush and confusion of the beasts' feet got to the yard unnoticed. Sam and Jim were

inside, and Halbert was perched upon the rails; she came close behind him and peeped through.

She was frightened. Close before her was Sam, hat less, in shirt and breeches only, almost unrecognisable,

grimed with sweat, dust, and filth beyond description. He had been nearly horned that morning, and his shirt

was torn from his armpit downwards, showing rather more of a lean muscular flank than would have been

desirable in a drawingroom. He stood there with his legs wide apart, and a stick about eight feet long and as

thick as one's wrist in his hand; while before him, crowded into a corner of the yard, were a mob of

infuriated, terrified cattle. As she watched, one tried to push past him and get out of the yard; he stepped aside

and let it go. The next instant a lordly young bull tried the same game, but he was "wanted;" so, just as he

came nearly abreast of Sam, he received a frightful blow on the nose from the stick, which turned him.

But only for a moment. The maddened beast shaking his head with a roar rushed upon Sam like a

thunderbolt, driving him towards the side of the yard. He stepped on one side rapidly, and then tumbled him

self bodily through the rails, and fell with his fine brown curls in the dust, right at the feet of poor Alice, who

Jim and Halbert roared with laughter, and Sam, picking himself up, was beginning to join as loud as anybody,

"I hope you haven't been frightened by that evil disposed bull, Miss Brentwood," he said pleasantly; "you

"Hallo, sister!" shouted Jim; "what the deuce brings you here? I thought you were at home at your worsted

work. You should have seen what we were at, Cecil, before you brought her up. Now, miss, just mount that

But meanwhile the bull had the best of it, and had got out of the yard. A long lithe lad, stationed outside on

horseback, was in full chase, and Jim, leaping on one of the horses tied to the rails, started off to his

assistance. The two chased the unhappy bull as a pair of grey hounds chase a hare, with their whips cracking

as rapidly and as loudly as you would fire a revolver. After an excursion of about a mile into the forest, the

beast was turned and brought towards the yard. Twice he turned and charged the lad, with the same success.

The cunning old stockhorse wheeled round or sprang aside, and the bull went blundering into empty space

with two fourteenfoot stockwhips playing on his unlucky hide like rain. At length he was brought in again,

and one by one those entitled to freedom were passed out by Sam, and others reserved unto a day of wrath

All this time Alice had sat by Halbert. Cecil had given no assistance, for Jim would have done anything rather

than press a guest into the service. Halbert asked her, what she thought of the sport?

"Oh, it is horrible," she said. "I should like to go home. I hope it is all over."

"Nearly," said Halbert; "that cow and calf have got to go out. Don't get frightened now; watch your brother

It was a sight worth watching; Sam and Jim advanced towards the maddened beasts to try and get the cow to

bolt. The cattle were huddled up at the other end of the yard, and, having been so long in hand, were getting

dangerous. Once or twice young beasts had tried to pass, but had been driven back by the young men, with a

courage and dexterity which the boldest matador in Spain could not have surpassed. Cecil Mayford saw, with

his wellaccustomed eye, that matters were getting perilous, and placed himself at the rails, holding one

ready to slip if the beasts should break. In a moment, how or why none could tell, they made a sudden rush:

Jim was borne back, dealing blows about him like a Paladin, and Sam was down, rolled over and over in the

Halfadozen passed right over him as he lay. Jim had made good his retreat from the yard, and Cecil had

quietly done just the right thing: put up the rail he held, and saved the day's work. The cattle were still safe,

Before any of them had appreciated what had happened, Alice was down, and, seizing Sam by the shoulders,

had dragged him to the fence. Halbert, horrified to see her actually in the presence of the cattle, leaped after

her, put Sam through the rails, and lifted her up to her old post on the top. In another instant the beasts swept

They gathered round Sam, and for an instant thought he was dead; but just as Jim hurriedly knelt down, and

raising his head began to untie his hand kerchief, Sam uprose, and, shaking himself and dusting his clothes,

"If it had been any other beast which knocked me down but that poley heifer, I should have been hurt;" and

then said that "it was bathingtime, and they must look sharp to be in time for dinner:" three undeniable facts,

showing that, although he was a little unsteady on his legs, his intellect had in nowise suffered.

And Halbert, glancing at Alice, saw something in her face that made him laugh; and, dressing for dinner in

"Unless there are family reasons against it, Jim, which of course I can't speak about, you know, I should say

"Do you really think so, now?" said Jim; "I rather fancied she had taken up with Cecil. I like Sam's fist, mind

"She has been doing that, I think, rather to put Sam on his mettle; for I think he was taking things too easy

with her at first; but now, if Cecil has any false hopes, he may give them up; the sooner the better. No woman

who was fancy free could stand seeing that noble head of Sam's come rolling down in the dust at her feet; and

what courage and skill he exhibited, too! Talk of bullfights! I have seen one. Bah! it is like this nailbrush

to a gold watch, to what I saw today. Sam, sir, has won a wife by cattle drafting."

"If that is the case," said Jim, pensively brushing his hair, "I am very glad that Cecil's care for his fine clothes

prevented his coming into the yard; for he is one of the bravest, coolest hands among cattle, I know; he beats

"Then he beats a precious good fellow, Jim. A man who could make such play as you did today, with a

stick, ought to have nothing but a big threefoot of blue steel in his hand, and Her Majesty's commission to

"That will come," said Jim, "the day after Sam has got the right to look after Alice; not before; the governor

When Sam came to dress for dinner he found that he was bruised all over, and had to go to the Captain for

Captain Brentwood had lately been trying homeo pathy, which in his case, there being nothing the matter

with him, was a decided success. He doctored Sam with Arnica externally, and gave him the five hundredth

of a grain of something to swallow; but what made Sam forget his bruises quicker than these dangerous and

violent remedies, was the delightful change in Alice's behaviour. She was so agreeable that evening, that he

was in the seventh heaven; the only drawback to his happiness being poor Cecil May ford's utter distraction

and misery. Next morning, too, after a swim in the river, he handled such a singularly good knife and fork,

that Halbert told Jim privately, that if he, Sam, continued to sport such a confoundedly good appetite, he

would have to be carried halfamile on a heifer's horns and left for dead, to keep up the romantic effect of

They were sitting at breakfast, when the door opened, and there appeared before the assembled company the

"Oh!" said Alice, turning to Sam, "it is that pretty little boy up the river that we were admiring so last week."

"But the hut is on the plain side of the river," said the Major; "he can't be lost on the plains."

"The river is very low, sir," said the lad; "hardly ancle deep just there. He may have crossed."

"They would have been here before now to tell us, if they had, I am afraid," said Captain Brentwood. "Let us

hope they may have got him; however, we had better start at once. Two of us may search the river between

this and the hut, and two may follow it towards the Mayfords'. Sam, you have the best horse; go down to the

hut, and see if you can find any trace across the river, on this side, and follow it up to the ranges. Take some

They were all quickly on the alert. Sam was going to ask Jim to come with him; but as he was putting the

"Who sooner, old friend?" answered Sam heartily: "let us come together by all means, and if we are to go to

the ranges, we had better take a blanket apiece, and a wedge of damper. So if you will get them from the

FOUR or five miles up the river from Garoopna stood a solitary hut, snug, sheltered by a lofty bare knoll,

round which the great river chafed among the boulders. Across the stream was the forest, sloping down in

pleasant glades from the mountain; and behind the hut rose the plain four or five hundred feet over head,

seeming to be held aloft by the bluestone columns which rose from the river side.

In this cottage resided a shepherd, his wife, and one little boy, their son, about eight years old. A strange, wild

little bush child, able to speak articulately, but utterly without knowledge or experience of human creatures,

save of his father and mother; unable to read a line; without religion of any sort or kind; as entire a little

savage, in fact, as you could find in the worst den in your city, morally speaking, and yet beautiful to look on;

As yet unfit to begin labour. All the long sum mer he would wander about the river bank, up and down the

beautiful rockwalled paradise where he was confined, sometimes looking eagerly across the water at the

waving forest boughs, and fancying he could see other children far up the vistas beckoning to him to cross

It grew quite into a passion with the poor little man to get across and play there; and one day when his mother

was shifting the hurdles, and he was handing her the strips of green hide which bound them together, he said

"There's plenty of quantongs over there, eh, mother, and raspberries? Why mayn't I get across and play

"The river is too deep, child, and the Bunyip lives in the water under the stones."

"Pixies; don't go near 'em child; they'll lure you on, Lord knows where. Don't get trying to cross the river,

But next day the passion was stronger on him than ever. Quite early on the glorious cloudless midsummer

day he was down by the river side, sitting on a rock, with his shoes and stockings off, paddling his feet in the

clear tepid water, and watching the million fish in the shallows black fish and grayling leaping and

There is no pleasure that I have ever experienced like a child's midsummer holiday. The time, I mean, when

two or three of us used to go away up the brook, and take our dinners with us, and come home at night tired,

dirty, happy, scratched beyond recognition, with a great nosegay, three little trout, and one shoe, the other one

having been used for a boat till it had gone down with all hands out of soundings. How poor our Derby days,

our Greenwich dinners, our evening parties, where there are plenty of nice girls, are after that! Depend on it, a

man never experiences such pleasure or grief after fourteen as he does before, unless in come cases in his first

But, meanwhile, there sits our child, barelegged, watching the forbidden ground beyond the river. A fresh

breeze was moving the trees, and making the whole a dazzling mass of shifting light and shadow. He sat so

still that a glorious violet and red kingfisher perched quite close, and, dashing into the water, came forth

with a fish, and fled like a ray of light along the winding of the river. A colony of little shell parrots, too,

crowded on a bough, and twittered and ran to and fro quite busily, as though they said to him, "We don't

Never was the river so low. He stepped in; it scarcely reached his ancle. Now surely he might get across. He

stripped himself, and, carrying his clothes, waded through, the water never reaching his middle all across the

long, yellow, gravelly shallow. And there he stood naked and free in the forbidden ground.

He quickly dressed himself, and began examining his new kingdom, rich beyond his utmost hopes. Such

quantongs, such raspberries, surpassing imagination; and when tired of them such fern boughs, six or eight

What tales he would have for his father tonight. He would bring him here, and show him all the wonders,

and perhaps he would build a new hut over here, and come and live in it? Perhaps the pretty young lady, with

There! There is one of those children he had seen before across the river. Ah! ah! it was not a child at all, but

a pretty grey beast, with big ears. A kangaroo, my lad; he won't play with you, but skips away slowly, and

There is something like the gleam of water on that rock. A snake! Now a sounding rush through the wood,

and a passing shadow. An eagle! He brushes so close to the child; that he strikes at the bird with a stick, and

then watches him as he shoots up like a rocket, and, measuring the fields of air in everwidening circles,

hangs like a motionless speck upon the sky; though, measure his wings across, and you will find he is nearer

Here is a prize, though! A wee little native bear, barely eight inches long, a little grey beast, comical

beyond expression, with broad flapped ears, sits on a tree within reach. He makes no resistance, but cuddles

into the child's bosom, and eats a leaf as they go along; while his mother sits aloft, and grunts indignant at the

abstraction of her offspring, but, on the whole, takes it pretty comfortably, and goes on with her dinner of

What a short day it has been! Here is the sun getting low, and the magpies and jackasses beginning to tune up

He was lost in the bush. He turned back and went, as he thought, the way he had come, but soon arrived at a

tall, precipitous cliff, which, by some infernal magic, seemed to have got between him and the river. Then he

broke down, and that strange madness came on him which comes even on strong men when lost in the forest:

a despair, a confusion of intellect, which cost many a bold man his life. Think what it must be with a child.

He was fully persuaded that the cliff was between him and home, and that he must climb it. Alas! every step

he took aloft carried him further from the river and the hope of safety; and when he came to the top, just at

dark, he saw nothing but cliff after cliff, range after range, all around him. He had been wandering through

steep gullies all day unconsciously, and had penetrated far into the mountains. Night was coming down, still

and crystalclear, and the poor little lad was far away from help or hope, going his last long journey alone.

Partly perhaps walking, and partly sitting down and weeping, he got through the night; and when the solemn

morning came up again he was still tottering along the leading range, bewildered; crying, from time to time,

"Mother, mother!" still nursing his little bear, his only companion, to his bosom, and holding still in his hand

a few poor flowers he had gathered the day before. Up and on all day, and at evening, passing out of the great

zone of timber, he came on the bald, thundersmitten summit ridge, where one ruined tree held up its

skeleton arms against the sunset, and the wind came keen and frosty. So, with failing, feeble legs, upward

still, towards the region of the granite and the snow; towards the eyrie of the kite and the eagle.

Brisk as they all were at Garoopna, none were so brisk as Cecil and Sam. Charles Hawker wanted to come

with them, but Sam asked him to go with Jim; and, long before the others were ready, our two had strapped

their blankets to their saddles, and, followed by Sam's dog Rover, now getting a little grey about the nose,

Neither spoke at first. They knew what a solemn task they had before them; and, while acting as though

everything depended on speed, guessed well that their search was only for a little corpse, which, if they had

Cecil began: "Sam, depend on it that child has crossed the river to this side. If he had been on the plains he

"I quite agree," said Sam. "Let us go down this side till we are opposite the hut, and search for marks by the

So they agreed; and in half an hour were opposite the hut, and, riding across to it to ask a few questions,

found the poor mother sitting on the doorstep, with her apron over her head, rocking herself to and fro.

She said, with frequent bursts of grief, that "some days before he had mentioned having seen white child ren

across the water, who beckoned him to cross and play; that she, knowing well that they were fairies, or

perhaps worse, had warned him solemnly not to mind them; but that she had very little doubt that they had

helped him over and carried him away to the forest; and that her husband would not believe in his having

In a quarter of an hour from starting they found, slightly up the stream, one of the child's socks, which in his

hurry to dress he had forgotten. Here brave Rover took up the trail like a bloodhound, and before evening

"Most likely," said Cecil. "Lost children always climb from height to height. I have heard it often remarked

by old bush hands. Why they do so, God, who leads them, only knows; but the fact is beyond denial. Ask

The brave old dog was halfway up, looking back for them. It took them nearly till dark to get their horses

up; and, as there was no moon, and the way was getting perilous, they determined to camp, and start again in

They spread their blankets and lay down side by side. Sam had thought, from Cecil's proposing to come with

him in preference to the others, that he would speak of a subject nearly concerning them both; but Cecil went

off to sleep and made no sign; and Sam, ere he dozed, said to himself, "By Jove, if he don't speak this

journey, I will. It is unbearable that we should not come to some understanding. Poor Cecil!"

At early dawn they caught up their horses, which had been hobbled with the stirrup leathers, and started

afresh. Both were more silent than ever, and the dog, with his nose to the ground, led them slowly along the

"It is inconceivable," said Sam, "that the poor child can have come up here. There is Tuckerimbid close to our

right, five thousand feet above the river. Don't you think we must be mistaken?"

"The dog disagrees with you," said Cecil. "He has something before him not very far off. Watch him."

The trees had become dwarfed and scattered; they were getting out of the region of trees; the real forest zone

was now below them, and they saw they were emerging towards a bald elevated down, and that a few

hundred yards before them was a dead tree, on the highest branch of which sat an eagle.

They were up to him and off in a moment. There he lay, dead and stiff, one hand still grasping the flowers he

had gathered on his last happy playday, and the other laid as a pillow, between the soft cold cheek and the

rough cold stone. His midsummer holiday was over, his long journey was ended. He had found out at last

Both the young men knelt beside him for a moment in silence. They had found only what they had expected

to find, and yet, now that they had found it, they were far more touched and softened than they could have

thought possible. They stayed in silence a few moments, and then Cecil, lifting up his head, said suddenly,

"Sam Buckley! there can be no debate between us two, with this lying here between us. Let us speak now."

"There has never been any debate, Cecil," said he, "and there never would be, though this little corpse was

buried fathoms deep. It takes two to make a quarrel, Cecil, and I will not be one."

"Why," resumed Cecil hurriedly, "has this come to pass? Why has it been my unlucky destiny, that the man I

love and honour above all others should become my rival? Are there no other women in the world? Tell me,

Sam, why is it forced on me to choose between my best friend and the woman I love dearer than life? Why

"I will tell you why," said Sam, speaking very quietly, as though fearing to awaken the dead: "to teach us to

behave like men of honour and gentlemen, though our hearts break. That is why, Cecil."

"Easily answered," said Sam. "Let her decide for herself. It may be, mind you, that she will have neither of

us. There has been one living in the house with her lately, far superior in every point to you or I. How if she

"Yes, Halbert! What more likely? Let you and I find out the truth, Cecil, like men, and abide by it. Let each

"See here," said Sam; "draw one of these pieces of grass out of my hand. If you draw the longest piece ask

"That is well," said Sam. "And now no more of this at present. I will sling this poor little fellow in my blanket

Rover was on his hind legs against the tree, smelling at something. When they came to look, there was a wee

"Depend on it," said Sam, "that the child had caught it from its dam, and brought it up here. Take it home

Cecil took the little thing home, and in time it grew to be between three and four feet high, a grandfather of

bears. The magpie protested against his introduction to the establishment, and used to pluck billfulls of hair

from his stomach under pretence of lining a nest, which was never made. But in spite of this, the good gentle

beast lived nigh as long as the magpie long enough to be caressed by the waxen fingers of little children,

who would afterwards gather round their father, and hear how the bear had been carried to the moun tains in

the bosom of the little boy who lost his way on the granite ranges, and went to heaven, in the year that the

Sam carried the little corpse back in his blanket, and that evening helped the father to bury it by the river side.

Under some fern trees they buried him, on a knoll which looked across the river, into the treacherous

Alice was very sad for a day or two, and thought and talked much about this sad accident, but soon she

recovered her spirits again. And it fell out, that a bare week after this, the party being all out in one direction

or another, that Cecil saw Alice alone in the garden, tending her flowers, and knew that the time was come

for him to keep his bargain with Sam and speak to her. He felt like a man who was being led to execution; but

screwed his courage to the highest point, and went down to where she was tying up a rosetree.

"You shall have a dozen, if you will," she answered. "Help yourself; will you have a peony or a sun flower?

If you have not made up your mind, let me recommend a good large yellow sunflower."

"Miss Brentwood, don't laugh at me, but listen to me a moment. I love you above all earthly things besides. I

worship the ground you walk on. I loved you from the first moment I saw you. I shall love you as well, ay,

better, if that could be, on the day my heart is still, and my hand is cold for ever: can you tell me to hope?

Don't drive me, by one hasty halfconsidered word, to despair and misery for the rest of my life. Say only

Alice was shocked and stunned. She saw he was in earnest, by his looks, and by his hurried, confused way of

speaking. She feared she might have been to blame, and have encouraged him in her thoughtlessness, more

than she ought. "I will make him angry with me," she said to herself. "I will treat him to ridicule. It is the only

"Mr. Mayford," she said, "if I thought you were in jest, I should feel it necessary to tell my father and brother

that you had been impertinent. I can only believe that you are in earnest, and I deeply regret that your

personal vanity should have urged you to take such an unwarrantable liberty with a girl you have not yet

He turned and left her without a word, and she remained standing where she was, half inclined to cry, and

wondering if she had acted right on the spur of the moment sometimes half inclined to believe that she

had been unladylike and rude. When a thing of this kind takes place, both parties generally put them selves

in immediate correspondence with a confidant. Miss Smith totters into the apartments of her dearest friend,

and falls weeping on the sofa, while Jones rushes madly into Brown's rooms in the Temple, and, shying his

best hat into the coalscuttle, announces that there is nothing now left for him but to drown the past in

debauchery. Whereupon Brown, if he is a good fellow, as all the Browns are, produces the whisky and hears

So in the present instance two people were informed of what had taken place before they went to bed that

night; and those two were Jim and Doctor Mulhaus. Alice had stood where Cecil had left her, thinking, could

she confide it to Mrs. Buckley, and ask for advice. But Mrs. Buckley had been a little cross to her that week

for some reason, and so she was afraid; and, not knowing anybody else well enough, began to cry.

There was a noise of horses' feet just beyond the fence, and a voice calling to her to come. It was Jim, and,

drying her eyes, she went out, and he, dismounting, put his arm round her waist and kissed her.

She put her head on his shoulder and began sobbing louder than ever. "Cecil Mayford," she said in a whisper.

"Sent him off with a flea in his ear, in fact," said Jim. "Well, quite right. I suppose you would do the same for

"Yes," she said. But there spread over her face a sudden crimson blush, like the rosy arch which heralds the

Poor Cecil had taken his horse and had meant to ride home, but came back again at night, "just," he thought,

"to have one more look at her before he entered on some line of life which would take him far away from

The Doctor (who has been rather thrust aside lately in the midst of all this lovemaking and so on) saw that

something had gone very wrong with Cecil, who was a great friend of his, and, as he could never bear to see a

man in distress without helping him, he encouraged Cecil to stroll down the garden with him, and then kindly

Cecil told him all, from beginning to end, and added that life was over for him, as far as all pleasure and

excitement went; and, in short, said what we have all said, and had said to us in our time, after a great

disappointment in love; which the Doctor took for exactly what it was worth, although poor little Cecil's

distress was very keen; and, remembering some old bygone day when he had suffered so himself, he cast

"Let me tell you a story, as we walk up and down. If it does not comfort you, it will amuse you. How sweet

the orange bloom smells! Listen: Had not the war broke out so suddenly, I should have been married, two

months to a day, before the battle of Saarbruck. Catherine was a distant cousin, beautiful and talented, about

ten years my junior. Before Heaven, sir, on the word of a gentleman, I never per secuted her with my

addresses, and if either of them ay I did, tell them from me, sir, that they lie, and I will prove it on their

bodies. Bah! I was forgetting. I, as head of the family, was her guardian, and, although my younger brother

was nearer her age, I courted her, in all honour and humility proposed to her, and was accepted with even

more willingness than most women condescend to show on such occasions, and received the hearty

congratulations of my brother. Few women were ever loved better than I loved Catherine. Conceive, Cecil,

that I loved her as well as you love Miss Brentwood, and listen to what follows.

"The warcloud burst so suddenly that, leaving my bride that was to be, to the care of my brother, and putting

him in charge over my property, I hurried off to join the Landsturm, two regiments of which I had put into a

"You know partly what followed, in one day an army of 150,000 men destroyed, the King in flight to

"I fled, wounded badly, desperate and penniless, from that field. I learnt from the peasants, that what I had

thought to be merely a serious defeat was an irretrievable disaster; and, in spite of wounds, hunger, and want

"The enemy were in possession of the country, so I had to travel by night alone, and beg from such poor

cottages as I dared to approach. Sometimes got a night's rest, but generally lay abroad in the fields. But at

length, after every sort of danger and hardship, I stood above the broad, sweeping Maine, and saw the towers

of my own beloved castle across the river, perched as of old above the vineyards, looking protectingly down

upon the little town which was clustered on the riverbank below, and which owned me for its master.

"I crossed at dusk. I had to act with great caution, for I did not know whether the French were there or no. I

did not make myself known to the peasant who ferried me over, further than as one from the war, which my

appearance was sufficient to prove. I landed just below a long high wall which separated the town from the

river, and, ere I had time to decide what I should do first, a figure coming out of an archway caught me by the

"'I knew you would come back to me,' he said, 'if it was only as a pale ghost; though I never believed you

"'There are worse than the French there,' he said; 'worse than the devil Bonaparte himself. Treason, treachery,

"'Your brother! False to his king, to his word, to yourself. He was in correspondence with the French for six

months past, and, now that he believes you dead, he is living in sin with her who was to have been your wife.'

"I did not cry out or faint, or anything of that sort. I only said, 'I am going to the castle, Fritz,' and he came

with me. My brother had turned him out of the house when he usurped my property, but by a still faithful

domestic we were admitted, and I, knowing every secret passage in my house, came shoeless from behind

some arras, and stood before them as they sat at supper. I was a ghastly sight. I had not shaved for a fortnight,

and my uniform hung in tatters from my body; round my head was the same bloody white handkerchief with

which I had bound up my head at Jena. I was deadly pale from hunger, too; and from my entering so silently

they believed they had seen a ghost. My brother rose, and stood pale and horrified, and Catherine fell fainting

on the floor. This was all my revenge, and ere my brother could speak, I was gone away to England,

where I had money in the funds, accompanied by my faithful Max, whom Mary Hawker's father buried in

"So in one day I lost a brother, a mistress, a castle, a king, and a fatherland. I was a ruined, desperate man.

And yet I lived to see old Blucher with his dirty boots on the silken sofas at the Tuileries, and to become as

stout and merry a middleaged man as any Prussian subject in her young Majesty's dominions."

HUMAN affairs are subject to such an infinite variety of changes and complications, that any attempt to lay

down particular rules for individual action, under peculiar circumstances, must prove a failure. Hence I

consider proverbs, generally speaking, to be a failure, only used by weakminded men, who have no opinion

of their own. Thus, if you have a chance of selling your station at fifteen shillings, and buying in, close to a

new goldfield on the same terms, where fat sheep are going to the butcher at from eighteen shillings to a

pound, butter, eggs, and garden produce at famine prices, some dolt unsettles you, and renders you uncertain

and miserable by saying that "rolling stone gathers no moss;" as if you wanted moss! Again, having worked

harder than the Colonial Secretary all the week, and wishing to lie in bed till eleven o'clock on Sunday, a man

comes into your room at halfpast seven, on a hot morning, when your only chance is to sleep out an hour or

so of the heat, and informs you that the "early bird gets the worms." I had a partner, who bought in after Jim

Stockbridge was killed, who was always flying this early bird, when he couldn't sleep for musquitoes. I have

got rid of him now; but for the two years he was with me, the dearest wish of my heart was that my tame

magpie Joshua could have had a quiet two minutes with that early bird before any one was up to separate

them. I rather fancy he would have been spoken of as "the late early bird" after that. In short, I consider

The infinite sagacity of the above remarks cannot be questioned; their application may. I will proceed to give

it. I have written down the above tirade nearly, as far as I can guess, a printed pageful (may be a little more,

looking at it again), in order to call down the wrath of all wise men, if any such have done me the honour of

getting so far in these volumes, on the most trashy and false proverb of the whole: "Coming events cast their

Now, they don't, you know. They never did, and never will. I myself used to be a strong believer in

pre(what's the word? prevarications, predestinations) no presentiments; until I found by

experience that, although I was always having presentiments, nothing ever came of them. Sometimes

somebody would walk over my grave, and give me a creeping in the back, which, as far as I can find out,

proceeded from not having my braces properly buttoned behind. Sometimes I have heard the deathwatch,

produced by a small spider (may the deuce confound him!), not to mention many other presentiments and

depressions of spirit, which I am now firmly persuaded proceed from indigestion. I am far from denying the

possibility of a coincidence in point of time between a fit of indigestion and a domestic misfortune. I am far

from denying the possibility of more remarkable coincidences than that. I have read in books, novels by the

very best French authors, how a man, not heard of for twenty years, having, in point of fact, been absent

during that time in the interior of Africa, may appear at Paris at a given moment, only in time to save a young

lady from dishonour, and rescue a property of ten million francs. But these great writers of fiction don't give

us any warning whatever. The door is thrown heavily open, and he stalks up to the table where the will is

lying, quite unexpectedly; stalks up always, or else strides. (How would it be, my dear Monsieur Dumas, if,

in your next novel, he were to walk in, or run in, or hop in, or, say, come in on allfours like a dog?

anything for a change, you know.) And these masters of fiction are right "Coming events do not cast their

If they did, how could it happen that Mary Hawker sat there in her verandah at Toonarbin singing so

pleasantly over her work? And why did her handsome, kindly face light up with such a radiant smile when

she saw her son Charles come riding along under the shadow of the great trees only two days after Cecil

He came out of the forest shadow with the westering sunlight upon his face, riding slowly. She, as she

looked, was proud to see what a fine seat he had on his horse, and how healthy and handsome he looked.

He rode round to the back of the house, and she went through to meet him. There was a square court behind,

round which the house, huts, and store formed a quad rangle, neat and bright, with white quartz gravel. By

thebye, there was a prospecting party who sank two or three shafts in the flat before the house last year; and

I saw about eighteen pennyweights of gold which they took out. But it did not pay, and is abandoned. (This in

"Is Tom Troubridge come home, mother?" said he, as he leaned out of the saddle to kiss her.

"Not yet, my boy," she said. "I am all alone. I should have had a dull week, but I knew you were enjoying

"I am glad to get home, mother," he said. "We were very jolly at first, but latterly Sam Buckley and Cecil

Mayford have been looking at one another like cat and dog. Stay, though; let me be just; the fierce looks were

"Alice Brentwood was the matter, I rather suspect," he said, getting off his horse. "Hold him for me, mother,

She did as requested. "And so they two are at loggerheads, eh, about Miss Brentwood? Of course. And what

"Oh, very pretty; deuced pretty, in fact. But there is one there takes my fancy better."

"Ellen Mayford; the sweetest little mouseDash it all; look at this horse's back. That comes of that

infernal flash military groom of Jim's putting on the saddle without rubbing his back down. Where is the

She went in and got it for him as naturally as if it was her place to obey, and his to command. She always

waited on him, as a matter of course, save when Tom Troubridge was with them, who was apt to rap out

something awkward about Charles being a lazy young hound, and about his waiting on himself, whenever he

"I have been expecting him this last week; he may come any night. I hope he will not meet any of those

"Hope not either," said Charles; "they would have to go a hundred or two of miles out of their way to make it

They sat in silence. A little after, Charles had turned his horse out, when at once, without prepara tion, he

She was very much startled. He had scarcely ever alluded to his father before; but she made shift to answer

"Then he has been dead eighteen years. He died just as you were born. Never mention him, lad. He was a bad

She rose and went into the house quite cheerfully. Why should she not? Why should not a handsome, still

young, wealthy widow be cheerful? For she was a widow. For years after settling at Toonarbin, she had

contrived, once in two or three years, to hear some news of her husband. After about ten years, she heard that

he had been reconvicted, and sentenced to the chaingang for life; and lastly, that he was dead. About his

being sentenced for life, there was no doubt, for she had a piece of newspaper which told of his crime, and

a frightful piece of villany it was, and after that, the report of his death was so probable that no one for an

instant doubted its truth. Men did not live long in the chaingang, in Van Diemen's Land, in those days,

brother. Men would knock out one another's brains in order to get hung, and escape it. Men would cry aloud

to the judge to hang them out of the way! It was the most terrible punishment known, for it was hopeless.

Penal servitude for life, as it is now, gives the very faintest idea of what it used to be in old times. With a

little trouble I could tell you the weight of iron carried by each man. I cannot exactly remember, but it would

strike you as being incredible. They were chained two and two together (a horrible association), to lessen the

chances of escape; there was no chance of mitigation for good conduct; there was hard mechan ical,

uninteresting work, out of doors in an inclement climate, in all weathers: what wonder if men died off like

rotten sheep? And what wonder, too, if sometimes the slightest accident, such as a blow from an overseer,

returned by a prisoner, produced a sudden rising, un preconcerted, objectless, the result of which were half a

dozen murdered men, as many lunatic women, and five or six stations lighting up the hillside, night after

night, while the whole available force of the colony was unable to stop the ruin for months?

But to the point. Mary was a widow. When she heard of her husband's death, she had said to herself, "Thank

God!" But when she had gone to her room, and was sat athinking, she seemed to have had another husband

before she was bound up with that desperate, coining, forging George Hawker another husband bearing

the same name; but surely that handsome curlyheaded young fellow, who used to wait for her so patiently in

the orchard at Drumston, was not the same George Hawker as this desperate convict? She was glad the

convict was dead and out of the way; there was no doubt of that; but she could still find a corner in her heart

But that even was passed now, and George Hawker was as one who had never lived. Now on this evening we

speak of, his memory came back just an instant, as she heard the boy speak of the father, but it was gone

again directly. She called her servants, and was telling them to bring supper, when Charles looked suddenly

There they were, sure enough, putting the rams into the sheepyard. Tom Troubridge, as upright, brave

looking a man as ever, and, thanks to bushwork, none the fatter. William Lee, one of our oldest acquaint

ances, was getting a little grizzled, but otherwise looked as broad and as strong as ever.

Tom and Charles went into the house, and Mary was about following them, when Lee said, in so low a tone,

She turned round and looked at him, she had wel comed him kindly when he came into the yard with Tom,

and yet he stood still on horseback, holding Tom's horse by the bridle. A stern, squarelooking figure he was;

"Mrs. Hawker," he said, "can you give me the favour of ten minutes' conversation, alone this even ing?"

"Not now, my story is pretty long, and, what is more, ma'am, somebody may be listening, and what I have

"Don't get frightened, Mrs. Hawker. Remember if anything comes about, that you have good friends about

Lee went off with the horses, and Mary returned to the house. What mystery had this man to tell her, "that no

one might hear but she"? very strange and alarming! Was he drunk? no, he was evidently quite sober;

as she looked out once more, she could see him at the stable, cool and selfpossessed, ordering the lads

about: something very strange and terrifying to one who had such a dark blot in her life.

But she went in, and as she came near the parlour, she heard Charles and Tom roaring with laughter. As she

opened the door she heard Tom saying: "And, by Jove, I sat there like a great snipe, face to face with him, as

cool and unconcerned as you like. I took him for a flash overseer, sporting his salary, and I was as thick as

you like with him. And 'Matey,' says I, (you see I was familiar, he seemed such a jolly sort of bird), 'Matey,

what station are you on?' 'Maraganoa,' says he. 'So,' says I, 'you're rather young there, ain't you? I was by

there a fortnight ago.' He saw he'd made a wrong move, and made it worse. 'I mean,' says he, 'Maraganoa on

the Clarence side.' 'Ah!' says I, 'in the Cedar country?' 'Precisely,' says he. And there we sat drinking together,

She sat still listening to him, eating nothing. Lee's words outside had, she knew not why, struck a chill into

her heart, and as she listened to Tom's story, although she could make nothing of it, she felt as though getting

colder and colder. She shivered, although the night was hot. Through the open window she could hear all

those thousand commingled indistinguish able sounds that make the nightlife of the bush, with painful

The night was dark and profoundly still. The stars were overhead, though faintly seen through a haze; and

beyond the narrow enclosures in front of the house, the great forest arose like a black wall. Tom and Charles

went on talking inside, and yet, though their voices were loud, she was hardly conscious of hearing them, but

found herself watching the high dark wood and listening to the sound of the frogs in the creek, and the rustle

Deep in the forest somewhere, a bough cracked, and fell crashing, then all was silent again. Soon arose a

wind, a partial wandering wind, which came slowly up, and, rousing the quivering leaves to life for a

moment, passed away; then again a silence, deeper than ever, so that she could hear the cattle and horses

feeding in the lower paddock, a quarter of a mile off; then a low wail in the wood, then two or three wild

weird yells, as of a devil in torment, and a pretty white curlew skirled over the housetop to settle on the

The stillness was awful; it boded a storm, for behind the forest blazed up a sheet of lightning, showing the

shape of each fantastic elevated bough. Then she turned round to the light, and said,

"My dear partner, I had a headache, and went to the window. What was the story you were telling Charles,

just now? Who was the man you met in the public house, who seems to have frightened you so?"

"No less a man than Captain Touan, my dear cousin!" said Tom, leaning back with the air of a man who has

"Touan?" repeated Mary. "Why, that's the great bushranger, that is out to the north; is it not?"

"The same man, cousin! And there I sat hob and nob with him for half an hour in the 'Lake George'

publichouse. If Desborough had come in, he'd have hung me for being found in bad company. Ha! ha! ha!"

"My dear partner," she said, "what a terrible escape! Suppose he had risen on you?"

"Why I'd have broken his back, cousin," said Tom, "unless my right hand had forgot her cunning. He is a fine

man of his weight: but, Lord, in a struggle for life and death, I could break his neck, and have one more claim

on Heaven for doing so; for he is the most damnable villain that ever disgraced God's earth, and that is the

truth. That man, cousin, in one of his devil's raids, tore a baby from its mother's breast by the leg, dashed its

"Can't, you see," said Tom, "the Touan, the little grey flying squirrel, only begins to fly about at night, and

slides down from his bough sudden and sharp. This fellow has made some of his most terrible raids at night,

She went into the kitchen. Lee sat there smoking. When she came in he rose, and, knocking the ashes out of

He followed her out. She led the way swiftly, through the silent night, across the yard, over a small paddock,

up to the sheepyard beside the woolshed. There she turned shortly round, and, leaning on the fence, said

He seemed to hesitate a moment, and then began: "Mrs. Hawker, have I been a good servant to you?"

"Honest, faithful, kindly, active; who could have been a better servant than you, William Lee! A friend, and

"I am glad to hear you say so," he answered. "I did you a terrible injury once; I have often been sorry for it

"Since you knew me?" she said. "Why, you have known me ever since I have been in the country, and you

"I was your husband's companion in all his earlier villanies. I suggested them to him, and egged him on. And

"Listen to what I have got to tell you now. Hear it all in order, and try to bear up, and use your common sense

and courage. As I said before, you have good friends around you, and you at least are innocent."

"Guilty! guilty!" she cried. "Guilty of my father's death! Read me this horrible riddle, Lee."

"Wait and listen," said Lee, unable to forego, even in her terror, the great pleasure that all his class have of

spinning a yarn, and using as many words as pos sible. "See here. We came by Lake George, you know, and

heard everywhere accounts of a great gang of bushrangers being out. So we didn't feel exactly com fortable,

you see. We came by a bush publichouse, and Mr. Troubridge stops, and says he, 'Well, lad, sup pose we

yard these rams an hour, and take drink in the parlour?' 'All right,' I says, with a wink, 'but the tap for me, if

you please. That's my place, and I'd like to see if I can get any news of the whereabouts of the lads as are

sticking up all round, because, if they're one way, I'd as lief be another.' 'All right,' says he. So in I goes, and

sits down. There was nobody there but one man, drunk under the bench. And I has two noblers of brandy, and

one of Old Tom; no, two Old Toms it was, and a brandy; when in comes an old chap as I knew for a lag in a

minute. Well, he and I cot toned together, and found out that we had been prisoners together

fiveandtwenty years agone. And so I shouted for him, and he for me, and at last I says, 'Butty,' says I, 'who

are these chaps round here on the lay' (mean ing, Who are the bushrangers)? And he says, 'Young 'uns

no one as we know.' And I says, 'Not likely, matey; I've been on the square this twenty year.' 'Same here,'

says the old chap; 'give us your flipper. And now,' says he, 'what sort of a cove is your boss' (meaning Mr.

Troubridge)? 'One of the real right sort,' says I. 'Then see here,' says he, 'I'll tell you something: the head man

of that there gang is at this minute asitting yarning with your boss in the parlour.' 'The devil!' says I. 'Is so,'

says he, 'and no flies.' So I sings out, 'Mr. Troubridge, those sheep will be out;' and out he came running, and

I whispers to him, 'Mind the man you're sitting with, and leave me to pay the score.' So he goes back, and

presently he sings out, 'Will, have you got any money?' And I says, 'Yes, thirty shillings.' 'Then,' says he, 'pay

for this, and come along.' And thinks I, I'll go in and have a look at this great new captain of bushrangers; so I

"I will tell you," said Lee. "There, sitting in front of Mr. Troubridge, hardly altered in all these long years, sat

She gave a low cry, and beat the hard rail with her head till it bled. Then, turning fiercely round, she said, in a

He had something more to tell, but he dared not speak now. So he said, "Nothing at present, but if laying

She did not wait to hear him, but, with her hands clasped above her head, she turned and walked swiftly

towards the house. She could not cry, or sob, or rave; she could only say, "Let it fall on me, O God, on me!"

Also, she was far too crushed and stunned to think precisely what it was she dreaded so. It seemed after

wards, as Frank Maberly told me, that she had an inde finable horror of Charles meeting his father, and of

their coming to know one another. She half feared that her husband would appear and carry away her son

with him, and even if he did not, the lad was reckless enough as it was, without being known and pointed at

These were afterthoughts, however; at present she leaned giddily against the houseside, trying, in the wild

hurrying nightrack of her thoughts, to distinguish some tiny star of hope, or even some glimmer of reason.

Impossible! Nothing but swift, confused clouds every where, driving wildly on, whither?

But a desire came upon her to see her boy again, and compare his face to his father's. So she slid quietly into

the room where Tom and Charles were still talking together of Tom's adventure, and sat looking at the boy,

pretending to work. As she came in, he was laughing loudly at something, and his face was alive and merry.

But they continued their conversation. "And now, what sort of man was he, Tom?" said Charles. "Was he like

"Thank you!" said Charles, laughing. "Wait till I get a chance of paying you a compliment, old fellow. A

A change came over his face, a dark, fierce look. Mary could see the likeness now plain enough, and even

"Nevertheless," continued Charles, "I would have a turn with him if I met him; I'd try what six inches of cold

"Forbear, boy! Would you have the roof fall in and crush you dead?" said Mary, in a voice that ap palled

both of them. "Stop such foolish talk, and pray that we may be delivered from the very sight of these men,

and suffered to get away to our graves in peace, without any more of these horrors and surprises. I would

sooner," she said, increasing in rapidity as she went on, "I would far sooner, live like some one I have heard

of, with a sword above his head, than thus. If he comes and looks on me, I shall die."

She had risen and stood in the firelight, deadly pale. Somehow one of the bands of her long black hair had

fallen down, and half covered her face. She looked so unearthly that, coupling her appearance with the wild,

senseless words she had been uttering, Tom had a hor rible suspicion that she was gone mad.

"Cousin," he said, "let me beseech you to go to bed. Charles, run for Mrs. Barker. Mary," he added, as soon

as he was gone, "come away, or you'll be saying something before that boy you'll be sorry for. You're

hysterical; that's what is the matter with you. I am afraid we have frightened you by our talk about bush

"Yes, that is it! that is it!" she said; and then, sud denly, "Oh! my dear old friend, you will not desert me?"

"Ask Lee," she said, and the next moment Mrs. Barker, the housekeeper, came bustling in with smelling salts,

"What on earth can be the matter with her, cousin Tom?" said Charles when she was gone.

But Mrs. Barker came in with a different opinion. She said that Mary was very hot and restless, and had very

little doubt that a fever was coming on. "Terribly shaken she had been," said Mrs. Barker, "hoped nothing

"There's something decidedly wrong, if your mistress is going to have a fever," said Tom. "Charley, do you

"Up at the Major's," said Charles, "Shall I ride over for him? There will be a good moon in an hour."

"Yes," said Tom, "and fetch him over at once. Tell him we think it's a fever, and he will know what to bring.

As soon as he was alone, he began thinking. "What the doose is the matter?" was his first exclamation, and,

after halfanhour's cogitation, only had arrived at the same point, "What the doose is the matter?" Then it

flashed across him, what did she mean by "ask Lee?" Had she any meaning in it, or was it nonsense? There

was an easy solution for it; namely, to ask Lee. And so arising he went across the yard to the kitchen.

Lee was bending low over the fire, smoking. "William," said Tom, "I want to see you in the parlour."

"I was thinking of coming across myself," said Lee; "In fact I should have come when I had finished my

"Bring your pipe across, then," said Tom. "Girl, take in some hot water and tumblers."

"Now, Lee," said Tom, as soon as Lee had gone through the ceremony of "Well, here's my respex, sir," "Now

"I have indeed, sir," said he; "and very sorry I am, as I am partly the cause of it."

"All that simplifies matters, Will, considerably," said Tom. "I must tell you that when I asked her what put

"Shows her sense, sir. What she means is, that you ought to hear what she and I have heard; and I mean to tell

you more than I have her. If she knew every thing, I am afraid it would kill her."

Lee in the first place put him in possession of what we already know the fact of Hawker's reappearance,

"This is very astonishing, and very terrible, Lee," said he. "Is there anything further?"

Tom had exhausted all his expressions of astonish ment and dismay before this; so now he could only give a

"Followed us home!" said Lee. "As we were pass ing the black swamp, not two miles from here, this very

"Because I had not made up my mind how to act. First I resolved to tell the mistress; that I did. Then after I

had smoked a pipe, I resolved to tell you, and that I did, and now here we are, you see."

That was undeniable. There they were, with about as pretty a complication of mischief to unravel as two men

could wish to have. Tom felt so foolish and non plussed, that he felt inclined to laugh at Lee when he said,

"Here we are." It so exactly expressed the state of the case; as if he had said, "All so and so has happened,

and a deuce of a job it is, and here sit you and I, to deliberate what's to be done with regard to so and so."

He did not laugh, however; he bit his lip, and stopped it. Then he rose, and, leaning his great shoulders

against the mantelpiece, stood before the fire less grate, and looked at Lee. Lee also looked at him, and I

think that each one thought what a splendid specimen of his style the other was. If they did not think so, "they

ought to it," as the Londoners say. But neither spoke a few minutes; then Tom said,

"Lee, Will Lee, though you came to me a free man, and have served me twenty years, or thereabouts, as free

man, I don't conceal from myself the fact that you have been convict. Pish, man! don't let us mince matters

"Ah!" said Tom. "And if a piece of work was set before me to do, which required pluck, honesty, courage,

and cunning, and one were to say to me, 'Who will you have to help you?' I would answer out boldly, 'Give

me Will Lee the lag; my old friend, who has served me so true and hearty these twenty years.' "

"And you'd do right, sir," said Lee quietly. And rising up, he stood beside Tom, with one foot on the fender,

"Now, Will," said Tom, turning round and laying his hand on his shoulder, "this fellow has followed us

"Evident," said Lee, "to work on the fears of the mistress, and get some money from her."

"Good!" said Tom. "Well answered. We shall get to the bottom of our difficulty like this. Only answer the

"Not such a bad name as that, I hope, sir," said Lee smiling. "Who might she have been? A bad un, I expect.

"Hold your tongue, you villain," said Tom, "or you'll make me laugh; and these are not laughing times."

"I'll tell you," said Lee, speaking in an animated whisper. "Watch, watch, and watch again, till you catch him.

Tie him tight, and hand him over to Captain Desborough. He may be about the place to night: he will be

sure to be. Let us watch tonight, you and I, and for many nights, till we catch him."

"But he is her husband," urged Tom, in a whisper. "He is that boy's father. I cannot do it. Can't we buy him

"Yes," answered Lee in the same tone, "till his money is gone. Then you will have a chance of doing it again,

"This is a terrible dilemma," said Tom; and added in a perplexity almost comical, "Drat the girl! Why did'nt

she marry poor old Jim Stockbridge, or sleepy Hamlyn, or even your humble servant? Though, in all honour,

I must confess that I never asked her, as those two others did. No! I'll tell you what, Lee: we will watch for

him, and catch him if we can. After that we will think what is to be done. Bythebye, I have been going to

"That puzzles me," said Lee. "He looked me in the face, but I could not see that he did. I wonder if he

"I never saw him in my life before," said Tom. "It is very likely that he knew me, though. I was champion of

Devon and Cornwall, you know, before little Abra ham Cann kicked my legs from under me that unlucky

Easter Monday. (The deuce curl his hair for doing it!) I never forgave him till I heard of that fine bit of play

Lee lit the fire, while Tom, blowing out the candles, drew the curtains, so that any one outside could not see

into the room. Nevertheless, he left the French window open, and then went outside, and secured all the dogs

The night was wonderfully still and dark. As he paused before entering the house, he could hear the bark

falling from the trees a quarter of a mile off, and the opossums scratching and snapping little twigs as they

passed from bough to bough. Somewhere, appa rently at an immense distance, a morepork was chanting his

monotonous cry. The frogs in the creek were silent even, so hot was the night. "A good night for watch ing,"

They blew out the candle, and Lee was in the act of lying down, when he arrested himself, and held up his

They both listened, motionless and in silence, until they could hear the spiders creeping on the ceiling. There

Troubridge and Lee crouched down breathless. One minute, two, five, but it did not come again. At length

"Not a bit," said Troubridge; and then Lee lay down again, and slept in the light of the flickering fire. One

giant arm was thrown around his head, and the other hung down in careless grace; the great chest was heaved

up, and the head thrown back; the seamed and rugged features seemed more stern and marked than ever in

the chiaroscuro; and the whole man was a picture of reckless strength such as one seldom sees. Tom had

dozed and had awoke again, and now sat thinking, "What a terrible tough customer that fellow would be!"

when suddenly he crouched on the floor, and, reaching out his hand, touched Lee, who woke, and silently

There was no mistake this time that was no opossum. There came the stealthy step again; and now, as they

lay silent, the glassdoor was pushed gently open, showing the landscape beyond. The gibbous moon was

just rising over the forest, all blurred with streaky clouds, and between them and her light they could see the

Tom could wait no longer. He started up, and fell headlong with a crash over a little table that stood in his

way. They both dashed into the garden, but only in time to hear flying footsteps, and immediately after the

"Missed him, by George!" said Lee. "It was a precious close thing, though. What could he mean by coming

"Just as I expected; trying to get an interview with the mistress. He will be more cautious in future, I take it."

They went in and lay down again, and Troubridge was soon asleep; and very soon that sleep was dis turbed

by dreadful dreams. At one time he thought he was riding madly through the bush for his bare life; spurring

on a tired horse, which was failing every moment more and more. But always through the treestems on his

right he saw glancing, a ghost on a white horse, which kept pace with him, do what he would. Now he was

among the precipices on the ranges. On his left, a lofty inaccessible cliff; on the right, a frightful blue abyss;

while the slaty soil kept sliding from beneath his horse's feet. Behind him, unseen, came a phantom, always

gaining on him, and driving him along the giddiest wallaby tracks. If he could only turn and face it, he might

conquer, but he dare not. At length the path grew narrower and narrower, and he turned in desperation and

awoke woke to see in the dim morning light a dark figure bending over him. He sprang up, and clutched it

"A most excellent fellow this!" said the voice of Doctor Mulhaus. "He sends a frantic midnight mes sage for

his friend to come to him, regardless of per sonal convenience and horseflesh; and when this friend comes

quietly in, and tries to wake him without dis turbing the sick folks, he seizes him by the throat and nearly

"I beg a thousand pardons, Doctor," said Tom; "I had been dreaming, and I took you for the devil. I am glad

"Nay," said the Doctor, "you had better let me know. I can help then, you know. Now, for instance, has she

"A mere guess, though I have always thought it quite possible, as the accounts of his death were very

Tom then set to work, and told the Doctor all that we know. He looked very grave. "This is far worse than I

Mary awoke in a fever and delirious. They kept Charles as much from her as possible, lest she should let drop

some hint of the matter to the boy; but even in her delirium she kept her secret well; and towards the evening

the Doctor, finding her quieter, saddled his horse, and rode away ten miles to a township, where resided a

The surgeon was at home. He was drunk, of course; he always was, but hardly more so today than usual. So

the Doctor hoped for success in his object, which was to procure a certain drug which was neither in the

medicinechest at the Buckleys' nor at Toonarbin; and putting on his sweetest smile when the surgeon came

to the door, he made a remark about the beauty of the weather, to which the other very gruffly responded.

"I come to beg a favour," said Doctor Mulhaus. "Can you let me have a little so and so?"

"See you d d first," was the polite reply. "A man comes a matter of fourteen thousand miles, makes a

pretty little practice, and then gets it cut into by a parcel of ignorant foreigners, whose own country is too hot

to hold them. And not content with this, they have the brass to ask for the loan of a man's drugs. As I said

before, I'll see you d d first, AND THEN I WON'T." And so saying, he slammed the door.

Doctor Mulhaus was beside himself with rage. For the first and last time since I have known him he forgot

his discretion, and instead of going away quietly, and treating the man with contempt, he began kicking at the

door, calling the man a scoundrel, and between the intervals of kicking, roaring through the keyhole, "Bring

out your diploma; do you hear, you impostor?" and then fell to work kicking again. "Bring out your forged

This soon attracted the idlers from the publichouse: a couple of sawyers, a shepherd or two, all tipsy, of

course, except one of the sawyers, who was drunk. The drunken sawyer at length made out to his own

complete satisfaction that Doctor Mulhaus' wife was in labour, and that he was come for the surgeon, who

was probably drunk and asleep inside. So, being able to sym pathize, having had his wife in the straw every

thirteen months regularly for the last fifteen years, he prepared to assist, and for this purpose took a stone

about half a hundredweight, and coming behind the Doctor, when he was in full kick, he balanced himself

with difficulty, and sent it at the lock with all the force of his arm, and of course broke the door in. In

throwing the stone, he lost his balance, came full butt against Dr. Mulhaus, propelled him into the passage,

into the arms of the surgeon, who was rushing out infuriated to defend his property, and down went the three

in the passage together, the two doctors beneath, and the drunken sawyer on the top of them.

The drunken surgeon, if, to use parliamentary lan guage, he will allow me to call him so, was of course

underneath the others; but, being a Londoner, and consequently knowing the use of his fists, ere he went

down delivered a "one, two," straight from the shoulder in our poor dear Doctor's face, and gave him a most

disreputable black eye, besides cutting his upper lip open. This our Doctor, being, you must remember, a

foreigner, and not having the rules of the British Ring before his eyes, resented by getting on the top of him,

taking him round the throat, and banging the back of his head against the brick floor of the passage, until he

began to goggle his eyes and choke. Meanwhile the sawyer, exhilarated beyond measure in his drunken mind

at having raised a real good promising row, having turned on his back, lay procumbent upon the twain, and

kick ing everything soft or human he came across with his heels, struck up "The Bay of Biscay, Oh," until

he was dragged forth by two of his friends; and, being in a state of wild excitement, ready to fight the world,

hit his own mate a violent blow in the eye, and was only quieted by receiving a sound thrashing, and being

placed in a sitting posture in the verandah of the public house, from which he saw Doctor Mulhaus come

I am deeply grieved to have recorded the above scene, but I could not omit it. Having undertaken to place the

character of that very noble gentleman, Doctor Mulhaus, before my readers, I was forced not to omit this. As

a general rule, he was as selfcontained, as calm and as frigid as the best Englishman among us. But under all

this there was, to speak in carefully selected scientific language, a substratum of pepperbox, which has

been apparent to me on more than one occasion. I have noticed the above occasion per force. Let the others

rest in oblivion. A man so true, so wise, so courteous, and so kindly, needs not my poor excuses for having

once in a way made a fool of himself. He will read this, and he will be angry with me for a time, but he

knows well that I, like all who knew him, say heartily, God bless you, old Doctor!

But the consequences of the above were, I am sorry to say, eminently disastrous. The surgeon got a warrant

against Doctor Mulhaus for burglary with violence, and our Doctor got a warrant against him for assault with

intent to rob. So there was the deuce to pay. The affair got out of the hands of the Bench. In fact they sent

both parties for trial, (what do you think of that, my Lord Campbell?) in order to ge rid of the matter, and at

sessions, the surgeon swore positively that Doctor Mulhaus had, assisted by a convict, battered his door down

with stones in open day, and nearly murdered him. Then in defence Doctor Mulhaus called the sawyer, who,

as it happened, had just completed a contract for fencing for Mrs. Mayford, the proceeds of which bargain he

was spending at the publichouse when the thing happened, and had just undertaken another for one of the

magistrates; having also a large family dependent on him; being, too, a man who prided himself in keeping an

eye to windward, and being slightly confused by a trifling attack of deli rium tremens (diddleums, he called

it): he, I say, to our Doctor's confusion and horror, swore positively that he never took a stone in his hand on

the day in question; that he never saw a stone for a week before or after that date; that he did not deny having

rushed into the passage to assist the complainant (drunken surgeon), seeing him being murdered by

defendant; and, lastly, that he was never near the place on the day specified. So it would have gone hard with

our Doctor, had not his Honour called the jury's attention to the discrepancies in this witness's evidence; and

when Dr. Mulhaus was acquitted, delivered a stinging reproof to the magistrates for wasting public time by

sending such a trumpery case to a jury. But, on the other hand, Dr. Mulhaus' charge of assault with intent fell

The night or so after the trial was over, the Doctor came back to Toonarbin, in what he intended for a furi

ous rage. But, having told Tom Troubridge the whole affair, and having unluckily caught Tom's eye, they two

went off into such hearty fits of laughter that poor Mary, now convalescent, but still in bed, knocked at the

THE state of terror and dismay into which poor Mary Hawker was thrown on finding that her husband, now

for many years the bete noir of her existence, was not only alive, but promising fairly to cause her more

trouble than ever he did before, superadded, let me say, for mere truth's sake, to a slight bilious attack,

brought on by good living and want of exercise, threw her into a fever, from which, after several days'

delirium, she rose much shattered, and looking suddenly older. All this time the Doctor, like a trusty dog, had

kept his watch, and done more, and with a better will than any paid doctor would have been likely to do. He

was called away a good deal by the prosecution arising out of that unhappy affair with the other doctor, and

afterwards with a prosecution for perjury, which he brought against the sawyer; but he was generally back at

night, and was so kind, so attentive, and so skilful that Mary took it into her head, and always affirmed

She was not one to receive any permanent impression from anything. So now, as day by day she grew

stronger, she tried to undervalue the mischief which had at first so terrified her, and caused her illness;

tried, and with success, in broad daylight; but, in the silent dark nights, as she lay on her lonely bed, she

would fully appreciate the terrible cloud that hung over her, and would weep and beat her pillow, and pray in

her wild fantastic way to be delivered from this fright ful monster, cut off from communion with all honest

men by his unutterable crimes, but who, nevertheless, she was bound to love, honour, and obey, till death

Mrs. Buckley, on the first news of her illness, had come up and taken her quarters at Toonarbin, acting as

gentle a nurse as man or woman could desire to have. She took possession of the house, and managed every

thing. Mrs. Barker, the housekeeper, the only one who did not submit at once to her kindly rule, protested,

obstructed, protocolled, presented an ultimatum, and, at last, was so ill advised as to take up arms. There was

a short campaign, lasting only one morning, a decisive battle, and Mrs. Barker was compelled to sue

for peace. "Had Mr. Troubridge been true to himself," she said, "she would never have submitted;" but,

having given Tom warning, and Tom, in a moment of irritation, having told her, without hesitation or

disguise, to go to the devil (no less), she bowed to the circumstances, and yielded.

Agnes Buckley encouraged Dr. Mulhaus, too, in his legal affairs, and, I fear, was the first person who pro

posed the prosecution for perjury against the sawyer: a prosecution, however, which failed, in consequence of

his mate and another friend, who was present at the affair, coming forward to the sawyer's rescue, and getting

into such a labyrinth and mist of perjury, that the Bench (this happened just after quarter sessions) positively

refused to hear anything more on either side. Alto gether, Agnes Buckley made herself so agreeable, and

kept them all so alive, that Tom wondered how he had got on so long without her.

At the end of three weeks Mary was convalescent; and one day, when she was moved into the verandah, Mrs.

Buckley beside her, Tom and the Doctor sitting on the step smoking, and Charles sleepily reading aloud

"Hamlet," with a degree of listlessness and want of appreciation unequalled, I should say, by any reader

before; at such time, I say, there entered suddenly to them a littlecattle dealer, as brimful of news as an egg

of meat. Little Burnside it was: a man about eight stone nothing, who always wore topboots and other

people's clothes. As he came in, Charles recognised on his legs a pair of cord breeches of his own, with a

particular grease patch on the thigh: a pair of breeches he had lent Burnside, and which Burnside had

immedi ately got altered to his own size. A good singer was Burnside. A man who could finish his bottle of

brandy, and not go to bed in his boots. A man universally liked and trusted. An honest, hearty, little fellow,

yet, one who always lent or spent his money as fast as he got it, and was as poor as Job. The greatest vehicle

After the usual greetings, Tom, seeing he was burst ing with something, asked him, "What's the news?"

Burnside was in the habit of saying that he was like the Lord Mayor's fool fond of everything that was

good. But his greatest pleasure, the one to which he would sacrifice everything, was retailing a piece of news.

This was so great an enjoyment with him that he gloried in dwelling on it, and making the most of it. He used

to retail a piece of news, as a perfect novel, in three volumes. In his first he would take care to ascertain that

you were acquainted with the parties under dis cussion; and, if you were not, make you so, throwing in a

few anecdotes illustrative of their characters. In In his second, he would grow discursive, giving an episode or

two, and dealing in moral reflections and knowledge of human nature rather largely. And in his third he

would come smash, crash down on you with the news itself, and leave you gasping.

He followed this plan on the present occasion. He answered Tom's question by asking,

"Exactly," said Burnside; "super of police; distin guished in Indian wars; nephew of my Lord Covetown. An

"Now, sir, I, although a Scotchman born, and naturally proud of being so, consider that until these wretched

national distinctions between the three great nations are obliterated we shall never get on, sir; never. That the

"Physically and intellectually the devil," burst in Tom. "Pick out any dozen Scotchmen, and I'll find you a

dozen Londoners who will fight them, or deal with them till they'd be glad to get over the borders again. As

for the Devon and Cornish lads, find me a Scotchman who will put me on my back, and I'll write you a

cheque for a hundred pounds, my boy. We English opened the trade of the world to your little two millions

and ahalf up in the north there; and you, being pretty well starved out at home, have had the shrewdness to

take advantage of it; and now, by Jove, you try to speak small of the bridge that carried you over. What did

you do towards licking the Spaniards; eh? And where would you be now, if they had not been licked in 1588,

eh? Not in Australia, my boy! A Frenchman is conceited enough, but, by George, he can't hold a candle to a

Tom spoke in a regular passion; but there was some truth in what he said, I think. Burnside didn't like it, and

merely saying, "You interrupt me, sir," went on to his third volume without a struggle.

"You are aware, ladies, that there has been a gang of bushrangers out to the north, headed by a miscreant,

Mrs. Buckley said, "Yes;" and Tom glanced at Mary. She had grown as pale as death, and Tom said,

"Well, sir," continued Burnside, putting the forefinger and thumb of each hand together, as if he was making

"windows" with soapsuds, "Captain Desborough has surprised that gang in a gully, sir, and," spreading his

"Smashed them, sir, "continued Burnside;" extin guished them utterly. He had six of his picked troopers

with him, and they came on them suddenly and brought them to bay. You see, two troopers have been

murdered lately, and so our men, when they got face to face with the cowardly hounds, broke discipline and

wouldn't be held. They hardly fired a shot, but drew their sabres, and cut the dogs down almost to a man.

Three only out of twelve have been captured alive, and one of them is dying of a wound in the neck." And,

having finished, little Burnside folded his arms and stood in a military attitude, with the air of a man who had

done the thing himself, and was prepared to receive his meed of praise with modesty.

"Courage, Mary," said Tom; "don't be frightened at shadows." He felt something sticking in his throat, but

"What, Touan himself?" said Burnside. "Well, I am sorry to say that that chivalrous and highminded

gentleman was found neither among the dead nor the living. Not to mince, matters, sir, he has escaped."

"Desborough, who told me this himself," said Burn side, "says no, that he is utterly puzzled. He had made

sure of the archrascal himself; but, with that remarkable faculty of saving his own skin which he has

exhibited on more than one occasion, he has got off for the time, with one companion."

"Yes," said Burnside, "whereby hangs a bit of romance, if I may profane the word in speaking of such men.

His companion is a young fellow, described as being more like a beautiful woman than a man, and bearing

the most singular likeness in features to the great Captain Touan himself, who, as you have heard, is a

handsome dog. In short, there is very little doubt that they are father and son."

Tom thought to himself, "Who on earth can this be? What son can George Hawker have, and we not know of

Tom thought again: "This gets very strange. He could have no son of that age got in Van Diemen's Land: it

was eight years before he was free. It must be some one we know of. He had some byeblows in Devon, by all

But he could not think. We shall see presently who it was. Now we must leave these good folks for a time,

THE morning after Cecil Mayford had made his un lucky offer to Alice, he appeared at Sam's bedside very

early, as if he had come to draw Priam's curtains; and told him shortly, that he had spoken, and had been

received with contempt; that he was a miserable brute, and that he was going back home to attend to his

So the field was clear for Sam, but he let matters stay as they were, being far too pleasant to disturb lightly;

being also, to tell the truth, a little uncer tain of his ground, after poor Cecil had suffered so severely in the

encounter. The next day, too, his father and mother went home, and he thought it would be only proper for

him to go with them, but, on pro posing it, Jim quietly told him he must stay where he was and work hard

for another week, and Halbert, although a guest of the Buckleys, was constrained to remain still at the

But at the end of a week they departed, and Jim went back with them, leaving poor Alice behind, alone with

her father. Sam turned when they had gone a little way, and saw her white figure still in the porch, leaning in

rather a melancholy attitude against the doorpost. The audacious magpie had perched himself on the top of

her head, from which proud elevation he hurled wrath, scorn, and mortal defiance against them as they rode

away. Sam took off his hat, and as he went on kept wondering whether she was thinking of him at all, and

hoping that she might be sorry that he was gone. "Probably, however," he thought, "she is only sorry for her

They three stayed at Baroona a week or more, one of them riding up every day to ask after Mary Hawker.

Otherwise they spent their time shooting and fishing, and speculating how soon the rains would come, for it

But at the end of this week, as the three were sitting together, one of those longlegged, slabsided, lean,

sunburnt, cabbagetreehatted lads, of whom Captain Brentwood kept always, say halfadozen, and the

Major four or five (I should fancy, no relation to one another, and yet so exactly alike, that Captain Brent

wood never called them by their right names by any chance); lads who were employed about the stable and

the paddock, always in some way with the horses; one of those representatives of the rising Australian

generation, I say, looked in, and without announcing himself, or touching his hat (an Australian never touches

his hat if he is a free man, because the pri soners are forced to), came up to Jim across the drawing room,

as quiet and as selfpossessed as if he was quite used to good society, and, putting a letter into his hand, said

merely, "Miss Alice," and relapsed into silence, amusing himself by looking round Mrs. Buckley's

Sam envied Jim the receipt of that little three cornered note. He wondered whether there was any thing

The lad, I always call that sort of individual a lad; there is no other word for them, though they are of all

ages, from sixteen to twenty, the lad, I say, was so taken up with the contemplation of a blownglass

The lad turned round, and asked in a perfectly easy manner, "What the deuce is this thing for, now?"

"That," said Jim, "is the button of a Chinese mandarin's hat, who was killed at the battle of Waterloo in the

"Is it now?" said the lad, quite contented. "It's very pretty; may I take it up?"

Jim wrote a few lines with a pencil on half his sister's note, and gave it him. He put it in the lining of his hat,

and had got as far as the door, when he turned again. He looked wistfully towards the table where the

pressepapier was lying. It was too much for him. He came back and took it up again. What he wanted with it,

or what he would have done with it if he had got it, I cannot conceive, but it had taken his simple fancy more,

probably, than an emerald of the same size would have done. At last he put it to his eye.

"Why, darn my cabbagetree," he said, "if you can't see through it! He wouldn't sell it, I suppose, now?"

Jim pursed his lips and shook his head, as though to say that such an idea was not to be entertained, and the

lad, with a sigh, laid it down and departed. Then Jim with a laugh threw his sister's note over to Sam. I

discovered this very same note only last week, while searching the Buckley papers for information about the

family at this period. I have reason to believe that it has never been printed before, and, as far as I know, there

"What a dear, disagreeable old Jim you are," it begins, "to stay away there at Baroona, leaving me moping

here with our daddy, who is calculating the explosive power of shells under water at various tempe ratures. I

have a good mind to learn the Differential Calculus myself, only on purpose to bore you with it when you

"By the bye, Corrella has got a foal. Such a dear little duck of a thing, with a soft brown nose, and sweet long

"I hope Mr. Halbert is pretty well, and that his wound is getting quite right again. Don't let him undertake

cattledrafting or anything violent. I wish you could bring him back with you, he is such a nice, agreeable

"Your magpie has attacked cocky, and pulled a yellow feather out of his crest, which he has planted in the

Now this letter is historically important, when taken in connexion with certain dates in my possession. It was

written on a Monday, and Halbert, Jim, and Sam started back to Garoopna the next day, rather a memo rable

day for Sam, as you will see directly. Now I wish to call attention to the fact, that Sam, far from being

invited, is never once mentioned in the whole letter. Therefore what does Miss Burke mean by her audacious

calumnies? What does she mean by saying that Alice made love to Sam, and never gave the "poor boy" a

chance of escape? Can she, Lesbia, put her hand on her heart and say that she wasn't dying to marry Sam

herself, though she was (and is still, very likely) thirty years his senior? The fact is, Lesbia gave herself the

airs, and received the privileges of being the handsomest woman in those parts, till Alice came, and put her

However, to return to this letter. I wonder now, as I am looking at the agestained paper and faded writing,

whether she who wrote it contemplated the possibility of its meeting Sam's eye. I rather imagine that she did,

from her provoking silence about him. At any rate, Jim was quite justified in showing him the letter, "for you

know," he said, "as there is nothing at all about you in it, there can be no breach of confidence."

So they went, and were strictly to be home at dinner time; whereas not one of them came home for a week.

When they came to the door at Garoopna, there was Alice, most bewitchingly beautiful. Papa was away on

the run, and Dr. Mulhaus with him; so the three came in. Alice was very glad to see Halbert was glad also

"Strange, neither have I," said Sam. "I have dim recollections of our voyage here, but I never stood upon the

"I have beat you there," said Jim. "I have been down to Cape Chatham, and seen the great ocean itself: a very

different thing from Sydney Harbour, I promise you. You see the great cape running out a mile into the sea,

"About thirty miles. The Barkers' station is about half a mile from the Cape, and we could sleep there, you

And so the arrangement was agreed to, and the after noon went on pleasantly. Alice walked up and down

with Sam among the flowers, while Jim and Halbert lay beneath a mulberry tree and smoked.

They talked on a subject which had engaged their attention a good deal lately: Jim's whim for going

soldiering had grown and struck root, and become a determination. He would go back to India when Hal

bert did, supposing that his father could be tempted to buy him a commission. Surely he might manage to join

some regiment in India, he thought. India was the only place worth living in just now.

"I hope, Halbert," he said, "that the Governor will consent. I wouldn't care when I went; the sooner the better.

I am tired of being a cattledealer on a large scale; I want to get at some man's work. If one thing were settled

"Is that all?" said Halbert. "What will you bet me that that affair is not concluded tonight?"

"I'll bet you five pounds to one it ain't," said Jim; "nor any time this twelvemonth. They'll go on shilly

"Nevertheless I'll bet with you. Five to one it comes off tonight! Now! There goes your sister into the house;

Jim sauntered off, and Sam came and laid his great length down by the side of Halbert.

"Are you blind, Sam? Can't you see that she loves you better than any man in the world?"

He answered nothing, but turning his eyes upon Hal bert, gazed at him a moment to see whether he was

jesting or no. No, he was in earnest. So he looked down on the grass again, and, tearing little tufts up, said,

"What reason! fifty thousand reasons. Can you see nothing in her eyes when she speaks to you, which is

"All the better for you," said Halbert; "depend upon it. I don't know much about women, it is true, but I know

Dinnertime came, but the Captain and the Doctor were not to the fore. After some speculations as to what

had become of them, and having waited an hour, Jim said, that in the unexplained absence of the crowned

head, he felt it his duty to the country, to assume the reins of government, and order dinner. Prime Minister

Alice, having entered a protest, offered no further opposition, and dinner was brought in.

Young folks don't make so much of dinner as old ones at any time, and this dinner was an unusually dull one.

Sam was silent and thoughtful, and talked little; Alice, too, was not quite herself. Jim, as usual, ate like a

hero, but talked little; so the conversation was principally carried on by Halbert, in the narrative style, who

really made himself very useful and agreeable, and I am afraid they would have been a very "slow" party

"Only that I'm going to bother the Governor, till he gets me a commission in the army."

"So, Mr. Halbert," said Alice, looking round at him, "you are only come to take my brother away from me!"

"I assure you, Miss Brentwood, that I have only aided and abetted: the idea was his own."

"But, Alice," said Jim, "won't you be proud to see your brother a good soldier?"

"Proud! I was always proud of you. But I wish the idea had never come into your head. If it was in war time I

would say nothing, but now it is very different. Well, gentlemen, I shall leave you to your wine. Mr. Halbert,

She left them, and walked down the garden; through the twilight among the vines, which were dropping their

yellow leaves lightly on the turf before the breath of the autumn evening. So Jim was going, going to be

killed probably, or only coming back after ten years' absence, "full of strange oaths and bearded like a pard!"

She knew well how her father would jump at his first hint of being a soldier, and would move heaven and

earth to get him a commission, yes, he would go her own darling, funny, handsome Jim, and she

No, not quite! There is a step on the path behind her that she knows; there is an arm round her waist which

"Alice, my love, my darling, I have come after you to tell you that you are dearer to me than my life, and all

the world besides. Can you love me half as well as I love you? Alice, will you be my wife?"

Pipe up there, goldenvoiced magpie; give us one song more before you go to roost. Laugh out, old jackass;

till you fetch an echo back from the foggy hollow. Up on your bare boughs, it is dripping, dreary autumn: but

down here in the vineyard, are bursting the first green buds of an immortal spring.

There are some scenes which should only be under taken by the hand of a master, and which, attempted by

an apprentice like myself, would only end in disastrous failure, calling down the wrath of all honest men and

true critics upon my devoted head, not undeservedly. Three men in a century, or thereabouts, could write

with sufficient delicacy, and purity to tell you what two such young lovers as Sam Buckley and Alice Brent

wood said to one another in the garden that evening, walking up and down between the yellow vines. I am

not one of those three. Where Charles Dickens has failed, I may be excused from being diffident. I am an old

bachelor, too a further excuse. But no one can prevent my guessing, and I guess accordingly, that they

talked in a very low tone, and when, after an hour, Alice said it was time to come in, that Sam was quite

astonished to find how little had been said, and what very long pauses there had been.

They came in through the window into the sitting room, and there was Dr. Mulhaus, Captain Brentwood,

and also, of all people, Major Buckley, whom the other two had picked up in their ride and brought home.

My information about this period of my history is very full and complete. It has come to my knowledge on

the best authority, that when Sam came forward to the light, Halbert kicked Jim's shins under the table, and

whispered, "You have lost your money, old fellow!" and that Jim answered, "I wish it was ten pounds instead

But old folks are astonishingly obtuse. Neither of the three seniors saw what had happened; but entered con

amore into the proposed expedition to Cape Chatham, and when bedtime came, Captain Brentwood, honest

gentleman, went off to rest, and having said his prayers and wound up his watch, prepared for a comfortable

He soon found his mistake. He had got his boots off, and was sitting pensively at his bedside, meditating

further disrobements, when Jim entered mysteriously, and quietly announced that his whole life in future

would be a weary burden if he didn't get a commission in the army, or at least a cadetship in the East India

Com pany's service. Him the Captain settled by telling, that if he didn't change his mind in a month he'd see

about it, and so packed him off to bed. Secondly, as he was taking off his coat, wondering exceedingly at

Jim's communication, Sam appeared, and humbly and respect fully informed him that he had that day

proposed to his daughter and been accepted, provisionally; hoping that the Captain would not disapprove

of him as a son inlaw. He was also rapidly packed off to bed, by the assurance that he (Brentwood) had

never felt so happy in his life, and had been sincerely hoping that the young folks would fall in love with one

So, Sam dismissed, the Captain got into bed; but as soon as the light was blown out two native cats began

grunting under the washingstand, and he had to get out, and expel them in his shirt; and finally he lost his

temper and began swearing. "Is a man never to get to sleep?" said he. "The devil must be abroad to night, if

No sleep that night for Captain Brentwood. His son, asking for a commission in the army, and his daughter

going to be married! Both desirable enough in their way, but not the sort of facts to go to sleep over, particu

larly when fired off in his ear just as he was lying down. So he lay tossing about, more or less uncomfortable

all night, but dozed off just as the daylight began to show more decidedly in the window. He appeared to

"Dn Cape Chatham," was his irreverent reply when Jim was gone, which sentiment has been often

reechoed by various coasting skippers in later times. "Why, I haven't been to sleep ten minutes, and a

frosty morning, too. I wish it would rain. I am not vindictive, but I do indeed. Can't the young fools go alone,

AND presently, the Captain, half dressed, working away at his hair with two very stiff brushes, betook

himself to Major Buckley's room, whom he found shaving. "I'll wait till you're done," said he; "I don't want

"And I am very much delighted, and I suppose Sam is too. So there you are, you see: all agreed."

And that was the way the marriage negotiations proceeded; indeed, it was nearly all that was ever said on the

subject. But one day the Major brought two papers over to the Captain (who signed them), which were

supposed to refer to settlements, and after that all the arrangements were left to Alice and Mrs. Buckley.

They started for Cape Chatham about nine o'clock in the day; Halbert and Jim first, then Sam and Alice, and

lastly the three elders. This arrangement did not last long, however; for very soon Sam and Alice called aloud

to Halbert and Jim to come and ride with them, for that they were boring one another to death. This they did,

and now the discreet and sober conversation of the oldsters was much disturbed by loud laughter of the

younger folks, in which, how ever, they could not help joining. It was a glorious crystal clear day in

autumn; all nature, aroused from her summer's rest, had put off her suit of hodden grey, and was flaunting in

gaudiest green. The atmosphere was so amazingly pure that miles away across the plains the travellers could

distinguish the herds of turkeys (bustards) stalking to and fro, while before them, that noble maritime

mountain Cape Chatham towered up, sharply defined above the gleaming haze which marked the distant sea.

For a time their way lay straight across the broad wellgrassed plains, marked with ripples as though the

retiring sea had but just left it. Then a green swamp; through the tall reeds the native companion, king of

cranes, waded majestic; the brilliant porphyry water hen, with scarlet bill and legs, flashed like a sapphire

among the emerald green watersedge. A shallow lake, dotted with wild ducks; here and there a group of

wild swan, black with red bills, floating calmly on its bosom. A long stretch of grass as smooth as a

bowlinggreen. A sudden rocky rise, clothed with native cypress (Exocarpus Oh my botanical readers!),

honeysuckle (Banksia), sheoak (Casuarina), and here and there a stunted gum. Cape Chatham began to

show grander and nearer, topping all; and soon they saw the broad belt of brown sandy heath that lay along

"Here," said the Doctor, riding up, "we leave the last limit of the lava streams from Mirngish and the

Organhill. Now, immediately you shall see how we pass from the richlygrassed volcanic plains, into the

barren sandstone heaths; from a productive pasture land into a useless flowergarden. Nature here is

economical, as she always is: she makes her choicest ornamental efforts on spots otherwise useless. You will

see a greater variety of vegetation on one acre of your sandy heath than on two square miles of the thickly

It was as he said. They came soon on to the heath; a dark dreary expanse, dull to look upon after so long a

journey upon the bright green grass. It stretched away right and left interminably, only broken here and there

with islands of dullcoloured trees; as melancholy a piece of country as one could conceive: yet far more

thickly peopled with animal as well as vegetable life, than the rich pastoral downs further inland. Now they

began to see the little red brush kangaroo, and the grey forester, skipping away in all directions; and had it

been summer they would have been startled more than once by the brown snake, and the copper snake,

deadliest of their tribe. The painted quail, and the brush quail (the largest of Australian game birds I believe),

whirred away from beneath their horses' feet; and the ground parrot, green with mottlings of gold and black,

rose like a partridge from the heather, and flew low. Here, too, the Doctor flushed a "White's thrush," close to

an outlying belt of forest, and got into a great state of excitement about it. "The only known bird," he said,

"which is found in Europe, America, and Australia alike." Then he pointed out the emu wren, a little tiny

brown fellow, with long hairy tailfeathers, flitting from bush to bush; and then, leaving ornithology, called

their attention to the wonderful variety of low vegetation that they were riding through; Hakeas, Acacias,

Grevilleas, and what not. In spring this brown heath would have been a brilliant mass of flowers; but now,

nothing was to be seen save a few tall crimson spikes of Epacris, and here and there a bunch of lemon

coloured Correas. Altogether, he kept them so well amused, that they were astonished to come so quickly

upon the station, placed in a snug cove of the forest, where it bordered on the heath beside a sluggish creek.

Then, seeing the mountain towering up close to them, and hearing, as they stayed at the door, a low con

tinuous thunder behind a high roll in the heath which lay before them, they knew that the old ocean was close

The people at the station were very glad to see them, of course. Barker, the paterfamilias, was an old friend of

both the Major and the Captain, and they found so much to talk about, that after a heavy midday meal,

excellent in kind, though that kind was coarse, and certain libations of pale ale and cold claret and water, the

older of the party, with the exception of Dr. Mulhaus, refused to go any farther; so the young people started

forth to the Cape, under the guidance of George Barker, the fourth or fifth son, who happened to be at home.

"Doctor," said Alice as they were starting, "do you remark what beautiful smooth grass covers the cape itself,

while here we have nothing but this scrubby heath? The mountain is, I suppose, some different for mation?"

"Granite, my dear young lady," said the Doctor. "A cap of granite rising through and partly overlying this

"You can always tell one exactly what one wants to know," said Alice; and, as they walked forwards, some

how got talking to Halbert, which I believe most firmly had been arranged beforehand with Sam. For he,

falling back, ranged alongside of the Doctor, and, managing to draw him behind the others, turned to him and

The Doctor stopped short, pulled out a pair of spec tacles, wiped them, put them on, and looked at Sam

"I do, Doctor. Last night. And, oh! if you could only tell, how happy I am at this moment! If you could

"Pooh, pooh!" said the Doctor; "I am not so old as that, my dear boy. Why, I am a marrying man my self.

Sam, I am so very, very glad! You have won her, and now wear her, like a pearl beyond all price. I think that

They shook hands, and soon Sam was at her side again, toiling up the steep ascent. They soon distanced the

There was such a rise in the ground seawards, that the broad ocean was invisible till they were half way up

the grassy down. Then right and left they began to see the nether firmament, stretching away infinitely. But

the happy lovers paused not till they stood upon the loftiest breezy knoll, and seemed alone together between

A cloudless sky and a sailless sea. Far beneath them they heard but saw not the eternal surges gnawing at the

mountain. A few white albatrosses skimmed and sailed below, and before, seaward, the sheets of turf, falling

away, stretched into a shoreless headland, fringed with black rock and snowwhite surf.

She stood there, flushed and excited with the exercise, her bright hair dishevelled, waving in the free sea

breeze, the most beautiful object in that glorious land scape, her noble mate beside her. Awe, wonder, and

"I am rather sorry for it," she said, "because this is so very like some of them."

"I can quite imagine that," said Sam. "I can quite imagine music which expresses what we see now. Some

"I imagined," said Sam, "that the sea would be much rougher than this. In spite of the ceaseless thunder

"Calm, eh?" said the Doctor's voice behind them. "God help the ship that should touch that reef this day,

though a nautilus might float in safety! See, how the groundswell is tearing away at those rocks; you can just

distinguish the long heave of the water, before it breaks. There is the most dangerous groundswell in the

world off this coast. Should this country ever have a large coasttrade, they will find it out, in calm weather

A great coasting trade has arisen; and the Doctor's remark has proved terribly true. Let the Monumental City

and the Schomberg, the Duncan Dunbar and the Catherine Adamson bear witness to it. Let the drowning cries

of hundreds of good sailors, who have been missed and never more heard of, bear witness that this is the most

pitiless and unprotected, and, even in calm weather, the most dangerous coast in the world.

"Fancy," said Halbert, "one of those old Dutch voyagers driving on this unknown coast on a dark night. What

a sudden end to their voyage! Yet that must have happened to many ships which have never come home.

Perhaps when they come to explore this coast a little more they may find some old ship's ribs jammed on a

"The very thing you mention is the case," said the Doctor. "Down the coast here, under a hopeless, black

basaltic cliff, is to be seen the wreck of a very, very old ship, now covered with coral and seaweed. I waited

down there for a spring tide, to examine her, but could determine nothing, save that she was very old;

whether Dutch or Spanish I know not. You English should never sneer at those two nations: they were before

"If you will just come here," said Alice, "where those black rocks are hid by the bend of the hill, you get only

three colours in your landscape; blue sky, grey grass, and purple sea. But look, there is a man standing on the

"I suppose he has as good a right there as any of us," answered the Doctor. "But he certainly does not

harmonise very well with the rest of the colouring. What a strange place he has chosen to stand in, looking

out over the sea, as though he were a shipwrecked mariner the last of the crew."

"A shipwrecked mariner would hardly wear breeches and boots, my dear Doctor," said Jim. "That man is a

"Not one of ours, however," said George Barker; "even at this distance I can see that. See, he's gone! Strange!

I know of no way down the cliff thereabouts. Would you like to come down to the shore?"

So they began their descent to the shore by a wind ing path of turf, among tumbled heaps of granite, down

towards the rockwalled cove, a horseshoe of smooth white sand lying between two long black reefs, among

Halbert remarked, "This granite coast is hardly so remarkable as our Cornish one. There are none of those

queer pinnacles and tors one sees there, just ready to topple down into the sea. This granite is not half so

"Earthquakes, of which you have none in Cornwall," said the Doctor, "will just account for the difference. I

have felt one near here quite as strong as your famous lieutenant, who capsized the Logan stone."

But now, getting on the level sands, they fell to gathering shells and seaweeds like children. Jim trying to

see how near he could get to a wave without being caught, got washed up like jetsam. Alice took Sam's

pockethandkerchief, and filled it indiscriminately with everything she could lay her hand on, principally

Trochuses, as big as one's fist, and "Venusears," scarlet outside. And after an hour, wetfooted and happy,

dragging a yard or so of seatang behind her, she looked round for the Doctor, and saw him far out on the

reef, lying flat on his stomach, and closely examin ing a large still pool of salt water, contained in the

He held up his hand and beckoned. Sam and Alice advanced towards him over the slippery beds of sea

weed, Sam bravely burying his feet in the wet clefts, and holding out his hand to help her along. Once there

was a break in the reef, too broad to be jumped, and then for the first time he had her fairly in his arms and

swung her across, which was undoubtedly very delightful, but unfortunately soon over. At length, however,

they reached the Doctor, who was seated like a cormorant on a wet rock, lighting a pipe.

Alice proudly displayed the inestimable treasures contained in Sam's handkerchief.

"No, but here is one of their flowergardens. Bend down and look into this pool."

She bent and looked. The first thing she saw was her own exquisite face, and Sam's brown phiz peering over

her shoulder. A golden tress of hair, loosened by the sea breeze, fell down into the water, and had to be

looped up again. Then gazing down once more, she saw beneath the crystal water a bed of flowers; dahlias,

ranunculuses, carnations, chrysanthemums, of every colour in the rainbow save blue. She gave a cry of

"Sea anemones, in English, I believe," said the Doctor, "actinias, serpulas, and sabellas. You may see

something like that on the European coasts, on a small scale, but there is nothing I ever have seen like that

great crimson fellow with creamcoloured tentacles. I do not know his name. I suspect he has never been

described. The common European anemone they call 'crassicornis' is something like him, but not half as

"Is there any means of gathering and keeping them, Doctor?" asked Sam. "We have no flowers in the garden

"No possible means," said the Doctor. "They are but lumps of jelly. Let us come away and get round the

They wandered on from cove to cove, under the dark cliffs, till rounding a little headland the Doctor called

A thin wall of granite, like a vast buttress, ran into the sea, pierced by a great arch, some sixty feet high. Aloft

all sharp grey stone: below, wherever the salt water had reached, a mass of dark clinging weed: while beyond,

as though set in a dark frame, was a soft glimpse of blue sky and snowwhite seabirds.

"Can we pass under it, Mr. Barker?" said Alice. "I should like to go through; we have been into none of the

"Oh, yes!" said George Barker. "You may go through for the next two hours. The tide has not turned yet."

"I'll volunteer first," said the Doctor, "and if there's anything worth seeing beyond, I'll come for you."

It was, as I said, a thin wall of granite, which ran out from the rest of the hill, seaward, and was pierced by a

tall arch; the blocks which had formerly filled the void now lay weedgrown, half buried in sand, forming a

A little sandy cove, reefbound, like those they had seen before, lay under the dark cliffs; and on a water

washed rock, not a hundred yards from him, stood the man they had seen on the downs above, looking

The Doctor slipped over the rocks like an otter, and approached the man across the smooth sand, unheard in

the thunder of the surf. When he was close upon him, the stranger turned, and the Doctor uttered a low cry of

It was George Hawker! The Doctor knew him in a moment: but whether the recognition was mutual, he never

found out, for Hawker, stepping rapidly from stone to stone, disappeared round the headland, and the

There were all the young people gathered, wondering and delighted. But Alice came to meet him, and said,

"She said, 'Go home to your supper; you have seen quite enough; go home in good time.' "

"Doctor, there is something wrong!" said Alice. "I see it in your face. Can you trust me, and tell me what it

"I can trust you so far as to tell you that you are right. I don't like the look of things at all. I fear there are evil

times coming for some of our friends! Further than this I can say nothing. Say your prayers, and trust God!

Don't tell Sam anything about this: tomorrow I shall speak to him. We won't spoil a pleasant holiday on

They rejoined the others, and the Doctor said, "Come away home now; we have seen enough. Some future

time we will come here again: you might see this fifty times, and never get tired of it."

After a good scramble they stood once more on the down above, and turned to take a last look at the broad

blue sea before they descended inland; at the first glance seaward, Halbert exclaimed,

There was a black speck far out at sea, but no whale; it was too steady for that. All day the air had been calm;

if anything, the breeze was from the north, but now a strong wind was coming up from the southeast,

freshening every moment, and bringing with it a pent bank of dark clouds; and, as they watched, the myste

rious black speck was topped with white, and soon they saw that it was indeed a boat driving before the wind

"More likely a mob of escaped convicts from Van Diemen's Land," said Jim. "If so, look out for squalls, you,

"I don't think it can be that, Jim," said Sam. "What could bring them so far north? They would have landed,

"They may have been driven off shore by these westerly winds which have been blowing the last few days,"

replied Jim, "and kept their boat's head north ward, to get nearer the settlements. They will be ter ribly

"I think that wise men should be always prepared. We should communicate with Captain Desborough, and set

"I wonder," said Sam, "if that mysterious man we saw today, watching on the cliff, could have had any

connexion with this equally mysterious boat. Not likely, though. However, if they are going to land tonight,

The great bank of cloud which they had been watch ing, away to the southeast, was growing and spreading

rapidly, sending out little black avantcouriers of scud, which were hurrying fanlike across the heavens,

telling the news of the coming storm. Landward, in the west, the sun was going down in purple and scarlet

The young folks stood together in the verandah before they went into dinner, listening to the wind which was

beginning to scream angrily round the corners of the house. The rain had not yet gathered strength to fall

steadily, but was whisked hither and thither by the blast, in a few uncertain drops. They saw that a great gale

was coming up, and knew that, in a few hours, earth and sky would be mingled in furious war!

"How comfortable it is to think that all the animals are under shelter tonight!" said Sam. "Jim, my boy, I am

glad you and I are not camped out with cattle this evening. We have been out on nights as bad as this though;

eh? Oh, Lord! fancy sitting the saddle all tonight, under the breaking boughs, wet through!"

"No more of that for me, old Sam. No more jolly gallops after cattle or horses for me. But I was always a

good hand at anything of that sort, and I mean to be a good soldier now. You'll see."

At dark, while they were sitting at dinner, the storm was raging round the house in full fury; but there, in the

welllighted room, before a good fire, they cared little for it. When dinner was over, the Doctor called the

Captain and the Major aside, and told them in what manner he had seen and recognised George Hawker on

the beach that day; and raised their fears still more by telling them of that mysterious boat which the Doctor

thought Hawker had been watching for. None of them could understand it, but all agreed that these things

boded no good; and so, having called their host into their confidence, with regard to the boat, they quietly

loaded all the firearms in the place, and put them together in the hall. This done, they returned to the

It must be remembered that hitherto Major Buckley knew nothing of George Hawker's previous appearance,

but the Doctor now let him into the secret. The Major's astonishment and wrath may be conceived, at finding

that his old proteg e Mary, instead of being a comfortable widow, was the persecuted wife of one of the

greatest bushrangers known. At first he was stunned and con fused, but, ere he slept, his clear

straightforward mind had come to a determination that the first evil was the worst, and that, God give him

grace, he would hand the scoundrel over to justice on the first opportunity, sure that he was serving Mary best

That night Jim and Sam lay together in a little room to the windward of the house. They were soon fast

asleep, but, in the middle of the night, Jim was woke by a shake on the shoulder, and, rousing himself, saw

"My God, Jim!" said he, "I have had such an awful dream! I dreamed that those fellows in the boat were

carrying off Alice, and I stood by and saw it, and could not move hand or foot. I am terribly frightened. That

"You ate too much of that pie at dinner," said Jim, "and you've had the nightmare, that's what is the matter

with you. Lord bless you, I often have the nightmare when I have eaten too much at supper, and lie on my

back. Why, I dreamed the other night that the devil had got me under the woolpress, screwing me down as

hard as he could, and singing the Hundredth Psalm all the time. That was a much worse dream than yours."

Sam was obliged to confess that it was. "But still," said he, "I think mine was something more than a dream.

They lay down, and Jim was soon asleep, but not so Sam. His dream had taken such hold of his imagina

tion, that he lay awake, listening to the storm howling around the house. Now and then he could hear the

unearthly scream of some curlew piercing the din, and, above all, he could hear the continuous earthshaking

thunder of the surf upon the beach. Soon after daylight, getting Halbert to accompany him, he went out to

have a look at the shore, and, forcing their way against the driving, cutting rain, they looked over the low cliff

at the furious waste of waters beneath them, and saw mountain after mountain of water hurl itself, in a cloud

"Yes," replied Halbert; "there's no land to wind ward for six thousand miles or more. I never saw heavier

seas than those. I enjoy this, Sam. It reminds me of a good roaring winter's day in old Cornwall."

"I like it, too," said Sam. "It freshens you up. How calm the water is to the leeward of the Cape!"

He ran back and looked over into the seething hell of waters helow. Was it only a thicker spot in the driving

Small time to deliberate. Ere he could think twice about it, a fullrigged ship, about five hundred tons, with a

closereefed topsail and a rag of a foresail upon her, came rushing, rolling, diving, and plunging on, appa

rently heading for the deadly white line of breakers which stretched into the sea at the end of the promontory.

"A Queen's ship, Sam! a Queen's ship! The Tartar, for a thousand pounds! Oh, what a pity; what a terrible

"Did you ever see a merchant ship with six such guns as those on her upper deck, and a hundred blue jackets

at quarters? That is the Tartar, Sam, and in three minutes there will be no Tartar."

They had run in their excitement out to the very end of the Cape, and now the ship was almost under their

feet, an awful sight to see. She was rolling fearfully, going dead before the wind. Now and then she would

slop tons of water on her deck, and her mainyard would almost touch the water. But still the dark clusters of

men along her bulwarks held steadfast, and the ship's head never veered half a point. Now it became appa

rent that she would clear the reef by a hundred yards or more, and Halbert, waving his hat, cried out,

"Well done, Blockstrop! Bravely done, indeed! He is running under the lee of the Cape for shelter. Her

Majesty has one more shipofwar than I thought she would have had five minutes ago."

As he spoke, she had passed the reef. The yards, as if by magic, swung round, and, for a moment, she was

broadside on to the sea. One wave broke over her, and nought but her masts appeared above a sheet of white

foam; but, ere the water had well done pouring from her open deck ports, she was in smooth water, her

"Let us come down, Sam," said Halbert: "very likely they will send a boat ashore."

As they were scrambling down the leeward side of the cliff, they saw a boat put off from the ship, and gained

the beach in time to meet a midshipman coming towards them. He, seeing two welldressed gentlemen

"That is the Tartar; yes. We were caught in the gale last night, and we layto. This morning, as soon as we

recognised the Cape, we determined to run for this cove, where we have been before. We had an anxious

night last night, I assure you. We have been terribly lucky. If the wind had veered a few more points to the

east, we should have been done for. We never could have beaten off in such a sea as this."

"No; we are in chase of a boat full of escaped convicts from Launceston. Cunning dogs; they would not land

in the Straits. We missed them and got across to Port Phillip, and put Captain Dand his black police on

the alert; and they have got scent of it, and coasted up north. We have examined the coast all along, but I am

afraid they have given us the slip; there is such a system of intelligence among them. However, if they had

not landed before last night, they have saved us all trouble; and if they are ashore we wash our hands of them,

"Last night, about an hour before it came on to blow, we saw a boat making for this very headland, which

puzzled us exceedingly; and, what was stranger still, we saw a man on the Cape, who seemed to be on the

"That is quite possible," replied the midshipman; "these fellows have a queer system of communication. The

boat you saw must certainly have been them; and if they landed at all they must have landed here."

I must change the scene here, if you please, my dear reader, and get you to come with me on board his (I beg

pardon, her) Majesty's ship Tartar for a few minutes, for on the quarterdeck of that noble sloop there are at

The first is a stoutish, upright, middleaged man, in a naval uniform, with a brickdust complexion, and very

light scanty whiskers; the jolliest, cheeriestlooking fellow you are likely to meet in a year's journey. Such a

bright merry blue eye as he has, too! This is Captain Blockstrop, now, I am happy to say, C.B.; a right valiant

The other is a very different sort of man; a long, wiry, brownfaced man, with a big forehead, and a

comical expression about his eyes. This is no less a person than the Colonial Secretary of one of our three

great colonies: of which I decline to mention. Those who know the Honourable Abiram Pollifex do not need

to be told; and those who do not must find out for themselves. I may mention that he has been known to

retain office seven years in succession, and yet he seldom threatens to resign his office and throw himself

upon the country fewer than three times, and sometimes four, per annum. Latterly, I am sorry to say, a

miserable faction, taking advantage of one of his numerous resignations, have assumed the reins of

government, and, in spite of three votes of want of confidence, persist in retaining the seals of office. Let me

add to this, that he is con sidered the best hand at quiet "chaff" in the House, and is allowed, both by his

Such were the two men who now stood side by side on the quarterdeck, looking eagerly at Sam and Halbert

"So I make out," said the Captain; "and apparently in good condition, too. A very well fed man that biggest, I

"Yees; well, yees," said the Secretary; "he does look wellfed enough. He must be a stranger to these

"Dear me," said the Secretary; "have you been stationed nearly three years on this coast, and ask how a man

"Small cattlestations, sir," said the Secretary, "I can see at a glance. Salt beef, very tough, and very little of

it. I shall run a bill through the House for the abolition of small cattlestations next session."

"Better get your estimates through first, old fellow. The bagpipes will play quite loud enough over them to

"I know it, but tremble not," replied the undaunted Secretary; "I have got used to it. I fancy I hear Callaghan

beginning now: 'The unbridled prodigality, sir, and the reckless profligacy, sir, of those individuals who have

"That'll do, now," said the Captain; "you are worse than the reality. I shall go ashore, and take my chance of

"Not if I know it, sir, with pork chops for breakfast in the cabin. Blockstrop, have you duly reflected what

you are about to do? You are about to land alone, unarmed, unprovisioned, among the offscourings of white

society, scarcely superior in their habits of life to the nomadic savages they have unjustly displaced. Pause

and reflect, my dear fellow. What guarantee have you that they will not propose to feed you on damper, or

"It was only the other day, in the House," said the Captain, "that you said the small squatters and freehold

farmers represented the greater part of the intelligence and education of the colony, and now"

"Sir! sir!" said the Secretary, "you don't know what you are talking about. Sir, we are not in the House now.

The Captain was quite determined, and they went down to the waist. They were raising a bag of potatoes

from somewhere, and the Colonial Secretary, seizing two handfuls of them, presented them to the Captain.

"If you will go," he said, "take these with you, and teach the poor benighted white savages to plant them. So

if you fall a victim to indigestion, we will vote a monument to you on the summit of the Cape, and write:

'He did not live in vain. He introduced the potato among the small cattle stations around Cape Chatham.' "

He held out his potatoes towards the retiring Captain with the air of Burke producing the dagger. His humour,

I perceive, reads poor enough when written down, but when assisted by his comical impassible face, and

Good old Pollifex! my heart warms towards him now. When I think what the men were whose clamour put

him out of office in 184 , I have the conviction forced upon me, that the best among them was not worth

his little finger. He left the colony in a most prosperous state, and, retiring honourably to one of his stations,

set to work, as he said, to begin life again on a new principle. He is wealthy, honoured, and happy, as he

I cannot help, although somewhat in the wrong place, telling the reader under what circumstances I saw him

last. Only two years ago, fifteen after he had left office, I happened to be standing with him, at the door of a

certain club, in a certain capital, just after lunch time, when we saw the then Colonial Secretary, the man who

had succeeded Pollifex, come scurrying round the corner of the street, fresh from his office. His face was

flushed and perspiring, his hat was on wrongside before, with his veil hanging down his back. In the one

hand he held papers, in the other he supported over his fevered brow his white cotton umbrella; altogether he

looked harassed beyond the bounds of human endurance, but when he caught sight of the open clubdoors,

he freshened a bit, and mended his pace. His troubles were not over, for ere he reached his haven, two

Irishmen, with two different requests, rose as if from the earth, and confronted him. We saw him make two

promises, contradictory to each other, and impossible of fulfilment, and as he came up the steps, I looked into

the face of ExSecretary Pollifex, and saw there an expression which is beyond description. Say that of the

ghost of a man who has been hanged, attending an execution. Or say the ex pression of a Catholic,

converted by torture, watching the action of the thumbscrews upon another heretic. The air, in short, of a

man who had been through it all before. And as the then Secretary came madly rush ing up the steps,

"Sir!" said the Secretary, "dipping" his umbrella and dropping his papers, for the purpose of rhetorically

pointing with his left hand at nothing; "Sir! flesh and blood can't stand it. I resign tomorrow." And so he

I must apologize most heartily for this long digres sion. The Captain's gig, impelled by the "might of

England's pride," was cleverly beached alongside of the other boat, and the Captain stepped out and

"Yes, sir!" said the midshipman. "These gentle men saw the boat yesterday afternoon."

Sam and Halbert, who were standing behind him, came forward. The Captain bowed, and looked with

admiration at the two highbredlooking men, that this unpromising desert had produced. They told him what

they had told the midshipman, and the Captain said, "It will be a very serious thing for this country side, if

these dogs have succeeded in landing. Let us hope that the sea has done good service in swallowing fourteen

of the vilest wretches that ever disgraced humanity. Pray, are either of you gentlemen magis trates?"

"My father, Major Buckley, is a magistrate," said Sam. "This gentleman is Lieutenant Halbert, of the Bengal

The Captain bowed to Halbert, and turning to Sam, said, "So you are the son of my old friend Major

Buckley! I was midshipman in the 'Phlegethon' when she took him and part of his regiment to Portugal, in

1811. I met him at dinner in Sydney, the other day. Is he in the neighbourhood?"

"He is waiting breakfast for us not a quarter of a mile off," said Sam. "Will you join us?"

"I shall be delighted; but duty first. If these fellows have succeeded in landing, you will have to arm and

prepare for the worst. Now, unless they were caught by the gale and drowned, which I believe to be the case,

they must have come ashore in this very bay, about five o'clock last night. There is no other place where they

could have beached their boat for many miles. Consequently, the thing lies in a nutshell: if we find the boat,

prepare yourselves, if not, make your selves easy. Let us use our wits a little. They would round the

headland as soon as possible, and probably run ashore in that furthest cove to our right, just inside the reef. I

have examined the bay through a telescope, and could make out nothing of her. Let us come and examine

They passed three or four indentations in the bay examining as they went, finding nothing, but when they

scrambled over the rocks which bounded the cover the Captain had indicated, he waved his hat, and laughing

"Nor I either," said the Captain. "But I see the heap of seaweed that the cunning dogs have raked over her.

The Coxswain began throwing away a pile of sea tang heaped against a rock. Bit by bit was disclosed the

clean run of a beautiful white whaleboat, which when turned over discovered her oars laid neatly side by

side, with a small spritsail. The Cap tain stood by with the air of a man who had made a hit, while Sam and

"THIS is a very serious matter for us, Captain Block strop," said Sam, as they were walking back to the

"I have only one advice to give you, Mr. Buckley," said the Captain; "which is unnecessary, as it is just what

your father will do. Fight, sir! hunt 'em down. Shoot 'em! They will give you no quarter: be sure you don't

A wild discordant bellow was here heard from the ship, on which the Captain slapped his leg, and said,

"Bless my soul, Mr. Vang, I can hear that," said the Captain. "I don't suppose any of my officer would dare to

make such an inarticulate, no sailorlike bellow as that on her Majesty's quarterdeck. Can you make out what

Again the unearthly bellow came floating over the water, happily deadened by the wind, which was roar ing

a thousand feet over head. "Can you make out anything, Mr. Vang?" said the Captain.

"Take one of the boats on board, Mr. Vang. My compliments, and will be much obliged if he will come

ashore immediately! On important business, say. Tell him the convicts have landed; will you? Also, tell the

lieutenant of the watch that I want either Mr. Tacks, or Mr. Sheets: either will do."

The boat was soon seen coming back with the Colonial Secretary in a statesmanlike attitude in the stern

sheets, and beside him that important officer Mr. Tacks, a wee little dot of a naval cadet, apparently about ten

"What were you bellowing about porkchops, Polli fex?" asked the Captain, the moment the boat touched

"A failure, sir," said the Colonial Secretary; "burnt, sir; disgracefully burnt up to a cinder, sir. I have been

consulting the honourable member for the Crossjackyard (I allude to Mr. Tack's N.C., my honourable

friend, if he will allow me to call him so) as to the propriety of calling a courtmartial on the cook's mate. He

informs me that such a course is not usual in naval jurisprudence. I am, however, of opinion that in one of the

civil courts of the colony an action for damages would lie. Surely I have the pleasure of seeing Mr. Buckley

Sam and he had met before, and the Secretary, finding himself on shore and where he was known, dropped

his King Cambyses' vein, and appeared in his real character of a shrewd, experienced man. They walked up

toge ther, and when they arrived at the summit of the ridge, and saw the magnificent plains stretching away

inland, beyond the narrow belt of heath along the shore, the Secretary whispered to the Captain,

"I have been deceived. We shall get some break fast, after all. As fine a country as I ever saw in my life!"

The party who were just sitting down to breakfast at the station were sufficiently astonished to see Captain

Blockstrop come rolling up the garden walk, with that small shipofwar Tacks sailing in his wake,

convoying the three civilians; but on going in and explaining matters, and room having been made for them

at the table, Sam was also astonished on looking round to see that a new arrival had taken place since that

It was that of a handsome singularlooking man. His hair was light, his whiskers a little darker, and his

blonde moustache curled up towards his eyes like corkscrews or a ram's horns (congratulate me on my

simile). A very merry laughing eye he had, too, blue of course, with that coloured hair; altogether a very

pleasantlooking man, and yet whose face gave one the idea that it was not at all times pleasant, but on

occasions might look terribly tigerish and fierce. A man who won you at once, and yet one with whom one

would hardly like to quarrel. Add to this, also, that when he opened his mouth to speak, he disclosed a

splendid set of white teeth, and the moment he'd uttered a word, a stranger would remark to himself, "That is

Sam, who had ensconced himself beside Alice, looked up the long table towards him with astonishment.

"I have been waiting," said Desborough, "with the greatest patience to see how long you would have the

audacity to ignore my presence. How do you do, my small child? Sam, my dear, if ever I get cashiered for

being too handsome to remain in the Service, I'll carry you about and exhibit you, as the biggest and ugliest

Captain Desborough has been mentioned before in these pages. He was an officer in the army, at the present

time holding the situation of Inspector of Police in this district. He was a very famous hunterdown of

bushrangers, and was heartily popular with every one he was thrown against, except the aforesaid

bushrangers. Sam and he were very old friends, and were very fond of one another.

Desborough was sitting now at the upper end of the table, with the Colonial Secretary, Major Buckley,

Captain Blockstrop, Captain Brentwood, and Doctor Mulhaus. They looked very serious indeed.

"It was a very lucky thing, Desborough," said the Major, "that you happened to meet Captain Blockstrop. He

has now, you perceive, handed over the care of these rascals to you. It is rather strange that they should have

"I believe that they were expected," said the Doctor. "I believe that there is a desperate scheme of villany

"If you mean," said Desborough, "that that man you saw on the Cape last night was watching for the boat, I

don't believe it possible. It was, possibly, some stockman or shepherd, having a look at the weather."

The Doctor had it on the tip of his tongue to speak, and astound them by disclosing that the lonely watcher

was none other than the ruffian Touan, alias George Hawker; but the Major pressed his foot beneath the table,

"Well," said Desborough, "and that's about all that's to be said at present, except that the settlers must arm

"If they will only do that," said the Colonial Secre tary; "if they will only act boldly in protecting their

property and lives, the evil is reduced by onehalf; but when Brallagan was out, nothing that I or the

"Look here, now," said Barker, the host, "I was over the water when Brallagan was out, and when Howe was

out too. And what could a lonely squatter do against halfadozen of 'em? Answer me that?"

"I don't mean that," said the Colonial Secretary; "what I refer to is the cowardly way in which the settlers

allowed themselves to be prevented by threats from giving information. I speak the more boldly, Mr. Barker,

Barker was appeased. "There's five long guns in my hall, and there's five long lads can use 'em," he said.

"Bythebye, Captain Desborough, let me congratulate you on the short work you made with that gang to the

north, the other day. I am sorry to hear that the principal rascal of the lot, Captain Touan, gave you the slip."

The Doctor had been pondering, and had made up his mind to a certain course; he bent over the table, and

"I think, on the whole, that it is better to let you all know the worst. That man whom we saw on the cliff last

night I met afterwards, alone, down on the shore, and that man is no other than the one you speak of, Captain

Any one watching Desborough's face as the Doctor spoke would have seen his eyebrows contract heavily,

and a fierce scowl settle on his face. The name the Doctor mentioned was a very unwelcome one. He had

been taunted and laughed at, at Governmenthouse, for having allowed Hawker to outwit him. His hot Irish

blood couldn't stand that, and he had vowed to have the fellow somehow. Here he had missed him again, and

by so little, too! He renewed his vow to himself, and in an instant the cloud was gone, and the merry Irishman

"My dear Doctor," he said, "I am aware that you never speak at random, or I should ask you, were you sure of

"You seem to know too much of a very suspicious character, Doctor!" said Desborough. "I shall have to keep

Meanwhile, at the other end of the table, more agree able subjects were being talked of. There sat our young

coterie, laughing loudly, grouping themselves round some exceedingly minute object, which apparently was

between Sam and Alice, and which, on close examina tion, turned out to be little Tacks, who was evidently

making himself agreeable in a way hardly to be expected in one of his tender years. And this is the way he

When Captain Blockstrop came in, Alice was duly impressed by the appearance of that warrior. But when she

saw little Tacks slip in behind him, and sit meekly down by the door; and when she saw how his character

was appreciated by the cattledogs, one of whom had his head in the lad's lap, while the other was licking his

face when she saw, I say, the little blue and gold apparition, her heart grew pitiful, and, turning to Halbert,

"Why, good gracious me! You don't mean to tell me that they take such a child as that to sea; do you?"

"Oh dear, yes!" said Halbert, "and younger, too. Don't you remember the story about Collingwood offer ing

his cake to the first lieutenant? He became, remember, a greater man than Nelson, in all except worldly

So Halbert went and fetched him in, and he sat and had his breakfast between Alice and Sam. They were all

delighted with him; such a child, and yet so bold and selfhelpful, making himself quietly at home, and

answering such questions as were put to him modestly and well. Would that all midshipmen were like him!

But it became time to go on board, and Captain Blockstrop, coming by where Alice sat, said, laugh ing,

"I hope you are not giving my officer too much marmalade, Miss Brentwood? He is overyoung to be trusted

"Not too young to be a bravehearted boy, how ever!" said the Captain. "The other day, in Sydney harbour,

one of my marines who couldn't swim went overboard and this boy soused in after him, and carried the

lifebuoy to him, in spite of sharks. What do you think of that for a tenyearold?"

The boy's face flushed scarlet as the Captain passed on, and he held out his hand to Alice to say goodbye.

She took it, looked at him, hesitated, and then bent down and kissed his cheek a tender, sisterly kiss

Poor little Tacks! He was a great friend of mine; so I have been tempted to dwell on him. He came to me with

letters of introduction, and stayed at my place six weeks or more. He served brilliantly, and rose rapidly, and

last year only I heard that Lieutenant Tacks had fallen in the dust, and never risen again, just at the moment

that the gates of Delhi were burst down, and our fellows went swarming in to vengeance.

SO the Captain, the Colonial Secretary, and the small midshipman left the station and went on board again,

disappearing from this history for evermore. The others all went home and grew warlike, arming them

selves against the threatened danger; but still weeks, nay months, rolled on, and winter was turning into

spring, and yet the country side remained so profoundly tranquil that every one began to believe that the con

victs must after all have been drowned, and that the boat found by sagacious Blockstrop had been capsized

and thrown bottom upwards on the beach. So that, before the brown flocks began to be spotted with white

Only four persons, besides Mary Hawker herself, were conversant of the fact that the Bushranger and George

Hawker were the same man. Of these only three, the Doctor, Major Buckley, and Captain Brent wood, knew

of his more recent appearance on the shore, and they, after due consultation, took honest Tom Troubridge

But, as I said, all things went so quietly for two months, that at the end of that time no one thought any more

of bushrangers than they would of tigers. And just about this time, I, Geoffry Hamlyn, having finished my

last consignment of novels from England, and having nothing to do, determined to ride over, and spend a day

But when I rode up to the door at Baroona, having pulled my shirt collar up, and rapped at the door with my

whip, out came the housekeeper to inform me there was not a soul at home. This was deeply provoking, for I

had got on a new pair of riding trousers, which had cost money, and a new white hat with a blue net veil

(rather a neat thing too), and I had ridden up to the house under the idea that fourteen or fifteen per sons

were looking at me out of window. I had also tickled my old horse, Chanticleer, to make him caper and show

the excellency of my seat. But when I came to remember that the old horse had nearly bucked me over his

head instead of capering, and to find that my hat was garnished with a large cobweb of what is called by

courtesy native silk, with halfadozen dead leaves sticking in it, I felt consoled that no one had seen me

approach, and asked the housekeeper, with tolerable equanimity, where they were all gone.

They were all gone, she said, over to Captain Brent wood's, and goodness gracious knew when they would

be back again. Mrs. Hawker and Mr. Charles were gone with them. For her part, she should not be sorry

when Mr. Sam brought Miss Brentwood over for good and all. The house was terrible lonesome when they

I remarked, "Oho!" and asked whether she knew if Mr. Troubridge was at Toonarbin.

No, she said; he was away again at Port Phillip with store cattle; making a deal of money, she understood,

and laying out a deal for the Major in land. She wished he would marry Mrs. Hawker and settle down, for he

was a pleasant gentleman, and fine company in a house. Wouldn't I get off and have a bit of cold wild duck

Certainly I would. So I gave my horse to the groom and went in. I had hardly cut the first rich red slice from

the breast of a fat teal, when I heard a light step in the passage, and in walked my man Dick. You remember

him, reader. The man we saw five and twenty years ago on Dartmoor, combining with William Lee to urge

the unhappy George Hawker on to ruin and forgery, which circumstance, remember, I knew nothing of at this

time. The same man I had picked up footsore and penniless in the bush sixteen years ago, and who had since

lived with me, a most excellent and clever servant the best I ever had. This man now came into Major

Buckley's parlour, hat in hand, looking a little foolish, and when I saw him my knife and fork were paralyzed

"Why, what the Dickens" (I used that strong ex pression) "brings you here, my lad?"

"I went up to Hipsley's about the colt," he said, "and when I got home I found you were gone off

unexpectedly; so I thought it better to come after you and tell you all about it. He won't take less than

"Man! man!" I said, "do you mean to say that you have ridden fifty miles to tell me the price of a leggy beast

He looked very silly, and I saw very well he had some other reason for coming than that. But with a good

servant I never ask too many questions, and when I went out a short time after, and found him leaning against

a fence, and talking earnestly to our old acquaintance William Lee, I thought, "He wanted an excuse to come

up and see his old friend Lee. That is quite just and proper, and fully accounts for it."

Lee always paid me the high compliment of touching his hat to me, for old Devon' sake, I suppose. "How's all

"Getting older, Lee. Nothing worse than that. Dick, I am going on to Captain Brentwood's. If you like to go

"Quite sure, sir." And Lee said, "You go on with Mr. Hamlyn, Dick, and do your duty, mind."

I thought this odd; but, knowing it was useless to ask questions of an old hand, or try to get any informa tion

I arrived at Captain Brentwood's about three o'clock in the afternoon. I flatter myself that I made a very

successful approach, and created rather a sensation among the fourteen or fifteen people who were sitting in

the verandah. They took me for a distinguished stranger. But when they saw who it was they all began calling

out to me at once to know how I was, and to come in (as if I wasn't coming in), and when at last I got among

them, I nearly had my hand shaken off; and the Doctor, putting on his spectacles and looking at me for a

Let me see, who was there that day? There was Mary Hawker, looking rather older, and a little worn; and

there was her son Charles sitting beside pretty Ellen Mayford, and carrying on a terrible flirtation with that

young lady, in spite of her fat jollylooking mother, who sat with folded hands beside her. Next to her sat her

handsome brother Cecil, looking, poor lad! as miserable as he well could look, although I did not know the

cause. Then came Sam, beside his mother, whose noble happy face was still worth riding fifty miles to see;

I had never seen this exquisite creature before, and I immediately fell desperately and hopelessly in love with

her, and told her so that same evening, in the presence of Sam. Finding that my affection was not likely to be

returned, I enrolled myself as one of her knights, and remain so to this present time.

The Major sat beside his wife, and the Doctor and Captain Brentwood walked up and down, talking politics.

There were also present, certain Hawbucks, leggy youths with brown faces and limp hair, in appearance and

dress not unlike English steeplechase riders who had been treated, on the face and hands, with walnutjuice.

They never spoke, and the number of them then present I am uncertain about, but one of them I recollect

could spit a great deal farther than any of his brothers, and proved it beyond controversy about twice in every

I missed my old friend Jim Brentwood, and was informed that he had gone to Sydney, "on the spree," as Sam

expressed it, along with a certain Lieutenant Halbert, who was staying on a visit with Major Buckley.

First I sat down by Mary Hawker, and had a long talk with her about old times. She was in one of her gay

moods, and laughed and joked continuously. Then I moved up, by invitation, to a chair between the Major

"Tom is perfectly well," said the Major. "He still carries on his old chronic flirtation with Mary; and she is as

"Why don't they marry?" I asked, peevishly. "Why on earth don't they marry one another? What is the good

of carrying on that old folly so long? They surely must have made up their minds by now. She knows she is a

"Good God! Hamlyn, are you so ignorant?" said the Major. And then he struck me dumb by telling me of all

that had happened latterly: of George Hawker's reappearance, of his identity with the great bushranger, and,

"I tell you this in strict confidence, Hamlyn, as one of my oldest and best friends. I know how deeply your

I remained silent and thunderstruck for a time, and then I tried to turn the conversation:

"Have you had any alarm from bushrangers lately? I heard a report of some convicts having landed on the

"All a false alarm!" said the Major. "They were drowned, and the boat washed ashore, bottom upwards."

When he called my attention to it, I remarked that the weather was really different from any I had seen

The sky was grey and dull, the distances were clear, and to the eye it appeared merely a soft grey autumnal

day. But there was something very strange and odd in the deadly stillness of all nature. Not a leaf moved, not

"I can't work, and I can't talk. I am so wretchedly nervous that I don't know what to do with myself, and you

know, my dear," she said, appealing to her husband, "that I am not given to that sort of thing."

Each man looked at his neighbour, for there was a sound in the air now a weird and awful sound like

nothing else in nature. To the south arose upon the ear a hollow quivering hum, which swelled rapidly into a

roar beneath our feet; there was a sickening shake, a thump, a crash, and away went the earthquake, groaning

The women behaved very well, though some of them began to cry; and hearing a fearful row in the kitchen I

dashed off there, followed by the Doctor. The interior was a chaos of pots and kettles, in the centre of which

sat the cook, Eleanor, holding on by the floor. Every now and then she would give a scream which took all

the breath out of her; so she had to stop and fetch breath before she could give another. The Doctor stepped

"Come, get up, my good woman, and give over screaming. All the danger is over, and you will frighten the

At this moment she had got her "second wind," and as he tried to get her up she gave such a yell that he

dropped her again, and bolted, stopping his ears; bolted over a teakettle which had been thrown down, and

fell prostrate, resounding like an Homeric hero, on to a heap of kitchen utensils, at the feet of Alice, who had

"Good Lord!" said he, picking himself up, "what lungs she has got! I shall have a singing in my ears to my

Sam picked up the cook, and she, after a time, picked up her pots, giving, however, an occasional squall, and

holding on by the dresser, under the impression that another earthquake was coming. We left her, however,

getting dinner under way, and went back to the others, whom we soon set laughing by telling poor Eleanor's

We were all in good spirits now. A brisk cool wind had come up from the south, following the earthquake,

making a pleasant rustle as it swept across the plain or tossed the forest boughs. The sky had got clear, and

the nimble air was so inviting that we rose as one body to stroll in groups about the garden and wander down

The brave old river was rushing hoarsely along, clear and full, between his ruined templecolumns of basalt,

as of old. "What a grand salmonriver this would be, Major!" said I; "what pools and stickles are here! Ah! if

we only could get the salmonspawn through the tropics without its germinating. Can you tell me,

Doctor, why these rocks should take the form of co lumns? Is there any particular reason for it that you

"You have asked a very puzzling question," he replied, "and I hardly know how to answer it. Nine geologists

out of ten will tell you that basalt is lava cooled under pressure. But I have seen it in places where that

solution was quite inapplicable. However, I can tell you that the same cause which set these pillars here, to

wall the river, piled up yon Organhill, produced the caves of Widderin, the great craterhollow of Mirngish,

and accommodated us with that brisk little earthquake which we felt just now. For you know that we mortals

stand only on a thin crust of cooled matter, but beneath our feet is all molten metal."

"Tomorrow," said he, "let us ride forth to Mirngish and have a picnic. There I will give you a little sketch of

In front of the Brentwoods' house the plains stretched away for a dozen miles or so, a bare sheet of grass with

no timber, grey in summer, green in winter. About five miles off it began to roll into great waves, and then

heaved up into a high bald hill, a lofty down, capped with black rocks, bearing in its side a vast round hollow,

at the bottom of which was a little swamp, perfectly cir cular, fringed with a ring of white gumtrees,

standing in such an exact circle that it was hard to persuade one self that they were not planted by the hand

of man. This was the crater of the old volcano. Had you stood in it, you would have remarked that one side

was a shelving steep bank of short grass, while the other reared up some five hundred feet, a precipice of

fireeaten rock. At one end the lip had broken down, pouring a torrent of lava, now fertile grassland, over

the surround ing country, which little gap gave one a delicious bit of blue distance. All else, as I said, was a

This was Mirngish. And the day after the earth quake there was a fresh eruption in the crater. An eruption of

horsemen and horsewomen. An eruption of talk, laughter, pinkbonnets, knives and forks, and cham

pagne. Many a pleasant echo came ringing back from the old volcanowalls overhead, only used for so many

Was ever a poor old wornout grassgrown volcano used so badly? Here into the very pit of Tophet had the

audacious Captain that very morning sent on a springcart of all eatables and drinkables, and then had

followed himself with a dozen of his friends, to eat and drink, and talk and laugh, just in the very spot where

Yet the good old mountain was civil, for we were not blown into the air, to be a warning to all people

picnicing in high places; but when we had eaten and drunk, and all the ladies had separately and collectively

declared that they were so fond of the smell of tobacco in the open air, we followed the Doctor, who led the

I arrived last, having dragged dear fat old Mrs. Mayford up the slippery steep. The Doctor had perched

himself on the highest flameworn crag, and when we all had grouped ourselves below him, and while the

wind swept pleasantly through the grass, and rushed humming through the ancient rocks, he in a clear

"Of old the great sea heaved and foamed above the ground on which we stand; ay, above this, and above yon

"But in the lapse of ten thousand changing centuries, the lower deeps, acted on by some Plutonic agency,

began to grow shallow; and the imprisoned tides began to foam and roar as they struggled to follow the

moon, their leader, angry to find that the stillness of their ancient domain was year by year invaded by the

"At that time, had man been on the earth to see it, those towering Alps were a cluster of lofty islands, each

mountain pass which divides them was a tideswept fiord, in and out of which, twice in the day, age after

age, rushed the sea, bringing down those vast piles of waterworn gravel which you see accumulated, and

"So twenty thousand years went on, and all this fair champagne country which we overlook became, first a

sandbank, then a dreary stretch of salt satu rated desert, and then, as the roar of the retiring ocean grew

"A thousand years are but as yesterday to Him, and I can give you no notion as to how many hundred

thousand years it took to do all this; or what pro ductions covered the face of the country. It must have been

a miserably poor region: nothing but the d bris of granite, sandstone, and slate; perhaps here and there

partially fertilized by rotting seaweed, dead fish and shells; things which would, we may assume, have

"New elements were wanting to make the country available for man, so soon to appear in his majesty; and

new elements were forthcoming. The internal fires so long imprisoned beneath the weight of the incumbent

earth, having done their duty in raising the continent, began to find vent in every weak spot caused by its

"Here where we stand, in this great crack between the granite and the sandstone, they broke out with all their

wildest fury; hurling stones high in the air, making midday dark with clouds of ashes, and pouring streams

"So the country was desolated by volcanoes, but only desolated that it might grow greener and richer than

ever, with a new and hitherto unknown fertility; for, as the surface of the lava disintegrated, a new soil was

found, containing all the elements of the old one, and many more. These are your black clay, and your red

"Then our old volcano, our familiar Mirngish, in whose crater we have been feasting, grew still for a time, for

many ages probably; but after that I see the traces of another eruption; the worst, perhaps, that he ever

"He had exhausted himself, and gradually subsided, leaving a perfect cup or crater, the accumulation of the

ashes of a hundred eruptions; nay, even this may have been filled with water, as is Mount Gambier, which

you have not seen, forming a lake without a visible outlet; the water draining off at that level where the looser

"But he burst out again, filling this great hollow with lava, till the accumulation of the molten matter broke

through the weaker part of the wall, and rolled away there, out of that gap to the northward, and forming what

you now call the 'stony rises,' turning yon creek into steam, which by its explosive force formed that

fantastic cap of rocks, and, swelling into great bubbles under the hot lava, made those long underground

"Is he asleep for ever? I know not. He may arise again in his wrath and fill the land with desolation; for that

earthquake we felt yesterday was but a wild throe of the giant struggling to be free.

"Let us hope that he may not break his chains, for as I stand here gazing on those crimson Alps, the spirit of

prophecy is upon me, and I can see far into the future, and all the desolate landscape becomes peopled with

"I see the sunny slopes below me yellow with trellissed vines. They have gathered the vintage, and I hear

them singing at the winepress. They sing that the exhausted vineyards of the old world yield no wine so

rare, so rich, as the fresh volcanic slopes of the southern continent, and that the princes of the earth send their

"Beyond I see fat black ridges grow yellow with a thousand cornfields. I see a hundred happy home steads,

halfhidden by clustering wheatstacks. What do they want with all that corn? say you; where is their market?

"There is their market! Away there on the barren forest ranges. See, the timber is gone, and a city stands there

instead. What is that on the crest of the hill? A steamengine; nay, see, there are five of them, working night

and day, fast and busy. Their cranks gleam and flash under the same moon that grew red and lurid when old

Mirngish vomited fire and smoke twenty thousand years ago. As I listen I can hear the grinding of the busy

"They have found gold here, and gold in abundance, and hither have come, by ship and steamship, all the

unfortunate of the earth. The English factory labourer and the farmerridden peasant; the Irish pauper; the

starved Scotch Highlander. I hear a grand swelling chorus rising above the murmur of the evening breeze;

that is sung by German peasants revelling in such plenty as they never knew before, yet still regretting

fatherland, and then I hear a burst of Italian melody replying. Hungarians are not wanting, for all the op

pressed of the earth have taken refuge here, glorying to live under the free government of Britain; for she,

warned by American experience, has granted to all her colonies such rights as the British boast of

I did not understand him then. But, since I have seen the living wonder of Ballarat, I understand him well

He ceased. But the Major cried out, "Go on, Doctor, go on. Look farther yet, and tell us what you see. Give

"I see," said he, "a vision of a nation, the colony of the greatest race on the earth, who began their career with

more advantages than ever fell to the lot of a young nation yet. War never looked on them. Not theirs was the

lot to fight, like the Americans, through bankruptcy and inexperience towards freedom and honour. No.

Freedom came to them, Heaven sent, redtapebound, straight from Downingstreet. Millions of fertile

"I see a vision of broken railway arches and ruined farms. I see a vision of a people surfeited with pro

sperity and freedom grown factious, so that now one party must command a strong majority ere they can pass

a law the goodness of which no one denies. I see a bankrupt exchequer, a drunken Governor, an Irish

"Come down out of that," roared the Major, "before I pull you down. You're a pretty fellow to come out for a

day's pleasure! Jeremiah was a saint to him," he added, turning appealingly to the rest of us. "Hear my

"Don't forget the Irish, Jews, Germans, Chinese, and other barbarians," interrupted the Doctor.

"Asserting," continued the Major, scornfully, "as they always do, their right to all the unoccupied territories

"With their steamships and their sailing vessels. Say there be gold here, as I believe there is, the time must

come when the mines will be exhausted. What then? With our coals we shall supply"

"And compete with Borneo," said the Doctor, quietly, "which contains more coal than ever India will burn, at

onetenth the distance from her that we are. If that is a specimen of your prophecies, Major, you are but a

"Well," said the Major, laughing, "I cannot reel it off quite so quick as you; but think we shall hardly have

We turned and looked to westward. The lofty rolling snowdowns had changed to dull lead colour, as the sun

went down in a red haze behind them; only here and there some little elevated pinnacle would catch the light.

Below the mountain lay vast black sheets of woodland, and nearer still was the river, marked distinctly by a

"We are going to have a fog and a frost," said the Major. "We had better hurry home."

Behind all the others rode Alice, Sam, and myself. I was fearful of being "de trop," but when I tried to get

forward to the laughing, chattering, crowd in front, these two young lovers raised such an outcry that I was

Behind us, however, rode three mounted servants, two of Captain Brentwood's, and my man Dick.

We were almost in sight of the river, nearly home in fact, when there arose a loud lamentation from Alice.

"Oh, yes," she said. "I am sure it must have been when I fell down, scrambling up the rocks, just before the

Doctor began his lecture. Just as I reached the top, you know, I fell down, and I must have lost it there."

"I use an uncle's authority," I replied, "and I forbid you. That miserable old pony of yours, which you have

chosen to bring out today, has had quite work enough, without ten miles extra. I condescend to no

I turned, with a kind look from both of them, but ere I had gone ten yards, my servant Dick was alongside of

"I am going back to Mirngish," I replied. "Miss Alice has dropped her bracelet, and I am going back for it."

"Indeed no, Dick; there is no need. Go back to your supper, lad. I shan't be long away,"

"Well, boy," I said, "if you will come, I shall be glad of your company; so come along."

I had noticed lately that Dick never let me go far alone, but would always be with me. It gave rise to no

suspicion in my mind. He had been tried too often for that. But still, I thought it strange.

On this occasion, we had not ridden far before he asked me a question which rather surprised me. He said,

"Ah!" said he, "that's good hearing. You're a magistrate, sir, though only just made. But you know that coves

like me, that have been in trouble, get hold of information which you beaks can't. And I tell you, sir, there's

bad times coming for this country side. You carry your pistols, sir, and, what's more, you use 'em. See here."

"That's what I carries, sir, in these times, and you ought to carry ditto, and a brace of barkers besides. We

We were rising on the first shoulder of Mirngish, and daylight was rapidly departing. I looked back. Nothing

but a vast sea of fog, one snow peak rising from it like an iceberg from a frozen sea, piercing the clear frosy

"We must hurry on," I said, "or we shall never have daylight to find the bracelet. We shall never find our way

"I noticed today, sir," said Dick, "a track that crossed the hill to the east; if we can get on that, and keep on

it, we are sure to get somewhere. It would be better to follow that than go blundering across the plain through

As he was speaking, we had dismounted and com menced our search. In five minutes, so well did our

recollection serve us, Dick had got the bracelet, and, having mounted our horses, we deliberated what was

A thick fog covered the whole country, and was rapidly creeping up to the elevation on which we stood. To

get home over the plains without a compass seemed a hopeless matter. So we determined to strike for the

We plunged down into the sea of fog, and, by care fully keeping the same direction, we found our road. The

moon was nearly full, which enabled us to distin guish it, though we could never see above five yards in

We followed the road above an hour; then we began to see ghostly treestems through the mist. They grew

thicker and more frequent. Then we saw a light, and at last rode up to a hutdoor, cheered by the warm light,

emanating from a roaring fire within, which poured through every crack in the houseside, and made the very

I held Dick's horse while he knocked. The door was opened by a wee feeble old man, about sixty, with a

"Night, daddy," said Dick. "Can me and my master stay here tonight? We're all abroad in this fog. The

governor will leave something handsome behind in the morning, old party, I know." (This latter was in a

"Canst thou stay here, say'st thou?" replied the old fellow. "In course thou canst. But thy master's money may

bide in a's pouch. Get thy saddles off, lad, and come in; 'tis a smittle night for rheumatics."

I helped Dick to take off the saddles, and, having hobbled our horses with stirrupleathers, we went in.

Our little old friend was the hutkeeper, as I saw at a glance. The shepherd was sitting on a block before the

fire, in his shirt, smoking his pipe and warming his legs preparatory to turning in.

I understood him in a moment, as I then thought (though I was much deceived). A short, wiry, black headed

man, with a cunning face convict all over. He rose as we came in, and gave us good evening. I begged he

would not disturb himself; so he moved his block into the corner, and smoked away with that lazy

But the old man began bustling about. He made us sit down before the fire, and make ourselves comfortable.

"I'll get ye, lads, some supper just now," said he. "There's na but twa bunks i' the hut; so master and man must

lie o' the floor, 'less indeed the boss lies in my bed, which he's welcome to. We've a plenty blankets, though,

and sheepskins. We'll mak ye com fortable, boys. There's a mickle back log o' the fire, and ye'll lie warm,

I'se warrant ye. There's cowd beef, sir (to me), and good breed, no' to mind boggins o' tea. Ye'll be

"Oh, ay! Ye're Hamlyn and Stockbridge! I ken ye well; I kenned yer partner: a good man a very good

man, a man o' ten thousand. He was put down up north. A bad job a very bad job! Ye gat terrible

vengeance, though. Ye hewed Agag in pieces! T' Governor up there to Sydney was wild angry at what ye did,

but he darena' say much. He knew that every free man's heart went with ye. It were the sword of the Lord and

of Gideon that ye fought with! Ye saved many good lives by that raid of yours after Stockbridge was killed.

During this speech, which was uttered in a series of interjections, we had made our supper, and drawn back to

the fire. The shepherd had tumbled into his blankets, and was snoring. The old man, having cleared away the

things, came and sat down beside us. The present of a fig of tobacco won his heart utterly, and he, having cut

"Why," said he, "it's the real Barret's twist the very real article! Eh, master, ye're booklearned: do you

ken where this grows? It must be a fine country to bring up such backer as this; some o' they Palm Isles, I

"Virginia," I told him, "or Carolina, one of the finest countries in the world where they hold slaves."

"Ah," said he, "they couldn't get white men to mess with backer and such in a hot country, and in course

every one knows that blacks won't work till they're made. That's why they bothers themselves with 'em, I

reckon. But, Lord! they are useless trash. White convicts is useless enough; think what black niggers must

"I am a free man myself," continued the old man. "I never did aught, ay, or thought o' doing aught, that an

honest man should not do. But I've lived among convicts twenty odd year, and do you know, sir, sometimes I

hardly know richt fra wrang. Sometimes I see things that whiles I think I should inform of, and then the devil

comes and tells me it would be dishonour able. And then I believe him till the time's gone by, and after that

I am miserable in my conscience. So I haven't an easy time of it, though I have good times, and money to

I was getting fond of the honest, talkative old fellow; so when Dick asked him if he wanted to turn in, and he

"Can't you pitch us a yarn, daddy?" said Dick. "Tell us something about the old country. I should like well to

"I'll pitch ye a yarn, lad," he replied, "if the master don't want to turn in. I'm fond of talking. All old men are,

I think," he said, appealing to me. "The time's coming, ye see, when the gift o' speech will be gone from me.

I said, "No, that I thought not; that I thought on the other side of the grave we should both speak and hear of

"Happen so," said he; "I think so too, sometime. I'll give ye my yarn; I have told it often. Howsever, neither o'

ye have heard it, so ye're the luckier that I tell it better by frequent repetition. Here it is:

"I was a collier lad, always lean, and not well favoured, though I was active and strong. I was small, too, and

that set my father's heart agin me somewhat, for he was a gran' man, and a mighty fighter.

"But my elder brother Jack, he was a mighty fellow, God bless him; and when he was eighteen he weighed

twelve stone, and was earning man's wages, tho' that I was hurrying still. I saw that father loved him better

than me, and whiles that vexed me, but most times it didn't, for I cared about the lad as well as father did, and

he liked me the same. He never went far without me; and whether he fought, or whether he drunk, I must be

"Well, so we went on till, as I said, I was seventeen, and he eighteen. We never had a word till then; we were

as brothers should be. But at this time we had a quarrel, the first we ever had; ay, and the last, for we got

"We both worked in the same pit. It was the Southstone Pit; happen you've heard of it. No? Well, thus things

get soon forgot. Father had been an over man there, but was doing better now above ground. He and mother

"There was a fair in our village, a poor thing enough; but when we boys were children we used to look

forward to it eleven months out o' twelve, and the day it came round we used to go to father, and get six

"Well, time went on till we came to earn money; but still we kept up the custom, and went to the old man

reg'lar for our fairin', and he used to laugh and chaff us as he'd give us a fourpenny or such, and we liked the

"Well this time it was in '12, just after the comet, just the worst times of the war, the fair came round, 24th

of May, I well remember, and we went in to the old man to get summut to spend just for a joke like.

"He'd lost money, and been vexed; so when Jack asked him for his fairin' he gi'ed him five shillin', and said,

'I'll go to gaol but what my handsome boy shan't have summut to treat his friends to beer.' But when I axed

him, he said, 'Earn man's wages, and thee'll get a man's fairin,' and heaved a penny at me.

"That made me wild mad, I tell you. I wasn't only angry wi' the old man, but I was mad wi' Jack, poor lad!

The devil of jealousy had got into me, and, instead of kicking him out, I nursed him. I ran out o' the house,

"I was in one of the dancing booths, half drunk, and a young fellow came to me, and said, 'Where has thee

"I felt like crying, to think my brother had fought, and I not there to set him up. But I swore, and said, 'I wish

Jim Perry had killed un;' and then I sneaked off home to bed, and cried like a lass.

"And next morning I was up before him, and down the pit. He worked a good piece from me, so I did not see

him, and it came on nigh nine o'clock before I began to wonder why the viewer had not been round, for I had

heard say there was a foul place cut into by some of them, and at such times the viewer generally looks into

"Well, about nine, the viewer and underviewer came up with the overman, and stood talking alongside of me,

when there came a something sudden and sharp, as tho' one had boxed your ears, and then a 'whiz, whiz,' and

"I hardly knew what had happened till I heard him singing out clear and firm, 'Come here to me, you lads;

come here. Keep steady, and we'll be all right yet.' Then I knew it was a fire, and a sharp one, and began

"I heard him calling for me, and then he ran up and got hold of me; and so ended the only quarrel we ever

"'Are you all here?' said the viewer. 'Now follow me, and if we meet the afterdamp hold your breath and run.

"We had not gone fifty yards before we came on the afterdamp, filling the headway like smoke. Jack and I

took hold of each other's collars and ran, but before we were halfway through, he fell. I kept good hold of

his shirt, and dragged him on on the ground. I felt as strong as a horse; and in ten seconds, which seemed to

me like ten hours, I dragged him out under the shaft into clear air. At first I thought he was dead, but he was

still alive, and very little of that. His heart beat very slow, and I thought he'd die; but I knew if he got clear air

"When we had gotten to the shaft bottom we found it all full of smoke; the waft had gone straight up, and

they on the top told us after that all the earth round was shook, and the black smoke and coaldust flew up as

though from a gunbarrel. Any way it was strong enough to carry away the machine, so we waited there ten

minutes and wondered the basket did not come down; but they above, meanwhile, were rigging a rope to an

old horsewhim, and as they could not get horses, the men run the poles round themselves.

"But we at the bottom knew nothing of all this. There were thirty or so in the shaft bottom, standing there,

dripping wet wi' water, and shouting for the others, who never came; now the smoke began to show in the

west drive, and we knew the mine was fired, and yet we heard nought from those above.

"But what I minded most of all was, that Jack was getting better. I knew we could not well be lost right under

the shaft, so I did not swear and go on like some of them, because they did not mind us above. When the

basket came down at last, I and Jack went up among the first, and there I saw such a sight, lad, as ye'll never

see till ye see a colliery explosion. There were hundreds and hundreds there. Most had got friends or kin in

the pit, and as each man came up, his wife or his mother would seize hold of him and carry on terrible.

"But the worst were they whose husbands and sons never came up again, and they were many; for out of one

hundred and thirtyone men in the pit, only thirty nine came up alive. Directly we came to bank, I saw

father; he was first among them that were helping, working like a horse, and directing everything. When he

saw us, he said, 'Thank the Lord, there's my two boys. I am not a loser today!' and came running to us, and

helped me to carry Jack down the bank. He was very weak and sick, but the air freshened him up wonderful.

"I told father all about it, and he said, 'I've been wrong, and thou'st been wrong. Don't thou get angry for

nothing; thou hast done a man's work today, at all events. Now come and bear a hand. T'owd 'ooman will

"We went back to the pit's mouth; the men were tear ing round the whim faster than horses would a' done it.

And first amongst 'em all was old Mrs. Cobley, wi' her long grey hair down her back, doing the work o' three

men; for her two boys were down still, and I knew for one that they were not with us at the bottom; but when

the basket came up with the last, and her two boys missing, she went across to the master, and asked him

"He said he was going to ask some men to go down, and my father volunteered to go at once, and eight more

went with him. They were soon up again, and reported that all the mine was full of smoke, and no one had

"'It's clear enough, the mine's fired, sir,' said my father to the owner. 'They that's down are dead. Better close

"'What!' screamed old Mrs. Cobley, 'close the pit, ye dog, and my boys down there? Ye wouldn't do such a

thing, master dear?' she continued; 'ye couldn't do it.' Many others were wild when they heard the thing

proposed; but while they raved and argued, the pit began to send up a reek of smoke like the mouth of hell,

and then the master gave orders to close the shaft, and a hundred women knew they were widows, and went

"And Jack got well. And after the old man died, we came out here. Jack has gotten a publichouse in Yass,

We applauded it highly, and after a time began to talk about lying down, when on a sudden we heard a noise

He was a stranger to me, but not to my servant, who I could see recognized him, though he gave no sign of it

in words. I also stared at him, for he was the hand somest young man I had ever seen.

Handsome as an Apollo, beautiful as a leopard, but with such a peculiar style of beauty, that when you looked

at him you instinctively felt at your side for a weapon of defence, for a more reckless, dangerous looking man

I never yet set eyes on. And while I looked at him I recognised him. I had seen his face, or one like it, before

often, often. And it seemed as though I had known him just as he stood there, years and years ago, on the

other side of the world. I was almost certain it was so, and yet he seemed barely twenty. It was an

He dashed in in an insolent way. "I am going to quarter here tonight and chance it," he said. "Hallo! Dick,

my prince! You here? And what may your name be, old cock?" he added, turning to me, now seeing me

"My name is Geoffry Hamlyn. I am a Justice of the Peace, and I am at your service," I said. "Now per haps

The young gentleman did not seem to like coming so suddenly into close proximity with a "beak," and

"Charles Sutton is my name, and I don't know as there's anything against me, at present."

"Sutton," I said; "Sutton? I don't know the name. No, I have nothing against you, except that you don't appear

Soon after I rolled myself in a blanket and lay down. Dick lay at right angles to me, his feet nearly touching

mine. He began snoring heavily almost immediately, and just when I was going to give him a kick, and tell

him not to make such a row, I felt him give me a good sharp shove with the heel of his boot, by which I

under stood that he was awake, and meant to keep awake, as he did not approve of the strangers.

I was anxious about our horses, yet in a short time I could keep awake no longer. I slept, and when I next

woke, I heard voices whispering eagerly together. I silently turned, so that I could see whence the voices

came, and perceived the hutkeeper sitting up in bed, in close confabulation with the stranger.

"Those two rascals are plotting some villany," I said to myself; "somebody will be minus a horse shortly, I

I found the young man was gone, and, what pleased me better still, had not taken either of our horses with

him. So, when we had taken some breakfast, we started, and I left the kind little old man something to

"Now mind; I don't want you to tell me anything you don't like, but pray relieve my mind on one point. Who

"I think not, sir; but I can explain how you come to think you have. You remember, sir, that I knew all about

It came upon me like a thunderbolt. This, then, was the illegitimate son that he had by his cousin Ellen. Oh

miserable child of sin and shame! to what end, I won dered, had he been saved till now?

We shall see soon. Meanwhile I turned to my com panion and said, "Tell me how he came to be here."

"Why you see, sir, he went on in his father's ways, and got lagged. He found his father out as soon as he was

free, which wasn't long first, for he is mortal cunning, and since then they two have stuck together. Most

times they quarrel, and sometimes they fight, but they are never far apart. Hawker ain't far off now."

"Now, sir," he continued, "I am going to tell you something which, if it ever leaks out of your lips again, in

such a way as to show where it came from, will end my life as sure as if I was hung. You remember three

"Yes," I said, "I heard it from Major Buckley. But the police have been scouring in all directions, and can

find nothing of them. My opinion is that the boat was capsized, and they were all drowned, and that the surf

"Depend on it they did, sir; those men are safe and well, and ready for any mischief. Hawker was on the

lookout for them, and they all stowed away till the police cleared off, which they did last week. There will

be mischief soon. There; I have told you enough to cut my throat, and I'll tell you more, and convince you

that I am right. That shepherd at whose hut we stayed last night was one of them; that fellow was the

I shuddered as I heard the name of that fell ruffian, and thought that I had slept in the hut with him. But when

I remembered how he was whispering with the stranger in the middle of the night, I came to the conclusion

that serious mischief was brewing, and pushed on through the fog, which still continued as dense as ever,

and, guided by some directions from the old hutkeeper, I got to Captain Brentwood's about ten o'clock, and

We three armed ourselves secretly and quietly, and went back to the hut with the determination of getting

possession of the person of the shepherd Mike, who, were he the man Dick accused him of being, would have

been a prize indeed, being one of the leading Van Diemen's Land rangers, and one of the men reported as

"Suppose," said Captain Brentwood, "that we seize the fellow, and it isn't him after all?"

"Then," said the Major, "an action for false imprisonment would lie sir, decidedly. But we will chance it."

And when we got there, we saw the old hutkeeper, he of the colliery explosion experiences, shepherding the

sheep himself, and found that the man we were in search of had left the hut that morning, apparently to take

the sheep out. But that going out about eleven the old man had found them still in the yard, whereby he

concluded that the shepherd was gone, which proved to be the case. And making further inquiries we found

that the shepherd had only been hired a month pre viously, and no man knew whence he came: all of which

seemed to confirm Dick's story wonderfully, and made us excessively uneasy. And in the end the Major

asked me to prolong my visit for a time and keep my servant with me, as every hand was of use; and so it fell

I PAUSE here I rather dread to go on. Although our course has been erratic and irregular; although we

have had one character disappearing for a long time (like Tom Troubridge); and, although we have had

another entirely new coming bobbing up in the manner of Punch's victims, unexpected, and appa rently

unwanted; although, I say, the course of this story may have been illarranged in the highest degree, and you

may have been continually coming across some one in Vol. II. who forced you to go back to Vol. I. (possibly

sent back to the library) to find out who he was; yet, on the whole, we have got on pleasantly enough as

things go. Now, I am sorry to say I have to record two or three fearful catastrophes. The events of the next

month are seldom alluded to by any of those persons mentioned in the preceding pages; they are too painful. I

remark that the Lucknow and Cawnpore men don't much like talking about the affairs of that terrible six

weeks; much for the same reason, I suspect, as we, going over our old recollections, always omit the

The facts contained in the latter end of this chapter I got from the Gaol Chaplain at Sydney.

The Major, the Captain, and I, got home to dinner, confirmed in our suspicions that mischief was abroad, and

very vexed at having missed the man we went in search of. Both Mrs. Buckley and Alice noticed that

something was wrong, but neither spoke a word on the subject. Mrs. Buckley now and then looked anxiously

at her husband, and Alice cast furtive glances at her father. The rest took no notice of our silence and un

easiness, little dreaming of the awful cloud that was hanging above our heads, to burst, alas! so soon.

I was sitting next to Mary Hawker that evening, talking over old Devon days and Devon people, when she

"I think I am going to have some more quiet peace ful times. I am happier than I have been for many years.

"I shuddered to hear her say so, knowing what I knew, but looked where she pointed. Her son sat opposite to

us, next to the pretty Ellen Mayford. She had dropped the lids over her eyes and was smiling. He, with his

face turned toward her, was whispering in his eager impulsive way, and tearing to pieces a slip of paper

which he held in his hand. As the firelight fell on his face, I felt a chill come over me. The likeness was so

fearful! not to the father (that I had been long accustomed to), but to the son, to the halfbrother to the

poor lost young soul I had seen last night, the companion of desperate men. As it struck me I could not avoid

a start, and a moment after I would have given a hundred pounds not to have done so, for I felt Mary's hand

I felt guilty and confused. As usual, on such occa sions, Satan was at my elbow, ready with a lie, more or

less clumsy, and I said, "You do me injustice, Mrs. Hawker. I was not thinking of old times. I was astonished

"Indeed, and so do I. It will be excellent on every account. Now," said I, "Mrs. Hawker, will you tell me what

"He is in my service still," she said; "as useful and faithful as ever. At present he is away at a little hut in the

"Well, he has got a new hand with him, a man who came about a month or so ago, and stayed about split

ting wood. I fancy I heard Lee remark that he had known him before. However, when Lee had to go to the

All this made me uneasy. I had asked these ques tions, by the advice of Dick, and, from Mrs. Hawker's

description tallying so well with his, I had little doubt that another of the escaped gang was living actually in

The day that we went to Mirngish, the circumstances I am about to relate took place in Lee's hut, a lonely

spot, eight miles from the home station, towards the mountain, and situated in a dense dark stringy bark forest

a wild desolate spot, even as it was that after noon, with the parrots chattering and whistling around it,

Lee was away, and the hutkeeper was the only living soul about the place. He had just made some bread,

and, having carried out his campoven to cool, was sitting on the bench in the sun, lazily, thinking what he

He was a long, rather powerfullybuilt man, and seemed at first sight, merely a sleepy halfwitted fellow, but

at a second glance you might perceive that there was a good deal of cunning, and some ferocity in his face.

He sat for some time, and was beginning to think that he would like a smoke, so he got out his knife

The hut stood at the top of a lone gully, stretching away in a vista, nearly bare of trees for a width of about

ten yards or so, all the way down, which gave it the appearance of a grassride, walled on each side by tall

dark forest; looking down this, our hut keeper saw, about a quarter of a mile off, a horseman cross from one

He only caught a momentary glimpse of him, but that was enough to show him that it was a stranger. He

neither knew horse nor man, at least judging by his dress; and while he was still puzzling his brains as to

what stranger would be coming to such an outofthe way place, he heard the "Chuck, kuk, kuk, kuk," of

It would of course have startled any bushman to hear an opossum cry in broad day, but he knew what this

meant well. It was the arranged signal of his gang, and he ran to the place from whence the sound came.

George Hawker was there well dressed, sitting on a noble chestnut horse. They greeted one another with a

As is my custom, when recording the conversation of this class of worthies, I suppress the expletives, thereby

shortening them by nearly one half, and depriving the public of much valuable information.

"No one here but myself," replied the other. "I'm hutkeeping here for one Bill Lee, but he is away. He was

one of the right sort once himself, I have heard; but he's been on the square for twenty years, so I don't like to

"You are about right there, Moody, my lad," said Hawker. "I've just looked up to talk to you about him, and

"Well," said Hawker, "we shall have the more time to talk; I've got a good deal to tell you. Our chaps are all

safe and snug, and the traps are off. Only two, that's you and Mike, stayed this side of the hill; the rest crossed

the ranges and stowed away in an old lair of mine on one of the upper Murray gullies. They've had pretty

hard times, and if it hadn't been for the cash they brought away, they'd have had worse. Now the coast is

clear, they're coming back by ones and twos, and next week we shall be ready for business. I'm going to be

head man this bout, because I know the country better than any; and the most noble Michael has consented,

for this time only, to act as lieutenant. We haven't decided on any plans yet, but some think of beginning from

the coast, because that part will be clearest of traps, they having satisfied themselves that we ain't there. In

fact, the wiseacres have fully deter mined that we are all drowned. There's one devil of a foreign doctor

knows I'm round though: he saw me the night before you came ashore, and I am nigh sure he knew me. I

have been watching him, and I could have knocked him over last week as clean as a whistle, only, thinks I,

it'll make a stir before the time. Never mind, I'll have him yet. This Lee is a black sheep, lad. I'm glad you are

here; you must watch him, and if you see him flinch, put a knife in him. He raised the country on me once

before. I tell you, Jerry, that I'd be hung, and willing, tomorrow, to have that chap's life, and I'd have had it

before now, only I had to keep still for the sake of the others. That man served me the meanest, dirtiest trick,

twenty years ago, in the old country, that ever you or any other man heard of, and if he catches sight of me

the game's up. Mind, if you see cause, you deal with him, or else," (with an awful oath) "you answer to

"If he's got to go, he'll go," replied the other, doggedly. "Don't you fear me; Moody the cannibal ain't a man to

"What, is that tale true then?" asked Hawker, looking at his companion with a new sort of interest.

"Why, in course it is," replied Moody; "I thought no one doubted that. That Van Diemen's Land bush would

starve a bandicoot, and Shiner and I walked two days before we knocked the boy on the head; the lad was

getting beat, and couldn't a' gone much further. After three days more we began to watch one another, and

neither one durst walk first, or go to sleep. Well, Shiner gave in first; he couldn't keep his eyes open any

"But not worse than you may do, if you persevere. You promise well," said Moody, with a grin.

Hawker bent and whispered in his ear; the other listened for a time, and then said,

Hawker after a little consideration nodded then the other nodded then they whispered together again.

Something out of the common this must be, that they, not very particular in their confidences, should whisper

Hawker and he started when they saw one another, but Lee recovered himself first, and said,

"George Hawker, it's many years since we met, and I'm not so young as I was. I should like to make peace

before I go, as I well know that I'm the chief one to blame for you getting into trouble. I'm not humbugging

you, when I say that I have been often sorry for it of late years. But sorrow won't do any good. If you'll

forgive and forget, I'll do the same. You tried my life once, and that's worse than ever I did for you. And now

I'll tell you, that if you want money to get out of the country and set up anywhere else, and leave your poor

"I don't bear any malice," said Hawker; "but I don't want to leave the country just yet. I suppose you won't

"I shan't say a word, George, if you keep clear of the home station; but I won't have you come about there. So

Lee held out his hand, and George took it. Then he asked him if he would stay there that night, and George

Day was fast sinking behind the trees, and making golden boughs overhead. Lee stood at the hut door

watching the sun set, and thinking, perhaps, of old Devon. He seemed sad, and let us hope he was re

gretting his old crimes while time was left him. Night was closing in on him, and having looked once more

on the darkening sky, and the fog coldly creeping up the gully, he turned with a sigh and a shudder into the

Near midnight, and all was still. Then arose a cry upon the night so hideous, so wild, and so terrible, that the

roosting birds dashed off affrighted, and the dense mist, as though in sympathising fear, prolonged the echoes

a hundred fold. One articulate cry, "Oh! you treacherous dog!" given with the fierce energy of a dying man,

and then night returned to her stillness, and the listeners heard nothing but the weeping of the moisture from

The two perpetrators of the atrocity stood silent a minute or more, recovering themselves. Then Hawker said

"You clumsy hound; why did you let him make that noise? I shall never get it out of my head again, if I live

till a hundred. Let's get out of this place before I go mad; I could not stay in the house with it for salvation.

They got the two horses, and rode away into the night; but Hawker, in his nervous anxiety to get away,

dropped a handsome cavalry pistol, a circum stance which nearly cost Doctor Mulhaus his life.

They rode till after daylight, taking a course toward the sea, and had gone nearly twelve miles before George

"I wouldn't have lost that pistol for five pounds," he said; "no, nor more. I shall never have one like it again.

"Go back and get it, then," said Moody, "if it's so valuable. I'll camp and wait for you. We want all the arms

"Not I," said George; "I would not go back into that cursed hut alone for all the sheep in the country."

"You coward," replied the other; "afraid of a dead man. Well, if you wont, I will: and, mind, I shall keep it for

"You're welcome to it, if you like to get it," said George. And so Moody rode back.

I MUST recur to the same eventful night again, and relate another circumstance that occurred on it. As events

thicken, time gets more precious; so that, whereas at first I thought nothing of giving you the events of twenty

years or so in a chapter, we are now compelled to concentrate time so much that it takes three chapters to

twentyfour hours. I read a long novel once, the inci dents of which did not extend over thirtysix hours,

All the party got safe home from the picnic, and were glad enough to get housed out of the frosty air. The

Doctor, above all others, was rampant at the thoughts of dinner, and a good chat over a warm fire, and burst

out, in a noble bass voice, with an old German student's song about wine and Gretchen, and what not.

His music was soon turned into mourning; for, as they rode into the courtyard, a man came up to Captain

It was one of his shepherds, who lived alone with his wife towards the mountain. The poor woman, his wife,

he said, was taken in labour that morning, and was very bad. Hearing there was a doctor staying at the home

"I'll go, of course," said the Doctor; "but let me get something to eat first. Is anybody with her?"

"I hope you can find the way in the dark," said the Doctor, "for I can tell you I can't."

"No fear, sir," said the man; "there's a track all the way, and the moon's full. If it wasn't for the fog it would

He took a hasty meal, and started. They went at a foot's pace, for the shepherd was on foot. The track was

easily seen, and although it was exceedingly cold, the Doctor, being well wrapped up, contrived, with

incessant smoking, to be moderately comfortable. All external objects being a blank, he soon turned to his

"That's a very ancient family, is it not?" said the Doctor at a venture, knowing he could not go wrong with a

"There's Mackinnons live there. But they are interlopers; they are worthless trash," and he spit in disgust.

"I suppose," said the Doctor, "a Mackinnon would return the compliment, if speaking of a Macdonald."

"I jaloused it might be a ghaist. There's a many ghaists and bogles about here."

"I should have thought the country was too young for those gentry," said the Doctor.

"It's a young country, but there's been muckle wickedness done in it. And what are those blacks do you think?

"Ay! many. A fortnight agone, come tomorrow, I saw the ghost of my wife's brother in broad day. It was the

time of the high wind ye mind of; and the rain drove so thick I could no see all my sheep at once. And a man

on a white horse came fleeing before the wind close past me; I knew him in a minute; it was my wife's

brother, as I tell ye, that was hung fifteen years agone for sheepstealing, and he wasn't so much altered as

"Deil a fear," replied the man, "for when I cried out and said, 'What, Col, lad! Gang hame, and lie in yer

grave, and dinna trouble honest folk,' he turned and rode away through the rain, straight from me."

"Well!" said the Doctor, "I partly agree with you that the land's bewitched. I saw a man not two months ago

who ought to have been dead five or six years at least. But are you quite sure the man you saw was hung?"

"Well nigh about," he replied. "When we sailed from Skye he was under sentence, and they weren't over

much given to reprieve for sheepstealing in those days. It was in consequence o' that that I came here."

"That's a very tolerable ghost story," said the Doctor. "Have you got another? If you have, I shouldn't mind

"Did ye ever hear how Faithful's lot were murdered by the blacks up on the Merrimerangbong?"

"Deed ay, and is it. This is how it happened: When Faithful came to take up his country across the

mountains yonder, they were a strong party, enough to have been safe in any country, but whether it was food

was scarce, or whether it was on account of getting water, I don't know, but they separated, and fifteen of

"Well, you see, they were pretty confident, being still a strong mob, and didn't set any watch or take any care.

There was one among them (Cranky Jim they used to call him he as told me this yarn he used to be

about Reid's mill last year) who always was going on at them to take more care, but they never heeded him at

"They found a fine creek, with plenty of feed and water, and camped at it to wait till the others came up. They

saw no blacks, nor heard of any, and three days were past, and they began to wonder why the others had not

"The third night they were all sitting round the fire, laughing and smoking, when they heard a loud co'ee on

the opposite side of the scrub, and halfadozen of them started up, and sang out, "There they are!"

"Well, they all began co'eeing again, and they heard the others in reply, apparently all about in the scrub. So

off they starts, one by one, into the scrub, answering and hallooing, for it seemed to them that their mates

were scattered about, and didn't know where they were. Well, as I said, fourteen of them started into the scrub

to collect the party and bring them up to the fire; only old Cranky Jim sat still in the camp. He believed, with

the others, that it was the rest of their party coming up, but he soon began to wonder how it was that they

were so scattered. Then he heard one scream, and then it struck him all at once that this was a dodge of the

blacks to draw the men from the camp, and, when they were abroad, cut them off one by one, plunder the

"So he dropped, and crawled away in the dark. He heard the co'ees grow fewer and fewer as the men were

speared one by one, and at last everything was quiet, and then he knew he was right, and he rose up and fled

"In two days he found the other party, and told them what had happened. They came up, and there was some

"They found the men lying about singly in the scrub, all speared. They buried them just where they found

each one, for it was hot weather. They buried them four foot deep, but they wouldn't lie still.

"Every night, about nine o'clock, they get up again, and begin co'eeing for an hour or more. At first there's a

regular coronach of them, then by degrees the shouts get fewer and fewer, and, just when you think it's all

over, one will break out loud and clear close to you, and after that all's still again."

"If you press me very hard," said the Doctor, "I must confess, with all humility, that I don't!"

"Why, you see, last year I was coming down with some wooldrays from Parson Dorken's, and this Cranky

Jim was with us, and told us the same yarn, and when he had finished, he said, 'You'll know whether I speak

"Well, and so we did, and, as well as we could reckon, it was a little past nine when a curlew got up and

began crying. That was the signal for the ghosts, and in a minute they were co'eeing like mad all round. As

Jim had told us, one by one ceased until all was quiet, and I thought it was over, when I looked, and saw,

about a hundred yards off, a tall man in grey cross ing a belt of open ground. He put his hand to his mouth,

"Thank you," said the Doctor. "I think you men tioned that your wife's confinement was somewhat

"Pray, had you been relating any of the charming little tales to her lately just, we will suppose, to while

"Ah, so I thought. The next time your good lady happens to be in a similar situation, I think I would refrain

from ghost stories. I should not like to commit myself to a decided opinion, but I should be inclined to say

that the tales you have been telling me were rather horrible. Is that the light of your hut?"

Two noble colley dogs bounded to welcome them, and a beautiful barelegged girl, about sixteen, ran forth

to tell her father, in Gaelic, that the trouble was over, and that a boy was born.

On going in, they found the mother asleep, while her gossip held the baby on her knee; so the Doctor saw that

he was not needed, and sat down, to wait until the woman should wake, having first, however, produced from

The woman soon woke, and the Doctor, having felt her pulse, and left some medicine, started to ride home

again, carrying with him an incense of good wishes from the warmhearted Highlanders.

Instead of looking carefully for the road, the good Doctor was soon nine fathoms deep into the reasons why

the mountaineers and coast folk of all northern countries should be more blindly superstitious than the

dwellers in plains and in towns; and so it happened that, coming to a fork in the track, he disregarded the

advice of his horse, and, instead of taking the right hand, as he should have done, he held straight on, and,

about two o'clock in the morning, found that not only had he lost his road, but that the track had died out

He was in a very disagreeable predicament. The fog was thicker than ever, without a breath of air; and he

knew that it was as likely as not that it might last for a day or two. He was in a very wild part of the

After some reflection, he determined to follow the fall of the land, thinking that he was still on the

watershed of the Snowyriver, and hoping, by following down some creek, to find some place he knew.

Gradually day broke, cold and cheerless. He was wet and miserable, and could merely give a guess at the

east, for the sun was quite invisible; but, about eight o'clock, he came on a track, running at right angles to the

way he had been going, and marked with the hoofs of two horses, whose riders had apparently passed not

Which way should he go? He could not determine. The horsemen, it seemed to him, as far as he could guess,

had been going west, while his route lay east. And, after a time, having registered a vow never to stir out of

sight of the station again without a compass, he determined to take a contrary direction from them, and to find

The road crossed gully after gully, each one like the other. The timber was heavy stringy bark, and, in the

lower part of the shallow gullies, the tall white stems of the blue gums stood up in the mist like ghosts. All

At length, at the bottom of a gully, rather more dreary looking, if possible, than all the others, he came on a

black reedy waterhole, the first he had seen in his ride, and perceived that the track turned short to the left.

Casting his eye along it, he made out the dark indistinct outline of a hut, standing about forty yards off.

He rode up to it. All was as still as death. No man came out to welcome him, no dog jumped, barking forth,

no smoke went up from the chimney; and, looking round, he saw that the track ended here, and that he had

But was it deserted? Not very long so, for those two horsemen, whose tracks he had been on so long, had

started from here. Here, on this bare spot in front of the door, they had mounted. One of their horses had been

capering; nay, here were their footsteps on the threshold. And, while he looked, there was a light fall inside,

and the chimney began smoking. "At all events," said the Doctor, "the fire's in, and here's the campoven,

He lifted the latch, and went in. Nobody there. Stay yes, there is a man asleep in the bedplace. "The

watchman, probably," thought the Doctor; "he's been up all night with the sheep, and is taking his rest by day.

Well, I won't wake him; I'll hang up my horse a bit, and take a pipe. Perhaps I may as well turn the horse out.

So soliloquised the Doctor, and lit his pipe. A quarter of an hour passed, and the man still lay there without

moving. The Doctor rose and went close to him. He could not even hear him breathe.

His flesh began to creep, but his brows contracted, and his face grew firm. He went boldly up, and pulled

down the blanket, and then, to his horror and amazement, recognised the distorted countenance of the

He covered the face over again, and stood thinking of his situation, and how this had come to pass. How

came Lee here, and how had he met his death? At this moment something bright, half hidden by a blue shirt

lying on the floor, caught his eye, and, going to pick it up, he found it was a beautiful pistol, mounted in

He turned it over and over till in a lozenge behind the hammer he found, apparently scratched with a knife,

Here was light with a vengeance! But he had little time to think of his discovery ere he was startled by the

Instinctively he thrust the pistol into his pocket, and stooped down, pretending to light his pipe. He heard

some one ride up to the door, dismount, and enter the hut. He at once turned round, pipe in mouth, and

He was a tall, illlooking, redhaired man, and to the Doctor's pleasant good morning he replied by sulkily

"Only a light for my pipe, friend," said the Doctor; "having got one, I will bid you good morning. Our friend

The new comer was between him and the door, but the Doctor advanced boldly. When the two men were

Moody (for it was he) threw himself upon the Doctor with an oath, trying to bear him down; but, although the

tallest man, he had met his match. He was held in a grasp of iron; the Doctor's hand was on his collar, and his

elbow against his face, and thus his head was pressed slowly backwards till he fell to avoid a broken neck,

and fell, too, with such force that he lay for an instant stunned and motionless, and before he came to himself

the Doctor was on horseback, and some way along the track, glad to have made so good an escape from such

"If he had been armed," said the Doctor, as he rode along, "I should have been killed: he evidently came back

after that pistol. Now, I wonder where I am? I shall know soon at this pace. The little horse keeps up well,

In about two hours he heard a dog bark to the left of the track, and, turning off in that direction, he soon

found himself in a courtyard, and before a door which he thought he recognised: the door opened at the sound

"Good Lord!" said the Doctor, "a friend's face at last; tell me where I am, for I can't see the end of the house."

"Well, take me in and give me some food; I have terrible tidings for you. When did you last see Lee?"

"That's his hutkeeper that he took from here with him; a man he said he knew, and you say he was on

"Lee's horse," said Troubridge; "he must have murdered him for it. Poor William!"

"Things are coming to a crisis, Doctor; the net seems closing round my unfortunate partner. God grant the

storm may come and clear the air! Anything is better than these continual alarms."

"It cannot be much more terrible than this," said Tom, "when our servants are assassinated in their beds, and

travellers in lonely huts have to wrestle for their lives. Doctor, did you ever nourish a passion for revenge?"

"Yes, once," said the Doctor, "and had it gratified in fair and open duel; but when I saw him lying white on

the grass before me, and thought that he was dead, I was like one demented, and prayed that my life might be

taken instead of his. Be sure, Tom, that revenge is of the devil, and, like everything else you get from him, is

"I do not in the least doubt it, Doctor," said Tom; "but oh, if I could only have five minutes with him on the

turf yonder, with no one to interfere between us! I want no weapons; let us meet in our shirts and trowsers,

"Why nourish this feeling, Tom, my old friend; you do not know what pain it gives me to see a noble open

character like yours distorted like this. Leave him to Desborough, why should you feel so deadly towards

"He stands between me and the hopes of a happy old age. He stands between me and the light, and he must

That night they brought poor Lee's body down in a dray, and buried him in the family buryingground close

beside old Miss Thornton. Then the next morn ing he rode back home to the Buckleys', where he found that

family with myself, just arrived from the Brentwoods'. I of course was brimful of intelligence, but when the

Doctor arrived I was thrown into the shade at once. However, no time was to be lost, and we despatched a

messenger, post haste, to fetch back Captain Desborough and his troopers, who had now been moved off

about a week, but had not been as yet very far withdrawn, and were examining into some "black" outrages to

Mary Hawker was warned, as delicately as possible, that her husband was in the neighbourhood. She

remained buried in thought for a time, and then, rousing herself, said, suddenly,

"Mrs. Buckley, I will go home and see if I can meet him alone. All I ask of you is to keep Charles with you.

"Something, at all events. Find out what he wants. Buy him off, perhaps. Pray don't argue with me. I am quite

Then it became necessary to tell her of Lee's death, though the fact of his having been murdered was con

cealed; but it deeply affected her to hear of the loss of her old faithful servant, faithful to her at all events,

whatever his faults may have been. Nevertheless, she went off alone, and took up her abode with Troubridge,

Though they watched together there was no sym pathy or confidence between them. She never guessed

what purpose was in Tom's heart; she never guessed what made him so pale and gloomy, or why he never

stirred from the house, but slept half the day on the sofa. But ere she had been a week at home, she found out.

They would sit, those two, silent and thoughtful, beside that unhappy hearth, watching the fire, and brooding

over the past. Each had that in their hearts which made them silent to one another, and each felt the horror of

some great overshadowing formless calamity, which any instant might take form, and overwhelm them. Mary

would sit late, dreading the weary night, when her overstrained senses caught every sound in the distant

forest; but, however late she sat, she always left Tom behind, over the fire, not taking his comfortable glass,

She now lay always in her clothes, ready for any emergency; and one night, about a week after Lee's murder,

she dreamt that her husband was in the hall, bidding her in a whisper which thrilled her heart, to come forth.

The fancy was so strong upon her, that saying aloud to herself, "The end is come!" she arose in a state little

short of delirium, and went into the hall. There was no one there, but she went to the front door, and, looking

"George, George, come to me! Let me speak to you, George. It will be better for both of us to speak."

No answer: but she heard a slight noise in the sittingroom behind her, and, opening the door gently, saw a

light there, and Tom sitting with parted lips watching the door, holding in his hand a cocked pistol.

She was not in the least astonished or alarmed. She was too much t te mont e to be surprised at anything.

"What! are you watching, too, old mastiff? Would you grip the wolf, old dog, if he came?"

"No! no!" she said. "A dream, a wandering dream. What would you do if he came, eh, cousin?"

"Bed, eh?" she answered. "Cousin; shooting is an easier death than hanging, eh?"

Tom felt a creeping at the roots of his hair, as he answered, "Yes, I believe so."

"Can you shoot straight, old man? Could you shoot straight and true if he stood there before you? Ah, you

"Go to bed, Mary," said Tom. "Don't talk like that. Let the future lie, cousin."

All this was told me long after by Tom himself. Tom believed, or said he believed, that she was only

sounding him, to see what his intentions were in case of a meeting with George Hawker. I would not for the

world have had him suppose I disagreed with him; but I myself take another and darker interpretation of her

strange words that night. I think, that she, never a very strongminded person, and now, grown quite

desperate from terror, actually contemplated her husband's death with complacency, nay, hoped, in her secret

heart, that one mad struggle between him and Tom might end the matter for ever, and leave her a free

woman. I may do her injustice, but I think I do not. One never knows what a woman of this kind, with strong

passions and a not overstrong intellect, may be driven to. I knew her for forty years, and loved her for

twenty. I knew in spite of all her selfishness and violence that there were many good, nay, noble points in her

character; but I cannot disguise from myself that that night's conversation with Tom showed me a darker

point in her character than I knew of before. Let us forget it. I would wish to have none but kindly recol

For the secret must be told sooner or later, I loved her before any of them. Before James Stockbridge,

before George Hawker, before Thomas Troubridge, and I loved her more deeply and more truly than any of

them. But the last remnant of that love departed from my heart twenty years ago, and that is why I can write

of her so calmly now, and that is the reason, too, why I remain an old bachelor to this day.

BUT with us, who were staying down at Major Buckley's, a fortnight passed on so pleasantly that the horror

of poor Lee's murder had begun to wear off, and we were getting once more as merry and careless as though

we were living in the old times of profound peace. Sometimes we would think of poor Mary Hawker, at her

lonely watch up at the forest station; but that or any other unpleasant subject was soon driven out of our heads

by Captain Desborough, who had come back with six troopers, declared the country in a state of siege,

proclaimed martial law, and kept us all laughing and amused from daylight to dark.

Captain Brentwood and his daughter Alice (the transcendently beautiful!) had come up, and were staying

there. Jim and his friend Halbert were still away, but were daily expected. I never passed a pleasanter time in

"Begorra (that's a Scotch expression, Miss Brent wood, but very forcible)," said Captain Desborough. "I

owe you more than I can ever repay for buying out the Donovans. That girl Lesbia Burke would have forcibly

abducted me, and married me against my will, if she hadn't had to follow the rest of the family to Port

"One of the finest, strangest sights I ever saw in my life," resumed Captain Brentwood, "was on the morning I

came to take possession. None of the family were left but Murtagh Donovan and Miss Burke. I rode over

from Buckley's, and when I came to the door Donovan took me by the arm, and saying 'whist,' led me into the

sittingroom. There, in front of the empty fireplace, crouched down on the floor, bareheaded, with her

beautiful hair hanging about her shoulders, sat Miss Burke. Every now and then she would utter the strangest

low wailing cry you ever heard: a cry, by Jove, sir, that went straight to your heart. I turned to Donovan, and

whispered, 'Is she ill?' and he whispered again, 'Her heart's broke at leaving the old place where she's lived so

long. She's raising the keen over the cold hearthstone. It's the way of the Burkes.' I don't know when I was so

and I went back quietly with Donovan; and, by Jove, sir, when we came out the great ass had the tears

"Ah, Captain," said Desborough, "with all our vanity and absurdity, we Irish have got good warm hearts

under our waistcoats. We are the first nation in the world, sir, saving the Jews."

This was late in the afternoon of a temperate spring day. We were watching Desborough as he was giving the

"I think you have done admirably, Captain," said the Doctor; "you have given one a splendid idea of distance

in the way you have toned down the plain, from the grey appearance it has ten miles off to the rich, delicate

green it shows close to us. And your mountain, too, is most a'rial. You would make an artist."

"I am not altogether displeased with my work, Doctor, if you, who never flatter, can praise it with the original

We looked across the plain; the stretch of grass I have described was lying before one like a waveless sea,

from the horizon of which rose the square abrupt sided mass of basalt which years ago we had named the

Organhill, from the regular fluted columns of which it was composed. On most occasions, as seen from

Major Buckley's, it appeared a dim mass of pearly grey, but tonight, in the clear frosty air, it was of a rich

"The more I look at that noble firetemple, the more I admire it," said the Doctor. "It is one of the most

Two dots appeared crawling over the plain, and making for the river. For a few minutes Alice could not be

brought to see them, but when she did, she declared that it was Jim and Halbert.

"You have good eyes, my love," said her father, "to see what does not exist. Jim's horse is black, and

"The wish was parent to the thought, father," she replied, laughing. "I wonder what is keeping him away from

us so long? If he is to go to India, I should like to see him as much as possible."

"My dear," said her father, "when he went off with Halbert to see the Markhams, I told him that if he liked to

go on to Sydney, he could go if Halbert went with him, and draw on the agent for what money he wanted. By

his being so long away, I conclude he has done so, and that he is probably at this moment getting a lesson at

billiards from Halbert before going to dinner. I shall have a nice little account from the agent just now, of

"My dear," said Captain Brentwood, "you do him injustice. He hasn't had the chance. I must say, considering

his limited opportunities, he has spent as much money on horses, saddlery, as any young gentleman on this

"Well sir," said Sam, "Jim spends his money, but he generally makes pretty good investments in the horse

"Such as that sweettempered useful animal Stampedo," replied the Captain, laughing, "who nearly killed a

groom, and staked himself trying to leap out of the stockyard the second day he had him. Well, never mind;

Jim's a good boy, and I am proud of him. I am in some hopes that this Sydney journey will satisfy his

wandering propensities for the present, and that we may keep him at home. I wish he would fall in love with

somebody, providing she wasn't old enough to be his grandmother. Couldn't you send him a letter of

introduction to some of your old schoolfellows, Miss Puss? There was one of them, I remember, I fell in love

with myself one time when I came to see you; Miss Green, I think it was. She was very nearly being your

"Why, she is a year younger than me," said Alice, "and, oh goodness, such a temper! She threw the selections

from Beethoven at Signor Smitherini, and had bread and watermelon for two days for it. Serve her right!"

"I have had a narrow escape, then," replied the father. "But we shall see who these two people are

When the two travellers rose again into sight on the near bank of the river, one of them was seen galloping

"I knew it was Jim," said Alice, "and on a new grey horse. I thought he would not go to Sydney." And in a

minute more she had run to meet him, and Jim was off his horse, kissing his sister, laughing, shouting, and

"Well, father," he said, "here I am back again. Went to Sydney and stayed a week, when we met the two

Marstons, and went right up to the Clarence with them. That was a pretty journey, eh? Sold the old horse, and

bought this one. I've got heaps to tell you, sister, about what I've seen. I went home, and only stayed ten

"I am glad to see you back, Mr. Halbert," said Major Buckley; "I hope you have had a pleasant journey. You

"Captain Desborough, how are you?" says Jim. "I am very glad to see you. But, between you and I, you're

always a bird of ill omen. Whose pig's dead now? What brings you back? I thought we should be rid of you

"But you are not rid of me, Jackanapes," said Desborough, laughing. "But I'll tell you what, Jim; there is

really something wrong, my boy, and I'm glad to see you back." And he told him all the news.

Jim grew very serious. "Well," said he, "I'm glad to be home again; and I'm glad, too, to see you here. One

feels safer when you're in the way. We must put a cheerful face on the matter, and not frighten the women. I

have bought such a beautiful brace of pistols in Sydney. I hope I may never have the chance to use them in

this country. Why, there's Cecil Mayford and Mrs. Buckley coming down the garden, and Charley Hawker,

The young men were soon busy discussing the merits of Jim's new horse, and examining with great admira

tion his splendid new pistols. Charley Hawker, poor boy! made a mental resolution to go to Sydney, and also

come back with a new grey horse, and a pair of pistols more resplendent than Jim's. And then they went in to

When Jim unpacked his valise, he produced a pretty bracelet for his sister, and a stockwhip for Sam. On the

"Sam, my boy," said he, "there is not such another in the country. It was made by the celebrated Bill

Mossman of the Upper Hunter, the greatest swearer at bullocks, and the most accomplished whipmaker on

the Sydney side. He makes only one in six months, and he makes it a favour to let you have it for five

pounds. You can take a piece of bark off a blue gum, big enough for a canoe, with one cut of it. There's a fine

of two pounds for cracking one within a mile of Government House, they make such a row. A man the other

day cracked one of them on the South Head, and broke the windows in Pitt Street."

"You're improving, master Jim," said Charles Hawker. "You'll soon be as good a hand at a yarn as Hamlyn's

Dick." At the same time he wrote down a stockwhip, similar to this one, on the tablets of his memory, to be

That evening we all sat listening to Jim's adventures; and pleasantly enough he told them, with not a little hu

morous exaggeration. It is always pleasant to hear a young fellow telling his first impressions of new things

and scenes, which have been so long familiar to ourselves; but Jim had really a very good power of narration,

and he kept us laughing and amused till long after the usual hour for going to bed.

Next day we had a pleasant ride, all of us, down the banks of the river. The weather was slightly frosty, and

the air clear and elastic. As we followed the windings of the noble rushing stream, at a height of seldom less

than three hundred feet above his bed, the Doctor was busy pointing out the alternations of primi tive

sandstone and slate, and the great streams of volcanic bluestone which had poured from various points

towards the deep glen in which the river flowed. Here, he would tell us, was formerly a lofty cascade, and a

lake above it, but the river had worn through the sandstone bar, drained the lake, leaving nothing of the

waterfall but two lofty cliffs, and a rapid. There again had come down a lavastream from Mirngish, which,

cooled by the waters of the river, had stopped, and, accumulating, formed the lofty overhanging cliff on

which we stood. He showed us how the ferntrees grew only in the still sheltered elbows facing north ward,

where the sun raised a warm steam from the river, and the cold south wind could not penetrate. He gathered

for Mrs. Buckley a bouquet of the tender sweetscented yellow oxalis, the winter flower of Australia, and

showed us the copperlizard basking on the red rocks, so like the stone on which he lay, that one could scarce

see him till a metallic gleam betrayed him, as he slipped to his lair. And we, the elder of the party, who

followed the Doctor's handsome little brown mare, kept our ears open, and spoke little, but gave ourselves

But the Doctor did not absorb the whole party; far from it. He had a rival. All the young men, and Miss Alice

besides, were grouped round Captain Des borough. Frequently we elders, deep in some Old World history

of the Doctor's, would be disturbed by a ringing peal of laughter from the other party, and then the Doctor

would laugh, and we would all join; not that we had heard the joke, but from sheer sympathy with the hilarity

of the young folks. Desborough was mak ing himself agreeable, and who could do it better? He was telling

the most outrageous of Irish stories, and making, on purpose, the most outrageous of Irish bulls. After a shout

"And so my grandmother," we heard Desborough say, "waxed mighty wrath, and she up with her gold

headed walking stick in the middle of Sackville Street, and says she, 'Ye villain, do ye think I don't know my

own Blenheim spannel when I see him?' 'Indeed, my lady,' says Mike, ''twas himself tould me he belanged to

Barney.' 'Who tould you?' says she. 'The dog himself tould me, my lady.' 'Ye thief of the world,' says my

aunt, 'and ye'd believe a dog before a dowager countess? Give him up, ye villain, this minute, or I'll hit ye!' "

These were the sort of stories Desborough delighted in, making them up, he often confessed, as he went on.

On this occasion, when he had done his story, they all rode up and joined us, and we stood admiring the river,

stretching westward in pools of gold between black cliffs, toward the setting sun; then we turned homeward.

That evening Alice said, "Now do tell me, Captain Desborough, was that a true story about Lady Cove

"True!" said he. "What story worth hearing ever was true? The old lady lost her dog certainly, and claimed

him of a dogstealer in Sackville Street; but all the rest, my dear young lady, is historic romance."

"Mr. Hamlyn knows a good story," said Charley Hawker, "about Bougong Jack. Do tell it to us, Uncle Jeff."

"I don't think," I said, "that it has so much founda tion in fact as Captain Desborough's. But there must be

some sort of truth in it, for it comes from the old hands, and shows a little more signs of imagination than you

"Do tell it," they all said. So I complied, much in the same language as I tell it now:

You know that these great snowranges which tower up to the west of us are, farther south, of great breadth,

and that none have yet forced their way from the country of the Ovens and the Mitta Mitta through here to

The settlers who have just taken up that country, trying to penetrate to the eastward here towards us, find

themselves stopped by a mighty granite wall. Any adventurous men, who may top that barrier, see nothing

before them but range beyond range of snow Alps, intersected by precipitous cliffs, and frightful chasms.

This westward range is called the Bougongs. The blacks during summer are in the habit of coming thus far to

collect and feed on the great grey moths (Bou gongs) which are found on the rocks. They used to report that

a fine available country lies to the east embosomed in mountains, rendered fertile by perpetual snowfed

streams. This is the more credible, as it is evident that between the Bougong range on the west and the

Warragong range on the extreme east, towards us, there is a breadth of at least eighty miles.

There lived a few years ago, not very far from the Ovensriver, a curious character, by name John Samp

son. He had been educated at one of the great English universities, and was a good scholar, though he had

been forced to leave the university, and, as report went, England too, for some great irregularity.

He had money, and a share in his brotherinlaw's station, although he never stayed there many months in

the year. He was always away at some mischief or another. No horserace or prizefight could go on without

him, and he himself never left one of these lastmentioned gatherings without finding some one to try

conclusions with him. Beside this, he was a great writer and singer of comic songs, and a consummate

One fine day he came back to his brother's station in serious trouble. Whether he had mistaken another man's

horse for his own or not, I cannot say; but, at all events, he announced that a warrant was out against him for

horsestealing, and that he must go into hiding. So he took up his quarters at a little hut of his brother

inlaw's, on the ranges, inhabited only by a stock keeper and a black boy, and kept a young lubra in pay to

One morning she came running into the hut, breath less, to say that a lieutenant and three troopers were

riding towards the hut. Jack had just time to saddle and mount his horse before the police caught sight of him,

They hunted him into a narrow glen; a single cattle track, not a foot broad, led on between a swollen rocky

creek, utterly impassable by horse or man, and a lofty precipice of loose broken slate, on which one would

have thought a goat could not have found a footing. The young police lieutenant had done his work well, and

sent a trooper round to head him, so that Jack found himself between the devil and the deep sea. A tall armed

trooper stood in front of him, behind was the lieutenant, on the right of the creek, and on the left the

They called out to him to surrender; but, giving one look before and behind, and seeing escape was hopeless,

he hesitated not a moment, but put his horse at the cliff, and clambered up, rolling down tons of loose slate in

his course. The lieutenant shut his eyes, expecting to see horse and man roll down into the creek, and only

opened them in time to see Jack stand for a moment on the summit against the sky, and then disappear.

He disappeared over the top of the cliff, and so he was lost to the ken of white men for the space of four

years. His sister and brotherinlaw mourned for him as dead, and mourned sincerely, for they and all who

knew him liked him well. But at the end of that time, on a wild winter's night, he came back to them, dressed

in opossum skins, with scarce a vestige of European clothing about him. His beard had grown down over his

chest, and he had nearly forgotten his mother tongue, but, when speech came to him again, he told them a

It was winter time when he rode away. All the table lands were deep with snow; and, when he had escaped

the policemen, he had crossed the first of the great ridges on the same night. He camped in the valley he

found on the other side; and, having his gun and some ammunition with him, he fared well.

He was beyond the country which had ever been trodden by white men, and now, for the mere sake of

adventure, he determined to go further still, and see if he could cross the great White Mountains, which had

For two days he rode over a high tableland, deep in snow. Here and there, in a shallow sheltered valley, he

would find just grass enough to keep his horse alive, but nothing for himself. On the third night he saw before

him another snowridge, too far off to reach without rest, and, tethering his horse in a little crevice between

the rocks, he prepared to walk to and fro all night, to keep off the deadly snow sleepiness that he felt coming

over him. "Let me but see what is beyond that next ridge," he said, "and I will lie down and die."

And now, as the stillness of the night came on, and the Southern Cross began to twinkle brilliantly above the

blinding snow, he was startled once more by a sound which had fallen on his ear several times during his

toil some afternoon journey: a sound as of a sudden explosion, mingled, strangely too, with the splintering

of broken glass. At first he thought it was merely the booming in his ears, or the rupture of some vessel in his

bursting head. Or was it fancy? No; there it was again, clearer than before. That was no noise in his head, for

the patient horse turned and looked toward the place where the sound came from. Thunder? The air was clear

and frosty, and not a cloud stained the sky. There was some mystery beyond that snowridge worth living to

He lived to see it. For an hour after daybreak next morning, he, leading his horse, stumbled over the snow

covered rocks that bounded his view, and, when he reached the top, there burst on his sight a scene that made

Before him, pinnacle after pinnacle towered up a mighty Alp, blazing in the morning sun. Down through a

black rift on its side wound a gleaming glacier, which hurled its shattered ice crystals over a dark cliff, into

the deep profound blue of a lake, which stretched north and south, studded with green woody islets, almost as

far as the eye could see. Toward the mountain the lake looked deep and gloomy, but, on the hither side,

showed many a pleasant yellow shallow, and sandy bay, while between him and the lake lay a mile or so of

parklike meadow land, in the full verdure of winter. As he looked, a vast dislocated mass of ice fell crashing

from the glacier into the lake, and solved at once the mystery of the noises he had heard the night before.

He descended into the happy valley, and found a small tribe of friendly blacks, who had never before seen the

face of white man, and who supposed him to be one of their own tribe, dead long ago, who had come back to

them, renovated and beautified, from the other world. With these he lived a pleasant slothful life, while four

years went on, forgetting all the outside world, till his horse was dead, his gun rusted and thrown aside, and

his European clothes long since replaced by the skin of the opossum and the koala. He had forgotten his own

tongue, and had given up all thoughts of crossing again the desolate barriers of snow which divided him from

civilization, when a slight incident brought back old associations to his mind, and roused him from sleep.

In some hunting excursion he got a slight scratch, and, searching for some linen to tie it up, found in his

mimi an old waistcoat, which he had worn when he came into the valley. In the lining, while tearing it up,

he found a crumpled paper, a note from his sister, written years before, full of sisterly kindness and

tenderness. He read it again and again before he lay down, and the next morning, collecting such small stock

of provisions as he could, he started on the homeward track, and after incredible hardships reached his

His brotherinlaw tried in vain with a strong party to reach the lake, but never succeeded. What moun tain

it was he discovered, or what river is fed by the lake he lived on, no man knows to this day. Some say he

went mad, and lived in the ranges all the time, and that this was all a mere madman's fancy. But, whether he

was mad or not then, he is sane enough now, and has married a wife, and settled down to be one of the most

"Well," said the Doctor, thrusting his fists deep into his breeches pockets, "I don't believe that story."

"Nor I either, Doctor," I replied. "But it has amused you all for half an hour; so let it pass."

"Oh!" said the Doctor, rather peevishly, "if you put it on those grounds, I am bound, of course, to with hold

a few little criticisms I was inclined to make on its probability. I hope you won't go and pass it off as

authentic, you know, because if we once begin to enter tain these sort of legends as meaning anything, the

whole history of the country becomes one great fog bank, through which the devil himself could not find his

"Now, for my part," said mischievous Alice, "I think it a very pretty story. And I have no doubt that it is

"Oh, dear me, then," said the Doctor, "let us vote it true. And, while we are about it, let us believe that the

Sydney ghost actually did sit on a threerail fence, smoking its pipe, and directing an anxious crowd of

relatives where to find its body. By all means let us believe everything we hear."

The next morning our pleasant party suffered a loss. Captain Brentwood and Alice went off home. He was

wanted there, and all things seemed so tranquil that he thought it was foolish to stay away any longer. Cecil

Mayford, too, departed, carrying with him the affec tionate farewells of the whole party. His pleasant even

temper, and his handsome face, had won every one who knew him, and, though he never talked much, yet,

when he was gone, we all missed his merry laugh, after one of Desborough's good stories. Charley Hawker

went off with him too, and spent a few hours with Ellen Mayford, much to his satisfaction, but came in again

at night, as his mother had prayed of him not to leave the Major's till he had seen her again.

That night the Major proposed punch, and, after Mrs. Buckley had gone to bed, Sam sang a song, and

Desborough told a story, about a gamekeeper of his uncle's, whom the old gentleman desired to start in an

independent way of business. So he built him a new house, and gave him a keg of whisky, to start in the

spiritselling line. "But the first night," said Des borough, "the villain finished the whisky himself, broke the

keg, and burnt the house down; so my uncle had to take him back into service again, after all." And after this

And the next morning, too, I am afraid, we were rather late for breakfast. Just as we were sitting down, in

"Hallo," said the Major; "what brings you back so soon, old friend. Nothing the matter I hope?"

"Nothing but business," he replied. "I am going on to Dickson's, and I shall be back home tonight, I hope. I

am glad to find you so late, as I have had no breakfast, and have ridden ten miles."

He took breakfast with us and went on. The morn ing passed somewhat heavily, as a morning is apt to do,

"Now, if anybody will confess that he drank just three drops too much punch last night, I will do the same.

Mrs. Buckley, my dear lady, I hope you will order plenty of pale ale for lunch."

Lunch passed pleasantly enough, and afterwards the Major, telling Sam to move a table outside into the

verandah, disappeared, and soon came back with a very "curious" bottle of Madeira. We sat then in the

I remember every word that was spoken, and every trivial circumstance that happened during that quarter of

an hour; they are burnt into my memory as if by fire. The Doctor was raving about English poetry, as usual,

saying, however, that the modern English poets, good as they were, had lost the power of melody a good

I heard no more. Mrs. Buckley's French clock, in the house behind, chimed three quarters past one, and I

Can you tell the step of him who brings evil tidings? I think I can. At all events, I felt my heart grow cold

when I heard those footsteps. I heard them coming through the house, across the boarded floor. The one was

a rapid, firm, military footstep, accom panied with the clicking of a spur, and the other was unmistakably

We all turned round and looked at the door. There stood the sergeant of Desborough's troopers, pale and

silent, and close behind him, clinging to him as if for protection, was the lithe naked figure of a black lad,

looking from behind the sergeant, with terrified visage, first at one and then at another of us.

I saw disaster in their faces, and would have held up my hand to warn him not to speak before Mrs. Buckley.

But I was too late, for he had spoken. And then we sat for a minute, looking at one another, each man seeing

POOR little Cecil Mayford had left us about nine o'clock in the morning of the day before this, and,

accompanied by Charles Hawker, reached his mother's station about eleven o'clock in the day.

All the way Charles had talked incessantly of Ellen, and Cecil joined in Charles's praises of his sister, and

"You're worse about my sister, Charley," said he, "than old Sam is about Miss Brentwood. He takes things

quiet enough, but if you go on in this style till you are old enough to marry, by Jove, there'll be nothing of

"The best thing you can do is to ask her," said Cecil. "I think I know what she would say though."

They reached Mrs. Mayford's, and spent a few pleasant hours together. Charles started home again about

three o'clock, and having gone a little way, turned to look back. The brother and sister stood at the

housedoor still. He waved his hand in farewell to them, and they replied. Then he rode on and saw them no

Cecil and Ellen went into the house to their mother. The women worked, and Cecil read aloud to them. The

book was "Waverley;" I saw it afterwards, and when supper was over he took it up to begin reading again.

"Not that book tonight, my boy," said his mother. "Read us a chapter out of the Bible. I am very low in my

He read the good book to them till quite late. Both he and Ellen thought it strange that their mother should

insist on that book on a weeknight; they never usually read it, save on Sunday evenings.

The morning broke bright and frosty. Cecil was abroad betimes, and went down the paddock to fetch the

horses. He put them in the stockyard, and stood for a time close to the stable, talking to a tame black lad,

His attention was attracted by a noise of horses' feet. He looked up and saw about a dozen men riding swiftly

For an instant he seems to have idly wondered who they were, and have had time to notice a thickset gaudily

dressed man, who rode in front of the others, when the kitchendoor was thrown suddenly open, and the old

hutkeeper, with his grey hair waving in the wind, run out, crying, "Save yourself, in God's name, Master

Cecil raised his clenched hands in wild despair. They were caught like birds in a trap. No hope! no

escape! Nothing left for it now, but to die redhanded. He dashed into the house with the old hutkeeper and

The black lad ran up to a little rocky knoll within two hundred yards of the house, and, hiding himself,

watched what went on. He saw the bushrangers ride up to the door and dismount. Then they began to beat the

door and demand admittance. Then the door was burst down, and one of them fell dead by a pistol shot.

Then they rushed in tumultuously, leaving one outside to mind the horses. Then the terrified boy heard the

dull sound of shots fired rapidly inside the building (pray that you may never hear that noise, reader: it always

Then there began to arise a wild sound of brutal riot within, and after a time they poured out again, and

Then the black boy slipt down from his lair like a snake, and stole towards the house. All was still as death.

The door was open, but, poor little savage as he was, he dared not enter. Once he thought he heard a

movement within, and listened intently with all his faculties, as only a savage can listen, but all was still

In the entrance, stepping over the body of the dead bushranger, he found the poor old whiteheaded hut

keeper knocked down and killed in the first rush. He went on into the parlour; and there, oh, lamentable

sight! was Cecil; clever, handsome little Cecil, our old favourite, lying half fallen from the sofa, shot

But not alone. No; prone along the floor, covering six feet or more of ground, lay the hideous corpse of

Moody, the cannibal. The redheaded miscreant, who had murdered poor Lee, under George Hawker's direc

I think the poor black boy would have felt in his dumb darkened heart some sorrow at seeing his kind old

master so cruelly murdered. Perhaps he would have raised the deathcry of his tribe over him, and burnt

himself with fire, as their custom is; but he was too terrified at seeing so many of the lordly white race

prostrated by one another's hands. He stood and trembled, and then, almost in a whisper, began to call for

"Missis!" he said, "Miss Ellen! All pull away, bushranger chaps. Make a light, good Missis. Plenty frightened

No answer. No sign of Mrs. Mayford or Ellen. They must have escaped then. We will try to hope so. The

black boy peered into one chamber after another, but saw no signs of them, only the stillness of death over

Let us leave this accursed house, lest, prying too closely, we may find crouching in some dark corner a

The black lad stripped himself naked as he was born, and running like a deer, sped to Major Buckley's before

the south wind, across the plain. There he found the Sergeant, and told him his tale, and the Sergeant and he

THE Sergeant, as I said, broke in upon us with the fearful news as we sat at wine. For a minute no man

spoke, but all sat silent and horror struck. Only the Doctor rose quietly, and slipped out of the room un

Desborough spoke first. He rose up with deadly wrath in his face, and swore a fearful oath, an oath so fearful,

that he who endorsed every word of it then, will not write it down now. To the effect, "That, he would take

neither meat, nor drink, nor pleasure, nor rest, beyond what was necessary to keep body and soul together,

Charles Hawker went up to the Sergeant, with a livid face and shaking hands; "Will you tell me again,

The Sergeant looked at him compassionately. "Well, sir!" he said; "the boy seemed to think Mrs. and Miss

"You are deceiving me," said Charles. "There is something you are hiding from me, I shall go down there this

"You will do nothing of the kind, sir," said Mrs. Buckley, coming into the doorway and confronting him;

During these few moments, Sam had stood stupified. He stepped up to the Sergeant, and said,

"Ah!" said Sam; "towards Captain Brentwood's, and Alice at home, and alone! There may be time yet."

He ran out of the room and I after him. "His first trouble," I thought, "his first trial. How will our boy

Let me mention again, that the distance from the Mayfords' to Captain Brentwood's, following the wind ings

of the river on its right bank, was nearly twenty miles. From Major Buckley's to the same point, across the

plains, was barely ten; so that there was still a chance that a brave man on a good horse, might reach Captain

Sam's noble horse, Widderin, a horse with a pedigree a hundred years old, stood in the stable. The buying of

that horse had been Sam's only extravagance, for which he had often reproached himself, and now this day,

I followed him up to the stable, and found him putting the bridle on Widderin's beautiful little head. Neither

of us spoke, only when I handed him the saddle, and helped him with the girths, he said, "God bless you."

I ran out and got down the sliprails for him. As he rode by he said, "Goodbye, uncle Jeff, perhaps you

won't see me again;" and I cried out, "Remember your God and your mother, Sam, and don't do any thing

Then he was gone; and looking across the plains the way he should go, I saw another horseman toiling far

away, and recognised Doctor Mulhaus. Good Doctor! he had seen the danger in a moment, and by his ready

The Doctor, on his handsome longbodied Arabian mare, was making good work of it across the plains,

when he heard the rush of horses' feet behind him, and turning, he saw tall Widderin bestridden by Sam,

springing over the turf, gaining on him stride after stride. In a few minutes they were alongside of one

"Good lad!" cried the Doctor; "On, forwards; catch her, and away to the woods with her. Blood hound

Desborough will be on their trail in halfanhour. Save her, and we will have noble vengeance."

Sam only waved his hand in goodbye, and sped on across the plain like a solitary ship at sea. He steered for

The good horse, with elastic and easy motion, fled on his course like a bird; lifting his feet clearly and rapidly

through the grass. The brisk south wind filled his wide nostrils as he turned his graceful neck from side to

side, till, finding that work was meant, and not play, he began to hold his head straight before him, and rush

And Sam, poor Sam! all his hopes for life now brought down to this: to depend on the wind and pluck of an

unconscious horse. One stumble now, and it were better to lie down on the plain and die. He was in the hands

of God, and he felt it. He said one short prayer, but that towards the end was interrupted by the wild current

Was there any hope? They, the devils, would have been drinking at the Mayfords', and perhaps would go

slow; or would they ride fast and wild? After think ing a short time, he feared the latter. They had tasted

blood, and knew that the country would be roused on them shortly. On, on, good horse!

The lonely shepherd on the plains, sleepily watching his feeding sheep, looked up as Sam went speeding by,

and thought how fine a thing it would be to be dressed like that, and have nothing to do but to ride blood

horses to death. Mind your sheep, good shepherd; perhaps it were better for you to do that and nothing more

all your life, than to carry in your breast for one short hour such a volcano of rage, indignation, and terror, as

Here are a brace of good pistols, and they, with care, shall give account, if need be, of two men. After that,

nothing. It were better, so much better, not to live if one were only ten minutes too late. The Doctor would be

The Organ hill, a cloud of misty blue when he started, now hung in a'rial fluted cliffs above his head. As he

raced across the long glacis which lay below the hill, he could see a solitary eagle wheeling round the

topmost pinnacles, against the clear blue sky; then the hill was behind him, and before him another stretch of

Brave Widderin had his ears back now, and was throwing his breath regularly through his nostrils in deep

sighs. Good horse, only a little longer; bear thyself bravely this day, and then pleasant pastures for thee till

thou shalt go the way of all horses. Many a time has she patted, with kind words, thy rainbow neck, my

Alas! good willing brute, he cannot understand; only he knows that his kind master is on his back, and so he

will run till he drop. Good Widderin! think of the time when thy sire rushed triumphant through the shouting

thousands at Epsom, and all England heard that Arcturus had won the Derby. Think of the time when thy

grandam, carrying Sheik Abdullah, bore down in a whirlwind of sand on the toiling affrighted caravan. Ah!

thou knowest not of these things, but yet thy speed flags not. We are not far off now, good horse, we shall

Now he was in the forest again, and now, as he rode quickly down the steep sandy road among the braken, he

heard the hoarse rush of the river in his ears, and knew the end was wellnigh come.

No drink now, good Widderin! a bucket of Cham pagne in an hour's time, if thou wilt only stay not now to

bend thy neck down to the clear gleaming water; flounder through the ford, and just twenty yards up the bank

Now the house was in sight, and now he cried aloud some wild inarticulate sound of thankfulness and joy.

All was as peaceful as ever, and Alice, unconscious, stood whiterobed in the verandah, feeding her birds.

As he rode up he shouted out to her and beckoned. She came running through the house, and met him

"The bushrangers! Alice, my love," he said. "We must fly this instant, they are close to us now."

She had been prepared for this. She knew her duty well, for her father had often told her what to do. No tears!

no hysterics! She took Sam's hand without a word, and placing her fairy foot upon his boot, vaulted up into

Eleanor, the cook, came running out. "Fly!" said Alice. "Get away into the bush. The gang are com ing;

close by." She, an old Vandemonian, needed no second warning, and as the two young people rode away,

they saw her clearing the paddock rapidly, and making for a dense clump of wattles, which grew just beyond

"I should feel safer across the river," he replied; "that little wooded knoll would be a fine hidingplace, and

"Oh! poor little Cecil," she cried, "that we were all so fond of. And Mrs. Mayford and Ellen?"

They crossed the river, and dismounting, they led the tired horse up the steep slope of turf that sur rounded a

little castellated tor of bluestone. Here they would hide till the storm was gone by, for from here they could

see the windings of the river, and all the broad plain stretched out beneath their feet.

"I do not see them anywhere, Alice," said Sam presently. "I see no one coming across the plains. They must

be either very near us in the hollow of the rivervalley, or else a long way off. I have very little doubt they

"There they are!" said Alice. "Surely there are a large party of horsemen on the plain, but they are seven or

"Ay, ten," said Sam. "I am not sure they are horsemen." Then he said suddenly in a whisper, "Lie down, my

There burst on his ear a confused sound of talking and laughing, and out of one of the rocky gullies leading

towards the river, came the men they had been flying from, in number about fourteen. They had crossed the

river, for some unknown reason, and to the fearstruck hiders it seemed as though they were making straight

He had got Widderin's head in his breast, blindfold ing him with his coat, for should he neigh now, they

were undone, indeed! As the bushrangers approached, the horse began to get uneasy, and paw the ground,

putting Sam in such an agony of terror that the sweat rolled down his face. In the midst of this he felt a hand

on his arm, and Alice's voice, which he scarcely recognised, said, in a fierce whisper,

"As you please," she said; "but I must not fall alive into their hands. Never look your mother in the face again

He gave one more glance round, and saw that the enemy would come within a hundred yards of their

Was it a minute only, or an hour, till they heard the sound of the voices dying away in the roar of the river?

Faces, they thought, that they had never seen before, so each told the other afterwards, so wild, so

hag gard, and so strange! And now that they were safe and free again free to arise and leave their

dreadful rock prison, and wander away where they would, they could scarcely believe that the danger was

They came out silently from among the crags, and took up another station, where they could see all that went

on. They saw the miscreants swarming about the house, and heard a pistolshot only one.

"Who can they be firing at?" said Alice, in a sub dued tone. They were both so utterly appalled by their late

danger, that they spoke in whispers, though the enemy were a quarter of a mile off.

"Mere mischief, I should fancy," said Sam; "there is no one there. Oh! Alice, my love, can you realize that we

"Hardly yet, Sam! But who could those men be we saw at such a distance on the plain? Could they have been

"Why," said Sam, "I had forgotten them! They must be our friends, on these fellows' tracks. Des borough

"I hope my father," said Alice, "will hear nothing till he sees me. Poor father! what a state he will be in. See,

They saw Dr. Mulhaus ride up to one of the heights overlooking the river, and reconnoitre. Seeing the men in

"He will be lost!" said Alice. "He thinks we are there. Call, Sam, at all risks."

Sam did so, and they saw the Doctor turn. Alice showed herself for a moment, and then he turned back, and

rode the way he had come. In a few minutes he joined them from the rear, and, taking Alice in his arms,

"So, our jewel is safe, then praise be to God! Thanks due also to a brave man and a good horse. This is the

last station those devils will ruin, for our friends are barely four miles off. I saw them just now."

"I wish, I only wish," said Sam, "that they may delay long enough to be caught. I would give a good deal for

There was but little chance of that, though; their measures were too well taken. Almost as Sam spoke, the

three listeners heard a shrill whistle, and imme diately the enemy began mounting. Some of them were

evidently drunk, and could hardly get on their horses, but were assisted by the others. But very shortly they

"Now we may go down, and see what destruction has been done," said Alice. "Who would have thought to

"Stay a little," said the Doctor, "and let us watch these gentlemen's motions. Where can they be going

"I am of opinion," said Sam, "that they are going to lie up in one of the gullies this evening. They are full of

drink and madness, and they don't know what they are about. If they get into the main system of gullies, we

shall have them like rats in a trap, for they can never get out by the lower end. Do you see, Doctor, a little

patch of white road among the trees over there? That leads to the Limestone Gates, as we call it. If they pass

those walls upwards, they are confined as in a pound. Watch the white road, and we shall see."

The piece of road alluded to was about two miles off, and winding round a steep hill among trees. Only one

turn in it was visible, and over this, as they watched, they saw a dark spot pass, followed by a crowd of

"There they go," said Sam. "The madmen are safe now. See, there comes Desborough, and all of them; let us

They turned to go, and saw Jim coming towards them, by the route that Sam had come, all bespattered with

He threw up his hat when he saw them, and gave a feeble hurrah! but even then a twinge of pain shot across

"God save you, my dear sister," he said; "I have been in such a state of mind; God forgive me, I have been

cursing the day I was born. Sam, I started about three minutes after you, and had very nearly succeeded in

overhauling the Doctor, about two miles from here, when this brute put his foot in a crab hole, and came

down, rolling on my leg. I was so bruised I couldn't mount again, and so I have walked. I see you are all right

though, and that is enough for me. Oh my sister my darling Alice! Think what we have escaped!"

So they went towards the house. And when Major Buckley caught sight of Alice, riding between Doctor

Mulhaus and Sam, he gave such a stentorian cheer that the retreating bushrangers must have heard it.

"Well ridden, gentlemen," he said. "And who won the race? Was it Widderin, or the Arabian, or the

"The Sydney importation, sir, would have beaten the Arabian, barring accident," said Jim. "But, seriously

"And I," said the Doctor, "also. Sam won the race, and has got the prize. Now, let us look forward, and not

They communicated to Desborough all particulars, and told him of the way they had seen the bushrangers go.

Every one was struck with the change in him. No merry stories now. The laughing Irishman was gone, and a

stern gloomy man, more like an Englishman, stood in his place. I heard after, that he deeply blamed himself

for what had occurred (though no one else thought of doing so), and thought he had not taken full

"Well, gentlemen, night is closing in. Major Buckley, I think you will agree with me that we should act more

effectually if we waited till daylight, and refresh both horses and men. More particularly as the enemy in their

drunken madness have hampered themselves in the mountains. Major, Doctor Mulhaus, and Mr. Halbert, you

"I would sooner he'd have gone tonight and got it over," said Charles Hawker, taking Sam's arm. "Oh! Sam,

Sam! Think of poor Cecil! Think of poor Ellen, when she hears what has happened. She must know by now!"

"Poor Charley," said Sam, "I am so sorry for you. Lie down, and get to sleep; the sun is going down."

He lay down as he was bid, somewhere out of the way. He was crushed and stunned. He hardly seemed to

know at present what he was doing. After a time, Sam went in and found him sleeping uneasily.

But Alice was in sad tribulation at the mischief done. All her pretty little womanly ornaments overturned and

broken, her piano battered to pieces, and, worst of all, her poor kangaroo shot dead, lying in the verandah.

"Oh!" said she to Major Buckley, "you must think me very wicked to think of such things at a time like this,

but I cannot help it. There is something so shocking to me in such a sudden bouleversement of old order. Yet,

if it shocks me to see my piano broken, how terrible must a visitation like the Mayfords' be. These are not the

Eleanor, the cook, had come back from her lair, quite unconcerned. She informed the company, in a non

chalant sort of way, that this was the third adventure of the kind she had been engaged in, and, although they

seemed to make a great fuss about it; on the other side (Van Diemen's Land), it was considered a mere

necessary nuisance; and so proceeded to prepare such supper as she could. In the same offhand way she

remarked to Sam, when he went into the kitchen to get a light for his pipe, that, if it was true that Mike Howe

had crossed and was among them, they had better look out for squalls; for that he was a devil, and no

Desborough determined to set a watch out on the road towards the mouth of the gully, where they were

supposed to be. "We shall have them in the morning," said he. "Let every one get to sleep who can sleep, for I

Charles Hawker had laid down in an inner room, and was sleeping uneasily, when he was awakened by some

one, and, looking up, saw Major Buckley, with a light in his hand, bending over him. He started up.

"What is the matter, sir?" he asked. "Why do you look at me so strangely? Is there any new misfor tune?"

"No one shall do so. I swear that he who calls you a coward shall feel the weight of my arm."

"You must not ask," said the Major; "perhaps you will know some day, but not yet. All I say to you is, go

home to your mother tomorrow, and stay there. Should you fire a shot, or strike a blow against those men

we are going to hunt down, you may do a deed which would separate you from the rest of mankind, and leave

The troopers lay in the hall, and in the middle of the night there was a sound of a horse outside, and he who

"Safe, sir. Young Mr. Buckley rode over and caught her up out of it ten minutes before they got here."

"Ah, well, I shall come in and lie in the hall. Don't make a noise. What is that?"

They both started. Some one of the many sleepers, with that strange hoarse voice peculiar to those who talk in

"That's young Mr. Hawker, sir," said the trooper. "His sweetheart's brother, Mr. Mayford, was killed by them

yesterday. The head of this very gang, sir, that villain Touan his name is Hawker. An odd coinci dence,

"Very odd," said the Captain. "At the same time, Jackson, if I were you, I wouldn't talk about it. There are

many things one had best not talk about, Jackson. Pull out the corner of that blanket, will you? So we shall

"They'll fight, sir," said the trooper. "If we can bail them up, they'll fight, believe me. Better so; I think we

So Captain Brentwood lay down beside the trooper, and slept the sleep of the just among his broken chairs

and tables. The others slept too, sound and quiet, as though there were no fight on the morrow.

But ere the moon grew pale they were woke by Desborough, tramping about with clicking spurs among the

sleepers, and giving orders in a loud noise. At the first movement, while the rest were yawning and stretching

themselves, and thinking that battle was not altogether so desirable a thing on a cold morning as it was

overnight, Major Buckley was by Charles Hawker's bedside, and, reminding him of his promise, got him out

unperceived, helped him to saddle his horse, and started him off to his mother with a note.

The lad, overawed by the major's serious manner, went without debate, putting the note in his pocket. I have

seen that note; Sam showed it to me the next day, and so I can give you the contents. It was from Major

"I have sent your boy to you, dear old friend, bearing this. You will have heard by now what has happened,

and you will give me credit for preventing what might come to be a terrible catastrophe. The boy is utterly

unconscious that his own father is the man whose life is sought this day above all others. He is at the head of

this gang, Mary. My own son saw him yesterday. My hand shall not be raised against him; but further than

that I will not interfere. Your troubles have come now to the final and most terrible pass; and all the advice I

have to give you is to pray, and pray continually, till this awful storm is gone by. Remember, that come what

Hurriedly written, scrawled rather, as this note was, it showed me again plainer than ever what a noble

clearhearted man he was who had written it. But this is not to the purpose. Charles Hawker departed,

carrying this, before the others were stirring, and held his way through the forestroad towards his mother's

This same two days' business was the best stroke of work that the Devil did in that part of the country for

many years. With his usual sagacity he had busied himself in drawing the threads of mischief so parallel, that

it seemed they must end in one and only one lamentable issue; namely, that Charles Hawker and his father

should meet pistol in hand, as deadly enemies. But at this last period of the game, our good honest Major

completely checkmated him, by sending Charles Hawker home to his mother. In this terrible pass, after this

unexpected move of the Major's; he (the Devil, no other) began casting about for a scoundrel, by whose

assistance he might turn the Major's flank. But no great rogue being forthcoming he had to look round for the

next best substitute, a great fool, and one of these he found immediately, riding exactly the way he

wished. Him he subpoenaed immediately, and found to do his work better even than a good rogue would

have done. We shall see how poor Charles Hawker, pricking along through the forest, getting every moment

further from danger and mischief, met a man charging along the road, full speed, who instantly pulled up and

This was the consummate fool, sent of the Devil, whom I have mentioned above. We have seen him before.

He was the longest, brownest, stupidest of the Hawbuck family. The one who could spit further than any of

Charles said it was. And they were bailed up in the limestone gully, and all the party were away after them.

"Well!" said the other, speaking unconsciously exactly the words which the enemy of mankind desired.

"Well, I couldn't have believed that. If a chap had said that of you in my hearing, I'd have fought him if he'd

Charles cursed aloud. "What have I done to be talked to like this? Major Buckley has no right to send me

away like this, to be branded as coward through the country side. Ten times over better to be shot than have

"That's the talk," said the poor fool. "I thought I wasn't wrong in you, Charley." And so Charles galloped back

We, in the meantime, had started from the station, ere day was well broke. Foremost of the company rode

Desborough, calm and serene, and on either side of him Captain Brentwood and Major Buckley. Then came

the Doctor, Sam, Jim, Halbert, and myself; behind us again, five troopers and the Sergeant. Each man of us

all was armed with a sword; and every man in that com pany, as it happened, knew the use of that weapon

The glare in the east changing from pearly green to golden yellow, gave notice of the coming sun. One snow

peak, Tambo, I think, began to catch the light, and blaze like another morning star. The day had begun in

earnest, and, as we entered the mouth of the glen to which we were bound, slanting gleams of light were

A deep, rockwalled glen it was, open and level, though, in the centre, ran a tangled waving line of ever

green shrubs, marking the course of a pretty bright creek, which, half hidden by luxuriant vegetation, ran

beside the faint track leading to one of Captain Brent wood's mountain huts. Along this track we could

It was one of the most beautiful gullies I had ever seen, and I turned to say so to some one who rode beside

me. Conceive my horror at finding it was Charles Hawker. I turned to him fiercely, and said,

He defied me. And I was speaking roughly to him again, when there came a puff of smoke from among the

rocks overhead, and down I went, head over heels. A bullet had grazed my thigh, and killed my horse, who.

throwing me on my head, rendered me hors de combat. So that during the fight which followed, I was sitting

My catastrophe caused only a temporary stoppage; and, during the confusion, Charles Hawker was unno

ticed. The man who had fired at me (why at me I cannot divine), was evidently a solitary guard perched

among the rocks. The others held on for about a quarter of an hour, till the valley narrowed up again, just

leaving room for the walk between the brawling creek and the tall limestone cliff. But after this it opened out

into a broader amphitheatre, walled on all sides by inaccessible rock, save in two places. Sam, from whom I

get this account of affairs, had just time to notice this when he saw Captain Brentwood draw a pistol and fire

it, and, at the same instant, a man dashed out of some scrub on the other side of the creek, and galloped away

"They have had the precaution to set two watches for us, which I hardly expected," said Captain Des

borough. "They will fight us now, they can't help it, thank God. They have had a short turn and a merry one,

but they are dead men, and they know it. The Devil is but a poor paymaster, Buckley. After all this hide and

The troopers now went to the front with Halbert and the other military men, while Sam, Jim, and Charles, the

"We are going to have a regular battle," said Jim. "They are bailed up, and must fight; some of us will go

So they rode on through the open forest, till they began to see one or two horsemen through the tree stems,

reconnoitering. The ground began to rise towards a lofty cliff that towered before them, and all could see that

the end was coming. Then they caught sight of the whole gang, scattered about among the low shrubs, and a

few shots were fired on both sides before the bushrangers turned and retreated towards the wall of rock, now

plainly visible through the timber. Our party continued to advance steadily in open order.

Then under the beetling crags, where the ferntrees began to feather up among the fallen boulders, the

THEN Desborough cried aloud to ride at them, and spare no man. And, as he spoke, every golden fern

bough, and every coigne of vantage among the rocks, began to blaze and crackle with gun and pistol shot.

Jim's horse sprung aloft and fell, hurling him forcibly to the ground, and a tall young trooper, dropping his

carbine, rolled heavily off his saddle, and lay on the grass face downward, quite still, as if asleep.

"There's the first man killed," said the Major, very quietly. "Sam, my boy, don't get excited, but close on the

first fellow you see a chance at." And Sam, looking in his father's face as he spoke, saw a light in his eyes,

that he had never seen there before the light of battle. The Major caught a carbine from the hands of a

trooper who rode beside him, and took a snap shot, quick as lightning, at a man whom they saw running from

one cover to another. The poor wretch staggered and put his hands to his head, then stumbled and fell heavily

Now the fight became general and confused. All about among the fern and the flowers, among the leman

shrubs, and the tangled vines, men fought, and fired, and struck, and cursed; while the little brown bandi

roots scudded swiftly away, and the deadly snake hid himself in his darkest lair, affrighted. Shots were

cracking on all sides, two riderless horses, confused in the mel e, were galloping about neighing, and a third

Sam saw a man fire at his father, whose horse went down, while the Major arose unhurt. He rode at the

ruffian, who was dismounted, and cut him so deep between the shoulder and the neck, that he fell and never

spoke again. Then seeing Halbert and the Doctor on the right, fiercely engaged with four men who were

fighting with clubbed muskets and knives, he turned to help them, but ere he reached them, a tall, handsome

young fellow dashed out of the shrub, and pulling his horse short up, took deliberate aim at him, and fired.

Sam heard the bullet go hissing past his ear, and got mad. "That young dog shall go down," said he. "I know

him. He is the one who rode first yesterday." And as this passed through his mind, he rode straight at him,

with his sword hand upon his left shoulder. He came full against him in a moment, and as the man held up his

gun to guard himself, his cut descended, so full and hard that it shore through the gunbarrel as through a stick,

and ere he could bring his hand to his cheek, his opponent had grappled him, and the two rolled off their

Then began an awful and deadly fight between these two young fellows. Sam's sword had gone from his hand

in the fall, and he was defenceless, save by such splendid physical powers as he had by nature. But his

adversary, though perhaps a little lighter, was a terrible enemy, and fought with the strength and litheness of a

leopard. He had his hand at Sam's throat, and was trying to choke him. Sam saw that one great effort was

necessary, and with a heave of his whole body, threw the other beneath him, and struck downwards, three

quick blows, with the whole strength of his ponderous fist, on the face of the man, as he lay beneath him. The

hold on his throat loosened, and seeing that they had rolled within reach of his sword, in a moment he had

clutched it, and drawing back his elbow, prepared to plunge it in his adversary's chest.

But he hesitated. He could not do it. Maddened as he was with fighting, the sight of that bloody face, bruised

beyond recognition by his terrible blows, and the wild fierce eyes, full of rage and terror, looking into his

own, stayed his hand, and while he paused the man spoke, thick and indistinctly, for his jaw was broken.

And as he spoke a trooper ran up, and secured the prisoner, who appealed to Sam for his handkerchief. "I

fought you fair," he said; "and you're a man worth fighting. But you have broken something in my face with

"God save us all!" said Sam, giving him his hand kerchief. "This is miserable work! I hope it is all over."

It seemed so. All he heard were the fearful screams of a wounded man lying somewhere among the fern.

"All away to the right, sir," said the trooper. "One of my comrades is killed, your father has had his horse

shot, the Doctor is hit in the arm, and Mr. James Brent wood has got his leg broke with the fall of his horse.

They are minding him now. We've got all the gang, alive or dead, except two. Captain Desborough is up the

valley now after the head man, and young Mr. Hawker is with him. Dn it all! hark to that."

Two shots were fired in quick succession in the direc tion indicated; and Sam having caught his horse, gal

Desborough fought neither against small nor great, but only against one man, and he was George Hawker.

Him he had sworn he would bring home, dead or alive. When he and his party had first broken through the

fern, he had caught sight of his quarry, and had instantly made towards him, as quick as the broken,

They knew one another; and, as soon as Hawker saw that he was recognised, he made to the left, away from

the rest of his gang, trying to reach, as Desborough could plainly see, the only practicable way that led from

They fired at one another without effect at the first. Hawker was now pushing in full flight, though the scrub

was so dense that neither made much way. Now the ground got more open and easier travelled, when

Desborough was aware of one who came charging reck lessly up alongside of him, and, looking round, he

"Good lad," he said; "come on. I must have that fellow before us there. He is the archdevil of the lot. If we

"We'll have him, safe enough!" said Charles. "Push to the left, Captain, and we shall get him against those

Desborough saw the excellence of this advice. This was the last piece of broken ground there was. On the

right the cliff rose precipitous, and from its side had tumbled a confused heap of broken rock, running out

into the glen. Once past this, the man they were pur suing would have the advantage, for he was splendidly

mounted, and beyond was clear galloping ground. As it was, he was in a recess, and Desborough and Charles,

George Hawker reined up his horse when he saw escape was impossible, and awaited their coming with a

doublebarrelled pistol in his hand. As the other two came on, calling on him to surrender, Desborough's

horse received a bullet in his chest, and down went horse and man together. But Charles pushed on till he was

So met father and son the second time in their lives, all unconsciously. For an instant they glared on one

another with wild threatening eyes, as the father made his aim more certain and deadly. Was there no light

ning in heaven to strike him dead, and save him from this last horrid crime? Was there no warning voice to

None. The bullet sped, and the poor boy tumbled from his saddle, clutching wildly, with crooked, convul

Then, ere Desborough had disentangled himself from his fallen horse, George Hawker rode off laughing

out through the upper rock walls into the presence of the broad bald snowline that rolled above his head in

Desborough arose, swearing and stamping; but, ere he could pick up his cap, Sam was alongside of him,

breathless, and with him another commonlooking man my man, Dick, no other and they both cried

"Look there!" said Desborough, pointing to some thing dark among the grass, "that's what has hap

"Never mind now," he answered. "Captain Des borough, what are you going to do? Do you know where

"Not at all, sir! He is going to cross the snow, and get to the old hut, near the Murray Gate."

"What! Merryman's hut?" said the Captain. "Impossible! He could not get through that way."

"I tell you he can. That is where they came from at first; that is where they went to when they landed; and this

"Are you deceiving me?" said Desborough. "It will be worse for you if you are! I ain't in a humour for that

"Do you know this man, Buckley?" said Desborough, calling out to Sam, who was sitting beside poor Charles

"Then, look here," said Desborough to Dick; "I shall trust you. Now, you say he will cross the snow. If I were

"That's just it, don't you see? You can be round at the huts before him. That's what I mean," said Dick. "Take

Mr. Buckley's horse, and ride him till he drops, and you'll get another at the Parson's. If you have any snow, it

will be on Broadsaddle; but it won't signify. You go round the low side of Tambo, and sight the lake, and

"Good; I'll remember you for this. Buckley, I want your horse. Is the lad dead?"

"No; but he is very bad. I'll try to get him home. Take the horse; he is not so good a one as Widderin, but he'll

They watched him ride away almost south, skirting the ridges of the mountain as long as he could; then they

They raised poor Charles Hawker up, and Sam, mounting Dick's horse, took the wounded man up before him,

and started to go slowly home. After a time, he said, "Do you feel worse, Charles?" and the other replied,

"No; but I am very cold." After that he stayed quite still, with his arm round Sam Buckley's neck, until they

Some came out to the door to meet them, and, among others, Alice. "Take him from me," said Sam to one of

the men. "Be very gentle: he is asleep." And so they took the dead man's arm from off the living man's

shoulder, and carried him in; for Charles Hawker was asleep indeed in the sleep that knows no waking.

That was one of the fiercest and firmest stands that was ever made by bushrangers against the authorities. Of

the latter five were shot down, three wounded, and the rest captured, save two. The gang was destroyed at

One trooper was shot dead at the first onset, a fine young fellow, just picked from his regiment for good

conduct to join the police. Another was desperately wounded, who died the next day. On the part of the

independent men assisting, there were Charles Hawker killed, Doctor Mulhaus shot in the left arm, and Jim

with his leg broke; so that, on that evening, Captain Brentwood's house was like a hospital.

Captain Brentwood set his son's leg, under Dr. Mulhaus' directions, the Doctor keeping mighty brave, though

once or twice his face twisted with pain, and he was nearly fainting. Alice was everywhere, pale and calm,

helping every one who needed it, and saying nothing. Eleanor, the cook, pervaded the house, doing the work

of seven women, and having the sympathies of fourteen. She told them that this was as bad a job as she'd ever

seen; worse, in fact. That the nearest thing she'd ever seen to it was when Mat Steeman's mob were broke up

by the squatters; "But then," she added, "there were none but prisoners killed."

But when Alice had done all she could, and the house was quiet, she went up to her father, and said,

"Now, father, comes the worst part of the matter for me. Who is to tell Mrs. Hawker?"

"Mrs. Buckley, my dear, would be the best person. But she is at the Mayfords', I am afraid."

"Mrs. Hawker must be told at once, father, by some of us. I do so dread her hearing of it by some accident,

when none of her friends are with her. Oh, dear! oh, dear! I never thought to have had such times as these."

"Alice, my darling," said her father, "do you think that you have strength to carry the news to her? If Major

Buckley went with you, he could tell her, you know; and it would be much better for her to have him, an old

friend, beside her. It would be such a delay to go round and fetch his wife. Have you courage?"

"I will make courage," she said. "Speak to Major Buckley, father, and I will get ready."

She went to Sam. "I am going on a terrible errand," she said; "I am going to tell Mrs. Hawker about this

dreadful, dreadful business. Now, what I want to say is, that you mustn't come; your father is going with me,

and I'll get through it alone, Sam. Now please," she added, seeing Sam was going to speak, "don't argue about

it; I am very much upset as it is, and I want you to stay here. You won't follow us, will you?"

"Whatever you order, Alice, is law," said Sam. "I won't come if you don't wish it; but I can't see"

"There now. Will you get me my horse? And please stay by poor Jim, for my sake."

Sam complied; and Alice, getting on her ridinghabit, came back trembling, and trying not to cry, to tell

He took her in his arms, and kissed her. "You are a brave, noble girl," he said; "I thank God for such a

daughterinlaw. Now, my dear, let us hurry off, and not think of what is to come."

It was about five o'clock when they went off. Sam and Halbert, having let them out of the paddock, went

indoors to comfort poor Jim's heart, and to get some thing to eat, if it were procurable. Jim lay on his bed

tossing about, and the Doctor sat beside him, talking to him; pale and grim, waiting for the doctor who had

"This is about as nice a kettle of fish," said Jim, when they came and sat beside him, "as a man could possibly

wish to eat. Poor Cecil and Charley; both gone, eh? Well, I know it ain't decent for a fellow with a broken leg

to feel wicked; but I do, nevertheless. I wish now that I had had a chance at some of them before that stupid

"If you don't lie still, you Jim," said Sam, "your leg will never set; and then you must have it taken off, you

"Shooting a little," said the Doctor; "nothing to signify, I believe. At least, nothing in the midst of such a

tragedy as this. Poor Mary Hawker; the pretty little villagemaid we all loved so well. To come to such an

"Quite true, alas! Every one must know it now. But I pray you, Sam, to keep the darkest part of it all from

"I could almost swear," said Sam, "that one among the gang is his son too. When they rode past Alice and

myself yesterday morning, one was beside him so wonderfully like him, that even at that time I set them

"If Hamlyn's strange tale be true, it is so," said the Doctor. "Is the young man you speak of among the

"Yes; I helped to capture him myself," said Sam. "What do you mean by Hamlyn's story?"

"Oh, a long one. He met him in a hut the night after we picnic'd at Mirngish, and found out who he was. The

secret not being ours, your father and I never told any of you young people of the fact of this bush ranger

being poor Mrs. Hawker's husband. I wish we had; all this might have been avoided. But the poor soul always

desired that the secret of his birth might be kept from Charles, and you see the consequences. I'll never keep a

They followed him, and he turned into a little side room at the back of the house. It was a room used for

chance visitors or strangers, containing two small beds, which now bore an unaccustomed burden, for

beneath the snowwhite coverlids, lay two figures, indistinct indeed, but unmistakeable.

Sam raised the counterpane from the nearest one, but it was not Charles. It was a young, handsome face that

The Doctor shook his head. "I have often seen them like that," he said. "He is shot through the heart."

Then they went to the other bed, where poor Charles lay. Sam gently raised the black curls from his face, but

none of them spoke a word for a few minutes, till the Doctor said, "Now let us come and see his brother."

They crossed the yard, to a slab outbuilding, before which one of the troopers was keeping guard, with a

Seven or eight fearfully illlooking ruffians lay about on the floor, handcuffed. They were most of them of

the usual convict stamp, dark, saturnine looking fellows, though one offered a strange contrast by being an

Albino, and another they could not see plainly, for he was huddled up in a dark corner, bending down over a

basin of water, and dabbing his face. The greater part of them cursed and blasphemed desperately, as is the

manner of such men when their blood is up, and they are reckless; while the wounded ones lay in a fierce

He went towards him, and saw he was right. The young man he had taken looked wildly up like a trapped

animal into his face, and the Doctor could not suppress an exclamation when he saw the likeness to his father.

He turned his face to the wall, and remained obsti nately silent. They perceived that nothing more was to be

got from him, and departed. But, turning at the door, they still saw him crouched in the corner like a wild

beast, wiping his bruised face every now and then with Sam's handkerchief, apparently thinking of nothing,

hoping for nothing. Such a pitiful sight such an example of one who was gone beyond feeling pity, or

sorrow, or aught else, save physical pain, that the Doctor's gorge rose, and he said, stamping on the gravel,

"A man, who says that that is not the saddest, sad dest sight he ever saw, is a disgrace to the mother that

bore him. To see a young fellow like that with such a physique and God only knows what undeveloped

qualities in him, only ripe for the gallows at fiveand twenty, is enough to make the angels weep. He knows

no evil but physical pain, and that he considers but a temporary one. He knows no good save, perhaps, to be

faithful to his confederates. He has been brought up from his cradle to look on every man as his enemy. He

never knew what it was to love a human being in his life. Why, what does such a man regard this world as?

As the antechamber of hell, if he ever heard of such a place. I want to know what either of us three would

have been if we had had his training. I want to know that now. We might have been as much worse than him

A beautiful colley came up to the Doctor and fawned on him, looking into his face with her deep, expressive,

"We must do something for that fellow, Sam. If it's only for his name's sake," said the Doctor.

That poor boy, sitting crouched there in the corner, with a broken jaw, and just so much of human feeling as

one may suppose a polecat to have, caught in a gin, is that same baby that we saw Ellen Lee nursing on the

doorstep in the rain, when our poor Mary came upon her on one wild night in Exeter.

Baseborn, workhousebred! Tossed from workhouse to prison, from prison to hulk every man's hand

against him an Arab of society. As hopeless a case, my lord judge, as you ever had to deal with; and yet I

think, my lord, that your big heart grows a little pitiful, when you see that handsome face before you, blank

and careless, and you try, fruitlessly, to raise some blush of shame, or even anger in it, by your eloquence.

Gone beyond that, my lord. Your thunderbolts fall harmless here, and the man you say is lost, and naturally.

Yet, give that same man room to breathe and act; keep temptation from him, and let his good qualities, should

he have any, have fair play, and, even yet, he may convert you to the belief that hardened criminals may be

reformed, to the extent of one in a dozen; beyond that no reasonable man will go.

Let us see the end of this man. For now the end of my tale draws near, and I must begin gathering up the

threads of the story, to tie them in a knot, and release my readers from duty. Here is all I can gather about

Sam and the Doctor moved heaven, earth, and the Colonial Secretary, to get his sentence commuted, and with

success. So when his companions were led out to execution, he was held back; reserved for penal servitude

He proved himself quiet and docile; so much so that when our greatest, boldest explorer was starting for his

last hopeless journey to the interior, this man was selected as one of the twelve convicts who were to

accompany him. What follows is an extract which I have been favoured with from his private journal. You

"Date lat. long. Morning. It is getting hope less now, and tomorrow I turn. Sand, and nothing but

sand. The salsolaceous plants, so long the only vege tation we have seen, are gone; and the little sienite

peak, the last symptom of a waterbearing country, has disap peared behind us. The sandhills still roll away

towards the setting sun, but get less and less elevated. The wild fowl are still holding their mysterious flight

to the northwest, but I have not wings to follow them. Oh, my God! if I only knew what those silly birds

know. It is hopeless to go on, and, I begin to fear, hopeless to go back. Will it never rain again?

"Afternoon. My servant Hawker, one of the con victs assigned to me by Government, died today at

noon. I had got fond of this man, as the most patient and the bravest, where all have been so patient and so

brave. He was a very silent and reserved man, and had never complained, so that I was deeply shocked on his

"He asked me not to deceive him, but to tell him if there was any truth in what the gaolchaplain had said,

about there being another life after death. I told him earnestly that I knew it as surely as I knew that the earth

was under my feet; and went on comforting him as one comforts a dying man. But he never spoke again; and

we buried him in the hot sand at sundown. The first wind will obliterate the little mound we raised over him,

and none will ever cross this hideous desert again. So that he will have as quiet a grave as he could wish.

"Eleven o'clock at night. God be praised. Heavy clouds and thunder to the north. "

HAWKER the elder, as I said, casting one glance at the body of his son, whom he knew not, and another at

Cap tain Desborough, who was just rising from the ground after his fall, set spurs to his noble chestnut

horse, and, pushing through the contracted barriers of slate which closed up the southern end of the

amphitheatre where they had been surprised, made for the broader and rapidly rising valley which stretched

He soon reached the rocky gate, where the vast ridge of schist, alternating with the limestone, and running

north and south in high serrated ridges, was cut through by a deep fissure, formed by the never idle waters of

a little creek, that in the course of ages had mined away the softer portions of the slate, and made a

He picked his way with difficulty through the tumbled boulders that lay in the chasm; and then there was a

cool brisk wind on his forehead, and a glare in his eyes. The chill breath of the west wind from the mountain

the glare of the snow that filled up the upper end of the valley, rising in level ridges towards the skyline.

He had been this path before; and if he had gone it a hundred times again, he would only have cursed it for a

rough, desperate road, the only hope of a desperate man. Not for him to notice the thousand lessons that the

Lord had spread before him in the wilderness! Not for him to notice how the vegetation changed when the

limestone was passed, and the white quartz reefs began to seam the slaty sides of the valley like rivers of

silver! Not for him to see how, as he went up and on, the hardy Dicksoniae, still nestled in stunted tufts

among the more sheltered side gullies, long after her tenderer sister, the queenly Alsophylla had been left

behind. He only knew that he was a hunted wild beast, and that his lair was beyond the snow.

The creek flashed pleasantly among the broken slate, full and turbid under the midday sun. After midnight,

when its fountains are sealed again by the frosty breath of night, that creek will be reduced to a trickling rill.

His horse's feet brushed through the delicate asplenium, the Venus'hair of Australia; the sarsaparilla still

hung in scant purple tufts on the golden wattle, and the scarlet correa lurked among the broken quartz.

Upwards and onwards. In front, endless cycles agone, a lava stream from some crater we know not had burst

over the slate, with fearful clang and fierce explo sion, forming a broad roadway of broken basalt up to a

plateau twelve hundred feet or more above us, and not so steep but that a horse might be led up it. Let us go

up with him, not cursing heaven and earth, as he did, but noticing how, as we ascend, the scarlet wreaths of

the Kennedia and the crimson Grevillea give place to the golden Grevillea and the red Epacris; then comes

the white Epacris, and then the grass trees, getting smaller and scantier as we go, till the little blue Gentian,

blos soming boldly among the slippery crags, tells us that we have nearly reached the limits of vegetation.

He turned when he reached this spot, and looked around him. To the west a broad rolling down of snow,

rising gradually; to the east, a noble prospect of forest and plain, hill and gully, with old Snowy winding on in

broad bright curves towards the sea. He looked over all the beauty and undeveloped wealth of Gipp's Land,

which shall yet, please God, in fulness of time, be one of the brightest jewels in the King of England's crown,

but with eyes that saw not. He turned towards the snow, and mounting his horse, which he had led up the

His plans were well laid. Across the mountain, north of Lake Omeo, not far from the mighty cleft in which

the infant Murray spends his youth, were two huts, erected years before by some settler, and aban doned.

They had been used by a gang of bushrangers, who had been attacked by the police, and dispersed.

Nevertheless, they had been since inhabited by the men we know of, who landed in the boat from Van

Diemen's Land, in consequence of Hawker himself having found a pass through the ranges, open for nine

months in the year. So that, when the police were searching Gipp's Land for these men, they, with the

exception of two or three, were snugly ensconced on the other watershed, waiting till the storm should blow

over. In these huts Hawker intended to lie by for a short time, living on such provisions as were left, until he

There was no pursuit, he thought: how could there be? Who knew of this route but himself and his mates?

hardly likely any of them would betray him. No creature was moving in the valley he had just ascended; but

Onwards, across the slippery snow. At first a few treestems, blighted and withered, were visible right and

left, proving that at some time during their exist ence, these bald downs had either a less elevation or a

warmer climate than now. Then these even dis appeared, and all around was one white blinding glare. To

the right, the snowfields rolled up into the shape less lofty mass called Mount Tambo, behind which the

hill they now call Kosciusko, as some say, the highest ground in the country, began to take a crimson

tint from the declining sun. Far to the south, black and gaunt among the whitened hills, towered the rounded

hump of Buffaloe, while the peaks of Buller and Aberdeen showed like dim blue clouds on the furthest

Snow, and nothing but snow. Sometimes plunging shoulder deep into some treacherous hollow, sometimes

guiding the tired horse across the surface frozen over unknown depths. He had been drinking hard for some

days, and, now the excitement of action had gone off, was fearfully nervous. The snowglint had dizzied his

head, too, and he began to see strange shapes form ing themselves in the shade of each hollow, and start at

A swiftflying shadow upon the snow, and a rush of wings overhead. An eagle. The lordly scavenger is

following him, impatient for him to drop and become a prey. Soar up, old bird, and bide thy time; on yonder

Twilight, and then night, and yet the snow but half past. There is a rock in a hollow, where grow a few scanty

tufts of grass which the poor horse may eat. Here he will camp, fireless, foodless, and walk up and down the

livelong night, for sleep might be death. Though he is not in thoroughly Alpine regions, yet still, at this time

of the year, the snow is deep and the frost is keen. It were as well to keep awake.

As he paced up and down beneath the sheltering rock, when night had closed in, and the frosty stars were

twinkling in the cold blue firmament, strange ghosts and fancies came crowding on him thick and fast. Down

the long vista of a misspent, ruined life, he saw people long since forgotten trooping up towards him. His

father tottered sternly on, as with a fixed purpose before him; his gipsymother, Madge, strode forward

pitiless; and poor ruined Ellen, holding her child to her heart, joined the others, and held up her withered hand

as if in mockery. But then there came a face between him and all the other figures which his dis tempered

brain had summoned, and blotted them out; the face of a young man, bearing a strange likeness to himself;

the face of the last human creature he had seen; the face of the boy that he had shot down among the fern.

Why should this face grow before him wherever he turned, so that he could not look on rock or sky without

seeing it? Why should it glare at him through a bloodred haze when he shut his eyes to keep it out, not in

sorrow, not in anger, but even as he had seen it last, expressing only terror and pain, as the lad rolled off his

horse, and lay a black heap among the flowers? Up and away! anything is better than this. Let us stumble

away across the snow, through the mirk night once more, rather than be driven mad by this pale boy's face.

Morning, and the pale ghosts have departed. Long shadows of horse and man are thrown before him now, as

the slope dips away to the westward, and he knows that his journey is wellnigh over.

It was late, afternoon, before, having left the snow some hours, he began to lead his horse down a wooded

precipice, through vegetation which grew more luxu riant every yard he descended. The glen, whose bottom

he was trying to reach, was a black profound gulf, with perpendicular, or rather overhanging walls, on every

side, save where he was scrambling down. Here indeed it was possible for a horse to keep his footing among

the belts of trees, that, alternating with precipitous granite cliff, formed the upper end of one of the most

He was barely onethird of the way down this moun tain wall, when the poor tired horse lost his footing and

fell over the edge, touching neither tree nor stone for five hundred feet, while George Hawker was left

terrified, hardly daring to peer into the dim abyss, where the poor beast was gone.

But it was little matter. The hut he was making for was barely four miles off now, and there was meat, drink,

and safety. Perhaps there might be company, he hoped there might, some of the gang might have escaped.

A dog would be some sort of friend, anything sooner than such another night as last night.

His pistols were gone with the saddle, and he was unarmed. He reached the base of the cliff in safety, and

forced his way through the tangled scrub that fringed the infant river, towards the lower end of the pass. Here

the granite walls, overhanging, bend for ward above to meet one another, almost forming an arch, the height

of which, from the riverbed, is com puted to be nearly, if not quite, three thousand feet. Through this awful

gate he forced his way, overawed and utterly dispirited, and reached the gully where his refuge lay, just as the

There was a slight track, partly formed by stray cattle which led up it, and casting his eyes upon this, he saw

the marks of a horse's feet. "Some one of the gang got home before me," he said. "I'm right glad of that,

He turned a sharp angle in the path, just where it ran round an abrupt cliff. He saw a horseman within ten

yards of him with his face towards him. Captain Desborough, holding a pistol at his head.

"Surrender, George Hawker!" said Desborough. "Or, by the living Lord! you are a dead man."

Hungry, cold, desperate, unarmed; he saw that he was undone, and that hope was dead. The Captain had an

easier prey than he had anticipated. Hawker threw up his arms, and ere he could fully appreciate his situation,

he was chained fast to Desborough's saddle, only to be loosed, he knew, by the gallows.

Without a word on either side they began their terrible journey. Desborough riding, and Hawker manacled by

his right wrist to the saddle. Fully a mile was passed before the latter asked, sullenly,

"To Dickenson's," replied Desborough. "You must step out you know. It will be for your own good, for I

"You had better not," said Desborough. "I don't want to have any communication with you, and every word

"Bah!" said Hawker. "I must swing. I know that. I shan't make any defence. Why, the devils out of hell would

come into court against me if I did. But I want to ask you a question or two. You haven't got the character of

being a brutal fellow, like O. It can't hurt you to answer me one or two things, and ease my mind a bit."

"God help you, unhappy man;" said Desborough. "I will answer any questions you ask."

"Well, then, see here," said Hawker, hesitating. "I want to know I want to know first, how you got round

"Is that all?" said Desborough. "Well, I came round over Broadsaddle, and got a fresh horse at the Parson's."

"Ah!" said Hawker. "That young fellow I shot down when you were after me, is he dead?"

He gave such a yell that Desborough shrunk from him appalled, a cry as of a wounded tiger, and

strug gled so wildly with his handcuffs that the blood poured from his wrists. Let us close this scene.

Desborough told me afterwards that that wild, fierce, despairing cry, rang in his ears for many years

afterwards, and would never be forgotten till those ears were closed with the dust of the grave.

TROUBRIDGE'S Station, Toonarbin, lay so far back from the river, and so entirely on the road to nowhere,

that Tom used to remark, that he would back it for being the worst station for news in the country. So it

happened that while these terrible scenes were enacting within ten miles of them, down, in fact, to about one

o'clock in the day when the bushrangers were over taken and punished, Mary and her cousin sat totally

But about eleven o'clock that day, Burnside, the cattle dealer, mentioned once before in these pages, arrived

at Major Buckley's, from somewhere up country, and found the house apparently deserted.

But having coee'd for some time, a door opened in one of the huts, and a sleepy groom came forth, yawning.

"Mrs. Buckley and the women were down at Mrs. Mayford's, streaking the bodies out," he believed. "The rest

This was the first that Burnside had heard about the matter. And now, bit by bit, he extracted everything from

I got him afterwards to confess to me, that when he heard of this terrible affair, his natural feeling of horror

was considerably alloyed with pleasure. He saw here at one glance a fund of small talk for six months. He

saw himself a welcome visitor at every station, even up to furthest lonely Condamine, retailing the news of

these occurrences with all the authenticity of an eye witness, improving his narrative by each repetition. Here

was the basis of a new tale, Ode, Epic, Saga, or what you may please to call it, which he Burnside, the bard,

"They're as well," answered the groom, "as you'd expect folks to be after such a mishap. They ran out at the

back way and down the garden towards the river before the chaps could burst the door down. I am sorry for

that little chap Cecil; I am, by Jove! A straightforward, manly little chap as ever crossed a horse. Last week

he says to me, says he, 'Benjy, my boy,' says he, 'come and be groom to me. I'll give you thirty pound ayear.'

And I says, 'If Mr. Sam' Hallo, there they are at it, hammer and tongs! Sharp work, that!"

They both listened intensely. They could hear, borne on the west wind, a distant dropping fire and a shouting.

The groom's eye began to kindle a bit, but Burnside, sitting yet upon his horse, grasped the lad's shoulder and

"Suppose," said the groom, contemptuously shaking him off; "why, then you and I should get our throats

"They're beat back," said Burnside. "I shall be off to Toonarbin, and give them warning. I advise you to save

"I was set to mind these here things," said Benjy, "and I'm agoing to mind 'em. And they as meddles with

Burnside started off for Toonarbin, and when half way there he paused and listened. The firing had ceased.

When he came to reflect, now that his panic was over, he had very little doubt that Desborough's party had

Nevertheless, being halfway to Toonarbin, he deter mined to ride on, and, having called in a moment, to

follow a road which took a way past Lee's old hut towards the scene of action. He very soon pulled up at the

For once in his life, Burnside was laconic, and told them all that had happened. Tom spoke not a word, but

ran up to the stable and had a horse out, saddled in a minute, he was dashing into the house again for his hat

"Tom," she whispered hoarsely. "Bring that boy back to me safe, or never look me in the face again!"

He never answered her, he was thinking of some one beside the boy. He pushed past her, and the next

moment she saw him gallop away with Burnside, followed by two men, and now she was left alone indeed,

There was not a soul about the place but herself; not a soul within ten miles. She stood looking out of the

door fixedly, at nothing, for a time; but then, as hour by hour went on, and the afternoon stillness fell upon

the forest, and the shadows began to slant, a terror began to grow upon her which at length became

At the first she understood that all these years of anxiety had come to a point at last, and a strange feeling of

excitement, almost joy, came over her. She was one of those impetuous characters who stand sus pense

worse than anything, and now, although terror was in her, she felt as though relief was nigh. Then she began

to think again of her son, but only for an instant. He was under Major Buckley's care, and must be safe; so

she dismissed that fear from her mind for a time, but only for a time. It came back to her again. Why did he

not come to her? Why had not the Major sent him off to her at once? Could the Major have been killed? even

But not the less terrors that grew in strength hour by hour, as she waited there, looking at the pleasant spring

forest, and no one came. Terrors that grew at last so strong, that they took the place of certainties. Some hitch

Having got as far as this, to go further was no difficulty. He was killed, she felt sure of it, and none had

courage to come and tell her of it. She suddenly determined to verify her thoughts at once, and went in doors

She had fully made up her mind that he must be killed at this time. The hope of his having escaped was gone.

We, who know the real state of the case, should tremble for her reason, when she finds her fears so terribly

She determined to start away to the Brentwoods', and end her present state of terror one way or another. Tom

had taken the only horse in the stable, but her own brown pony was running in the paddock with some others;

The obstinate brute wouldn't be caught. Then she spent a weary hour trying to drive them all into the

stockyard, but in vain. Three times she, with infinite labour, drove them up to the sliprack, and each time the

same mare and foal broke away, leading off the others. The third time, when she saw them all run whinnying

down to the further end of the paddock, after half an hour or so of weary work driving them up, when she had

run herself off her poor tottering legs, and saw that all her toil was in vain, then she sank down on the cold

hard gravel in the yard, with her long black hair streaming loose along the ground, and prayed that she might

die. Down at full length, in front of her own door, like a dead woman, moaning and crying, from time to time,

How long she lay there she knew not. She heard a horse's feet, but only stopped her ears from the news she

thought was coming. Then she heard a steady heavy footstep close to her, and some one touched her, and

She sat up, shook the hair from her eyes, and looked at the man who stood beside her. At first she thought it

was a phantom of her own brain, but then looking wildly at the calm, solemn features, and the kindly grey

eyes which were gazing at her so inquiringly, she pro nounced his name "Frank Maberly."

"Misery, wrath, madness, despair!" she cried wildly, raising her hand. "The retribution of a lifetime fallen on

Frank Maberly looked at her in real pity, but a thought went through his head. "What a magnificent actress

this woman would make." It merely past through his brain and was gone, and then he felt ashamed of himself

for entertaining it a moment; and yet it was not altogether an unnatural one for him who knew her character

so well. She was lying on the ground in an attitude which would have driven Siddons to despair; one white

arm, down which her sleeve had fallen, pressed against her forehead, while the other clutched the ground; and

her splendid black hair fallen down across her shoulders. Yet how could he say how much of all this wild

"But what is the matter, Mary Hawker," he asked. "Tell me, or how can I help you?"

"Matter?" she said. "Listen. The bushrangers are come down from the mountains, spreading ruin, murder, and

destruction far and wide. My husband is captain of the gang: and my son, my only son, whom I have loved

better than my God, is gone with the rest to hunt them down to seek, unknowing, his own father's life.

Beyond his mending, indeed. He saw it. "Rise up," he said, "and act. Tell me all the circumstances. Is it too

She told him how it had come to pass, and then he showed her that all her terrors were but anticipations, and

might be false. He got her pony for her, and, as night was falling, rode away with her along the moun tain

The sun was down, and ere they had gone far, the moon was bright overhead. Frank, having fully per

suaded himself that all her terrors were the effect of an overwrought imagination, grew cheerful, and tried to

laugh her out of them. She, too, with the exercise of riding through the nightair, and the company of a

handsome, agreeable, wellbred man, began to have a lurking idea that she had been making a fool of

herself; when they came suddenly on a hut, dark, cheerless, deserted, standing above a black, stagnant,

The hut where Frank had gone to preach to the stockmen. The hut where Lee had been murdered an

illomened place; and as they came opposite to it, they saw two others approaching them in the moonlight

Then Alice, pushing forward, bravely met her, and told her all all, from beginning to end; and when she

had finished, having borne up nobly, fell to weeping as though her heart would break. But Mary did not

weep, or cry, or fall down. She only said, "Let me see him," and went on with them, silent and steady.

They got to Garoopna late at night, none having spoken all the way. Then they showed her into the room

where poor Charles lay, cold and stiff, and there she stayed hour after hour through the weary night. Alice

looked in once or twice, and saw her sitting on the bed which bore the corpse of her son, with her face buried

in her hands; and at last, summoning courage, took her by the arm and led her gently to bed.

Then she went into the drawingroom, where, besides her father, were Major Buckley, Doctor Mulhaus,

Frank Maberly, and the drunken doctor before spoken of, who had had the sublime pleasure of cutting a

bullet from his old adversary's arm, and was now in a fair way to justify the sobriquet I have so often applied

"I hardly can tell you, sir," said Alice; "she is so very quiet. If she would cry now, I should be very glad. It

"If her reason holds," said the Doctor, "she will get over it. She had, from all accounts, gone through every

phase of passion, down to utter despair, before she knew the blow had fallen. Poor Mary!"

There, we have done. All this misery has come on her from one act of folly and selfishness years ago. How

many lives are ruined, how many families broken up, by one false step! If ever a poor soul has expiated her

own offence, she has. Let us hope that brighter times are in store for her. Let us have done with moral

It was one wild dreary day in the spring; a day of furious wind and cutting rain; a day when few passen gers

were abroad, and when the boatmen were gathered in knots among the sheltered spots upon the quays,

waiting to hear of disasters at sea; when the ships creaked and groaned at the wharfs, and the harbour was a

sheet of winddriven foam, and the domain was strewed with broken boughs. On such a day as this, Major

Buckley and myself, after a sharp walk, found ourselves in front of the principal gaol in Sydney.

We were admitted, for we had orders; and a small, wiry, cleverlooking man about fifty bowed to us as we

entered the whitewashed corridor, which led from the entrance hall. We had a few words with him, and then

To the darkest passage in the darkest end, of that dreary place; to the condemned cells. And my heart sank as

Before us was a kind of bedplace. And on that bed place lay the figure of a man. Though it is twenty years

He lay upon a heap of tumbled blankets, with his face buried in a pillow. One leg touched the ground, and

round it was a ring, connecting the limb to a long iron bar, which ran along beneath the bed. One arm also

hung listlessly on the cold stone floor, and the other was thrown around his head, a head covered with short

black curls, worthy of an Antinous, above a bare mus cular neck, worthy of a Farnese Hercules. I advanced

The governor held me back. "My God, sir," he said, "take care. Don't, as you value your life, go within length

of his chain." But at that moment the handsome head was raised from the pillow, and my eyes met George

Hawker's. Oh, Lord! such a piteous wild look. I could not see the fierce desperate villain who had kept our

countryside in terror so long. No, thank God, I could only see the handsome curlyheaded boy who used to

play with James Stockbridge and myself among the gravestones in Drumston churchyard. I saw again the

merry lad who used to bathe with us in Hatherleigh water, and whom, with all his faults, I had once loved

well. And seeing him, and him only, before me, in spite of a terrified gesture from the governor, I walked up

"George! George! Dear old friend!" I said. "O George, my boy, has it come to this?"

I don't want to be instructed in my duty. I know what my duty was on that occasion as well as any man. My

duty as a citizen and a magistrate was to stand at the further end of the cell, and give this hardened criminal a

moral lecture, showing how honesty and virtue, as in my case, had led to wealth and honour, and how

yielding to one's passions led to disgrace and infamy, as in his. That was my duty, I allow. But then, you see,

I didn't do my duty. I had a certain tender feeling about my stomach which prevented me from doing it. So I

only hung there, with my arm round his neck, and said, from time to time, "O George, George!" like a fool.

He put his two hands upon my shoulders, so that his fetters hung across my breast; and he looked me in the

face. Then he said, after a time, "What! Hamlyn? Old Jeff Hamlyn! The only man I ever knew that I didn't

"I know it," I said. "And I came to ask you if I could do anything for you. For the sake of dear old Devon,

"Anything you like, old Jeff," he said, with a laugh, "so long as you don't get me reprieved. If I get loose

again, lad, I'd do worse than I ever did yet, believe me. I've piled up a tolerable heap of wickedness as it is,

I answered "Yes; I know that, George; but that was an accident. You did not know who he was."

"He came at me to take my life," said Hawker. "And I tell you, as a man who goes out to be hung tomorrow,

that, if I had guessed who he was, I'd have blown my own brains out to save him from the crime of killing

The Major came forward, and held out his hand to George Hawker. "You are now," he said, "like a dead man

to me. You die tomorrow; and you know it; and face it like a man. I come to ask you to forgive me anything

you may have to forgive. I have been your enemy since I first saw you: but I have been an honest and open

enemy; and now I am your enemy no longer. I ask you to shake hands with me. I have been warned not to

come within arm's length of you, chained as you are. But I am not afraid of you."

"As for that little animal," said George Hawker, pointing to the governor as he stood at the further end of the

cell, "if he comes within reach of me, I'll beat his useless little brains out against the wall, and he knows it.

He was right to caution you not to come too near me. I nearly killed a man yesterday: and tomorrow, when

they come to lead me outBut, with regard to you, Major Buckley, the case is different. Do you know I

should be rather sorry to tackle you; I'm afraid you would be too heavy for me. As to my having any thing

to forgive, Major, I don't know that there is anything. If there is, let me tell you that I feel more kind and

hearty towards you and Hamlyn for coming to me like this today, than I've felt towards any man this twenty

year. Bythebye; let no man go to the gallows without clearing himself as far as he may. Do you know that

I set on that redhaired villain, Moody, to throttle Bill Lee, because I hadn't pluck to do it myself."

"Poor devil," said Hawker. "Why that man had gone through every sort of villany, from" (so and so up to so

and so, he said; I shall not particularize) "before my beard was grown. Why that man laid such plots and

snares for me when I was a lad, that a bishop could not have escaped. He egged me on to forge my own

father's name. He drove me on to ruin. And now, because it suited his purpose to turn honest, and act faithful

domestic to my wife for twenty years, he is mourned for as an exemplary character, and I go to the gallows.

"Only this," he said; "tell her I always liked her pretty face, and I'm sorry I brought disgrace upon her.

Through all my rascalities, old Jeff, I swear to you that I respected and liked her to the last. I tried to see her

last year, only to tell her that she needn't be afraid of me, and should treat me as a dead man; but she and her

blessed pigheaded lover, Tom Troubridge, made such knife and pistol work of it, that I never got the chance

of saying the word I wanted. She'd have saved herself much trouble if she hadn't acted so much like a fright

ened fool. I never meant her any harm. You may tell her all this if you judge right, but I leave it to you.

Time's up, I see. I ain't so much of a coward, am I, Jeff? Goodbye, old lad, goodbye."

That was the last we saw of him; the next morning he was executed with four of his comrades. But now the

Major and I, leaving him, went out again into the street, into the rain and the furious wind, to beat up against

it for our hotel. Neither spoke a word till we came to a corner in George Street, nearest the wharf: and there

the Major turned back upon me suddenly and I thought he had been unable to face the terrible gust which

came sweeping up from the harbour: but it was not so. He had turned on purpose, and putting his hands upon

"I suppose so," I said. "I have shown you what a fool a tenderhearted softheaded fellow may make of

himself by yielding to his impulses. But I have a de fence to offer, my dear sir, the best of excuses, the only

"I don't mean that, Hamlyn," he answered. "The lesson you have taught me is a very different one. You have

taught me that there are bright points in the worst man's character, a train of good feeling which no tact can

bring out, but yet which some human spark of feel ing may light. Here is this man Hawker, of whom we

heard that he was dangerous to approach, and whom the good chaplain was forced to pray for and exhort

from a safe distance. The man for whose death, till ten minutes ago, I was rejoicing. The man I thought lost,

and be yond hope. Yet you, by one burst of unpremeditated folly, by one piece of silly sentimentality; by

ignoring the man's later life, and carrying him back in imagina tion to his old schoolboy days, have done

more than our good old friend the Chaplain could have done without your assistance. There is a spark of the

In spite of the Major's parliamentary and didactic way of speaking, I saw there was truth at the bottom of

what he said, and that he meant kindly to me, and to the poor fellow who was even now among the dead; so

instead of arguing with him, I took his arm, and we fought homewards together through the driving rain.

Imagine three months to have passed. That stormy spring had changed into a placid, burning summer. The

busy shearingtime was past; the noisy shearers were dispersed, heaven knows where (most of them pro

bably suffering from a shortness of cash, complicated with delirium tremens). The grass in the plains had

changed from green to dull grey; the river had changed his hoarse roar for a sleepy murmur, as though too

lazy to quarrel with his boulders in such weather. A hot dull haze was over forest and mountain. The snow

had perspired till it showed long black streaks on the highest eminences. In short, summer had come with a

ven geance; every one felt hot, idle, and thirsty, and "there was nothing doing."

Now that broad cool verandah of Captain Brent wood's, with its deep recesses of shadow, was a place not to

be lightly spoken of. Any man once getting footing there, and leaving it, except on compulsion, would show

himself of weak mind. Any man once comfortably settled there in an easy chair, who fetched anything for

himself when he could get any one else to fetch it for him, would show himself, in my opinion, a man of

weak mind. One thing only was wanted to make it perfect, and that was niggers. To the winds with "Uncle

Tom's Cabin," and "Dred" after it, in a hot wind! What can an activeminded, selfhelpful lady like Mrs.

Stowe, freezing up there in Connecticut, obliged to do something to keep herself warm, what can she, I

ask, know about the requirements of a south ern gentleman when the thermometer stands at 125� in the

shade? Pish! Does she know the exertion required for cutting up a pipe of tobacco in a hot north wind? No!

Does she know the amount of perspiration and anger superinduced by knocking the head off a bottle of Bass

in January? Does she know the physical prostration which is caused by breaking up two lumps of hard white

sugar in a pawnee before a thunderstorm? No, she doesn't, or she would cry out for niggers with the best of

us! When the thermometer gets over 100� in the shade, all men would have slaves if they were allowed. An

AngloSaxon conscience will not, save in rare instances, bear a higher average heat than 95�.

But about this verandah. It was the model and type of all verandahs. It was made originally by the Irish

family, the Donovans, before spoken of; and, like all Irishmade things, was nobly conceived, beautifully

carried out, and then left to take care of itself, so that when Alice came into possession, she found it a

neglected mine of rare creepers run wild. Here, for the first time, I saw the exquisite crimson passionflower,

then a great rarity. Here, too, the native passionflower, scarlet and orange, was tangled up with the common

In this verandah, one blazing morning, sat Mrs. Buckley and Alice making believe to work. Mrs. Buckley

really was doing something. Alice sat with her hands fallen on her lap, so still and so beautiful, that she might

then and there have been photographed off by some enterprising artist, and exhibited in the printshops as

They were not alone, however. Across the very coolest, darkest corner was swung a hammock, looking at

which you might perceive two hands elevating a green papercovered book, as though the owner were

reading the aforesaid owner, however, being entirely invisible, only proving his existence by certain

Now, having made a nice little mystery as to who it was lying there, I will proceed to solve it. A burst of

laughter came from the hidden man, so uproarious and violent, that the hammockstrings strained and shook,

and the magpie, waking up from a sound sleep, cursed and swore in a manner fearful to hear.

Jim read aloud the immortal battle of the two editors, with their carpet bags, in "Pickwick," and, ere he had

half done, Alice and Mrs. Buckley had mingled their laughter with his, quite as heartily, if not so loudly.

"Hallo!" said Jim; "here's a nuisance! There's no more of it. Alice, have you got any more?"

"How tiresome! I suppose the governor is pretty sure to be home tonight. He can't be away much longer."

Please to remember that Jim's leg was broken in the late wars, and, as yet, hardly well.

"Thank you, James!" said Mrs. Buckley. "Dear me! the heat gets greater every day. If they are on the road, I

The Major was at home. Mary Hawker was staying with him. Doctor Mulhaus and Halbert staying at Major

Brentwood's, while Captain Brentwood was away with Sam and Tom Troubridge to Sydney; and, having

been absent some weeks, had been expected home now for a day or two. This was the day they came home,

When all greetings were done, and they were sat down beside the others, Jim opened the ball by asking,

"What a particularly foolish question!" said the Captain. "Why, you'll get it all in time none the quicker

for being impatient. May be, also, when you hear some of the news, you won't like it!"

"I have a letter for you here, from the Commander inChief. You are appointed to the 3 th Regiment, at

Alice looked at him quickly as she heard this, and, as a natural consequence, Sam looked too. They had

expected that he would have hurra'd aloud, or thrown up his hat, or danced about, when he heard of it. But

no; he only sat bolt upright in his hammock, though his face flushed scarlet, and his eyes glistened strangely.

"Six months' leave of absence procured at the same time, which will give you about three months more at

home. So you see you now possess the inestimable privilege of wearing a red coat; and what is still better, of

getting a hole made in it; for there is great trouble threatening with the Affghans and Beloochs, and the

chances are that you will smell powder before you are up in your regimental duties. Under which circum

stances I shall take the liberty of requesting that you inform yourself on these points under my direction, for I

don't want you to join your regiment in the posi tion of any other booby. Have the goodness to lie down

again and not excite yourself. You have antici pated this some time. Surely it is not necessary for you to cry

But that night, after dark, when Sam and Alice were taking one of those agreeable nocturnal walks, which all

young lovers are prone to, they came smoothly gliding over the lawn close up to the house, and then, unseen

and unheard, they saw Captain Brentwood with his arm round Jim's neck, and heard him say,

And Jim answered. "Father, I didn't know. I didn't know my own mind. But I can't call back now."

Sam and Alice slipt back again, and continued their walk. Let us hear what conversation they had been

"Well?" said Alice. For this was eight o'clock in the evening, you know, and the moon being four days past

"When we are married," says Sam, audaciously, "I suppose you will pine away to nothing."

"Good gracious me!" she answered. "Married? Why surely we are well enough as we are."

"Alice, my love," said Sam, "have you thought of one thing? Have you thought that I must make a start in life

No, she hadn't thought of that. Didn't see why Baroona wasn't good enough for him.

"My dear!" he said. "Baroona is a fine property, but it is not mine. I want money for a set purpose. For a

glorious purpose, my love! I will not tell you yet, not for years perhaps, what that purpose is. But I want fifty

Good gracious! What an avaricious creature. Such a quantity of money. And so she wasn't to hear what he

was going to do with it, for ever so many years. Wouldn't he tell her now? She would so like to know. Would

Yes, there was something. Nay, what harm! Only an honest lover's kiss, among the ripening grapes. In the

dark, you say. My dear madam, you would not have them kiss one another in broad day, with the cook

"Alice," he said, "I have had one object before me from my boyhood, and since you told me that I was to be

your husband, that object has grown from a vague intention to a fixed purpose. Alice, I want to buy back the

acres of my forefathers; I wish, I intend, that another Buckley shall be the master of Clere, and that you shall

"Sam, my love!" she said, turning on him suddenly. "What a magnificent idea. Is it possible?"

"Easy," said Sam. "My father could do it, but will not. He and my mother have severed every tie with the old

country, and it would be at their time of life only painful to go back to the old scenes and interests. But with

me it is different. Think of you and I taking the place we are entitled to by birth and education, in the splendid

society of that noble island. Don't let me hear all that balderdash about the founding of new empires. Empires

take too long in growing for me. What honours, what society, has this little colony to give, compared to those

open to a fourthrate gentleman in England? I want to be a real English man, not half a one. I want to throw

in my lot heart and hand with the greatest nation in the world. I don't want to be young Sam Buckley of

"My whole soul goes with you, Sam," said Alice. "My whole heart and soul. Let us consult, and see how this

"This is the way the thing stands," said Sam. "The house and park at Clere, were sold by my father for

12,000l. to a brewer. Since then, this brewer, a most excellent fellow by all accounts, has bought back, acre

by acre, nearly half the old original property as it existed in my great grandfather's time, so that now Clere

must be worth fifty thousand pounds at least. This man's children are all dead; and as far as Captain

Brentwood has been able to find out for me, no one knows exactly how the property is going. The present

owner is the same age as my father; and at his death, should an advantageous offer be made, there would be a

good chance of getting the heirs to sell the property. We should have to pay very highly for it, but consider

what a position we should buy with it. The county would receive us with open arms. That is all I know at

"A noble idea," said Alice, "and well considered. Now what are you going to do?"

"Have you heard tell yet," said Sam, "of the new country to the north, they call the Darling Downs?"

"I have heard of it, from Burnside the cattle dealer. He describes it as a paradise of wealth."

"He is right. When you get through the Cypress, the plains are endless. It is undoubtedly the finest piece of

"Well," said Sam. "You know he went to Sydney with us, and before he had been three days there he came to

me full of this Darling Down country. Quite mad about it in fact. And in the end he said: 'Sam, what money

have you got?' I said that my father had promised me seven thousand pounds for a certain pur pose, and that

I had come to town partly to look for an investment. He said, 'Be my partner;' and I said, 'What for?' 'Darling

Downs,' he said. And I said I was only too highly honoured by such a mark of con fidence from such a man,

and that I closed with his offer at once. To make a long matter short, he is off to the new country to take up

"I proposed to do so, as a matter of course," said Sam. "But what do you think he said?"

"He gave me a great slap on the back," said Sam; "and, said he, 'Go home, my old lad, marry your wife, and

fetch her up to keep house.' That's what he said. And now, my own love, my darling, will you tell me, am I to

go up alone, and wait for you; or will you come up, and make a happy home for me in that dreary desert?

Will you leave your home, and come away with me into the grey hot plains of the west?"

"I have no home in future, Sam," she said, "but where you are, and I will gladly go with you to the world's

And now Sam disclosed to her that a visitor was expected at the station in about a fortnight or three weeks;

and he was no less a person than our old friend the dean, Frank Maberly. And then he went to ask, did she

think that she could manage by that time to , eh? Such an excellent opportunity, you know; seemed almost

She thought it wildly possible, if there was any real necessity for it. And after this they went in; and Alice

"And what have you been doing out there with Alice all this time, eh?" asked the Captain.

"You must have put it in a pretty long form. What sort of an answer did you get?"

"Ah, well! Mrs. Buckley, can you lend Baroona to a new married couple for a few weeks, do you think?

And then into Mrs. Buckley's astonished ear all the new plans were poured. She heard that Sam and Alice

were to be married in a fortnight, and that Sam had gone into partnership with Tom Troubridge.

"Oh, in a couple of months, I suppose. I must give Tom time to get a house up before I go and join him. What

"Oh, bythebye, Mrs. Buckley," said Captain Brent wood, "what do you make of this letter?"

"If absent, to be left with the nearest magistrate, and a receipt taken for it."

"Sergeant Jackson asked me, as nearest magistrate, to take charge of it; and so I did. It has been forwarded by

"And the Governor's private seal, too," said Mrs. Buckley. "I don't know when my curiosity has been so

painfully excited. Put it on the chimneypiece, Sam; let us gaze on the outside, even if we are denied to see

"No; getting too late," said Sam. "Evidently Hal bert and the Doctor have found themselves there during

their ride, and are keeping him and Mrs. Hawker com pany. They will all three be over tomorrow morning,

"What a really good fellow that Halbert is," said Captain Brentwood. "One of the best companions I ever met.

I wish his spirits would improve with his health. A sensitive fellow like him is apt not to recover from a blow

"Did you never hear?" said the Captain. "The girl he was going to be married to got drowned coming out to

AT ten o'clock the next morning arrived the Major, the Doctor, and Halbert; and the first notice they had of it

was the Doctor's voice in the passage, evidently in a great state of excitement.

"No more the common bowerbird than you, sir; a new species. His eyes are red instead of blue, and the

"I'll soon do that," said the Doctor, bursting into the roomdoor. "How do you do, all of you? Sam, glad to

see you back again. Brentwood, you are welcome to your own house. Get me your gun where is it?"

The Doctor went off after it. He reappeared again to complain that the caps would not fit; but, being satisfied

Sam got his father away into the verandah, and told him all his plans. I need hardly say that they met with the

Major's entire approval. All his plans I said; no, not all. Sam never hinted at the end and object of all his

endeavours; he never said a word about his repur chase of Clere. The Major had no more idea that Sam had

ever thought of such a thing, or had been making inquiries, than had the owner of Clere himself.

"Sam, my dear boy," said he, "I am very sorry to lose you, and we shall have but a dull time of it henceforth;

but I am sure it is good for a man to go out into the world by himself" (and all that sort of thing). "When you

"My dear, are you coming in?" said Mrs. Buckley. "Here is a letter for you, which I ought to have given you

The Major went in and received the mysterious epistle which the captain had brought the night before. When

They sat waiting to know the contents. He was pro vokingly long in opening it, and when he did, he said

nothing, but read it over twice with a lengthening visage. Now also it became apparent that there was another

letter inside, at the superscription of which the Major having looked, put it in his pocket, and turning round to

the mantelpiece, with his back to the others, began drumming against the fender with his foot, musingly.

A more aggravating course of proceeding he could not have resorted to. Here they were all dying of curiosity,

and not a word did he seem inclined to answer. At last, Mrs. Buckley, not able to hold out any longer, said,

"Yes," he said, "from the Governor. And very im portant too," and then relapsed into silence.

Matters were worse than ever. But after a few minutes he turned round to them suddenly, and said,

"What," said Sam, "the man that the Doctor's always abusing so? Yes, I know all about him, of course."

"The noble Landstein," said Alice. "In spite of the Doctor's abuse he is a great favourite of mine. How well he

"Yes, Landsturm I mean. I wonder if he is still alive, or whether he died of his wounds."

"He is not only alive," said the Major, "but he is coming here. He will be here today. He may come any

"The Doctor will have a quarrel with him, father. He is always abusing him. He says he lost the battle of Jena,

The Doctor was seen hurrying up the gardenwalk. He put down his gun outside, and bursting open the glass

door, stepped into the room, holding aloft a black bird, freshly killed, and looking around him for applause.

The Major walked across the room, and put a letter in his hand, the one which was enclosed in the myste

The Doctor looked round as one would who had received a blow, and knew not who smote him. He took the

No one spoke a word. "This, then, my good old tutor," thought Sam, "turns out to be the great Land stein.

Save us, what a piece of romance." But though he thought this, he never said anything, and catching Alice's

eye, followed it to the window. There, leaning against the glass, his face buried in his hands, and his broad

back shaking with emotion, stood Doctor Mulhaus. Alas! no. Our kindly, good, hearty, learned, irritable, but

dearlybeloved old friend, is no more. There never was such a man in reality: but in his place stands Baron

What the contents of the Doctor's (I must still call him so) letter, I cannot tell you. But I have seen the letter

which Major Buckley received enclosing it, and I can give it you word for word. It is from the Governor

"I am informed that the famous Baron von Land stein has been living in your house for some years, under

the name of Dr. Mulhaus. In fact, I believe he is a partner of yours. I therefore send the enclosed under cover

to you, and when I tell you that it has been forwarded to me through the Foreign Office, and the Colonial

Office, and is, in point of fact, an autograph letter from the King of Pto the Baron, I am sure that you

The Secretary is completely "fixed" with his esti mates. The salaries for the Supreme Court Office are

This was the Major's letter. But the Doctor stood still there, moved more deeply than any had seen him

At length he turned and spoke, but not to them, to the empty air. Spoke as one aroused from a trance. Things

"So he has sent for me," he said, "when it seems that he may have some use for me. So the old man is likely

to go at last, and we are to have the golden age again. If talking could do it, assuredly we should. He has

noble instincts, this young fellow, and some sense. He has sent for me. If H, and B, and Von

"Oh, Rhineland! my own beloved Rhineland, shall I see you again? Shall I sit once more in my own grey

castle, among the vineyards, above the broad gleaming river, and hear the noises from the town come floating

He took two short turns through the room, and then he turned and spoke to them again, looking all the time at

"I am the Baron von Landstein. The very man we have so often talked of, and whose character we have so

freely discussed. When the French attacked us, I threw myself into the foremost ranks of my country men,

and followed the Queen with two regiments which I had raised almost entirely myself.

"I fled away from the bloodred sun of Jena, wounded and desperate. "That sun," I thought, "has set on the

ruins of Great Frederick's kingdom. Prussia is a province of France: what can happen worse than this? I will

"I had no castle to crawl to. My brother, he who hung upon the same breast with me, he who learnt his first

prayer beside me, he who I loved and trusted above all other men, had turned traitor, had sold him self to the

"I fled to England, to Drumston, Major. I had some knowledge of physic, and called myself a doctor. I threw

myself into the happy English domestic life which I found there, and soon got around me men and women

"Old John Thornton and his sister knew my secret, as did Lord Crediton: but they kept it well, and by degrees

I began to hope that I would begin a new life as a useful village apothecary, and forget for ever the turmoils

"Then you know what happened. There was an Exodus. All those I had got to love, arose, in the manner of

their nation, and went to the other end of the earth, so that one night I was left alone on the cliff at Plymouth,

watching a ship which was bearing away all that was left me to love in the world.

"I went to Prussia. I found my brother had made good use of his prosperity, and slandered me to the King.

His old treachery seemed forgotten, and he was high in power. The King, for whom I had suffered so much,

received me coldly, and leaving the palace, I spoke to my brother, and said, 'Send me so much yearly, and

"No!" said Sam, smiting his fist upon the table. "I can tell the rest, Baron, to those who want to know it. I can

Sam was the worst orator in the world. He broke down, sir. He knew what he meant very well; and so I hope

do you, reader, but he couldn't say it. He had done what many of us do, tried to make a fine speech when his

But Alice didn't fail, not she, though she never spoke a word. She folded up her work; and going up to the

good old man, took both his hands in hers and kissed him on both his cheeks. A fine piece of rheto rical

action, wasn't it? And then they all crowded round him, and shook hands with him, and kissed him, and

Godblessed him, for their kind, true, old friend; and prayed that every blessing might light upon his noble

head, till he passed through them speechless and wandered away to his old friend, the river.

About the middle of this week, there arrived two of our former friends, Frank Maberly and Captain Des

borough, riding side by side. The Elders, with the Doctor, were outside, and detained the Dean, talking to him

and bidding him welcome. But Captain Des borough, passing in, came into the room where were assembled

They saw in a moment that there was some fun in the wind. They knew, by experience, that when

Desborough's eyes twinkled like that, some absurdity was preparing, though they were quite unprepared for

"Pace!" said Desborough, in his affected Irish accent; "be on this house, and all in it. The top of the morning

"Now," said Alice, "we are going to have some fun; Captain Desborough has got his brogue on."

"Ye'll have some fun directly, Miss Brentwood," he said. "But there's some serious, sober earnest to come

"The same. That small Viscount is at this moment in pur. God forgive me, and him too."

"That's just half. My uncle Lord Covetown was taken with a fit when he heard of it, and is gone after him,

and the Lord forgive him too. He turned me, his own brother's son, out into the world with half an education,

to sink or swim; and never a kind word did he or his son ever give me in their lives. It must have broken the

old man's heart to think how the estate would go. But as I said before, God forgive him."

"You must feel his loss, Captain Desborough," said Alice. "I am very sorry for you."

"Why, it ends in this," said Desborough; "that I myself am Earl of Covetown, Viscount Slievedonad, and

Baron Avoca, with twenty thousand a year, me darlin, the laste penny; see to there now."

"True enough," said Desborough. "I had a letter from my grandmother, the Dowager (she that lost the dog),

only this very day. And there's a thousand pounds paid into the Bank of New South Wales to my account.

"My dear Lord," said Alice, "I congratulate you most heartily. All the world are turning out to be noblemen. I

"It rests with you, Miss Brentwood," said Des borough, with a wicked glance at Sam, "to be a countess. I

now formally make you an offer of me hand and heart. Oh! tell me, Miss Brentwood, will ye be Mrs. Mars

"No, I thank you, my lord," said Alice, laughing and blushing. "I am afraid I must decline."

"I was afraid ye would," said Lord Covetown. "I had heard that a great sixfoot villain had been trifling with

your affections, so I came prepared for a refusal. Came prepared with this, Miss Brentwood, which I pray you

to accept; shall I be too bold if I say, as a wedding present, from one of your most sincere admirers."

He produced a jewel case, and took from it a bracelet, at the sight of which Alice gave an honest womanly

cry of delight. And well she might, for the bauble cost 150l. It was a bracelet of gold, representing a snake.

Halfway up the reptile's back began a row of sapphires, getting larger towards the neck, each of which was

surrounded by small emeralds. The back of the head contained a noble brilliant, and the eyes were two rubies.

"Look here, Miss Brentwood," said Covetown, laying his hand on Sam's shoulder. "I find that the noblest and

best fellow I know is going to marry the hand somest woman, saving your presence, that I ever saw. I

myself have just come into an earldom, and twenty thousand ayear; and if, under these circumstances, I

mayn't make that woman a handsome present, why then the deuce is in it, you know. Sam, my boy, your

"Ah!" said Jim. "So you're an earl are you? What does it feel like, eh? Do you feel the blue blood of a

hundred sires coursing in your veins? Do you feel the hereditary class prejudices of the Norman aristocracy

cutting you off from the sympathies of the inferior classes, and raising you above the hopes and fears of the

masses? How very comical it must be! So you are going to sit among the bigwigs in the House of Lords. I

hope you won't forget yourself, and cry 'Faug a Ballagh,' when one of the bishops rises to speak. And

"My dear fellow," said he, "I am not in the House of Lords at all. Only an Irish peer. I intend to get into the

Commons though, and produce a sensation by introducing the Australian 'Co'ee' into the seat of British

How long these four would have gone on talking unutterable nonsense, no man can say. But Frank Maberly

Poor Frank! Hard and incessant work was begin ning to tell on that noble frame, and the hard marked

features were getting more hard and marked year by year. Yet, in spite of the deep lines that now furrowed

that kindly face, those who knew it best, said that it grew more beautiful than it had ever been before. As that

magnificent physique began to fail, the noble soul within began to show clearer through its earthly tenement.

That noble soul, which was getting purified and ready for what happened but a few years after this in Pata

gonia. When we heard that that man had earned the crown of glory, and had been thought worthy to sit beside

Stephen and Paul in the Kingdom, none of us wept for him, or mourned. It seemed such a fitting reward for

such a pure and noble life. But even now, when I wake in the night, I see him before me as he was described

in the last scene by the only survivor. Felled down upon the sand, with his arms before his eyes, crying out,

as the spears struck him, one after another, "Lord, forgive them, they know not what they do!"

WHAT morning is this, when Sam, waking from silver dreams to a golden reality, turns over in his bed and

looks out of the open glass door; at dog Rover, propped up against the lintel, chopping at the early flies; at the

flowergarden, dark and dewy; at the black wall of forest beyond, in which the magpies were beginning to

pipe cheerily; at the blessed dawn which was behind and above it, shooting long rays of primrose and

crimson halfway up the zenith; hearing the sleepy ceaseless crawling of the river over the shingle bars;

hearing the booming of the cattleherds far over the plain; hearing the chirrup of the grasshopper among the

raspberries, the chirr of the cicada among the wattles what happy morning is this? Is it the Sabbath?

My dear brother bachelor, do you remember those old firstlove sensations, or have you got too old, and too

fat? Do you remember the night when you parted from her on the bridge by the lock, the night before her

father wrote to you and forbade you the house? Have you got the rose she gave you there? Is it in your Bible,

brother? Do you remember the months that followed months of mad grief and wild yearning, till the

yearning grew less less wild and the grief less desperate; and then, worst of all, the degrading con

sciousness that you were, in spite of yourself, getting rid of your love, and that she was not to you as she had

been? Do you remember all this? When you come across the rose in your Bible, do you feel that you would

give all the honour and wealth of the world to feel again those happy, wretched, old sensations? Do you not

Not this world, I believe. You and I can never feel that again. So let us make up our minds to it it is dead.

In God's name don't let us try to galvanize an old corpse, which may rise upon us hideous, and scare us to the

lower pit. Let us be content as we are. Let us read that Book we spoke of just now with the rose in it, and

imitate the Perfect Man there spoken of, who was crucified 1800 years ago, believing, like Him, that all men

are our brothers, and acting up to it. And then, Lord knows what may be in store for us.

Here's a digression. If I had had a good wife to keep me in order, I never should have gone so far out of the

road. Here is Sam in bed, sitting up, with his happy head upon his hands, trying to believe that this dream of

love is going to be realized trying to believe that it is really his wedding morn.

It evidently is; so he gets out of bed and says his prayers like an honest gentleman he very often forgot to

do this same, but he did it this morning carefully much I am afraid as a kind of charm or incantation, till

he came to the Lord's Prayer itself, and then his whole happy soul wedded itself to the eternal words, and he

Happy, I said. Was he really happy? He ought to have been; for every wish he had in this life was fulfilled.

And yet, when Jim, and he, and Halbert, were walking, towel in hand down the garden, they held this

"I ought to be, Jim," said Sam; "but I'm in the most confounded fright, sir." They generally are in a fright,

when they are going to be married, those Bene dicts. What the deuce are they afraid of?

Our dear Jim was in anything but an enviable frame of mind. He had found out several things which did not

at all conduce to his happiness; he had found out that it was one thing to propose going to India, or

Noman's land, and cutting off every tie and association which he had in the world; and that it was quite

another thing to do that same. He had found out that it was one thing to leave his sister in the keeping of his

friend Sam, and another to part from her probably for ever; and, last of all, he had found out, ever since his

father had put his arm round his neck and kissed him, that night we know of, that he loved that father beyond

all men in this world. It was a new discovery; he had never known it till he found he had got to part with him.

And now, when he woke in the night, our old merryhearted Jim sat up in bed, and wept; aye, and no shame

to him for it, when he thought of that handsome, calm, bronzed face tearless and quiet there, over the

"He will never say a word, Sam," said Jim, as they were walking down to bathe this very morning of the

wedding; "but he'll think the more. Sam, I am afraid I have done a selfish thing in going; but if I were to draw

back now, I should never be the same to him again. He couldn't stand that. But I am sorry I ever thought of

"I don't know, Jim," said Halbert, pulling off his trowsers, "I really don't know of any act of parliament

passed in favour of the Brentwood family, exempting them from the ordinary evils of humanity. Do you think

now, that when John Nokes, aged nineteen, goes into market at Cambridge, or elsewhere, and 'lists, and never

goes home again; do you think, I say, that that lad don't feel a very strange emptiness about the epigastric

region when he thinks of the greyheaded old man, that is sitting waiting for him at the cottagedoor? And,"

added Halbert, standing on the plungingstage Adam ically, without a rag upon him, pointing at Jim with

his finger in an oratorical manner; "do you think that the old man who sits there, year after year, waiting for

him who never comes, and telling the neighbours that his lad who is gone for a sodger, was the finest lad in

the village, do you think that old man feels nothing? Give up fine feelings, Jim. You don't know what trouble

And after the bathe all came up and dressed; white trowsers and brilliant ties being the order of the day.

Then we all, from the bachelor side of the house, assembled in the verandah, for the ceremony was not to be

performed till eight, and it was not more than half past seven. There was the promise of a very awkward half

hour, so I was glad of a diversion caused by my appearing in a blue coat with gilt buttons, and pockets in the

tails, a coat I had not brought out for twenty years, but as good as new, I give you my honour. Jim was

very funny about that coat, and I encouraged him by defending it, and so we got through ten minutes, and

kept Sam amused. Then one of the grooms, a lad I mentioned before as bringing a note to Baroona on one

occasion, a long brownfaced lad, born of London parents in the colony, made a diversion by coming round

to look at us. He admired us very much, but my gilt buttons took his attention principally. He guessed they

must have cost a matter of twenty pound, but on my telling him that the whole affair was bought for three

Brass I supposed, and gilt. So he left me in disgust, and took up with Jim's trowsers, wanting to know "if they

"Satin velvet," Jim said; and then the Major came out and beckoned us into the drawingroom.

And there she was, between Mrs. Buckley and Mary Hawker, dressed all in white, looking as beau tiful as

morning. Frank Maberly stood beside a little table, which the women had made into an altar, with the big

Prayerbook in his hand. And we all stood around, and the servants thronged in, and Sam, taking Alice's

Captain Brentwood, of the Artillery, would give this woman to be married to this man, with ten thousand

blessings on her head; and Samuel Buckley, of Baroona, would take this woman as his wedded wife, in

sickness and health, for richer, for poorer, till death did them part. And, "Yes, by George, he will," says Jim

And so it was all over. And the Doctor, who had all the morning been invisible, and had only slipt into the

room just as the ceremony had began, wearing on his coat a great star, a prodigy, which had drawn many eyes

from their Prayerbooks, the Doctor, I say, came up, star and all, and taking Alice's hand, kissed her

Then followed all the usual kissings and congratu lations, and then came the breakfast. I hope Alice and

Sam were happy, as happy as young folks can be in such a state of flutter and excitement; but all I know is,

that the rest of the party were thoroughly and utterly miserable. The certainty that this was the breakup of

our happy old society, that all that was young, and merry, and graceful, among us, was about to take wing and

leave us old folks sitting there lonely and dull. The thought, that neither Baroona nor Garoopna could ever be

again what they had once been, and that never again we should hear those merry voices, wakening us in the

morning, or ringing pleasant by the river on the soft summer's evening; these thoughts, I say, made us but a

dull party, although Covetown and the Doctor made talking enough for the rest of us.

There was something I could not understand about the Doctor. He talked loud and nervously all break fast

time, and afterwards, when Alice had retired to change her dress, and we were all standing about talk ing, he

came up to me in a quiet corner where I was, and took me by the hand. "My dear old friend," he said, "you

"Forget you, Baron! never," I said. I would have asked him more, but there was Alice in the room, in her

pretty blue ridinghabit and hat, ready for a start, and Sam beside her, whip in hand; so we all crowded out to

That was the worst time of all. Mrs. Buckley had said farewell and departed. Jim was walking about, tearless,

but quite unable to answer me when I asked him a question. Those two grim old warriors, the Cap tain and

the Major, were taking things very quietly, but did not seem inclined to talk much, while the Doctor was

conducting himself like an amiable lunatic, getting in everybody's way as he followed Sam about.

"Sam," he said, after Alice had been lifted on her horse, "my dear Sam, my good pupil, you will never forget

"Never, never!" said Sam; "not likely, if I lived to be a hundred. I shall see you tomorrow."

"Oh yes, surely," said the Baron; "we shall meet tomorrow for certain. But goodbye, my boy; good bye."

And then the young couple rode away to Baroona, which was empty, swept, and garnished, ready for their

reception. And the servants cheered them as they went away, and tall Eleanor sent one of her husband's boots

after them for luck, with such force and dexterity that it fell close to the heels of Widderin, setting him caper

And we turned round to look at one another, and lo! another horse, the Doctor's, was being led up and down

by a groom, saddled; and, while we wondered, out came the Doctor himself and began strapping his valise on

Our astonishment was too great for ejaculations; we kept an awful silence; this was the first hint he had given

"Yes," said he, "I sail from Sydney this day week. I could not embitter my boy's weddingday by letting him

know that he was to lose me; better that he should come back and find me gone. I must go, and I foresaw it

when that letter came; but I would not tell you, because I knew you would be so sorry to part. I have been

inside and said farewell to Mrs. Buckley. And now, my friends, shorten this scene for me. Night and day, for

a month, I have been dreading it, and now let us spare one another. Why should we tear our hearts asunder by

Only a hurried shaking of hands, and he was gone. Down by the paddock to the river, and when he reached

the height beyond, he turned and waved his hand. Then he went on his way across the old plains, and we saw

him lessening in the distance until he disappeared altogether, and we saw him no more. No more!

In two months from that time Jim and Halbert were gone to India, Sam and Alice were away to the Darling

Downs, Desborough and the Doctor had sailed for Europe, and we old folks, taking up our residence at

Baroona, had agreed to make common house of it. Of course we were very dull at first, when we missed half

of the faces which had been used to smile upon us; but this soon wore off. During the succeeding winter I

remember many pleasant evenings, when the Captain, the Major, Mrs. Buckley, and myself played whist,

shilling points and the rigour of the game, and while Mary Hawker, in her widow's weeds, sat sewing by the

IT was one evening during the next spring, and the game of whist was over for the night. The servant had just

brought in tumblers with a view to whiskey and water before bed. I was preparing to pay fourteen shillings to

Mrs. Buckley, and was rather nervous about meeting my partner, the Major's eye, when he, tapping the table

"I don't defend the last game," I said. "I thought you were short of diamonds at least I calculated on the

chance of your being so, having seven myself. But please to remember, Major, that you yourself lost two

"And why, sir?" said the Major. "Tell me that, sir. Because you confused me by leading queen, when you had

ace, king, queen. The most utterly schoolboy play. I wouldn't have done such a thing at Eton."

"I had a flush of them," I said eagerly. "And I meant to lead ace, and then get trumps out. But I put down

"You can make what excuses you like, Hamlyn," said the Major. "But the fact remains the same. There is one

great fault in your character, the greatest fault I know of, and which you ought to study to correct. I tell you of

it boldly as an old friend. You are too confoundedly chary in leading out your trumps, and you can't deny it."

Mary Hawker rose from her chair, and looked eagerly towards the door. "I know who it is," she said, blush

"By George!" he said. "Don't all speak to me at once. I feel the queerest wambling in my innards, as we used

to say in Devon, at the sight of so many old faces. Somehow, a man can't make a new home in a hurry. It's the

people make the home, not the house and furniture. My dear old cousin, and how are you?"

"I am very quiet, Tom. I am much happier than I thought to have been. And I am deeply thankful to see you

"Sam," said Tom, "is a sight worth a guinea, and Mrs. Samuel looks charming, but In point of fact you

"Dear me," said the Major, drumming on the table. "I hope it will be a b . By the bye, how go the sheep?"

"You never saw such a country, sir!" said Tom. "We have got nearly five thousand on each run, and there is

no one crowding up yet. If we can hold that ground with our produce, and such storesheep as we can pick

By this time Tom was set at supper, and between the business of satisfying a hunger of fifteen hours, began

"Poor Mrs. Mayford is better," said Mrs. Buckley. "She and Ellen are just starting for Europe. They have sold

"Ellen will be a fine match for some young English squire," said Tom. "She will have twenty thousand

A little scene took place in the garden next morning, which may astonish some of my readers, but which did

not surprise me in the least. I knew it would happen, sooner or later, and when I saw Tom's air, on his arrival

the night before, I said to myself, "It is coming," and so sure enough it did. And I got all the circumstances

Mary Hawker was now a very handsome woman, about one and forty. There may have been a grey hair here

and there among her long black tresses, but they were few and far between. I used to watch her sometimes of

an evening, and wonder to myself how she had come through such troubles, and lived; and yet there she was

on the night when Tom arrived, for instance, sitting quite calm and cheerful beside the fire in her

halfmourning (she had soon dropped her weeds, perhaps, considering who her husband had been, a piece of

good taste), with quite a placid, contented look on her fine black eyes. I think no one was capable of feeling

deeper for a time, but her power of resilience was marvellous. I have noticed that before. It may, God forgive

me, have given me some slight feeling of con tempt for her, because, forsooth, she did not brood over and

nurse an old grief as I did myself. I am not the man to judge her. When I look back on my own wasted life;

when I see how for one boyish fancy I cut myself off from all the ties of domestic life, to hold my selfish way

alone, I sometimes think that she has shown herself a better woman than I have a man. Ah! well, old

She was walking in the garden, next morning, and Tom came and walked beside her; and after a little he said,

"I am as well content," she said, "as a poor, desolate, old childless widow could hope to be. There is no hap

"Who told you that?" said Tom. "Who told you that the next twenty years of your life might not be happier

"How could that be?" she asked. "What is left for me now, but to go quietly to my grave?"

"Grave!" said Tom. "Who talks of graves for twenty years to come! Mary, my darling, I have waited for you

"Mean!" said he; "why, I mean this, cousin: I mean you to be my wife to come and live with me as my

"You are mad!" she said. "Do you know what you say? Do you know who you are speaking to?"

"To my old sweetheart, Polly Thornton!" he said, with a laugh, "to no one else in the world."

"You are wrong," she said; "you may try to forget now, but you will remember afterwards. I am not Mary

Thornton. I am an old broken woman, whose husband was transported for coining, and hung for murder and

"Peace be with him!" said Tom. "I am not ask ing who your husband was; I have had twenty years to think

about that, and at the end of twenty years, I say, my dear old sweetheart, you are free at last: will you marry

"Impossible!" said Mary. "All the countryside knows who I am. Think of the eternal disgrace that clings to

"Then," said Tom, putting his arm round her waist, "to the devil with all the nonsense you have just been

talking, about eternal disgraces and so forth! I am an honest man and you're an honest woman, and, therefore,

what cause or impediment can there be? Come, Mary, it's no use resisting; my mind is made up, and you

"I have thought," said Tom, "as I told you before, for twenty years; and I ain't likely to alter my opinion in ten

"Mrs. Buckley," said Tom, as they came up arm in arm to the house, "it will be a good thing if somebody was

"I shall go up myself," said Mrs. Buckley, "though how I am to get there I hardly know. It must be nearly

"I don't think you need, my dear madam," said he. "My wife will make an excellent nurse!"

"I am so glad, so very glad, my love!" she said. "The very happiest and wisest thing that could be! I have

been hoping for it, my love, and I felt sure it would be so, sooner or later. How glad your dear aunt would be

And, in short, he took her off with him, and they were married, and went up to join Sam and his wife in New

England reducing our party to four. Not very long after they were gone, we heard that there was a new

Sam Buckley born, who promised, said the wise women, to be as big a man as his father. Then, at an interval

of very little more than two years, Mrs. Buckley got a long letter from Alice, announcing the birth of a little

girl to the Troubridges. This letter is still extant, and in my possession, having been lent me, among other

family papers, by Agnes Buckley, as soon as she heard that I was bent upon correcting these memoirs to fit

. . . "Dear Mary Troubridge has got a little girl, a sweet, quiet, brighteyed little thing, taking, I imagine, after

old Miss Thornton. They are going to call it Agnes Alice, after you and I, my dearest mother.

"You cannot imagine how different Mary is grown from what she used to be! Stout, merry, and matronly,

quite! She keeps the house alive, and I think I never saw a couple more sincerely attached than are she and

her husband. He is a most excellent companion for my Sam. Not to make matters too long, we are just about

as happy as four people can be. Some day we may all come to live together again, and then our delight will

"I got Jim's letter which you sent me. . . . Sam and his partner are embarking every sixpence they can spare in

buying town and suburban lots at Melbourne. I know every street and alley in that wonderful city (containing

near a hundred houses) on the map, but I am not very likely to go there ever. Let us hope that Sam's

I must make a note to this letter. Alice refers to a letter received from Jim, which, as near as I can make the

dates agree, must be the one I hold in my hand at this moment. I am not sure, but I think so. This one runs

"Dear Dad, . . . I have been down among the dead men, and since then up into the seventh heaven, in

consequence of being not only gazetted, but promoted. The beggars very nearly did for us. All our fortifica

tions, the prettiest things ever done under the circum stances, executed under Bobby's own eye, were thrown

down by what do you think? an earthquake! Per haps we didn't swear Lord forgive us! Akbar had

"Is not this a most wonderful thing about Halbert? The girl that he was to be married to was supposed to be

lost, coming out in the Assam. And now it appears that she wasn't lost at all (the girl I mean, not the ship), but

that she was wrecked on the east coast of Madagas car, and saved, with five and twenty more. She came on

to Calcutta, and they were married the week after he got his troop. She is uncommonly handsome and

ladylike, but looks rather brown and lean from living on birds' nests and seaweed for above six months of

[Allow me to remark that this must be romance on Jim's part; birds' nests and trepang are not found in

"My wound is nearly all right again. It was only a prick with a spear in my thigh "

It is the very deuce editing these old letters without anything to guide one. As far as I can make out by myself

(Jim being now down at Melton hunting, and not having answered my letter of inquiries), this letter must

have come accompanied by an Indian newspaper containing the account of some battle or campaign in which

he was engaged. Putting this and that together, I am inclined to believe that it refers to the defence of

Jellalabad by Sir Robert Sale, in which I know he was engaged. I form this opinion from the fact of his men

tioning that the fortifications were destroyed by an earth quake. And I very much fear that the individual so

disrespectfully mentioned above as "Bobby," was no other than the great Hero himself. In my second (or if

that goes off too quick, in my third) edition, I will endeavour to clear this point up in a satisfactory manner.

After this there was a long dull time with no news from him or from any one. Then Sam came down from

New England, and paid us a visit, which freshened us up a little. But in spite of this and other episodes, there

was little change or excitement for us four. We made common house of it, and never parted from one another

more than a day. Always of an evening came the old friendly rubber, I playing with the Major, and Captain

Brentwood with Mrs. Buckley. The most remarkable event I have to chronicle during the long period which

followed, is, that one day a bushfire came right up to the garden rails, and was beaten out with difficulty; and

that same evening I held nine trumps, Ace, Queen, Knave, Nine of hearts, and the rest small. I cannot for the

life of me remember what year it was in, somewhere between fortytwo and fortyfive, I believe, because

within a year or two of that time we heard that a large comet had appeared in England, and that Sir Robert

Peel was distrusted on the subject of Protection. After all, it is no great consequence, though it is rather

provoking, because I never before or since held more than eight trumps. Burnside, the cattledealer, claims to

have held eleven, but I may state, once for all, that I doubt that man's statements on this and every other

My man Dick, too, somehow or another, constituted himself my groom and valet. And the Major was well

contented with the arrangement. So we four, Major and Mrs. Buckley, Captain Brentwood and I, sat there in

the old station night after night, playing our whist, till even my head, the youngest of the four, began to be

IT is March, 1856. The short autumn day is rapidly giving place to night; and darkness, and the horror of a

great tempest is settling down upon the desolate grey sea, which heaves and seethes for ever around Cape

A great clipper ship, the noblest and swiftest of her class, is hurling along her vast length before the terrible

west wind. Hour by hour through the short and gloomy day, sail after sail has gone fluttering in; till now, at

nightfall, she reels and rolls before the storm under a single close reefed maintopsail.

There is a humming, and a roaring, and a rushing of great waters, so that they who are clinging to the bul

warks, and watching awestruck this great work of the Lord's, cannot hear one another though they shout.

Now there is a grey mountain which chases the ship, over takes her, pours cataracts of water over her

rounded stern, and goes hissing and booming past her. And now a roll more frantic than usual, nigh dips her

("Oh, you very miserable ass," said Captain Brentwood; "to sit down and try to describe the indescribable. Do

you think that because you can see all the scene before you now, because your flesh creeps, and your blood

moves as you call it to mind, do you think, I say, that you can describe it? Do you think that you can give a

man, in black and white, with ink, and on paper, any real notion of that most tremendous spectacle, a sharp

bowed ship running before a gale of wind through the ice in the great South Sea, where every wave rolls

round the world? Go to read Tom Cringle, who has given up his whole soul to descriptions, and see how

many pictures dwell in your mind's eye, after reading his books. Two, or at most three, and they, probably,

quite different from what he intended you to see, lovely as they are; leave describing things, man, and

Said Major Buckley, "Go on, Hamlyn, and do the best you can. Don't mind him." And so I go on ac

61� 30" South. The Horn, stormbeaten, desolate, four hundred miles to the North, and barely forty miles to

the South, that cruel, gleaming, ice barrier, which we saw today when the weather lifted at noon, and which

we know is there yet, though we dare not think about it. There comes to us, though, in spite of ourselves, a

vision of what may happen any hour. A wild cry from the foretop. A mass, grey, indistinct, horrible, rising

from the wild waters, scarce a hundred yards from her bowsprit. A mad hurrying to and fro. A crash. A great

ruin of masts and spars, and then utter, hopeless destruction. That is the way the poor old Madagascar must

Stunned, drenched to the skin, halffrightened, but wildly excited and determined to see out, what a lands

man has but seldom a chance of seeing, a great gale of wind at sea, I clung tight to the starboard bulwarks of

Mr. Richard Green's new clipper, Sultan, Captain Sneezer, about an hour after dark, as she was rounding the

Horn, watching much such a scene as I have at tempted to give you a notion of above. And as I held on

there, wishing that the directors of my insurance office could see me at that moment, the first mate, com ing

from forward, warping himself from one belaying pin to another, roared in my ear, "that he thought it was

"A bit of a breeze," he roared; but his roar came to me like a whisper. However, I pretty soon found out that

this was something quite out of the common; for, crawling up, along the gangway which runs between the

poophouse and the bulwarks, I came with great dif ficulty to the stern; and there I saw the two best men in

the larboard watch (let us immortalize them, they were Deaf Bob, and Harry the digger), lashed to the wheel,

and the Skipper himself, steadfast and anxious, alongside of them, lashed to a cleat on the afterpart of the

deckhouse. So thinks I, if these men are made fast, this is no place for me to be loose in, and crawled down

to my old place in the waist, at the after end of the spare topsailyard, which was made fast to the star

If any gentleman can detect a nautical error in that last sentence, I shall feel obliged by his men tioning it.

Somebody who came forth from the confusion, and was gone again, informed me that "He was going to lay

her to, and that I'd better hold on." I comforted myself with the reflection that I was doing exactly the right

Then something happened, and I am sorry to say I don't exactly know what. I find in my notes, taken shortly

afterwards, from the dictation of an intelligent midshipman, "that the fore royalyard got jammed with the

spankerboom, and carried away the larboard quarter boat." Nautical friends have since pointed out to me

that this involves an impossibility. I daresay it does. I know it involved an impossibility of turning in without

subjecting yourself to a hydropathic remedy of violent nature, by going to bed in wet blankets, and of getting

anything for breakfast besides wet biscuit and cold tea. Let it go; something went wrong, and the

A wall of water, looming high above her mainyard, came rushing and booming along, dark, terrible, opaque.

For a moment I saw it curling overhead, and would have cried out, I believe, had there been time; but a

midshipman, a mere child, slipped up before me, and caught hold of my legs, while I tried to catch his collar.

Then I heard the skipper roar out, in that hoarse throaty voice that seamen use when excited. "Hold on, the

sea's aboard," and then a stunning, blinding rush of water buried us altogether. The Sultan was on her beam

ends, and what was more, seemed inclined to stay there, so that I, holding on by the bulwarks, saw the sea

seeth ing and boiling almost beneath my feet, which were swinging clear off the deck.

But the midshipman sung out that she was righting again, which she did rather quicker than was desirable,

bringing every loose article on deck down to our side again with a rush. A useless, thundering, fourpounder

gun, of which terrible implements of war we carried six, came plunging across from the other side of the

deck, and went crashing through the bulwarks, out into the sea, within two feet of my legs.

"I think," I said, trying to persuade myself that I was not frightened, "I think I shall go into the cuddy."

That was not very easy to do. I reached the door, and got hold of the handle, and, watching my opportu nity,

slipped dexterously in, and making a plunge, came against the surgeon, who, seated on a campstool, was

"Repique, by jingo," shouted Sam Buckley, who was the surgeon's opponent. "See what a capital thing it is to

have an old friend like Hamlyn, to come in and knock your opponent down just at the right moment."

"And papa was losing, too, Uncle Jeff," added a handsome lad, about fifteen, who was leaning over Sam's

"What are they doing to you, Doctor?" said Alice Buckley, nee Brentwood, coming out of a cabin, and

"Why," replied the surgeon, "Hamlyn knocked me down just in a moment of victory, but his nefarious pro

Let us give a glance at the group which is assembled beneath the swing lamp in the reeling cabin. The wife

and son are both leaning over the father's shoulder, and the three faces are together. Sam is about forty. There

is not a wrinkle in that honest forehead, and the eyes beam upon you as kindly and pleasantly as ever they

did; and when, after playing to the surgeon, he looks up and laughs, one sees that he is just the same old Sam

that used to lie, as a lad, dreaming in the verandah at Garoopna. No trouble has left its shadow there. Alice,

whose face is pressed against his, is now a calm, young matron of three or fourandthirty, if it were

possible, more beautiful than ever, only she has grown from a Hebe into a Juno. The boy, the son and heir, is

much such a stripling as I can remember his father at the same age, but handsomer. And while we look,

another face comes peering over his shoulder; the laughing face of a lovely girl, with bright sunny hair, and

They are going home to England. Sam what between his New England runs, where there are now, under

Tom Troubridge's care, 118,000 sheep, and his land speculations at Melbourne, which have turned him out

somewhere about 1,000 per cent. since the gold discovery Sam, I say, is one of the richest of her Majesty's

subjects in the Southern hemisphere. I would give 200,000l. for Sam, and make a large fortune in the surplus.

"And so," I suppose you say, "he is going home to buy Clere." Not at all, my dear sir. Clere is bought, and

Does any one of my readers remember that our dear old friend, Agnes Buckley's maiden name was Talbot,

and that her father owned the property adjoining Clere? "We do not remember," you say; "or at least, if we

do, we are not bound to; you have not mentioned the circumstance since the very beginning of this exces

sively wearisome book, forty years ago." Allow me to say, that I have purposely avoided mentioning them all

along, in order that, at this very point, I might come down on you like a thunderbolt with this piece of

information; namely: That Talbot of Beaulieu Castle, the towers of which were visible from Clere

Terrace, had died without male issue. That Marian and Gertrude Talbot, the two pretty girls, Agnes Buckley's

eldest sisters, who used to come in and see old Marmaduke when James was campaigning, had never

married. That Marian was dead. That Ger trude, a broken old maid, was sole owner of Beaulieu Castle, with

eight thousand ayear; and, that Agnes Buckley, her sister, and consequently, Sam as next in succession, was

All the negotiations for the purchase of Clere had been carried on through Miss Gertrude and her steward.

The Brewer died, the property was sold, and Sam, by his agents, bought old Clere back, eight months before

"Then, why on earth," says Mrs. Councillor Wattle gum (our colonial Mrs. Grundy), "didn't they go home

overland? How could people with such wealth as you describe, demean themselves by going home round the

"Because, my dear Madam, the young folks were very anxious to see an iceberg. Come, let us get on."

The gale has lasted three days, and in that time we have run before it on our course 970 miles. The fourth

morning breaks gloriously bright, with the shadows of a few fleecy clouds flying across the bright blue

heaving sea. The ship, with all canvas crowded on her, alow and aloft, is racing on, fifteen knots an hour,

with a brisk cold wind full on her quarter, heeling over till the water comes rushing and spouting through her

leeward ports, and no man can stand without holding on, but all are merry and happy to see the water fly past

like blue champagne, and to watch the seething wake that the good ship leaves behind her. Ah! what is this,

that all are crowding down to leeward to look at? Is this the Crystal Palace, of which we have read, come out

to sea to meet us? No! the young folks are going to be gratified. It is a great iceberg, and we shall pass about

Certainly worth seeing. Much more tremendous than I had expected, though my imagination had rather run

riot in expectation. Just a great floating cluster of shining splintered crystals, about a mile long and 300 feet

high, with the cold hungry sea leaping and gnawing at its base, that is all. Send up those German

musicians here, and let us hear the echo of one of Strauss' Waltzes come ringing back from the chill green

caverns. Then away, her head in north ward again now, we may sight the Falklands the day after

Hardly worth telling you much more about that happy voyage, I think, and really I remember but few things

more of note. A great American ship in 45�, steaming in the teeth of the wind, heaving her long gleaming

sides through the roll of the South Atlantic. The Royal Charter passing us like a phantom ship through the hot

haze, when we were becalmed on the line, waking the silence of the heaving glassy sea with her throbbing

propeller. A valiant vainglorious little gunboat going out all the way to China by herself, giving herself the

airs of a seventyfour, requiring boats to be sent on board her, as if we couldn't have stowed her, guns and

all, on our poop, and never crowded our selves. A noble transport, with 53 painted on her bows, swarming

with soldiers for India, to whom we gave three times three. All these things have faded from my recollection

A morning which, beyond all others in my life, stands out clear and distinct, as the most memorable. Jim

Buckley shoved aside my cabin door when I was dressing, and says he, "Uncle Jeff, my Dad wants you

And so I ran up to Sam, and he took my arm and pointed northward. Over the gleaming morning sea rose a

purple mountain, shadowed here and there by travelling clouds, and a little redsailed boat was diving and

But I could not see it now for a blinding haze, and I bent down my head upon the bulwarks Bah! I am but

a fool after all. What could there have been to cry at in a Cornish moor, and a Falmouth pilot boat? I am not

quite so young as I was, and my nerves are probably failing. That must have been it. "When I saw the

steeple," says M. Tapley, "I thought it would have choked me." Let me say the same of Eddystone

Lighthouse, which we saw that afternoon; and have done with sentiment for good. If my memory serves me

I left the ship at Plymouth, and Sam went on in her to London. I satisfied my soul with amazement at the men

of war, and the breakwater; and, having bought a horse, I struck boldly across the moor for Drumston,

revisiting on my way many a wellknown snipeground, and old trout haunt; and so, on the third morning, I

reached Drumston once more, and stabled my horse at a little publichouse near the church.

It was about eight o'clock on a Tuesday morning; nevertheless, the churchbell was going, and the door was

open as if for prayer. I was a little surprised at this, but having visited the grave where my father and mother

lay, and then passed on to the simple headstone which marked the resting place of John Thornton and his

wife, I brushed through the docks and nettles, towards the lychgate, in the shadow of which stood the

clergyman, a gentlemanly looking young man, talking to a very aged woman in a red cloak.

He saluted me courteously, and passed on, talking earnestly and kindly to his aged companion, and so the

I looked around. Close to me, leaning against the gate, was a coarse looking woman about fifty, who had just

set down a red earthen pitcher to rest herself, and seemed not disinclined for a gossip. And at the same

moment I saw a fat man, about my own age, with breeches, unbuttoned at the knee, grey worsted stock ings

and slippers, and looking altogether as if he was just out of bed, having had too much to drink the night

before; such a man, I say, I saw coming across the road, towards us, with his hands in his pockets.

"You'm a fool, Cis Jewell," said the man, who had by this time arrived. "You'm leading the gentleman wrong,

"And there bain't much difference, I'm thinking, James Gosford," said Cis Jewell.

I started. James Gosford had been one of my favourite old comrades in times gone by, and here he was.

Could it be he? Could this fat redfaced man of sixtyone, be the handsome hardriding young dandy of

forty years ago? It was he, doubtless, and in another moment I should have declared myself, but a new

The bell began again, and service was over. The old woman came out of the porch and slowly down the

"That's all, sir," said Gosford. "Sometimes some of they young villains of boys gets in, and our old clerk,

Jerry, hunts 'em round and round all prayer time; but there's none goes regular except the old 'ooman."

"And she had need to pray a little more than other folks," said Cis Jewell, folding her arms, and balancing

Further conversation was stopped by the near approach of the old woman herself, and I looked up at her with

some little curiosity. A very old woman she was surely; and while I seemed struggling with some sort of

"Geoffry Hamlyn," she said, without a sign of sur prise. "You are welcome back to your native village.

When your old comrade did not know you, I, whose eyes are dim with the sorrow of eighty years, recognised

"This is Madge," she said, "who has lived long enough to see and to bless the man who saw and com forted

her poor lost boy in prison, when all beside fell off from him. The Lord reward you for it."

"Ask a witch where she gets her information!" laughed she. "God forgive me. I'll tell you how it was. One of

the turnkeys in that very prison was a Cooper, a Hampshire gipsy, and he, knowing my boy to be

halfblooded, passed all the facts on through the tribes to me, who am a mother among them! Did you see

him die?" she added, eagerly putting her great bony hand upon my arm, and looking up in my face.

"I heard he died grim," she continued, half to herself. "He should a done. There was a deal of wild blood in

him from both sides. Are you going up to the woodlands, to see the old place? 'Tis all in ruins now; and the

choughs and stares are building and brooding in the chimney nook where I nursed him. I shall not have much

And she was gone; and Gosford, relieved by her departure, was affectionately lugging me off to his house.

Oh, the mixture of wealth and discomfort that house exhibited! Oh, the warmhearted jollity of every one

there! Oh, to see those three pretty, welleducated girls taking their father off by force, and making him clean

himself in honour of my arrival! Oh, the merry evening we had! What, though the cider disagreed with me?

What, though I knew it would disagree with me at the time I drank it? That noisy, jolly night in the old

And, to my great surprise, the Vicar came in in the middle of it, and made himself very agreeable to me. He

told me that old Madge, as far as he could see, was a thoroughly converted and orderly person, having thrown

aside all pretence of witchcraft. That she lived on some trifle of hoarded money of her own, and a small

parish allowance that she had; and that she had only come back to the parish some six years since, after

wander ing about as a gipsy in almost every part of England. He was so good as to undertake the delivery of

a small sum to her weekly from me, quite sufficient to enable her to refuse the parish allowance, and live

comfortably (he wrote to me a few months afterwards, and told me that it was required no longer, for that

Madge was gone to rest at last); and a good deal more news he gave me, very little of which is interesting

He told me that Lord C, John Thornton's friend, was dead; that he never thoroughly got over the great

Reform debate, in which he overexerted himself; and that, after the passing of the Bill, he had walked

joyfully home and had a fit, which prevented his ever taking any part in politics afterwards, though he lived

above ten years. That his son was not so popular as his father, in consequence of his politics, which were too

conserva tive for the new class of tenants his father had brought in; and his religious opinions, which, said

the clergy man, were those of a sound Churchman; by which he meant, I rather suspect, that he was a pretty

smart Tractarian. I was getting won with this young gentle man, in spite of religious difference, when he

chose to say that the parish had never been right since Maberly had had it, and that the Dissenters always

raved about him to this day; whereby, he concluded, that Frank Maberly was far from orthodox. I took

occasion to say that Frank was the man of all others in this world whom I admired most, and that, considering

he had sealed his faith with his life, I thought that he ought to be very reverently spoken of. After this there

I went up to town by the Great Western, and, for the first time, knew what was meant by railway travelling.

True, I had seen and travelled on that monument of human industry, the Hobson's Bay Railroad, but that

stupendous work hardly prepared me for the Great Western. And on this journey I began to understand, for

the first time in my life, what a marvellous country this England of ours was. I wondered at the wealth and

traffic I saw, even in comparatively unimportant towns. I wondered at the beauty and solidity of the railway

works; at the vast crowds of people which I saw at every station; at the manly, independent bearing of the

men of the working classes, which combined so well with their civility and intelligence; and I thought, with a

laugh, of the fate of any eighty thousand men who might shove their noses into this beehive, while there

was such material to draw upon. Such were the thoughts of an Englishman landing in England, from whom

But when I got into the whirl of London, I was completely overwhelmed and stupified. I did not enjoy

anything. The eternal roar was so different to what I had been used to; and I had stayed there a couple of

months before I had got a distinct impression of any thing, save and except the Crystal Palace at Sydenham.

It was during this visit to London that I heard of the fall of Von Landstein's (Dr. Mulhaus') Ministry, which

had happened a year or two before. And now, also, I read the speech he made on his resignation, which, for

biting sarcasm and bitter truth rudely told, is unequalled by any speech I ever read. A more witty, more inso

lent, more audacious tirade, was never hurled at a successful opposition by a fallen minister. The K

party sat furious, as one by one were seized on by our ruthless friend, held up to ridicule, and thrown aside.

Our friend, in the heat of debate, used the word "Dummerkopf," which answers, I believe, to our "wooden

head." He applied it to no one in particular; but a certain young nobleman (Bowwow Von Azelsberg was his

name) found the epithet so applicable to his own case, that he took umbrage at it; and, being egged on by his

comrades, challenged Von Landstein to mortal combat. Von Landstein received his fire without suffer ing,

adjusted his spectacles, and shot the young gentle man in the knee, stopping his waltzing for ever and a day.

He then departed for his castle, where he is at this present speaking (having just gone there after a visit to

Clere) busy at his great book, "The History of Fanatics and Fanaticism, from Mahomet to Joe Smith."

Beloved by all who come in contact with him; happy, honoured, and prosperous, as he so well deserves to be.

But I used to go and see everything that was to be seen, though, having no companion (for Sam was down at

Clere, putting his house in order), it was very wretched work. I did, in fact, all the public amusements in

Lon don, and, as a matter of course, found myself one night, about eleven o'clock, at Evans's, in Covent

The place was crowded to suffocation, but I got a place at a table about halfway up, opposite an old

gentleman who had been drinking a good deal of brandy and water, and was wanting some more. Next me

was an honestlooking young fellow enough, and opposite him his friend. These two looked like shoplads,

A tall old gentleman made me buy some cigars, with such an air of condescending goodwill, that I was

encouraged to stop a waiter and humbly ask for a glass of whisky and water. He was kind enough to bring it

A very gentlemanlylooking man sang us a song, so unutterably funny that we were dissolved in inextin

guishable laughter; and then, from behind a curtain, began to come boys in black, one after another, as the

imps in a pantomime come from a place I dare not mention, to chase the clown to his destruction. I counted

twelve of them and grew dizzy. They ranged them selves in a row, with their hands behind them, and began

screeching Tennyson's "Miller's Daughter" with such a maximum of shrillness, and such a minimum of

expression, that I began to think that tailing wild cattle on the mountains, at midnight, in a thunderstorm, with

They finished. Thank goodness. Ah! delusive hope. The drunken old miscreant opposite me got up an encore

with the bottom of his tumbler, and we had it all over again. Who can tell my delight when he broke his glass

applauding, and the waiter came down on him sharp, and made him pay for it. I gave that waiter sixpence on

Then came some capital singing, which I really enjoyed; and then came a remarkable adventure; "an

adventure!" you say; "and at Evans's!" My dear sir, do you suppose that, at a moment like this, when I am

pressed for space, and just coming to the end of my story; do you suppose that, at a moment like this, I

A tall, upright looking man passed up the lane between the tables, and almost touched me as he passed. I did

not catch his face, but there was something so distingu about him that I watched him. He had his hat off,

and was smoothing down his closecropped hair, and appeared to be looking for a seat. As he was just

The new comer was walking slowly up the room, and there began to arise a little breeze of applause, and then

some one called out, "Three cheers for the Inkerman pet," and then there was a stamping of feet, and a little

laughter, and cheering in various parts of the room, but the new comer made one bow and walked on.

"Pray, sir," said I, bending over to one of those who had spoken before, "who is that gentleman?"

He had no need to tell me. The man we spoke of reached the orchestra and turned round. It was Jim

There was a great white seam down his face, and he wore a pair of light curling moustachios, but I knew him

in a moment; and, when he faced round to the company, I noticed that his person seemed known to the

public, for there was not a little applause with the bottoms of tumblers, not unlike what one remembers at

In one moment we were standing face to face, shaking one another by both hands; in another, we were arm in

arm, walking through the quiet streets towards Jim's lodgings. He had been in Ireland with his regiment, as I

knew, which accounted for my not having seen him. And that night, Major Brentwood recounted to me all his

part in the last great campaign, from the first fierce rush up the hill at the Alma, down to the time when our

A few days after this, Jim and I were standing together on the platform of the Wildmoor station, on the

South Western Railway, and a couple of porters were carry ing our portmanteaus towards a pairhorse

phaeton, in which stood Sam Buckley, shouting to us to come on, for the horses wouldn't stand. So, in a

moment, I was alongside of Sam in the front seat, with Jim standing up behind, between the grooms, and

leaning over between us, to see after Sam's driving; and away we went along a splendid road, across a heath,

"Let them go, my child," said Jim to Sam, "you've got a fair mile before. You sit at your work in capital style.

Give me time and I'll teach you to drive, Sam. How do you like this, Uncle Jeff?"

I said, "That's more than I can tell you, Master Jim. I know so little of your wheeled vehicles that I am rather

"Ah!" said Jim, "you should have been in Calcutta when the O'Rourke and little Charley Badminton tried to

drive a pair of fresh imported Australians tandem through the town. Red Maclean and I looked out of the

billiardroom, and we saw the two horses go by with a bit of a shaft banging about the wheeler's hocks. So

we ran down and found Charley, with his head broke, standing in the middle of the street, mopping the blood

off his forehead. 'Charley,' says I, 'how the deuce did this happen?' 'We met an elephant,' says he, in a faint

"The Squire of Monkspool," he answered. "A very fine young fellow, and clever withal."

"Never, poor soul," said Sam. "To the last, she refused to see my mother, believing that the rivalry between

Cecil and myself in some way led to his death. She was never sane after that dreadful morning."

And so with much pleasant talk we beguiled the way, till I saw, across a deep valley on our right, a line of

noble heights, well timbered, but broken into open grassy glades, and smooth sheets of bright green lawn.

Between us and these hills flowed a gleaming river, from which a broad avenue led up to the eye of the

picture, a noble grey stone mansion, a mass of turrets, gables, and chimneys, which the afternoon sun was

Swiftly up under the shadow of the elm avenue, past the herds of dappled deer, up to the broad gra veled

terrace which ran along in front of the brave old house. And there, beneath the dark wild porch, above the

group of servants that stood upon the steps to receive their master, was Alice, with her son and daughter

I bought a sweet cottage, barely a mile from Clere, with forty acres of grassland round it, and every con

I took to fishing and to the breeding of horses on a small scale, and finding that I could make myself

enormously busy with these occupations, and as much hunting as I wanted, I became very comfortable, and

I had plenty of society, the best in the land. Above all men I was the honoured guest at Clere, and as the

county had rallied round Sam with acclamation, I saw and enjoyed to the fullest extent that charming English

I was a great favourite, too, with old Miss Gertrude Talbot at the castle. Her admiration and love for Sam and

his wife was almost equal to mine. So we never bored one another, and so, by degrees, gaining the old lady's

entire confidence, I got entrusted with a special mission of a somewhat peculiar character.

The leading desire of this good old woman's life was, that her sister Agnes should come back with her hus

band, the Major, and take possession of the castle. Again, Alice could not be content, unless her father could

be induced to come back and take up his residence at Clere. And letters having failed to produce the desired

effect in both instances, the Major, saying that he was quite comfortable where he was, and the Captain

urging that the English winters would be too vigorous for his constitution; under these circumstances, I say, I,

the confidant of the family, within fifteen months of landing at Plymouth, found myself in a hot omnibus with

a Mahomedan driver, jolting and bumping over the desert of Suez on my way back to Australia, charged to

And it was after this journey that the scene described in the first chapter of this book took place; when I read

aloud to them from the roll of manuscript mentioned there, my recollections of all that had happened to us

during so many years, But since I have come back to England, these "Recollections" have been very much

enlarged and improved by the assistance of Major Buckley, Agnes, and Captain Brentwood.

For I succeeded in my object, and brought them back in triumph through the Red Sea, across the Isthmus of

Suez, and so by way of the Mediterranean, the Bay of Biscay, the English Channel, Southampton Water, the

SouthWestern railway, and Alice's new darkblue barouche, safe and sound to Clere and the castle, where

they all are at this present speaking, unless some of them are gone out a walking.

As for Tom Troubridge and Mary, they are so ex ceedingly happy and prosperous, that they are not worth

talking about. They will come either by the Swiftsure or the Norfolk, and we have got their rooms ready for

them. They say that their second child, the boy, is one of the finest riders in the colony.

"You have forgotten some one after all," says the reader, after due examination. "A man we took some little

interest in. It is not much matter though, we shall be glad when you have done."

I am sitting in Sam's "den" at Clere. He is engaged in receiving the "afterdavy" of a man who got his head

broke by a tinker at the cricketmatch in the park (for Sam is in the commission, and sits on the bench once a

month "a perfect Midas," as Mrs. Wattlegum would say). I am busy rigging up one of these wonderful new

Yankee spoons with a view to killing a villanous pike, who has got into the troutwater. I have just tied on the

thirtyninth hook, and have got the fortieth ready in my fingers, when a footman opens the door, and says to

I keep two horses of all work and a grey pony, so that the word "stud" before the word groom in the last

sentence must be taken to refer to my little farm, on which I rear a few colts annually.

And so there comes in a little old man, dressed in the extreme of that peculiar dandyism which is affected by

retired jockeys and trainers, and which I have seen since attempted, with indifferent success, by a few young

And so, my dear reader, I must at last bid you heartily farewell. I am not entirely without hope that we may