THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES A ti •■'*. k , ■■■K '. .5»*'fl ^,"'J»8 ;tS:jli ** *■• ■«■/ ^;y^>-'^->.;;' ;>' K?oi^^e;■v■ .To. I confess that I felt some pride in being the possessor of so much capital. I may as well spare myself the task of describing the tender parting scene on the deck of the Storniberg^ between my dear relatives and myself. It was the first separation we had ever experienced since my father left off going to sea, and we all felt it very much ; but it is not likely that strangers will care to know anything about it. My voyage across the ocean was a very rapid one for a sailing ship. I had never been to sea before, so I was in comfortable ignorance of the peculiar perils and dangers which ever beset passengers in a clipper ship, with a captain who ambitiously aims at beating every- thing afloat, at all hazards. When the Storniberg was plunging along with her fore-yard almost scooping the water, and making the masts and yards crack again, I thought it was all right, and that ships were built to sail on their broadsides. And when the lighter sails and spars were carried away occasionally, and the split canvas flapped about the eyes and ears of the sailors who were trying to secure it, I used to smile at the fun, until I one day overheard the old boatswain mutter to himself, that " carrying on sail till it blew away was wilful murdering work for the crew " ; and then I saw ROGER LARKSWAVS STRANGE MISSION. 69 that there was more risk to human life and limb than the honour of making an extra smart passage was worth. I have since observed, that when the newspapers report a remarkably quick trip of a favourite ship, they usually praise the smartness of the captain and officers, but the broken bones of the common sailors are not worth men- tioning. Our voyage ended a day sooner than any of us an- ticipated ; that is to say, instead of entering Port Phillip Heads with flying colours and with dry clothes on our backs, as we might have done if every man on board had done his duty, we ran on shore near Cape Otway, and the Stormberg became a total wreck. That fine, new clipper ship never floated again, except in frag- ments of firewood. Fortunately no lives were lost, and I daresay the owners were satisfactorily insured, so that there was not much stir made over it. No doubt there was negligence somewhere, but I am not sailor enough to explain exactly how the mishap occurred ; and lest I should put the blame on an innocent head, I will say no more about it, save that it scared me very much, and made me pray more solemnly than I ever prayed before, and perhaps more earnestly than I shall pray in future, until death again stares me in the face. The immediate prospect of a violent death will make the most careless wretch tremble ; and the man whose whole life has been devoted to sport and conviviality will look serious if he is in a sinking ship. However much blasphemous talk and tipsy jocularity I witnessed throughout the voyage, there was not much of that sort of fun to be heard or 70 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, seen when the ship lay wallownig in those frightful breakers, and the rocks were grinding her bottom into pulp. That was a time to weep, rather than a time to laugh. Never shall I forget that awful night, until I forget the world altogether. I cannot easily describe my first ideas of the Victor- ians. Upon the whole they favourably impressed me, though there certainly was much strange freedom about some of them, similar to what I have read of in American story books. When I landed at Sandridge from the tug steamer which brought me up from the wreck, I was received by a crowd of well-dressed persons on the pier, with most exciting demonstrations of attention, if not respect. I might have fancied that I had fallen in with a host of old neighbours in a strange land, and that they were all glad to see me. It did not strike me that my having been wrecked the previous night in a new clipper ship, at the very doorway of my home, as it were, and the general curiosity to hear the details of the mishap from my lips, were the circumstances which stirred up that pleasing display of fraternal feeling. By the way, it is a curious fact, which I have since had leisure to reflect upon, that the condolence a shipwrecked man usually meets with, is, to a marked extent, regulated by the size and class of the vessel in which he was cast ashore. I have a shrewd impression, that if I had been wrecked in an old collier schooner, or even in a brie laden with Warrnambool potatoes, I might have landed at Sandridge without much recognition, save from some of the sailors on the pier, or a few lodging-house touters EOGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 7^ — stay, I will qualify that speculative sentence, by add- ing that I have no doubt the zealous chaplain of the "Sailors' Church," or some good friend from the "Sailors' Home," would have been on the look out for me. I was, however, too much excited when I stepped on shore to ponder over the many fitful phases of human sympathy, and I received the greetings of the crowd with more gratitude than the people really deserved. Some gentlemen in the railway car in which I took my seat for Melbourne, were eager to know more than I could tell them about the wreck. My story was simply as follows : " I was suddenly awakened by being jerked out of my berth on to the sharp edge oi my sea-chest. I hastened on deck, and saw white breaking waves all around me and dark clouds above me. The ship's timbers were crunching, her masts were falling, and her sails were flapping into rags. Con- fusion seemed to be ruling everywhere, and my head was distracted. Soon after\vards I found myself on the rocks ; but how I got there, I cannot exactly say, for my senses were temporarily scared away. The only visible personal damage I sustained was a small bruise on my left leg." That certainly was a short report of a great cata- strophe, but I could not honestly make any more of it. Some of my hearers did not seem half satisfied with it, and they cross-questioned me to a perplexing extent, as if they fully believed that I knew who was to blame for the disaster. At length I told them, with polite firmness, that I could not give them any more 72 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, information on the subject, and they had better wait till some ofificial report was printed. One queer-looking little man then asked me if I had any objection to show them the bruise on my leg ? Of course I knew that was only common chaff, and I treated it with dignified contempt ; but every one else in the carriage laughed like a flock of bush kookoo-burras. When I got out of the train at Flinders Street station, I again received some public notice ; and at the hotel where I lunched that day, I was an object of marked attention. I could almost have swam in " shandy-gaff," and other American beverages of a stimulating nature, which were pressed on me by many fraternizing strangers ; and if I had not possessed sober virtue, I should assuredly have been drunk that morning, and then I daresay I might have given a comical account of my shipwreck, and my dear friends at home would have been astonished when they read it in print two or three months afterwards. But my popularity was not durable ; it never is in such cases. In a few days the wreck of the Storviberg ceased to be talked of at cafe tables, and I only re- ceived an occasional nod of recognition from some person who had more leisure than his busy neighbours, or a verbal salute from others, whose familiarity closely bordered on contempt. I recovered my baggage from the wreck. It was a little moistened by sea water, but was otherwise all correct. The temptation to spend a month or so in seeing the many objects of attraction in and around ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 73 Melbourne was hard to overcome ; but I was firm in my resolution to fulfil my promise to Cameron before I attended to my own pleasure or minor in- terests, so I prepared to go to New South Wales, and there to begin my search for his wife and daughter. The next steamer for Sydney was called the Coliunbns. But as I did not hear a very favourable character of the ship, I went by rail to Sandridge to look at her and judge for myself In those " golden days " many old steamers were sent to Melbourne and Sydney for sale, and they were bought up, at almost fabulous prices, for the intercolonial passenger trade. The Columbiis was one of those top-heavy looking steamers that are specially built for navigating the American lakes, and in my judgment it was not a very trust- worthy vessel for ocean service. I am not sure that I would have trusted myself and luggage in her for the short trip to Sydney, only that one of her owners was going as a passenger. He looked like a man who knew how to take care of himself, so I resolved to chance it. By the way, that short phrase, " chance it," is very common with colonial boys, — and with their fathers too, sometimes. After securing my berth, I left the ship and strolled along the Sandridge beach, reflecting as I went that I had passed through more stirring scenes during the last ten weeks, than I had experienced in the whole course of my previous life. Only a few months before, I was dispensing medicine in my uncle's old-fashioned shop in Greenwich High Street, and had no more idea of 74 LAUNCHING AWAY; OK, going to Australia than I had of going to Greenland. I could hardly realize that I was at the warm antipodes, though the fact was being dinned into my ears by myriads of trumpeting mosquitoes. Presently I tried to draw a mental panorama of all my old Greenwich friends standing on their heads, and their houses and churches turned topsy-turvy. I was just picturing a general smash of uncle's physic bottles and galli- pots, when my comical fancy was checked by a shrill screaming, the cause of which I will explain in one paragraph. There is perhaps nothing very romantic or pictur- esque in the town of Sandridge, though it is a busy place, and one of the principal shipping ports of Victoria. Being less than three miles from Melbourne, and only about five minutes' run by railway, some of the citizens like to go there on warm afternoons for an hour or two, to escape from the dust of the busy metropolis, and to enjoy the sight and scent of the wide waters of Ilobson's Bay. The beaches at St. Kilda and Brighton are more enticing and more popular than Sandridge beach ; but tastes vary in Melbourne, and some of the folks prefer the latter place. I think I shall always retain a veneration for Sandridge. But to go on with my narrative. As I was strolling along the western beach, I saw a group of little girls in charge of a nursemaid, who was sitting on a log knitting, while the children were gambolling about in innocent merriment. Some of them were building castles In the sand for the waves to wash ROGER LARA'S JFJY'S STRANGE JHSSION. 75 down, and others were capering, like young naiads, on the top of an old rusty boiler, which once belonged to a steamship with a curious history. Soon after I had passed the playful group, I heard cries of distress, and on looking round I saw that a little girl had fallen off the old boiler into the sea. There was a commotion among the children, and the nursemaid had dropped her knitting bag and was running to the rescue with all speed ; but I was there before her, and stepping into the water, I clutched the struggling child and carried her on shore. The nurse seemed too much flurried to utter a word of thanks to me for the timely service. Indeed, I did not wait half a minute. I knew that the child had not suffered, except from fright and a thorough wetting, and as I was wet half-way up to my neck, I hastened to a cab-stand, and drove direct to my lodgings. I did not mention the incident to my landlady, though I could see that she was longing to know how I had got so wet on a fine sunny day. I had before noticed that she was an inquisitive old dame, and I did not choose to humour her taste for news that did not concern herself. Since that day I have many times heard my friends say it was a lucky chance that I was close at hand to save the dear child ; but I do not believe that mere luck or chance had anything to do with it. I shall have some more to tell about the occurrence in the course of my story. CHAPTER VII. " Here's a pretty lot of us Nice young maidens ! " — Old song. On the morning after the forcgonig Incident, I read a paragraph in one of the Melbourne newspapers, headed " Heroic Act !" It highly applauded the cour- age and humanity of a gentleman, whose name could not be ascertained, in saving the life of a little girl who had fallen into the sea at Sandridge. It occupied seventeen lines of brevier type. I could not help smiling as I reflected how little I had done to merit such flattering commendation. The water was about three feet in depth, and the child could not have been drowned if she had felt for the bottom with her feet, which she would naturally have done if I had given her time to do it. I simply ran into the sea, not quite up to my watch-pocket, and carried the screaming little child on shore. That was all, and I would have done almost as much to save a chicken. My first impulse was to w'rite to the news- paper and modestly disclaim some of the praise that was lavished upon me ; but upon reflection, I thought it was better not to notice it. The paragraph was perhaps written by a grateful parent ; but I might 7G ROGER LARKS WAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 77 be suspected of having had a hand in it myself, in order to revive my short-lived popularity. Schemes as paltry as that have been resorted to by men who are greedy for public favour, and who can accept oi unlimited eulogy with as much complacent relish as a petted elephant swallows currant buns. After getting ready to start by the 2.30 train for Sandridge, I sauntered into a Melbourne restaurant, from the hidden recesses of which issued an exhilarating odour, that pleasingly reminded me of the Stonnberg' s galley on Sundays, on which days there were special dainties cooked for the intermediate passengers. I took a seat just inside the doorway, behind a small table which was meant to accommodate four guests. My motive for getting into an out-of-the-way corner was to avoid perchance meeting with any of the facetious gentlemen who had interviewed me when I first landed from the wreck. No one enjoys a pleasant joke more than I do, but too much of that sort of thing is nauseating, and I had grown almost disgusted at being so often hailed in public places, " Hallo, Storm- berg ! How is your bad leg V Soon after the city clocks had struck one, a rapid human torrent poured into the dining-hall, and the score or more of little tables were occupied in less than three minutes by gentlemen, the majority of whom seemed to me to be employes in mercantile offices or warehouses. There were printed bills of fare on each table, or long lists of edibles to be had on de- mand, and I observed that the said bills were eagerly 78 LAUNCHING AJVAl ; OR, clutched at by some of the guests before they had time to take their hats off. Of course I concluded that they were ravenously hungry ; indeed one youth — not- withstanding his chubby face — might have been sup- posed to be actually starving, by the clamorous way he shouted, "Ox tail here! Look sharp, Sarah !" In general, however, the company were as well behaved as any similar gathering that I had seen in London* only there were more sporting and mining topics dis- cussed than I had ever heard at the restaurant in Cheapside where I used sometimes to dine ; and the frequent calls for " A nobbier of /'./>.," was a local demand quite as new to my ears as the shandy-gaff before alluded to. There were no " small beer " customers at these tables ! I soon discovered that my scat, in an extreme corner, was a badly chosen one in reference to my chance of being served with any food while the joints were in good cut and smoking hot, for I seemed to be quite out of the tide-way of victuals. I beguiled the time I had to wait in watching the waltz-like gyrations of the waitresses, and wondering how in the world they contrived to pass and repass each other so rapidly, on the centre floor — laden double-handed as they were — without colliding and upsetting dinner upon dinner. But not a single mishap of the kind did I witness, although I did not take my eyes off the girls for a moment. The amusing exhibition softened down my rising impatience for food. There were a dozen, or perhaps more, of those active ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 79 maidens ; and I could not but approve of the taste and sagacity of the owner of the restaurant, in providing such asrreeable substitutes for the male waiters that I o had been accustomed to see in London. For my part, I thought, I would not mind paying a few pence extra for my dinner, to have the comfort of gazing at so many pleasing faces and figures while I was eating. It would naturally assist digestion. Most of the girls were good-looking and were all neatly dressed, and their hair was tidily arranged according to their respective fancies ; indeed, it is reasonable to suppose that they all looked as pretty as they could conveniently make themselves look, under present circumstances. A few of them were favourites, as I could see by the special calls that were made on their services ; but their work seemed like play to them, for they were always smiling over it. I particularly noticed a fair-haired damsel, whose move- ments were as graceful as my sister Emma's, which is saying as much as poetry itself could say for her. I could easily tell that her name was Bella, for she was often shouted for by several customers at once ; but she seemed to attend to them all in their turn, as pleasantly as if she were feeding pet rabbits. No doubt girls will be girls everywhere, in about the same degree or proportion that "boys will be boys," according to the old adage ; and I certainly noticed coquettish glances now and then directed to some of the smart young sparks seated at the tables ; but the girls had not too much to say in reply to the So LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, compliments which were freely bestowed on them, and I concluded that they were all lasses of good character. After waiting more than a reasonable time, I thought I had better speak up for myself, or the provisions might all be eaten before my share came to me ; so I made bold to shout, "Bella!" in close imitation of the friendly style of some of the regular diners. My call was promptly answered by the damsel appealed to, who, in a voice as musical as a blackbird's, asked, " What can I get for you, sir ?" " I will take a Scotch pie, Bella, if you please," I said ; and as she gracefully tripped away to supply my demand, I felt struck all at once with a notion that I had seen her face before. Yes, it was more than a notion, for I was certain that I had seen her in Greenwich ; I would have solemnly declared to it it necessary. There was no mistaking her pretty face among a million of faces. "Who can she be.-'" was the question I put to my- self, and which puzzled me beyond measure. Was she one of Miss Gibbins' daily boarders, that I used to peep at every afternoon through the blue show-bottle in my uncle's shop window .'' or did she serve at the pastry-cook's round the High Street corner? Was she one of Madame Trim's millinery apprentices ? or did she belong to the charity-school choristers that used to sing in our parish church ? Had I on some bank holiday got an impressive view of her handsome figure, as she was running down one of the grassy knolls in Greenwich park ? Somewhere in that locality I Jiad ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 8i seen her, I was sure, and I resolved on the instant to ask her all about it ; for the fact of meeting with any one — especially with a beautiful maiden — who had trodden, as it were, on the very threshold of my be- loved home, touched my feelings like a soft hand. I state it as a remarkable fact, that no living girl had ever before affected me so suddenly, and I could only account for it by the charming notion I had that she was born in or near to my own native town. My cousin Saul has just twittingly remarked that a paving stone from the old mouldy town of Greenwich would be more attractive to my fancy than the great Bendigo gold nugget which everybody is talking of. I calmly retorted that I feared he had no more veneration or tender feeling for Jiis early home than one of those cast-iron lamp-posts in Collins Street had for its native foundry in Glasgow. A good moral rub like that, now and then, may benefit him ! It may seem rather mysterious to some stoical minds, but it is nevertheless true, that there are loving mothers in this land who would set far more value on one of their lost baby's little old shoes, than they would on a whole shipment of the newest fashioned boots. I have in a secret drawer in my desk a single leaf, which was sent to me, years ago, in the last letter I received from my dear deceased sister. It was plucked by her hand from the honeysuckle that we together planted in our garden at home on her tenth birthday. Dry and withered and intrinsically useless as that leaf is now, I would not exchange it for a chest of curly G 82 LAUNCIIIXG AWAY; OR, leaf pekoe tea from the best plantation in China. And the moss-rose bud that I received by the last English mail from my beloved mother, though it is faded and scentless, and flat as an old bone button, has more value in my eyes than the gorgeous bouquet which I saw on the centre table in St. George's Hall, Mel- bourne, at the tea meeting last Friday night. There is certainly less commercial spirit than sentimentalism in all that ; still they are some of the soft phases of human fancy that cannot easily be argued away. Bella was not gone more than a minute for my pic. I thought I had never before seen a girl carry a little dish with such modest grace. When she placed the steaming hot dainty before mc, I asked, — " I say, Bella, do you know Greenwich .?" I used the most insinuating tone I could affect, and I looked as softly persuasive as a shopman selling bonnets ; but the girl evidently thought I was begin- ning to joke with her, after the common way of some of the ruder liabitucs of the saloon, for she only responded by a slight toss of the head, and away she tripped to attend on some other customer. At the same time, I was quick enough to observe that there was something in her look which she meant to signify, " I must not gossip at dinner-time." Such was my own interpretation of the sparkle in her lovely eyes, and I was encouraged to hope that after the bustle of dinner was over, she would not mind having a little chat with mc about our dear old town far 'away ; so I sat and ruminated over my Scotch pie until nearly ROGER LARRSIVAV'S STRANGE MISSION. S3 all the other guests had finished their meal and had gone away to resume their sterner duties. The slow way my teeth were working against time almost lulled me to sleep ; but at length the last man laid down his knife and fork and departed. I was glad. I thought a convenient time was now come for me to have a little innocent, homely gossip with Bella, and I kept a watchful eye all over the room ; but I could not see her, which made me anxious lest she should have knocked herself up with her exertions in waiting on so many hungry men. Very soon the staff of waitresses (their duties being over for the day) seated themselves in a group at a table just in front of mine, and as near as possible to the snug corner I occupied for the sake of seclusion ; and then, without apparently noticing me, they exercised their tongues while they rested their limbs. Truly their chatting powers were astounding, and it was clear to me that they had no arbitrary rules to restrict their freedom of debate, for they all seemed to be speaking together. I might have heard many little love secrets if I had chosen to listen attentively. I confess that I did hear sojue soft things that had been said to them at dinner-time by amorous customers, but they will remain locked in my breast with other secrets that were revealed to me in pro- fessional confidence. Presently, however, the conversa- tion seemed to me to be too confidential for my ears, and my honour prompted me to make the girls aware of my presence ; so I said in my mildest way, " Young ladies, will you please to tell me where is Bella .'" 84 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, The girls whose backs had been towards mc, whirled round simultaneously, and more than a dozen pairs of laughing eyes seemed to be piercing me all over like silver skewers. I was naturally embarrassed, though I tried my utmost to appear self-possessed. Thinking that they did not hear my question, I repeated it, " Pray where is Bella ? " " Bella is upstairs. Can I get you anything, sir ? " said a smirky-faced waitress with mock servility. " N-no, thank you, I have had my dinner." The quizzical looks of the girls excited me ; in- deed, I should like to know what modest youth would not have felt discomposed in such a case. I wished I were out in the street, but I kept my seat like a man. " I will call Bella down to you, sir," said another roguish-looking maid, and away she ran to a staircase and shouted, or rather screamed, " Bella ! Bella ! come down directly! Here is a young gentleman wants to see you particularly." Four minutes passed : a trying time for me as I sat in silence, looking at the last mouthful of pie, which I had kept on my plate as an excuse for lingering at the table. I was conscious that the girls were gazing at me, and their partially suppressed giggles did not help to steady my fluttering nerves. At last Bella came tripping down the stairs, looking more beautiful than ever, for she was flushed and excited. " Here, Bell, make haste!" cried the previous screamer; " this gentleman has been waiting to see you ever so long." ' ROGER ZARASIFAV'S STRAXGE MISSION. 85 "Do you want me, sir?" asked Bella, in a rather sharp tone for a girl with such soft-looking lips. " I — I merely wish to ask you if you came from Greenwich, miss ? " I said, in the blandest way I could affect. I think I shall never forget the scorching look she gave me as an answer to my question. " Why did you call me down to be trifled with, Maria?" she asked, with a flush of anger at the laughing screamer; and then she hurried upstairs without deigning to look at me again. I paid for my pie, and out of the saloon I marched, less happy than I was when I entered it, although I had eaten a good dinner, I forgot my umbrella till I was outside ; but if I had not been in a hurry, I doubt if I would have gone back for it and faced those girls, who were all laughing as if they were tickling each other. I hastened to the railway station, and was only just in time to catch the train for Sandridge, and to reach the steamer before she started. If it were easy for me to express my feelings verbally, I doubt if any business man of the world would care to read my synopsis ; and men of calm natures will sym- pathise enough with my mental perplexity if I do not add a word of comment to the foregoing plain state- ment. What the maids in the saloon thought of me I shall never exactly know, but I can guess it quite near enough for my peace. Australian girls are little rogues — in a poetic sense — when they get together for a frolic. No doubt those waitresses had many a good laugh at S6 LAUNCHING AWAY; OK, me and my umbrella ; but I have tried to cheer myselt with the reflection that they would perhaps have laughed just as much if I had been the son and heir of the greatest man in the land, for it is as natural for girls to laugh as it is for kangaroos to jump. No bye-law or rule, civil or social, could stop a company of lively girls from making fun of a sedate-looking youth, like myself, any more than it could stop a family of young kittens from playing frisky antics with a cotton reel or a ball of worsted. The Columbus was three days on the passage to Sydney, so I had ample time to reflect on the exciting incident ; and as the weather was rainy, I could not fail to remember that I had unluckily lost my umbrella. I was ungenerous enough at intervals to think almost spitefully of poor Bella's treatment of mc, though my brotherly feelings ought to have suggested that the girl had acted just as I would wish my sister to have done if she were accosted in the same familiar way by a stranger. Nothing could shake my belief that I had seen the girl in Greenwich, and the only reason I could assign for her being ashamed to confess it was not a very creditable one to her. But notwithstanding I tried to make up my mind that I had been fortunate in es- caping a conference with a doubtful character, I could not help thinking of her modest-looking face and her symmetrical figure. A little while before the passengers landed at Sydney, a sickly-looking young man, who had shared my cabin, remarked to me in a sort oi drowsy, jocular strain, that he had not slept much on ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 87 our first night at sea, because I so often shouted "Bella!" His remark vexed me exceedingly, especially as there were several other passengers and the mate standing by laughing. I lost my usual control over my temper, and said in a vengeful tone, "Sir, you are a comparative stranger to me, and I decline to take your statement as a joke, whoever may choose to laugh at it. You either believe what you say, or you do not : if you do believe it, allow me to say that you mistook your own bellow for my voice, for you were roaring with sea-sickness or snoring all through the voyage. But if you do not be- lieve your assertion, you are an impudent fellow, and if you presume to annoy me again with your wretched jokes, I will punish you on the spot." He was completely cowed. He could not fail to see that I was more than a match for him, physically, for he was a small man ; and I daresay I looked cross enough to do him bodily harm ; so he picked up his carpet-bag and walked ashore without saying another word. After I had cooled down a little, I felt grieved that I had allowed myself to be mastered by ill-temper, and of course had made myself look contemptible to my fellow-voyagers. My conscience also cuttingly asked me what I would have done or said if the stranger had been a big, strong man ? That would have been a touching question if it had come from any other quarter outside of my own breast, and I might have given an evasive answer ; I could not, however, but honestly con- 88 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, fess to myself that, in such a case, I should have spared my pompous syllogism, and my savage threat of sum- mary punishment as well. My secret opinion 7ioiv is, that the poor little man was right, and that I really did shout " Bella ! " in my dreams ; but I would have been put into the boiler of the donkey-engine sooner than have confessed to it when I was in a pet. * -x- -x- * * Saul has just proposed to me that I should, in a fresh chapter, notice one or two other establishments that exist in Melbourne, by way of showing a sensational contrast to the pie shop, which he says I have described in such a pleasant style that I shall perhaps be suspected of having been feed for puffing it. He offered to be my cicerone on an evening visit to certain places, with which he seems to be too well acquainted. Without a moment's hesitation, I replied, — " Cousin Saul, ask me not to go with you in the way that leads to infamy ! " "A-ha! you have borrowed old Parson Blanche's pulpit whine," sneered Saul ; and he put on his hat to go out. " I am glad you remember our kind pastor's voice so well," I said. " Perhaps you also remember the text of the last sermon you heard him preach "> If you do not, I can tell it you, for I was with you that night, you know : ' There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.' " My cousin, Saul Jackson, is the only relative I have in Victoria. He is clever, but very erratic in his ideas ROGER LARKSIVAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 89 and unsteady in his habits ; that is the mildest way I can describe his characteristics. He took honours at his college in England ; but I am sorry to say he has not gained much honour for himself in this part of the world, though he is a remarkably handsome young fel- low, and a most amusing companion when he is quite sober. He brought a nice useful capital (;^2,ooo) with him to Melbourne three years ago, and he lost it on the turf in about nine months. But his gambling operations have nothing to do with my story, and they are quite out of my line. Since he has lost all his money, he has tried various means for regaining it speedily, but hitherto he has been unsuccessful. He is naturally a sanguine young man^ and it has often needed all my dead weight of caution to keep my head from being upset by his flighty schemes for making money without working for it. He has tried his luck in fossicking — as he calls it — at several of the gold-fields, but with very poor success. Settling into actual work as a mining labourer is what he cannot make up his mind to ; and the days are gone by when inexperienced men can pan out gold dust from almost any blind creek. Since Saul's return from his last unsuccessful rush to Barren Gully diggings, he has lost much of his bombastic manner, and at times he looks as subdued as a wounded bushranger. It is a gratifying change to me, though I fear it is not a per- manent reform in him, but merely a temporary dulling down of his spirits through poor diet. He causes me a good deal of worry at times. I would almost as soon be locked in a railway car with a mad soldier as have 90 LAUNCHING AWAY. Saul in my room when he is tipsy ; still, I do not like to close my door against him. I heartily wish I could induce him to turn steady. It is saddening to reflect that there are many men in this land who, like my cousin, have had thousands of pounds spent on their education, and who brought capital to Australia, but who squandered it in riotous living, and now they are almost destitute ; and some of the poor fellows have neither the energy nor the necessary physical strength for steady work, even though they could meet with any one who would show con- fidence enough in them to offer them employment. CHAPTER VIII. " Small habits, well pursued, betimes May reach the dignity of crimes." — Hantiah More. Low indeed were my spirits when I arrived at the steamers' wharf, in Sydney, in the dusk of a drizzHng evening. I had never felt such a chiUing sense of lone- liness since I left my home-roof, not even when I was sitting on the weedy rock near Cape Otway, after my shipwreck ; for then the soft edges of my susceptibility were rasped off by terror. My fellow-voyagers from Melbourne, most of whom had been sociable enough on the passage up, suddenly became selfish, and were wholly absorbed in the care of themselves or their personal baggage. The stewards, too, who had hitherto been attentive and civil to everybody, began to feel that they were no longer at the beck and call of passengers who had paid their scores ; their bustling efforts to straighten up their several departments seemed to imply that the sooner their customers went on shore the better, and their general demeanour resembled that of a fidgety family with whom I had overstayed my welcome to their hospitality. In a deprecatory tone I asked the under-steward (to 91 92 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, whom I had shortly before given a fee) if he would be so good as to take charge of my luggage while I went to look for lodgings. He replied, smartly, — "All right, sir. I shall be on board till eight o'clock. It is Saturday night, remember, sir." " I will be sure to fetch my things before you go away, steward," I said ; and then I walked on to the wet wharf. I was immediately beset by a crowd of boarding-house keepers or their agents, and I might have secured comfortable quarters easily enough — that is to say, if the qualities of each lodging-place corre- sponded with the pleasant description given by the respective owner or agent. Bearing in mind my mother's frequent injunction, "Be cautious, Roger!" I declined committing myself to either of the pressing canvassers any further than by taking a card of the address of their several happy homes. I should have before stated that I had in my posses- sion credentials from my good uncle, which, if they were properly estimated, might have gained for me the confidence of any one who wanted a competent young chemist and druggist. I had also a testimonial from the excellent pastor of the church to which I was attached in Greenwich, and a short note from the organist of the same church, certifying that I was the most energetic bass singer in his choir. I made a good use of my respected pastor's document when I was in Melbourne, and I was favoured by a minister there with a letter of introduction to a brother minister in Sydney. Though I have heard some persons speak slightingly ROGER LARKSIVAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 93 of introductory letters in general, I here most con- fidently recommend any young man who may read this story to carry testimonials with him from his pastor or Sunday-school superintendent, if he is going abroad. Introductory letters to the secretaries of Young Men's Christian Associations would also be very useful in either of the Australian colonies. I soon found Mr. Brightman, the clergyman, to whom my letter was addressed ; and although he was busy preparing a special sermon for the next morning, he dropped his pen, shook hands with me, and cordially welcomed me to Australia. He then gave me some very useful advice, and in an encouraging tone bade me tell him if he could assist me in any way, as I was a " stranger in a strange land." I thanked him for his kindness, and told him that I wanted to find comfortable lodgings as soon as possible, in order to remove my luggage before the ship was locked up for the night ; whereupon he put on his hat and off he went with me to the residence of a member of his church, a nice motherly old lady, he said, who would study my comfort in every way. I found that she lived in a large, ancient-looking house, but it was in one of the quietest streets in Sydney. Mr. Bright- man introduced me to ]\Irs. Dyke ; and having ascer- tained that she had a vacancy for one boarder, he bade me adieu, and hastened away to finish his sermon, leaving me to make my own terms with my new land- lady for board and lodging. Mr. Brightman was on many subsequent occasions of 94 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, service to me, both as a spiritual pastor and as a trusty adviser in matters relating to my temporal concerns. lie was one of the most diligent men that I met with in Australia. He was always usefully employed, and yet he was never in a hurry or a flurry ; and go to him whenever I would, he was alwa}'s willing to listen to anything I had to say to him, and to give me his advice, which I often needed. I used to wish I had his happy, systematic way of working ; and I one day modestly asked him how it was that he managed to do so much. He answered, with his usual kind smile, " It is by doing one thing at a time, ]\Ir. Larksway, and keeping to my work. I never ivaste time." ]\Iaking a bargain with Mrs. Dyke was easy enough, for she w^as evidently a fair-dealing old lady ; the only misgiving I felt was on account of my having to share a bedroom with Master Dyke, a youth of fifteen years of age ; but his mother gave him an excellent cha- racter, and I tried to appear satisfied with the arrange- ment. Mrs. Dyke was a widow, about fifty years ot age; and I was quite taken with her simple, unaffected kind- ness of manner, — too much taken with her, in fact, for while I sat pleasantly chatting with her about my home- life, and some of the troubles I had encountered since I left my parental roof, I forgot how time was flying, until I suddenly remembered my luggage. So I seized my hat, and after a few words of apology, I hastened down to the steamers' wharf But, alas ! I was too late. The steward's staff had left the ship, and the second ROGER LARA'SIFAV'S STRAXGE MISSION. 95 mate, who was in charge of everything, would not let me even look at my luggage. I certainly felt vexed with myself that I had gossiped so long with my new landlady ; however, I fell back on one of my dear father's trite sayings, " All's for the best ! " There is plenty of comfort in that maxim if one can only draw it out, and I often try at it when I am in straits which seem to have no outlet. Sunday is a day on which I specially like to put on a clean shirt. I can hardly account for the tenacity 01 that fancy, unless it be from the force of habit. Sunday has always been a clean shirt day with me, ever since I first dressed myself, and it has become like a part of my religion. If any one should sneer at this simple admission, or call it a heathenish whim, let me remind him that there are forms and ceremonies now-a-days, in some religious sects, less rational than putting on a clean shirt. 'Tis true I had changed my under-clothing when the Columbus was off Mount Dromedary, two days before, so I was not in a bad condition ; and if my piety had been up to the right standard, I should have buttoned up my vest and gone to church, without a scruple about the purity of my linen. That absurd crotchet of mine clearly shows how easily a man may find an excuse for the non-performance of a duty that he has a lazy desire to shirk. With shame I now con- fess that my shirt had little or nothing to do with my stopping away from church that morning ; but the plain fact is, that the free-and-easy sort of life on shipboard had dulled down my religious feelings to a hazardous 9 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, extent. I believe that a ship Hfe has sometimes had a like dissipating effect on better men than myself. Mrs. Dyke's pressing invitation to me to share her pew could not move me a tittle ; and without explaining my reason for declining it, I moodily replied that I did not mean to stir out of doors that day, whereupon the good old lady looked almost as much shocked as if I had plainly declared myself to be a pagan. " You will go with us, IMr. Burney, I suppose ? " said the widow, kindly addressing another of her boarders, who was lolling on a sofa toying with his eye-glass. "Aw — I don't think I shall show out this morning, Mrs. Dyke. The fact is, I bought a pair of boots last night, and they are so awfully tight I can't breathe in them. Yes, ma'am— thanks — I am aware that I have some old boots upstairs ; but I shall stay at home this forenoon. I'll do the hospitable to Mr. Larksway. Horrid things tight boots are," he^added, throwing one of his legs up over an arm of the sofa, and looking at mc. I thought he expected me to say something, so I said he had better take his tight boots off and put on easy ones. "Yes — that's the idea — aw — but I don't want to go to church," muttered Mr. Burney, and he made a grimace behind Mrs. Dyke, and winked at me. I thought he was very ill-mannered, though he dressed like a gentle- man. "Well, you come with me to church, Robert. Get your books, dear." Mrs. Dyke was evidently a little ruffled, by the way she spoke to her son, and at the ROGER LARA'S WAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 79 same time she cast a reproving look at her two Sabbath- breaking lodgers. " O ma ! I wish you would let me stay at home this morning," whined the boy. " I think it will rain, and I left my umbrella at the office yesterday. Besides, I want to ask Mr. Larksway to tell me some more about his shipwreck." " I insist upon your coming to church with me, sir," responded his mother, peremptorily. Master Bob saw that his plea would not do, so he clutched his hymn- book, as if he had a spite against it, then slouched his hat down over his eyes and sullenly obeyed. His sisters did not look cheerful, and I thought it was be- cause their mother was rather upset. " Aw — they look like real miserable sinners ! " drawled Mr. Burney, when the family had left the room. " She is not a bad old woman, but rather too strict in some things. Now, for my part I don't see why a fellow should be bored to go to church if he has a mind to stay away. One of the poets, I forget his name, says, — ' A man may cry ' Church ! church ! ' at every word, ^^lth no more piety than other people ; A daw's not reckoned a religious bird Because it keeps a-cawing from the steeple.' " " Tom Hood wrote that witty rhyme to satirize ' Cant,' " I replied. *' I do not think it is fair to quote it against Mrs. Dyke. It was certainly very kind and motherly of her to invite me to go to church with her family, but I had a reason why I thought fit to stop at home." 11 9S LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, " Just SO— that's exactly what I say— aw. But what are you going to do with yourself all the morning, Larksway ? " I said, " I am going to sit in my bedroom and read." " Oh, are you ? I would have gone to church with the girls if you had told me that before. I thought I should have had a nice chat with you about holiday fun in Greenwich Park, and other sunny memories ot the old country ; but if you are going to. read, I shall practice a little. I suppose you don't object to music .? " " Oh no, I am fond of it ; I mean to say, I like to hear sacred music on Sundays." " Aw — yes, it's very nice ; but we shall get enough of that sort of entertainment this afternoon from Sclina and Annie. I am going to practice a piece or two from the ' Night Dancers.' Splendid opera that ! Did you ever hear it .-' " •' No, I never did." " Ah, you would like it. There arc some charming airs in it. This is a song from it, that I sang at a party last week, ' Wild is the spirit that fills me now, It sits on my brain, it burns on my brow.' How do you like that air, Larksway ? " " It is pretty enough," I replied, " but I do not care for secular music on Sundays ; I have never been accus- tomed to hear it." " Then you and Dame Dyke will get on delightfully together. I can't even strike a lively chord on Sundays when she is at home. Aw— absurd idea ! as if it ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 99 mattered a bit to her old piano what is played on it at any time. By the way, would you like a brandy and soda, or a glass of pale ale ; say the word, and I will get it round the corner by the back way." " No, thank you ; I would rather not take any," I said. Soon afterwards I went to my bedroom, leaving Mr. Burney strumming away on the piano, in a style which must have pleased any of the neighbours around, who approved of a bold touch. I sat at my bedroom window and listened to the chiming of the church bells in the city. They ceased when the clock struck eleven ; and then in fancy I could see my late revered pastor, at Greenwich, as- cending his pulpit stairs to begin Divine service. Just then a quotation in a kind letter I received from him at parting, rushed into my mind, — " Think that day lost whose low descending sun Views from thy hand no noble action done." It seemed to arouse my conscience in a way that I had never before experienced, though I had often felt some severe twinges when on board ship. Through giving way to an absurd whim, or more reprehensible lazy feeling, I had on my first Sunday in a new land neg- lected a religious duty which I had been taught from my childhood sacredly to observe. Moreover, I had pained the mind of poor Mrs. Dyke and her daughters ; I had by my example almost influenced her young son to absent himself from church ; I had certainly kept Mr. Burney at home, and there was no saying how many 100 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, quiet households in the neighbourhood he was disturb- ing with his noisy practice on the piano. "A bad beginning, Roger," nagged my conscience, over and over again, and I could not get away from the silent impeachment. In vain I tried to console myself with the plea that I was not worse than other persons I had seen since I came to Australia, some of whom I thought had not so much excuse as I had for neglecting public worship. I could get no comfort from any such reasoning ; and on that bright Sunday morning, my first Sabbath in Sydney, I was as joyless as a skylark locked up in a coal cellar. "Do you feel better, Mr. Larksway?" kindly asked Mrs. Dyke, soon after she returned from church. " I thank you for your inquiry, ma'am, but I have not been unwell," I replied, with a slight embarrassment. " Oh dear ! then I have made an unfortunate mistake. Mr. 13rightman asked me how you were, as we were coming out of church, and I told him I thought you were poorly. He said he was very sorry to hear it, and he will call and see you to-morrow. I am vexed that I should have misinformed him, sir." " Pray do not distress yourself, Mrs. Dyke. Tlie fault is mine ; and I will explain it to Mr. Brightman when he calls on me." " We have had such a nice, instructive, and comforting sermon, Mr. Larksway ; I do wish you had heard it." " I wish I had, ma'am," I replied, with a suppressed sigh. "One of Mr. Brightman's figures, or illustrations, I ROGER LARKSWAVS STRANGE MISSION. loi am sure you would have felt specially interested in, because it was something about a shipwreck, and I thought of you as he was speaking, I cannot remember all of it exactly ; but he said, in alluding to the common error of deferring religious decision to a more fitting time, ' If any of you were in a sinking ship, you would not lose a moment in escaping from it if a lifeboat were alongside ; and I venture to say that not a man of you would wait to arrange his necktie or to get his boots polished.' That was something like what he said, Mr. Larksway." I thought it was a solemn coincidence that Mr. Brightman should have used that nautical illustration ; and my conscience was increasingly sore. Mr. Burney laughed derisively, and remarked to me when Mrs. Dyke went upstairs to take her bonnet off, that the old lady had invented the touching little bit about the boots, just to frighten him into piety ; but he was too knowing a bird to be caught with that sort of chaff. I did not reply to his foolish remark. In the evening I buttoned up and went to church. I was soon very glad that I had resisted the lazy desire to stay at home, lolling on a sofa, for the service was as refreshing to my heart as a spring shower is to a thirsty meadow. Though it will be digressing again from my story, I feel constrained to notice, in a few sentences, how my young friend Frank Wellby spent his first Sunday in Sydney, as it will show a cheering contrast to my own humiliating experience. 102 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, The ship in which Frank sailed from England, dropped anchor in Port Jackson one Saturday evening. He was ready dressed in his shore-going clothes, and he got into the first waterman's boat that came alongside. He had letters of introduction to a well-known minister in Sydney, so he went direct to the parsonage and pre- sented his credentials. The minister received him cor- dially, and recommended him to suitable lodgings, and also invited him to take a class in the Sunday-school attached to his church. The next morning, punctual to time, Frank was at the school. He had been accustomed to useful work of that sort in England, and he was delighted to begin at it again. He had a "glorious day," to quote his own happy expression. At the boarding-house which he had made his home, there were several young men who were not very steady in their habits, but the influence of Frank's example on them was soon noticeable. I was told by the good old lady who kept the house, that the change in the behaviour of those gay youths was really wonderful, and she hoped that they were thoroughly reformed. She could hardly have believed it possible for any one to influence some of her young boarders to attend religious services in the house ; but Frank, in his winning, loving way, had succeeded, and he persuaded the whole of them to begin to lead " godly, righteous, and sober lives." As long as he lived, my staunch friend, Frank Wellby, held on his consistent Christian course ; and certainly godli- ness was profitable to him, even in his temporal affairs, for he became a very prosperous man. No doubt Frank ROGER LARA'SJVAV'S STRANGE MISSION. 103 had a religious training under his parental roof, and before he set out from home, he was specially warned against that subtle enticement, the intoxicating cup, which has been fatal to so many bright youths soon after they were launched out upon the ocean of life. CHAPTER IX. " With spots of sunny openings, and with nooks To lie and rcadin, sloping into brooks." — Leigh Hunt. During my voyage to Melbourne, I had carefully ex- amined the contents of Mr. Cameron's writing-desk ; but amongst the various memoranda, I could not find any that would tell me the name and address of Mrs. Cameron's paramour, and I concluded that Cameron had, in some moment of jealous excitement, destroyed the document which he told me I should find in his desk. I advertised in the leading Sydney newspapers for Mrs. Cameron, and also for Miss Ella Cameron ; and I waited for a fortnight in the hope of receiving replies. In the meantime I amused myself in strolling about the city of Sydney or the Botanic Gardens by day, and in listening to the musical performances of Selina and Annie Dyke in the evening. All that was pleasant enough ; but I could not, with justice to my mission, indulge very long in such pastime, so as I did not receive any answers to the advertisements, I shook off the listlessness which a long release from any settled duties had induced, and prepared to begin an energetic 104 ROGER LARKSIVAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 105 search for Mrs. Cameron and her daughter. The only clue I had to their whereabouts, was that poor Cameron told me of their living with a farmer at Illawarra ; and it appeared to me almost as hopeless to find them in such an extensive district, as it would be to catch silver eels in a large pond, without a line or a spear. Never- theless, I was bent upon trying my utmost to fulfil my important errand ; so I started one night by steamer for Wollongong, a seaport town about forty miles south from Sydney Heads. It was on the eve of the Wollongong races, so there was an unusual number of passengers on board the steamer, many of whom, including myself, could not find sleeping accommodation below. When I first descended to the saloon, an altercation was going on between an old man who was lying in one of the berths, and a tall, handsome gentleman who was sitting on a sofa. The old man and his little son had gone on board in good time, and turned into one of the vacant berths, without consulting the steward or looking at the list on the cabin table to see if the berth had been previously engaged, as honest and reasonable people usually do in coasting steamers. When the gentleman came below to turn in for the night, he found his bed occupied, so he politely told the old man that he had made a mistake in taking that berth. " No mistake at all, mister," replied the man in an offensive tone. " I found the berth empty, so I put my boy into it, and turned in after him ; and here we mean to lie till we choose to turn out again." io6 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, " Steward ! please to come and explain to this person that the berth he is in belongs to me," said the gentle- man ; " my name is on the list, you can see, — berth number ten." " I don't care a copper whose name is on the list ; I am in the berth, and I defy any man on board to turn me out." " Here's the man who will do it in a twinkling," vociferated the steward, bustling up to the impudent intruder. " Out you come, daddy, or I'll haul you out heels first, and the boy after you, and walk you off to the fore-cabin." Suiting the action to the word, the steward seized the man by the legs, and, despite his kicking, in half a minute more he would have been lying on the floor, for the steward was an able man but the gentleman interposed, and said calmly, — " Leave him alone, steward. The little boy is asleep, so don't disturb him. I will take a shakedown on deck, as it is a fine night." " You had better not disturb him, governor," said the man, in the same offensive strain. "If you do, you'll soon feel my kangaroo-skin boots." " Now listen to me, old man, whoever you are," responded the gentleman : " if I were so inclined, I could take you by the neck and heels, and toss you on deck through the skylight. You deserve to be turned out of the saloon, for you don't know how to behave properly ; but for the sake of the sleeping boy beside you, I will let you stay in my berth." He then took his travelling rug, and went on deck to lie down. ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 107 I thought I had seldom before seen a more pleasing instance of forbearance — such a triumph of a strong man over a weak one. It made me blush, as I re- membered how I had used my towering strength to cow down the little sick passenger in the Cohiinbus, who had simply told me the unpalatable truth, that I had shouted " Bella ! " in my dreams. I felt far more respect for that patient gentleman's courage than I should have felt if he had taken the impudent old man in his powerful grasp, and tossed him under the saloon table or through the skylight. Of course I don't mean to record every little incident of my travels, but I feel constrained to notice this one for the sake of the wholesome lesson it taught me, on a generous for- bearance or self-control. I shall try to remember it. At Wollongong I put up at an inn not very stylish in its outward appearance ; but it was almost as com- fortable as my Aunt Sarah's farmhouse in Suffolk. I never had any previous experience of inn life, and I imagined that as I was but a poor customer for the tap, I should not be much cared for. But I was com- fortingly mistaken. The landlady was attentive and motherly, and I was glad that my first experience removed the libellous notion that had been put into my head by Mr. Burney, that all innkeepers in the country appreciate their guests only in proportion to their drinking tendencies. I have since then stopped at other inns of a similar home-like character ; but I must in fairness add, that I have also had at times to put up at bush grog-shops, where my board and lodging loS LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, were as rough as I should expect to find it in a greasy old whaling brig. My first day in Wollongong was spent in strolling through the town, peeping into shop windows in search of photographic specimens, and hoping that I might see the pictures of Ella and her mother, whom I was sure I could recognise from a whole gallery full of portraits. But my search in that way was in vain. I may here mention, that the locket with the portraits of Ella and her mother was in the sealed packet with the other jewellery, and was addressed to Ella. Doubt- less it would have helped me in my search if I had had those portraits in my pocket, but I felt it would be a breach of trust to open the parcel which Cameron himself had sealed up. I inquired of several persons, including my landlady, during the day, if they knew a family in the neighbourhood, of which the mother and her daughter were fair-haired and rosy-faced, and I was informed that there was a family named Kelly who a short time before lived in a little farm on the Dapto road. Mrs. Kelly and her girl had light hair ; but that they had lately sold their farm and left the district. Though there was not much to encourage me in the information, I determined to make a beginning, and see what it would lead to. The next forenoon I set out on foot from my inn. I was soon out of the town, for it is not a large one, and then my senses were enraptured with the varied landscape beauties around me : ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 109 " Creation's grandest charms were there combined." It was a bright, cloudless morning, and the dewdrops in the flowers which bespangled the meadows glistened like myriads of jewels. I sat on a stone by the side of a wild raspberry bush, which served my fancy for an English blackberry hedge, and tried to imagine myself at home again. Yes ; before me, to the north- west, was Greenwich Park, though expanded to ten times its old dimensions ; and by a vigorous effort of imagination, I could make Mounts Keira and Kembla do for Flamstead Hill and One-Tree Hill, only they had grown amazingly in a few months. If the bush trees were not so symmetrical as the oaks and chestnut- trees of the park, there were ten times more of them to be seen, to say nothing of the sweet-scented mimosa, and other smaller trees and shrubs, which no one ever saw in Greenwich Park, or anywhere else out of doors in that latitude. Thousands of birds were chirping among the trees (as if to convince me that somebody had misinformed me when he said that there were no singing birds in Australia), the wild notes of the magpie being predominant ; and my heart seemed to dance within mc at the gladdening music — more in- spiriting to me than thousands of fiddles.^ "This is certainly a lovely prospect, worth coming all the way across the sea to behold!" I exclaimed with rapture. " Mrs. Cameron must have some taste, 1 For beautiful descriptions of lUawarra scenery, I would com- mend some of the " Lyrics " of Henry Kendall, an Australian poet. no LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, after all, to locate herself in such a charming district." By a natural association of beautiful objects, I then thought of Ella as I had seen her face m the locket, and I said to myself, " If at eleven years of age that girl's face was so exquisitely pretty, what a fascinating creature she must be now that she is developed into the maturity of eighteen!" That exciting reflection almost made me forget the fine landscape ; and I know not to what length or height my fancy would have flown in that new direction, if I had not been aroused from my delicious reverie by a passing cart carrying pigs and kegs of butter to market. I started up and resumed my walk, singing cheerily, — "As I view these scenes so charming ! " I continued to stroll along the road, each turn ot which brought changes In the prospect, which was still lovely and sunny and flowery, and the air seemed full of perfume and bird music. Presently I came in sight of a cottage, a few roods from the high-road. It was a humble-looking dwelling, but it charmed me more than my first look at the Governor's house in Sydney had done. It was literally smothered in flowering creepers and climbers, and it reminded me tenderly of my own dear native home, and seemed to carry me back In a moment to — " Sweet childish clays, that were as long As twenty days are now." I was smitten with a strong desire to see the Inside of the cottage ; .so I opened the garden gate, half ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. in expecting Ella to come tripping out to meet me. Suddenly, however, I received a shock, which put all my romantic fancies to the rout, like a flock of cocka- toos at the discharge of a gun. I was stopping in the middle of the pathway admiring a double wall-flower, when I saw an enormous bull-dog shuffle up from beneath a rustic seat and trot towards me. I have a horror of dogs of that ferocious breed, for I know it is their nature to bite hard. It was impossible for me to escape from the beast by flight, and quite as hopeless to fight him without a deadly weapon of some kind ; so I stood and trembled, and the dog stopped and looked at me very sullenly, and smelt my boots, but did not open his mouth. After a while I took courage and walked up to the cottage, closely followed by the watchful animal. A man opened the door after I rapped, and my first words to him were, " Please to call your dog inside ; I am afraid of him." " He is all right, sir. He won't bite you so long as you don't touch anything in the garden. Go away, Bully!" "Oh dear!" I sighed ; "he has scared me very much. He is such a powerful brute ; his bite would break my " Yes, I daresay it might, if he got a fair hold of it," said the man coolly. " He would only just nip you if you merely picked a flower ; but if you were walking off with a plant, he would pin you down in a minute, and he would never let go till I spoke to him." 112 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, " It is very hazardous to let such a vicious dog go at large," I said, with a shudder at the remembrance of the close proximity of his teeth to my legs. " Not at all hazardous to honest people, sir. That dog is as knowing as a policeman. I trained him up from a pup to mind my garden, and I think he takes as much pride in it as I do. I never knew him to hurt anybody unless they were picking and stealing ; and then it serves them right to get a nip. The people about here know Bully, and my flowers are as safe as my money in the bank." " He is a wonderfully sagacious animal, though he looks so stupidly savage," I said. " I think it would be well if there were a few such discriminating dogs kept in the Botanic Gardens, Sydney ; for I have several times seen persons picking flowers and seeds when the gardeners were out of sight." " More shame for them to do it, sir. I only wish my Bully were there to sec them at it ; he'd soon let them feel his teeth. You can hardly expect youngsters to keep their hands off flowers, unless they are looked after, but grown-up folks ought to have more honest sense. It is very annoying to a man who takes a pride in his garden, to see people picking and fingering his choicest flowers and plants ; and such shabby rogues usually take the best of everything. It does me good when I see old Bully give any stranger a nip for picking my flowers." I saw that the man was one of the loquacious sort, who would have talked all day about the wrongs of ROGER LARKSIVAY'S STRANGE MJSSION. 113 florists, and the peculiar virtues of his bull-dog, so I turned him off by asking him if he knew a family in that locality named Kelly. " The Kellys lived in the next farm you come to up the road ; but they sold off a while ago, and I don't know where they went." " Does any one live on the farm now ? " " Yes ; a man named Rafferty lives there, and he'll pretty soon die there of starvation, I reckon, unless he has some money saved up in his sea chest. He bought the farm from Kelly, and he has found out before now that he made a bad bargain. A thorough farmer might perhaps get a living off it ; but Paddy Rafferty knows no more about raising crops than my Bully does about clockwork, though he may be a good seaman for all I can say." " I suppose it is not often that sailors turn farmers, Mr. Gardener .? " " Any sort of fellows can turn farmers in this country, or they think they can, and that is the reason why so many find that it doesn't pay, and we hear so much grumbling now-a-days in these parts. Nobody could stop things from growing years ago, when the land was new and as fat as chocolate ; but now that the strength of it is pretty well exhausted, through double cropping year after year, and never giving it muck, or change of crop, or any chance at all, it isn't easy for slap-dash farmers to make a tidy living off a bit of arable land, and they are beginning to find that out. ' Every man to his trade,' is an old saying that I always stick to." I 114 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, " I suppose Mr. Rafferty would agree to that maxim ? " " No doubt he is sorry he bought that farm ; though I never heard him grumble much over his bad luck. Ha, ha ! he is a real character ! I should like you to see him driving his spring cart to church on Sundays, with one rein in each hand, as if he were holding the tiller ropes, and his wife sitting beside him holding the whip for him ! " " Has Rafferty been captain of a ship ? " " Not he ! He came to Sydney a few years ago, as a sort of under-steward in a fine crack steamer, and he had better have stuck to his berth, for he says he is as much out of his element now as a porpoise in a pig- stye. He won't earn steward's wages at growing pota- toes or making butter off his farm, I'll engage. But most sailors like to try their luck on dry land, by way of a change." "And some of them have found it a lucky change. I drove past a fine mansion, not far from Sydney, fit for a nobleman to live in, and I was told that it belonged to a gentleman who some years ago was captain of a whaling ship. He left off going to sea and turned merchant, and made a large fortune." "Yes; that's very likely. Anybody with common sense might have made money at trading years ago» when I first came to the colony; and it didn't matter whether they were trained to business or not. I often wish I had set up a shop in some line or other, instead of keeping to my own calling, though I don't know that I should be a bit happier if I had ever so much money." ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 115 " I would much rather be a gardener than a shop- keeper," I said. " Cultivating flowers and fruit-trees must be almost as interesting an occupation as keeping a school, and training up boys or girls to be useful men or women." After chatting a little while longer with the man,' and eating some fresh fruit from his orchard, I bade him good day. The bull dog followed me to the gate, and I was careful to avoid even brushing a flower with my coat tails, lest it should provoke him to give me an admonitory nip. I determined that I would call on Mr. Rafferty, and try to find out what he knew of the Kelly family. CHAPTER X. " I love the sailor — his eventful life — His generous spirit — his contempt of danger." — Cotton. Following the gardener's directions, I kept along the Dapto road until I came to a gate on which was written in rude letters, " Calabash Farm." I went through the gateway, and presently I saw a man ploughing with two bullocks in a small paddock to the right of me. By the eccentric way he held the plough, I thought he was tipsy ; but I soon found that his staggering gait was owing to his want of practice in ploughing over rough, stumpy land ; and I fancied how my Uncle Robert's expert Suffolk ploughmen would have stared, had they seen him wasting his strength and bruising his hips in that fashion. As I approached the man, I could tell by his rich brogue what part of the world he came from. He was scolding, or rather arguing with his bullocks, which seemed to be an obstinate pair of workers, in their master's opinion. " Gee, Boxer ! Gee, Baldy ! Bad manners to ye for a pair of contrary bastes ! Can't ye see ye're making the furrow as crooked as an ould scythe-stick, forbye knocking all the wind out of me intircly ? Arrah ! come ii6 ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 117 hither again, Baldy ! Where are ye going to now, at all ? Ye're allers yawing too much to one side or t'other. Hallo ! here's another big tres buried alive 1 Whoa, waa, whoa, I say ! Be aisy, or ye'U smash the machine an break yer necks, soh ! Ye can't pull that root up, so ye needn't try." I was then close behind the man, so I said, " Good morning to you, Master Farmer." He turned hastily round and said, " Oh, good morning, sir. It's a rale warrm day this." " It is refreshing weather to me. But you seem to be having some warm, troublesome work in ploughing up this stumpy land." " Troth, you may say that, mister. It's rale hot work for me, and it bates me intirely, so it does. The gos- soon that I kape to drive the bullocks for me went to Dapto yesterday to see his sick mother, and he hasn't come back yit ; so I thought I'd try my hand at plough- ing a bit widout a driver, for I like to be independent ; but I can't make any headway at all, as the lighterman said when the keel of his craft got foul of the punt-rope. The stem of my machine has got jammed in a big root underground, you see, and I don't know how I'll get it out again ; anyway, it will have to stop here till I get more breath in my body." " Are you Mr. Rafferty ? " " Timothy Rafferty is me name, sir." " I wish to ask you a few questions about the family that occupied this farm before you came to it." " Troth thin, I wish that same family was in it now. iiS LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, SO I do, or else that I had niver come anigh it— one or t'other. But will you walk up to the house forenint there, and sit down ? I'll be wid you in two minutes, for I want a bit of a rest. But I must put a stern line on to these crathers, or they'll be slewing round to horn one another while I am away, and they'll be certain to break the bows or the yokes." He then took a piece of spun yarn from his pocket, and deliberately lashed the bullocks' tails together. " Now they are fast head and stern, and I'll engage they'll stop there till I come back, for they can't drag the plough from under that stump, any more nor a gunboat could drag with a frigate's best bower anchor ahead of her." We were met at the door of the house by a portly, good-tempered looking woman, whom Mr. Rafferty in- troduced to me as his wife. She bade me welcome, and placed a cushioned chair for me to sit upon. " Bring a jug o' milk, Sally, honey ; for I'm nigh chok- ing wid dry dust in me throat. Maybe the gintleman wud like a cup of tay." "No, thank you; I would prefer milk, if you can spare it." " We have lashins of it. Dhrink as much as you like, and yc're welcon\e to twice as much, sir. You were axing me just now about the Kellys." " Yes. There was a family of that name on this farm not long ago, I believe. Can you tell mc where they are now, Mr. Rafferty ? " "They did live here awhile agone, and I bought the place from them, more fool me for doing it ; for sure ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION: 119 enough I'm no more fit for a farmer nor I am for a soger or a horse-doctor. As for where they are now, that's more nor I can tell you. They went out of this to a place called Windsor, and I think they meant to open a grogshop, more luck to them." " Pray where is Windsor ? I am a stranger in this country." " Dear knows where it is. Somewhere away to the westward of Sydney. I can't direct you half a point nearer nor that to it, sir." " I understand the Kellys had a daughter about eighteen years old. Can you tell me the name of the girl, Mr. Rafferty } " " Yes, I can tell you that. Her name was Nelly ; sometimes they called her Nell." I reflected for a minute that Nelly would very likely be substituted for Ella by common people ; besides, it rhymed so naturally to Kelly: "Nelly Kelly." I did not fancy the name as I muttered it to myself, still I felt somewhat encouraged to hope that I was on the right track, so I asked, *' Had Miss Kelly fair hair .-* " " She had so — a rale heavy crop of ginger, and as tangled as a dry swab," " Had her mother fair hair also, may I ask ? " " Yes, sir ; her head was as fair as a snowball or the inside of a flour bag." "That is certainly not flaxen hair," I mentally rea- soned ; " still, she may have grown prematurely grey. Many persons get grey before they are forty years old ; and conscience — in her case — -may have had something 120 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, to do with turning her hair." After a Httle further con- sideration, I said, " Mr. Rafferty, you look like a man that I can speak to confidentially. I have an important reason for wishing to find that family, but I am not at liberty to explain it to you at present. May I presume to ask if you think that Mr. and Mrs. Kelly are legally married ">. And do you think that Nelly is Mr. Kelly's daughter } These are delicate questions, and I hope you will pardon me for asking them in the presence of your good wife." I could see that Mr. Rafiferty was puzzled, by the comical way he scratched his head. Presently he said, " Kelly and his wife were legally married, sure enough ; and Nelly calls old Kelly her dad, and he calls the gal his darter. It's true I did not see the ould pair married by either priest or parson ; still an all I'm as sartain sure they are legally spliced as if I had seen the thing done wid me own eyes. Cos why .-• they used to quarrel and fight almost every day of their lives, and, depend on it, that if they were not yoked up as tightly as my two working bullocks yonder, they would have been off different ways long agone, for there isn't a haporth of love between 'em — that any stranger could see. That has been my strongest argument against the new Bigamy Bill they have just made a law of the land." "The Divorce Bill you mean, Tim," said his wife, softly. " True for you, Sally. Divorce Bill I mane, sir, though it's pretty much the same thing afther all. I used to say afore the bill passed, if the lawyers make it ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 121 aisy for married pairs to slip clear of the wedding knot^ they'll have no end of work of that paying sort, and a reglar confusion there'll be among families growing up. The most loving couple in the world no doubt have a little tiff now and again, about nothing at all ; and the divil, who is always wide awake for roguery of every sort, would be certain to stir them up to have a rale shindy, and then before they had time to cool down agin or to think twice over it, they'd find themselves legally single agin, and free to go courting anybody else as soon as they liked. But when they know that they are yoked hard and fast together for life, common sense itself tells 'em they had better forget their quarrels and pull along quietly the one way, bekase they can't lawfully get away from the yoke, and the more they kick and struggle, the more they will get galled, and nobody in the world will pity 'em a haporth." " I believe your view is a sensible one, Mr. Rafferty." " It's raysonably natural, sir, anyhow. Just look at my ould bullocks now for an example. There they stand, quietly munching away at nothing, in the identi- cal spot where I left them awhile agone. Sorra an inch have they budged. Now, do you suppose they would have stood there so lovingly quiet if they didn't know they were made fast together head and tail ? Not a bit of it ! Likely enough they'd have had a horning match or a kicking bout, and then have scudded off at full trot to different ends of the farrm. I know their cranky ways, and mankind is pretty much like bastes in some things." 122 LAUNCHING AIFAV; OR, " But some men unluckily have wives, and some women have husbands, with whom it would be impossi- ble to live quietly," I remarked. " That's true enough, worse luck. Still an all, I think it wad be better to let 'em do the best they can with their bad bargains, than to make a law to unmarry 'em ; bekase it will cause no end of botheration in the land, to make that job as easy as getting your tooth out or your hair cut. The poor unlucky crathers would have the liberty of taking all the comfort they cud draw out of the belief that they are serving as beacons or bell- buoys, to warn other soft-hearted simpletons from rush- ing into matrimony in a red-hot hurry, and maybe without thinking more about it beforehand than they would do about buying a monkey-jacket or a straw bonnet." " You did not think long about it, Tim," said Mrs. Rafferty, with a merry chuckle. " Ye'rc right, Sally, me darlint ! But thin any fellow that wasn't silly would see in a twinkling that there was no mistake in your honest face. A sensible man wudn't be long taking your measure, honey ! " A little playful banter ensued between the lively couple, which was as amusing to me as the vagaries of Punch and Judy. After a while I asked Mr. Rafferty how he came to turn farmer ? " Shure, it was a mad notion my wife put into my head. About a year agone she came down here from Sydney, to see a cousin of hers who kapes a dairy farrm at Wallandoola Creek — fornint there ; and she got so liOGER ZA2?/CS WAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 123 fond of the birds and the green bushes, and the flowery meadows and the swate fresh air, and the pretty scenery all about this part, that when I came down to fitch her home again, she coaxed me to buy this farrm and come and live aisily for life. But dear knows, it's a mighty hard sort of aisy life to me — so it is." " I judged that you had not been long used to farm- ing work, Mr. Rafferty." " Ha, ha ! I supposed you thought so whin you seed me awhile agone steering the plough among the roots and stumps yonder, and yawing about like an ould bumboat in a tide ripple ? Well, ye're right, sir. I haven't been a farmer long ; but I've been a sailor ever since I was a boy. I left my ship a few years ago in Sydney, to look after a young fellow who hadn't brains enough to look after himself; and whin my wife and I put him all right and straight, I made up my mind to stop on shore for good ; so I got a berth as waiter in one of the big club-houses in Sydney. It was a good billet of the sort, and not bad pay, but shure the work was everlasting, from sunrise to midnight and after it ; and Sunday was just the same as Monday to me, for there wasn't many of the gintlemen that came there who seemed to care much about the souls of the ser- vants. So last of all I said to myself, This won't do at all. There's no luck in working on Sundays, when I am not forced to do it to get the ship out of danger ; so I gave up my berth and took to dealing a bit, but that game wouldn't suit me a morsel." " Surely dealing was not hard work !" I remarked. 124 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, " Tut ! not at alL That wasn't why I hated it ; but this was it, sir ; I seed no end of great big fellows, strong as bullocks, going about wid baskets same as I was, and I got ashamed of myself. So I said to my missus, after I had been at the game about a fortnight, ' I won't go on that tack any longer, Sally ! There are hosts of poor old men and women who are too feeble to work, and I think they ought to have the hawking trade left to them, — anyway, they shall have my share of it. Nobody shan't catch me skulking about wid a basket agin, selling small wares, because I don't believe it's fair and raysonable of me to do it, so long as I can work for a living.' So next day I sold my basket and my stock of whim-whams to an old blind man, and a rale bargain he got. A week or two afterwards I got a letther wid a bank draft in it for ^300 ! So wid that lucky lump, and what my wife and I had saved up before, we bought this farm — more's the pity." I said, " Is it fair of me to ask who made you such a nice present ? " " I'll tell you, sir, and glad to do it. It was the young gintleman that I tould you about just now, that Sally and I put on his legs agin. He wint home after his father, ould Misther Cockle, died, to receive a fortune ; and as soon as he got his money, he remembered his old shipmate, Tim. I believe he is now on his way out to Sydney agin, wid a wife under his arm — good luck to him ; and it's plased enough I shall be to sec him, soh." I might have got a good deal of information on ROGER LARKSIVAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 125 things in general from the talkative Irishman, if I could have spared time to draw him out. Both Mr. and Mrs. Rafferty were pressing for me to stay and dine with them ; but I felt sanguine that I had the right clue to the whereabouts of Mrs. and Miss Cameron, and I was anxious to follow it up. I returned to Wollongong early enough to catch the afternoon's steamer for Sydney, and at night I was at Mrs. Dyke's house again. The following day I started for Windsor. It was a singularly lucky omen, I thought, that the very first inn I saw at the outskirts of the town had the name Patrick Kelly painted on the sign-board, under the figure of a black bull. I went inside and ordered luncheon. The landlord was an elderly man, and my first glance at him made me pity his wife. His manner indicated that his liquors had not an enlivening influence on him, for he looked as sullen as the painted animal on his sign-board. While a man-servant was preparing the table for my meal, I walked into the bar and asked the host if Mrs. and Miss Kelly were at home ? " No. They have gone to Wilberforce. I expect them back soon," he replied. His sharp tone and sus- picious looks seemed to ask , " What do you want with them .? " I merely said, " I will wait till they return." I never can get very confidential with a surly-looking man. The afternoon was wet ; so I beguiled the wearisome time indoors listening to two half-tipsy customers in the tap-room. I could not be charged with eavesdropping, for their conversation might have been heard on the opposite side of the street. I learnt some dreary par- 126 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, ticulars of a recent flood, which had done much dama. ' said I. ' Didn't you eat half a leg ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 175 of mutton not two hours ago ? ' — * Did I ? ' said he, rubbing his tipsy eyes open. ' I forget all about it. Well, give me another bottle of porter.' He is taking a fresh nap now, but I shall have to talk to him again when he wakes up ; and I have other fellows on the same lay. Ha, ha ! That's the way I manoeuvre, sir, when we run short of provisions in these golden times." We arrived at Sandridge pier without any mishap, and I soon took a cab and set off for Melbourne. On the road I remembered that I had left the steamer without saying good-bye to the captain, or thanking him for his polite attention to me on the passage. The truth is, I was apprehensive that my luggage might be mistaken by some of the other passengers, in the general hurry there was to get ashore. I felt sorry for my re- missness, but I forthwith sent the captain a small box of cigars, and I daresay he received them as a satisfactory apology, for he was a smoker. On reflection, I felt rather ashamed to admit, even to myself, that my veneration for the watchful captain had decreased as my sense of personal risk dulled down ; that my trustful regard for him was far less when we were safely moored at the pier, than it was when, during the dark nights on our voyage, I used to anxiously observe him at his post of duty, keeping a sharp look- out for squalls, and for coasting vessels without side- lights ; or when he was guiding us through the hazard- ous rip at Port Phillip Heads, and skilfully keeping clear of a fleet of outward bound ships and tug-steamers. Other casuists might define my blunted feelings in a 1-6 LAUNCHING AWAY; OK, more delicate way than my cousin Saul does, but per- haps they would not be much nearer to the truth after all. He says it is the way of the world all over to respect a man or a beast in proportion as he is pre- sently serviceable ; and he furthermore says, by way of analogy, that he has known a scrubby traveller, after riding his horse a forty miles' journey, to drag the saddle off the jaded beast, and then hit him across the tail with the bridle, to stimulate him to jump over the middle slip-rail into a cold paddock, there to nibble a scanty feed of grass while his owner ate his own hot supper ready prepared for him. And Saul also says that he has known fussy passengers to almost worship a captain during a storm at sea, but they showed him a cold shoulder when they afterwards met him on shore, if he did not happen to be a stylish-looking man. I took up my temporary lodgings at an hotel in Flinders Street. Soon after tea, I made myself look as smart as possible, and off I went to the restaurant, hoping that I should have the happiness of seeing Ella, and disburden- ing my mind of her late father's message before I slept. I walked past the house twice before I had courage to go in, for I felt an unconquerable dread of those quizzing girls in the saloon. Presently I walked into the shop. I could sec only one girl behind the counter, in the pic department, and I asked her if she would be kind enough to tell me if Ella Cameron was within ^ " Ella Cameron ! I don't know her, sir." " She lived here about ten months ago. I saw her serving in the dining saloon behind there. I think she ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 177 was called Bella when I was here ; yes, I now disthictly remember, she ivas called Bella." " It is the ' Countess ' the gentleman wants," whispered another young lady, whom I had not seen on my first entrance. " Oh, yes ; I forgot her ladyship. Bella is not living here now, sir. She left months ago, to go to some other place." *' Pray can you tell me where I may find her ? I have a message for her from her relatives in England." " I cannot tell you where she is, sir. I was not in- timate with her, so I do not know any of her connections. Perhaps some of the young ladies attached to the saloon may be able to tell me. I will ask them, and if you call to-morrow about one o'clock, I will let you know." I left the shop, and returned to my lodgings in a very dissatisfied mood. The next day I began to carry out a plan of operations, which I had designed during the sleepless hours of the previous night : namely, to visit every respectable restaurant in Melbourne, in the hope of meeting with Ella. Troublesome as the scheme promised to be, I much preferred it to the alternative of calling at one o'clock at the pie shop, to meet those laughing girls in the dining saloon. Let me hasten over the record of the trying week that ensued, each day of which I breakfasted, dined, or supped at a separate house of refreshment, without meeting with Ella, or with any girl who I thought was at all to be compared with her. Goaded on by a feeling like desperation, I again went to the pie shop one N 178 LAUNCHING AWAY. evening, and saw behind the counter the young lady whom I had seen on my previous visit. She politely informed mc that not any of the girls in the saloon could tell mc where Bella was at present, though one ot them said she saw her serving in a confectioner's shop about six or seven months ago. I furthermore learned that Ella had been a waitress at the pie shop for only a few weeks. I next resolved to visit all the confectioners' shops in the city. That was a far more critical task than my former one, and it took me another week to accomplish. I did not find Ella ; but I found that gooseberry tarts and raspberry rolls, and such- like rich dainties, some of which I was obliged to eat at each shop, did not agree with me as a daily diet ; and if I had not had timely recourse to a few of my good uncle's famous vegetable pills, I should doubtless have been laid up with bilious fever or cholera morbus. CHAPTER XV. " In the centre of a world whose soil Is rank with all unkindness, compassed round With such memorials, I have sometimes felt That 'twas no momentary happiness To have ojie enclosure, where the voice that speaks In envy or detraction is not heard." — WordsiuortJt. Two days after I first landed in Victoria, I had, lor the first time in my Hfe, the pleasure of seeing my name in full print, Mr. Roger Larksway, in the Argus news- paper's report of the wreck of the Stormherg. I sent the paper home for my friends to see me thus honoured ! Some persons may perhaps say it is silly to notice such trifling matters ; but I believe that if we were to take more notice than we do of the small joys or comforts that come to us every day, we should not so often be disposed to grumble or to complain of our condition. Mine is an uncommon name, and it is often accidentally misspelt by my correspondents. I was anxious to see if the Argus had again spelt my name correctly in the list of passengers when I left by the Columbus ; so I went to the ofiice, and a gentleman there politely allowed me to look at all the old files. It happened that while I was searching for my name 179 i8o LAUNCHING AWAY; OK, in the Argus of the right date, I saw an advertisment which made my heart flutter for a minute or two. I could hardly beh'eve my eyes, so I tried my ears, and read softly as follows : " Will the gentleman who so courageously rescued the little girl from drowning at Sandridgc beach yesterday, kindly call on or send his address to Mr. Moss, Rose Villa, Prahran." I bought the paper with the advertisement which had so much interested me, and I walked straightway to the Carlton Gardens, where I sat down to calmly consider what to do next. As far as my memory can stretch back into my child- hood's history, I have been subject to seasons of de- pression, when my heart has been as heavy as a leaden coffin. I suppose it is a constitutional infirmity, for I cannot help it. While the depression lasts, I can never see anything cheering in my life's lot, either by looking back or by looking forward, and I feel as dreary as if I were going to be locked up in our family vault, never to see daylight again. These gloomy visitations usually go away as mysteriously as they come on ; but I find that an hour's chat with a cheerful friend, or a frolic with some nice lively children, are wonderful alleviatives, far more effective than physic. A book has been written by a learned author, entitled, " Is Life worth Living .-' " and no doubt the question is ably argued to the best conclusion. The other day I saw a small handbill, issued by a very practical chemist in London, and he too asks, " Is life worth living? " He laconically decides the question by adding, " It depends ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. iSi upon the liver " ; and then of course he recommends his dandelion pills, — for it is merely a business affair with him. Now I know that my liver is not so good as it ought to be — at least, our family doctor used to tell my mother so. I have often wished when I was a boy that I had no liver, but I did not then know that I could no more get along without it than a watch could go with- out a mainspring. The harassing speculation has some- times engaged my thoughts, whether it is owing to weakness of brain that my liver tyrannizes over me so often, and I have wondered again and again if great statesmen and lawyers and prelates, and other men high up on the intellectual level, are ever slavishly forced to allow any inferior organ to master their minds ; or if by sheer power of brain and logic they can compel their livers to act properly ? I wish I knew enough of the right sort of science to solve all these perplexing moral and social questions. As I sat on the bench in Carlton Gardens, that mystical subject again occupied my thoughts ; but as I could not see any clearer into it than I had ever seen before, I gave it up as a profitless study, and resolved that if I could possibly help it, I would never again waste the bright healthful hours that are allotted to me by brooding over sad days gone by, or in dreading gloomy seasons that may or may not come ; or, in other words, I would take no anxious thought for the morrow, but accept the consoling words of Truth itself, that " Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." I soon became more composed, and I left i82 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, the gardens humming over a song that I had often heard my dear father sing in his merry way, — " All's for the best, be sanguine and cheerful ! Trouble and sorrow arc friends in disguise." I took a car and rode straightway to Rose Villa, Prahran, which I had no difficulty in finding. As I walked through a well-kept little garden towards the house, I saw an old gentleman sitting in Turkish fashion under a rose-bush smoking his pipe. He stood up as I advanced, and said, pointing to some dead insects on the ground : " You see, tobacco smoke does not agree with aphides, though worms like it." " Indeed, sir ! I can hardly believe that it agrees with worms." " I did not say that it agrees with them, but that they like it. I mean worms of the earth, as poets call the like of us. Do you smoke .-"' *' No, I never smoked a pipe or a cigar in my life." " Glad to hear it ! Ah, you may smile, but I mean what I say, though I have only just put my pipe out. I have smoked on an average three pipes a day for the last forty years, and I have consumed, I daresay, quite three hundredweight of tobacco. Just think of that ! If all the smoke that I have puffed out of my mouth could be collected into one cloud, it would be enough to poison all the aphides in Prahran, and would make a smother something like the burning of the great bonded warehouse in Melbourne last week. Don't learn to smoke, my lad, or you will wish you hadn't long before you have burnt half a tierce of tobacco." ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 183 I told him that I did not mean to learn to smoke, and that before I was in my teens, my father cautioned me against acquiring the slavish habit. I then asked the chatty old gentleman if his name was Moss ? " Yes, my name is Moss ; but I daresay it is my son that you want. He is at his office : won't be home till past six o'clock." "Has he an office in Melbourne?" "Yes, to be sure. Don't you know my son ?" " No, sir, I do not know him. I have called here in answer to an advertisement in the Ar^us — which I did not see until this morning — for the person who helped a little girl out of the sea at Sandridge, not quite a year ago." " What ! are you the man that saved our Nelly ? Why didn't you say that before } Come inside. Hoy ! Maria, call your mistress downstairs directly!" He then half pushed me into the drawing-room, and soon a lady entered, to whom I was bluntly introduced as the man who had saved all their hearts from beincf crushed with sorrow, and then I received such an overwhelming amount of thanks, that I was half sorry I had answered the advertisement. I tried to explain that my main object in calling was to disclaim some of the praise that had been lavished on me in print ; but I was answered by a fresh outpouring of grateful expressions from both mother and grandfather. It was almost too much for my nerves, though of course it was gratifying. I 4-emember when I was returning to Sydney from lS4 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, one of my short sea trips, a few months before, that as the steamer was going up Sydney harbour, one of the seamen accidentally fell overboard. The vessel was stopped, and a boat was lowered to pick the man up. Ikit he seemed wisely disposed to help himself ; for he no sooner rose to the surface of the watef after his dive, than he struck out for the shore, about a hundred yards off. In the meantime, I observed a kind-looking young lady flitting about the quarter-deck in a very excited manner, and I wondered what was the matter with her. Rut it was not long a mystery, for she applied to me, as well as to most of the other passengers, for help towards making up a sum to present to the sailor as soon as he came on board. Presently the boat returned alongside with the swimmer, who was quite unhurt ; nor did he seem at all discon- certed, until the romantic young lady stepped up to him as he mounted the gangway, and put a little purse of money in his hand. I shall never forget the puzzled looks of the man as he walked forward in his dripping clothes, nor the comical looks of some of his messmates as they followed him, each man, perhaps, wishing he had been lucky enough to fall overboard and earn a purse ot shillings. Doubtless they all thought it was a queer thing for a man to get paid for merely trying to save his own life — a thing that even a monkey would have done. And I thought it was a strange way for generosity to shape itself; but I have since then seen money testimonials given with even less show of reason than rewarding the sailor ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 185 for his cool bravery in trying to swim ashore out of the way of sharks. The gratitude I got for my small service to little Nelly Moss was almost as striking a case of unearned guerdon. By the way, it is not often that common sailors get a testimonial of any sort (though it is common enough for the captain of clipper ships and steamers to receive deserved marks of regard from grateful passengers) ; indeed, I do not remember ever hearing of passengers giving a testimonial to either sailors or stokers, though perhaps those poor fellows have the hardest work to do in the ship. After awhile, Mr. Moss, senior, trotted out of the room, and soon returned leading in Nelly and three or four other bright, curly-headed little girls and boys, whom he presented to me in his merry style. They were lovable children, with very little shyness in their nature, for they were soon clinging about me as familiarly as if I were their uncle ; so much so indeed, that their grandfather feared they were becoming tiresome. So he " hooshed " them all out of the room, as though they were a lot of intruding chickens ; and the rompish little rogues ran out, laughing and capering with the happy old gentleman, in a way which showed that there was no dignified stiffness to stop their familiarity with him as a playmate. A minute or two afterwards I looked out of a window, and saw him lying at full length on the lawn ; the children had succeeded in putting him down, and would not let him get up again. The sight almost brought tears into my eyes, for it reminded me of my dear grandfather, who was just l86 ^ LAUNCHING AlVAY ; OR, such another merry old man ; and though he had been for many years captain of a Greenland whaling ship, he was like a capersome boy when he was amongst his grandchildren, and was always ready to have an innocent romp with us, no matter who was looking at him. I have sometimes wondered how parents could pos- sibly fondle children that were, to my cold bachelor eyes, unbearable little nuisances ; I mean the sort of children that are usually called " mischievous monkeys ! " But I suppose it is quite natural for parents to love their own children, whoever else may slight them. I could not wonder at old Mr. Moss being so fond of his little pets, for they were honest-eyed young romps. I would have spent a whole day looking at them sooner than go to see a coronation or a Lord Mayor's show. I sat for a while chatting pleasantly with Mrs. Moss, who was an amiable lady. She had such an easy, sisterly way of talking to me and of listening to me, that I soon found myself giving her an outline of my colonial history, in which she seemed much interested. She said her husband would be very pleased to see me, and she made me a promise to take tea with them one evening in the ensuing week. I was writing my address on a card at the table, previous to taking my leave, when a sort of wild " corroborree " ^ outside startled me. Mrs. Moss observed my concern, and said calmly, " It's only the children." * A " corroborree " is a peculiar dance of the Australian abori gines, accompanied with shouting. ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 187 I said, " I hope none of them are hurt, ma'am ? " "Oh, no! They are having some fun with grand- father. They are very noisy sometimes ; but I am so used to their riot that it seldom disturbs me. I know it is only innocent mirth." As I walked to my lodgings, I felt thankful for the little accident which had been the means of introducing me to a family who seemed to be the sort of people whose society I should enjoy. Since then I have happily proved that my first impressions of them were correct ; and I have had many pleasant opportunities of observ- ing the moral and physical development of their dear little children. I shall have to touch on that subject again presently. Very lately I saw, in an old copy of the Christian Treasury, some verses (by an anonymous author) headed " Only the Children," and they tenderly reminded me of Mrs. Moss's remark, when her merry little group were playing on the lawn years ago. I will take the liberty of copying the verses into my book, and I daresay some lov- ing mother will read them with interest. They always seem to thrill my heart with recollections of dear ones, " whom I have loved long since, and lost awhile." "ONLY THE CHILDREN." Beneath a wide-spread tree, Which cast a pleasant shade, Five children, full of mirth and glee, One sunny morning played. iSS LAUNCHING AWAY ; OK, Loud were the sounds of merriment Which o'er that daisied field they sent, For theirs were hearts untouched by care, And eyes that seldom owned a tear. " What are those sounds," asked one, " I hear ? " " Only the children playing there." Only the children ! Years have flown Since that bright summer's day ; And they have men and women grown Who then were at their play. The eldest of that little band, Who threw the ball with skilful hand, Who rolled the hoop by far the best, His country now attempts to guide. And fashions laws, which, when applied. Shall aid and rescue the distressed. The next, a gay and dashing girl, With blue and sparkling eye ; Whose hair was always out of curl, Whose frock was oft awry : Is now a lady full of grace. In whom we vainly seek to trace The carelessness which marked her youth ; And to whose gifted pen we owe Those sweet and simple talcs which show How lovely is the way of truth. That rosy boy, so full of fun, The first in every game. Whose ill-learnt task and sums not done. Exposed him oft to blame ; Why, he is quite renowned for knowledge, Was senior wrangler when at college ; And has a world-wide fame attained. His brother, robed in rustling gown, Is rector of a country town. Which from his labour much has gained. ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 1S9 The youngest, gentle as a dove,^ As sweet as she was fair ; Who gave her doll such words of love, And nursed it with such care ; Far from the scenes of early life, Is now a missionary's wife, And oft her weary husband cheers. Together patiently they toil. And hope to reap, on India's soil, The fruit which they have sown in tears. " Only the children ! " Yes, they seem But ciphers unto some ; But I, who often sit and dream Of things that are to come, In children, full of mirth and glee. Our future generation see; Mighty for good or else for ill. God bless and guide them ! so that they ]\Iay scatter blessings on life's way, And all His wise behests fufil. CHAPTER XVI. " Ob, many a shaft at random sent, Finds mark the archer little meant ! And many a word at random spoken, !May soothe or wound a heart that's broken." —Scott. I HAVE before explained, that soon after my arrival in Australia, I advertised for Mrs. Cameron and her daughter, without receiving an answer. Having tried all other feasible means I could think of, without suc- cess, it occurred to me, as a sort of forlorn hope, to advertise again for Ella alone. Accordingly, I sent the following advertisment to each of the daily news- papers : " Ella Cameron will oblige by sending her address to A. X., Post Office, ]\Ielbournc." A few days afterwards, to my great comfort, I received a note informing me that Ella Cameron was living at Ivy House, La Trobc Street. I went to Ivy House at once. I gave my card to a servant, and was shown into a drawing-room. In a few minutes a clerical-looking gentleinan entered, and I briefly explained to him that I was the person who had advertised for Miss Cameron's address, and that I par- ticularly wished to see her. He politely bade me take a seat, and said he would see if ]\Iiss Cameron was dis- igo ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 191 engaged. He left the room, but soon returned, with Ella herself close behind him. I felt my heart begin to flutter again as I arose and bowed to her. She gave a timid glance at me, and evidently recognised me as the young man who had summoned her downstairs at the restaurant ; I could see as much by her significant look at the gentleman, which seemed to say to him, " Pray do not leave me for an instant." The idea struck me that she thought I had some wicked design on her person, or that I was not right in my head, and I felt sorely dis- concerted. She drew herself up with captivating haughtiness, and gave me such a searching look that I had scarcely vigour enough left in me to reply to her question, " Pray, what is your business with me, sir } " Presently I said, " I wish to have a few minutes' private conversation with you, madam." She cast an appealing glance at the gentleman, which he understood, for he said promptly, " Miss Cameron very properly declines to have a private interview with a stranger. Will you please to state your errand at once." The righteousness of my intentions seemed to nerve me again, and I replied proudly, "I have a message from Miss Cameron's late father, but I do not think I am warranted in delivering it in the hearing of a third person." " Then I must decline to hear it, sir," said Ella. She bowed slightly and left the room. I felt extremely hurt. After all the trouble I had 192 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, taken, and the risk of life and limb that I had encoun- tered in finding poor Cameron's beloved daughter, to be treated with such disrespect and ingratitude by her, was almost too much for me. The gentleman noticed my perturbation, and no doubt he saw that it was honest feeling, for as I was walking towards the door, he put his hand gently on my shoulder and said, " Wait awhile, sir, if you please. Sit down and let me plead for Miss Cameron. I am sure she does not mean to be rude to you ; but — but — there are circumstances connected with her family history, as I daresay you are aware if you knew her father, which cannot fail to cause pain and embarrassment to her sensitive mind. In plain terms, she knows that her father was a bad man." " Pardon me, sir ; but if Miss Cameron had patiently listened to all I have to tell her of her late father, she would not feel such repugnance at the mention of his name." " Alas, poor girl ! she has heard too much of his profligacy and of his cruelty to her unfortunate mother, for her to feel anything but horror when she hears him spoken of" " Sir, may I take the liberty of asking your name, and whether you are related to Miss Cameron ?" " My name is Benson. I am a clergyman, as I presume you are aware. I am not related to Miss Cameron ; but she is a member of my church, and she is living in my family as a nursery governess. She has made my wife and myself acquainted with her whole history, and wc both sympathize with her very ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 193 deeply. She is a young lady of superior mind, and she has nobly struggled against a more than ordinary share of difficulties. I esteem her highly for her con- sistent, Christian principles, and I shall continue to give her my support and protection as long as she needs such help." I said, " I promised Mr. Cameron when he was dying, that I would, if possible, deliver a certain message from him, with a parcel, to his daughter, personally. I will, therefore, not tell my message to any one except Miss Cameron ; but you may say to her, sir, if you please that I tan prove to her, by certain evidences, that her father was not a low-minded, profligate man ; in fact, I know that he was a gentleman." Mr. Benson gave his head a dubious shake, and sighed ; so I continued, with a little warmth in my tone, " I have no wish to impugn Miss Cameron's mother — far from it — but I ask you, sir, as a man of experience in the world, is it not very easy for a mother who has had the care of her child from the first dawn of its comprehension, to influence the mind of that child in any way she wishes "i Miss Cameron has heard her father's character only from her mother's point of view, so it is no wonder to me that she loathes the memory of a man who she has been taught to believe was destitute of all honest feeling." " You surely will not try to justify Mr. Cameron's cruel conduct in forsaking his wife and young child, and leaving them to struggle on without any help from him whatever V O 194 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, "I would not attempt to justify the misdoings of any man, sir. But I need not remind you that it is not safe or just to judge a man's conduct from ex parte statements or charges, I have papers that I found in ]\Ir. Cameron's desk, which would give Miss Cameron a more correct idea of her late father than she has obtained through the teaching of her mother. I will leave you my address, sir ; and if, on a calmer re- flection. Miss Cameron should think it proper to grant me an interview, I shall be glad to wait upon her at her convenience ; but if not, I will, with your permis- sion, call here in a day or two and deliver to her, in your presence, a packet of jewellery and some legal documents which her father enjoined me to hand to her personally. I will add, sir, what will surely be comforting to Miss Cameron to know, as she is a religious girl, that I saw her poor father die, trusting on the merits of Christ for salvation." Mr. Benson said he was delighted to hear that good news ; he further said that he and his wife would talk to Ella, and advise her to consent to see me. I then left the house. I had a nervous headache that night, which kept me awake for several hours. As I lay fidgeting about on my bed, my mind was occupied with disturbing thoughts of my undeserved rebuft* that afternoon. If my dear father and mother had turned me out of my old home, and my loving sister had thrown a brick at my head from the attic window, I don't think I could have been more inclined to be broken-hearted ROGER LARKSJVAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 195 than I was at the haughty ingratitude of Ella Cameron; indeed, I was half amazed to feel myself so much hurt at it. My fancy Avas active, and it took me back through all the perils and discomforts that I had ex- perienced since the night when I first saw John Cameron ; and the silly wish that I had never set eyes on him came into my head again and again. I fancied what a vast amount of inconvenience I might have saved myself — including a fractured knee — if 1 had stopped contentedly in my uncle's shop at Green- wich, instead of wandering over the world, incurring all sorts of risks and wrongs, merely to oblige a dead man — a perfect stranger to me — to find a girl, and give her some jewellery which she would never wear ! Then I tried to imagine what I should have said or done if any kind stranger had taken even half as much trouble to find me out and give me a packet of jewels. I felt convinced that I should have shown joy and gratitude, instead of treating that stranger with digni- fied contempt. In my moody humour it never struck me that, taking the pie-shop incident into consideration, Ella's cool demeanour towards me was not unlike the cautious, maidenly conduct I should have wished my sister to observe towards a stranger under such circum- stances. But a man seldom reasons soundly when he is love-sick. The next morning I was sitting in a back parlour, with a wet compress on my aching head, when a waiter brought me the Rev. John Benson's card, and in another minute that gentleman entered the room. 196 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, " I am sorry to sec you arc looking poorly this morning, Mr. Larksway," said Mr. Benson, after shaking hands with mc more cordially than he did the previous day. " I have called to see you in behalf of Miss Cameron ; and in the first place let me say, that she wishes me to express her regret for the seeming rudeness to you yesterday. She explained the mistake to me. She has seen you before," continued Mr. Benson, smiling. " I daresay you remember the occa- sion ; and she thought you had called on her yesterday merely for a silly frolic — you understand me .'' That is all about it in a few words. I hope you will accept this explanation — or apology." I replied, " Oh, certainly, sir ; I accept it gladly — it is very satisfactory." My heart was relieved of a load, and my head felt better immediately. That prompt effect shows me more convincingly than any doctor's book could do it, how tenderly the heart and the head sympathize with each other. It was marvellous ! " And now let me say that Miss Cameron is very anxious to see you, Mr. Larksway. Can you come and take a quiet cup of tea at the parsonage this evening ?" I told him that I should be very happy to do so ; and then, after a pleasant chat for a few minutes longer, Mr. Benson took his leave, with the air of a man who had work to do, and a definite way of doing it. That evening I dressed myself with extra care, and taking poor Cameron's packet under my arm, I set off ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISS/ON. 197 for Ivy House. I was very kindly received by Mr. and Mrs. Benson, and by Ella also, who shook hands with me almost as warmly as a cousin. I felt there was gratitude in her gentle pressure. After tea, Mr. Benson explained that he could not stay any longer with me, for he had to speak that evening at a public meeting in be- half of a school for the Aborigines. I was pleased to know that the Victorian public were considerate for the poor black sons of the soil. Soon after Mr. Benson had left the house on his errand of justice and mercy, his wife begged me to excuse her, as she had something to do in the nursery ; so I was left in the parlour with Ella. I should like the reader to have a fair idea of the charms of Ella Cameron ; but I am not a poet, so I do not know how to describe perfect beauty. And if I were to try even to outline her singular graces with my prosy pen, I should as certainly fail as if I had tried to paint a flock of king parrots flying half a mile above my head. I will merely say then, in plain words, that she was beautiful in face, and her figure — as far as I could properly judge — was as symmetrical as the finest marble statue in our Melbourne Gallery of Art. Here let me briefly remark that that admirable public resort, and the extensive Free Library adjoining, are institutions of which the colonists of Victoria may be justly proud. The benefits they confer are incalculable. Ella's affable manner encouraged me to talk unrestrain- edly about the curious coincidence of our meeting at the restaurant, and how I was struck with the belief that I had really seen her living face before, when I had only I9S LAUXCHIXG AWAY; OR, seen her portrait on Ivor)-. She expressed regret that she had misunderstood my attention to her on that occasion, and especially as it had caused me so much trouble and suftering in my search for her. Although she manifested an interest in my epitome of my travels, I could see that she was desirous of hearing what I had to tell her of her father ; so I told the story from my first meeting witli him to the moment of his decease, and I gave her his biographical statement to me almost in his own words, only omitting to mention the name ot his family, in accordance with his wish. In the course of my recital, I closely observed the varying expression of her features. She had doubtless prepared herself to hear much that was distressing ; and when I began, her face showed mental calmness and fortitude. As I pro- ceeded, wonder and pity were severally indicated ; but when I described her father's peaceful death, and told her of his devoted love for her and for her misguided mother, her firmness quite gave way, and she wept. I felt such a very strong sympathy for her that I could hardly keep my seat. We were sitting on opposite sides of the fireplace, silent and sad, when ]Mrs. Benson returned to the parlour. Her coming in so abruptly just at ten o'clock was pre- arranged no doubt ; and perhaps it was well that she did come in, for my heart at that moment was almost irresist- ibly prompting me to soothe poor Ella. It is uncertain to me, as I reflect on it now, what course I should have adopted for that kind purpose, and it is possible that I might have been too softly demonstrative in my con- ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 199 dolence. Young men cannot always depend on the coolness of their judgment in such circumstances. I was glad that the good pastor's wife did not catch me in any act of brotherly sympathy which might have been mis- construed into something of a less platonic nature. After speaking a few kind words to Ella, Mrs. Benson drew me aside, and suggested that I had better not say any more to the poor girl just then, and she invited me to come again to tea on the morrow. I dare say millions of young masculine heads have ached over the effort of conjuring up new poetical figures to express the tenderness of their first heart-yearnings for the darling girls of their choice ; but I shall take the easier way of explaining to the reader my soft feel- ings for Ella, by simply saying I was in love with her. Anybody will understand what that means. CHAPTER XVII. " So sweetly she bade me adieu, I thought that she bade me return." — Shenstonc, I SUPPOSE that if every man's courting experience could be fairly written out, it would be seen that there is a distinctive feature in each case, and perhaps as strange a variety of love's manifestations as there is of eyes or noses on the faces of the great human family. It has been insinuated (I need not say by whom) that I was quite as soft as John Cameron in my love develop- ment. But I would appeal from that unfair judgment to all my young manly readers ; and let me summarize the leading facts of the case for their impartial re-consider- ation. First of all then, be it remembered that I was shown the portrait of Ella in a perfectly innocent way, and was told that it was taken when she was about eleven years of age. It was a very pretty picture ; and I ask, was it not as natural as winking for a youth of a warm quick fancy to add seven to eleven, and form his ideal of her as a charming, courtable damsel of eighteen summers .-* Then my interesting commission from her dying father to search through the world till I found her, and my solemn promise to do so, tended to keep her ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 201 perfect image fresh before my fancy's eye ; and how vividly it was impressed there is evident by my quick notice of Ella at the restaurant, instinctively, as it were, picking her out from the ten thousand fine maidens of Melbourne. Furthermore, my long and hazardous search for her, the favourable season for quiet rumination of love thoughts and fancies when I was laid up with a broken leg, together with the proverbial influence of deferred hope. Then the sudden joy of at length find- ing her, the stimulating effects of her scornful rebuff at first, and our next friendly meeting, the touch of her gentle hand, the gushing of tears from her lovely eyes, her exquisitely tender emotions at my story of her poor father's end, and her look of genuine gratitude at me ! Consider all that, my susceptible young male reader, and tell me if you think I was blamably soft in falling in love with Ella! Could anything in life be more reasonable than my doing so .'* On the following evening I went to tea at the parson- age. I found Ella sorrowful but composed. After tea I was left in her company, and I gave her a copy of her late father's will, and other documents, from the executor to the will. Then, in the most delicate way I knew of, I told her that I had not expended much more than half of the money which her father left me to pay my expenses, and that what I had left was at her service. She warmly expressed her thanks, but said she did not need money just then, and would not take any from me. She asked me not to divulge the fact of her father having left her any property except his jewellery 202 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, and added, after a few minutes' pensive cogitation, " I have a special reason for making this strange request, Mr. Larksway. I cannot explain it to you at present but you shall know all about it soon." I felt an almost overpowering inclination to take hold of her hands, and implore her to give me a legal liberty to soothe and share every care and sorrow in her heart. I fancied I Avould willingly be half choked with sorrow for her sake. A war seemed to be stirring up in my breast between prudence and passion, such a conflict as I had never before felt within me, and prudence was getting the worst of it, when Mr. Benson re-entered the room without knocking. I was thankful he did not catch me in the act of making love, which he certainly would have done had he been a minute later. I could see that it had been pre-arranged to shorten my inter- view with Ella, and I confess I thought they were rather strict with their young governess. Mr. Benson chatted with me very cordially, and I gradually calmed down into myself again. I had pur- posely taken all my testimonials in my pocket, so I showed them to him, and he was much pleased with them, especially those from my dear old pastor and from the organist of our church at Greenwich. He said he should be glad if I would join his church, as he was in want of able singers in his choir. I said I should be delighted to do so if I succeeded in getting employ- ment in Melbourne. Before taking my leave, both Mr. and Mrs. Benson said they should be happy to see me at the parsonage occasionally. ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 203 Having now fulfilled the mission which I had specially in view in coming to Australia, or having done as much of it as I could, for the time being, I began to think seriously about getting a situation ; for pleasant as it may seem to have one's liberty to roam about without restraint, it leaves a reacting influence on the mind of any young man who has an ambition to rise in the world. So long as my object in finding Ella was un- attained, I felt that I was rightly employing my time in searching for her ; but having found her, I could no longer spend a sort of listless life without uneasiness of body and mind. " Pleasure is the reflux of unimpeded energy." So says Sir W. Hamilton. I never heard of any good authority saying that there was either pleasure or profit in a life of indolence. I did not wait for a situation that was exactly to my liking, but took the first one that offered, which was as clerk to a corn merchant in Flinders Lane. The work was new to me, but I was always willing to learn. Mr. Hazelton was a good man — perhaps rather too good to make money in those times, when competition in his line was ruinously active, and when the banks gave such liberal encouragement to bold speculators and kite-flying schemers. He was conscientious to a fault — at least, some of his neighbours said so ; but for my part, I never could see any fault in a man being scrupulously upright in all his dealings. I dare say Mr. Hazelton lost a chance customer now and then while he was conduct- ing religious services in the upper floor of his store with all his employes, and he perhaps suffered loss 204 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, occasionally through petty thieves, who robbed his lower store while he was praying upstairs ; but for all that, he continued his practice of having prayers every morning before beginning the business of the day. Some of his trading neighbours, who were too busy to pray at any time, looked upon it as a mere whim or crochet of his, indicating weakness of character ; but Mr. Hazelton said he was sure it was right to ask for Divine aid in any- thing that it was right to do, and if he were seemingly a loser by the practice just now, he knew he should be a gainer in the long run. He certainly had a long run of mercantile losses and crosses ; still, he stuck to his old system of shaping his course by the Bible chart all the time he was in business in Melbourne. I should have mentioned before that I accepted an invitation to tea from Mr. and Mrs. Moss, and enjoyed a pleasant evening in their little family circle. I found that though Grandfather Moss could be as frolicsome as a kitten when he was playing with his lively grand- children, he was merry and wise, for he could be sedate enough when it was a time to be thoughtful. I got many sensible hints from him, which were calculated to be helpful to me as a young colonist ; and if I had since then paid more practical heed to his counsel, I should perhaps be an independent man to-day. Mr. Moss, junior, was a thriving merchant in IMelbourne, and an active worker in public affairs of a benevolent character. He was exceedingly kind and hospitable to me. He alluded more frequently than I wished to the service I had rendered him in saving the life of his beloved child ; ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 205 indeed, I have seldom seen so much real gratitude as that whole family displayed for what was after all a simple act of duty on my part. Mr. Moss applauded me for taking the first situation I could get, rather than be idle ; but he advised me, as I had learnt a business, to keep to it ; and he added, " You may have a shop of your own by-and-by, Mr. Larksway. I do not see why not, for you seem to possess the essential qualities of a successful man." I thanked him and felt encouraged, for he was a man whose good judgment was pretty generally confided in. He promised to use his influence to get me a situation in my own line ; nor did he forget his promise, as some friends are apt to do, for about three weeks afterwards, through his recommendation, I was engaged by Mr. Cudbear, the well-known chemist and druggist, as his assistant, at a salary of ;^i5oa year, with board and lodging. That was three times as much salary as I received when in my uncle's service, so I reasonably considered that I was making progress in the world, and that thus far this new land was better to me than the old one. Most spirited youths have had secret longings for a married life. It is quite natural, so I need not be ashamed to own that even as early as my twentieth year I used now and then to think how pleasant it would be to have a wife, and a nice little home with a flower garden in front, and some cabbages, etc., and a fowl-house at the back. I was not really extravagant in my ideas of housekeeping, and I used to think that 2o6 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, ^150 a year would keep me and a tidy, careful wife very comfortably. It was merely a boyish speculation, for I had then no prospect of receiving such an income, nor had I seen a girl I really cared for, except perhaps Laura Cleff ; but she was too musical for me — that is to say, she studied music to the neglect of domestic duties. I should certainly like my wife to be fond of music, but I should like her to be capable of directing her servants in the house work, or of doing the housework herself if circumstances should change with us so that we could not afford to keep a servant. I don't think I could enjoy music in an untidy house. Now that I had a salary of ^150 a year, and more than ;^200 in the bank, and I knew and loved a girl who I believed was in every way calculated to make me a good wife, and withal, that I had arrived at a fair marriageable age, it was rational for me to decide to get married as soon as I could. I was sorry I could not consult my parents before taking such an important step ; but as that was impracticable, I took another week to deliberate over it, and then having made up my mind that I thoroughly loved Ella Cameron, I wrote her a letter to tell her so. For three days afterwards I watched for the postman almost as anxiously as any shipwrecked sailor ever watched for a sail from his lonely perch on a bare rock in the ocean. I trust I made up my prescriptions all right, but in some of my gloomy seasons I have had distressing doubts if it really were ice-creams and cu- cumber that took poor old Mrs. Dunn off so suddenly. On the fourth morning, to my great relief, I received a ROGER LARKSIVAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 207 letter from Ella. It was short and polite, but not loving. However, it gave me an invitation to tea at Mr. Ben- son's that evening, so I argued down my fears, and gave my hope all the encouragement I could think of. That seemed a very long day to me — all the longer because there was not much business doing. My master gave me liberty for the evening, and punctually at the time appointed I was at the parsonage, attired with befitting neatness, and carrying a basket of cherries and some sugar-plums as presents to the little Bensons. I thought it was wise policy to get in favour with them, for they were Ella's pupils, and they would perhaps talk kindly of me in her hearing. When Ella entered the drawing-room, I thought she looked pale ; at which I was rather cheered, for it seemed to explain the reason why she had kept me waiting so long for an answer to my letter. She had evidently been unwell since I last saw her. She received me kindly, but with embarrassment, which I further in- terpreted to my comfort ; for I mentally argued that girls of the right sort are usually embarrassed at such critical times. Presently Mr. and Mrs. Benson came into the room, and soon afterwards the tea bell ransr. so we all went into the parlour. Ella was silent at the tea table, but Mr. Benson was unusually chatty, so she had not a chance to say much if she had been disposed to talk. He said he was glad to know that I had a permanent situation, but he wished that I had found one in a wholesale drug house, for then I might have been able to spend my Sundays profitably. 2oS LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, " Sunday work is the most objectionable part of my occupation, sir," I replied. " My working hours every day are slavishly long. Ours is the double eight hours system. Then the night-bell is a cruel disturber of my short slumbers ; besides, it is often rung by practical jokers, who seem to think it is fun to summons a weary fellow from his bed down to the shop door to be made a fool of. However, those are miseries which long experi- ence has taught me to put up with composedly ; but my Sunday work in Melbourne really makes me irritable. My good uncle always kept one of his assistants at home on Sundays to make up prescriptions, or to sell any medicines that were urgently needed ; but on no account would he allow perfumery or hair oil, or any similar article of trumpery trade, to be sold for love or money." "Your uncle was quite right," said Mr. Benson ; "I commend him for his generous consideration for his employes and his respect for the Lord's day," "Yes, sir; and I honour him for it. I wish my present master, and every other retail chemist in this city, would adopt my uncle's plan in that respect ; they might easily do it if they had the will, and it would be a great relief to their assistants. I assure you that Sunday morning is quite a busy time in our shop, sell- ing soda-water and drunkard's draughts, called 'pick- me-up,' besides many little fancy trifles from the glass cases on the counter ; trifles which reasonable customers would have bought on Saturday night, or that they might well wait for till Monday morning. I never ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 209 object to make up prescriptions on a Sunday — that I call a work of necessity or mercy — but the other sort of traffic I do thoroughly abhor. If I ever have a shop of my own, I will adopt my good uncle's plan, and I am sure I shall not lose by it in the end." " I like to hear you talk so sensibly on that subject, Mr. Larksway. I am grieved more than I can express to see so much unnecessary trafficking in this great city on Sundays ; and my mind is often disturbed as I am going into my pulpit, by the sound of carriage and cab wheels, bringing members of my congregation to church, some of whom are as well able to walk there as I am myself." Soon after the tea was over, Ella asked me if I would be kind enough to step with her into the drawing-room. Of course I said I would do so with much pleasure. I felt that I was blushing all over, but neither Mr. nor Mrs. Benson seemed to notice it. I could tell that it had been prearranged by them for Ella to give me a private interview, and I felt grateful for their confidence and their delicate consideration. We entered the drawing-room, and I shut the door. Ella then sat down in an arm chair and wept like a child. ]\Iy inexperience misled me for awhile, and I thought her tears sprung from joyous, maidenly emotions. I had often heard of a girl weeping even on her wedding morning ! I stepped up to her and gently strove to remove her hands from before her face, and I uttered a few tender words ; I forget what I said— but 'tis no matter. I felt intensely disposed to kiss her P 210 LAUNCHLVG AWAY; OA', sweet quivering lips ; but before I could make bold to do so, she partially recovered herself, and said pensively, as she pointed to a chair on the opposite side of the fireplace, — " Mr. Larksway, please to take a seat ; L am going to speak to you confidentially. I received your kind note four days ago. I should have replied to it immedi- ately, but at the advice of my dear friends, Mr. and Mrs. Benson, I waited till I was sufficiently calm to see you personally, and fully explain my unhappy position. You have been a kind friend to me. I can- not express the comfort you have afforded my heart m " Dearest girl ! " I interposed, as I arose in a rapture of soft feeling ; " your words overpower me with happi- ness ! " " Pray sit down and listen to me, Mr. Larksway," she said mournfully. " I have a painful story to tell you. I was about to say that the good news you brought me respecting the peaceful end of my poor father has given me much comfort. I shall ever be deeply grateful to you for the trouble you have taken on my behalf. I feel that I can safely tell you of all my trials, and I will make an effort to do so." " Tell me everything, my sweet Ella ! Tell me all, and let me share your sorrows and }-our joys for life, — in short, let me call you my wife ! " I said that with real feeling, and again I started up and was stepping towards her with a delicately loving motive, when she said. — ROGER LARA'SIVAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 211 ' Stop ! Do pray stop, Mr. Larksway ! Sit down again, sir, and hear what I have to tell you. I am married ! " By a desperate effort I stifled a groan that struggled for vent ; and I sat down again a blighted man. All my fondly cherished pictures of domestic bliss faded away like dissolving views, and my life's prospects seemed to be blocked up by a dismal high wall of blue- stone, which my hope could not even peep over. Never shall I forget the smarting influence of those three words, " I am married ! " Three buckshots in my legs could not have hurt me so much, or — in a metaphorical sense — so effectually have knocked me down. How long we sat in mournful silence I cannot remember. Ella was the first to speak, and she said, in tones which showed the depth of her sympathy, — " I am sorry indeed, for your sake, Mr. Larksway, that I did not explain my unhappy position to you at our first interview ; but I had no idea that you were becoming so fondly attached to me. I have suffered much on your account since I received your expressive letter. You have taken a deal of trouble to fulfil my dear father's dying request, and I feel grieved that I should unwittingly cause you so much distress. But do not reproach me, Mr. Larksway ! " " My dear madam," I replied with emotion, " far be it from me to reproach you. Believe me, that though your disclosure is an unexpected blow to my happiness, I am still your true friend, and I shall ever remain such. Pray tell me all you wish me to know of your affairs, 212 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, and if I can in any way help you, I will do it with brotherly goodwill." " Thank you ! thank you ! my generous friend ! I am truly grateful. But I feel unable to tell you my sorrow- ful story to-night, for the trouble I see you are suffering unnerves me. If you can conveniently come here on some other evening, I shall esteem it an additional obligation." I promised to come the next evening ; and after asking Ella to excuse me to Mr. and Mrs. Benson for leaving their house without seeing them again, I shook hands with her, and walked homeward at a funereal pace. Our shop was not shut up, so I went behind the counter. There, on the shelves around me, were drugs of various kinds, which I knew would procure me a temporary oblivion from my overwhelming love-sick- ness ; and for the first time in my life I was possessed with an almost irresistible desire for some powerful stimulant or opiate, which would deaden my sense of present misery. I had had some experience, in the trade in Melbourne, of compounding stimulating or steadying draughts for a few regular morning customers; besides, I had often seen my late tippling shopmate, INIackay, mix up a strong dose for himself, when it was not practicable for him to run out to the public house for his more favourite dram of whisky. My hand was on a bottle labelled " Laudanum," when a warning voice from the dead seemed to whisper in my ears, and by a strong effort of will I restrained my craving ROGER LARKSVVAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 213 for the stupefying draught. It was a hard struggle, but I conquered. My late beloved father had often cautioned me against encouraging the first morbid desire for any kind of intoxicant, which might grow by use into a confirmed habit, and would soon tyrannize over all my powers of body and mind. His timely counsel has hitherto saved me from acquiring habits by which I see so many men around me, old and young, hopelessly enslaved. I went to bed that night depressed beyond all former experience, but I did not seek to get temporary relief at the cost of a debilitating reaction the next day. Sleep quite forsook my eyelids that night. There I lay, puffing the teasing mosquitoes off my nose, and brooding over my hopeless attachment until my brain seemed to be shrivelling up, like passion-fruit blasted by hot winds. Soon after the post-office clock struck three, I heard loud shouts of "Fire!" and our night bell was pulled by an impatient hand. I sprang out of bed, and at once saw that a grocery store adjoining our shop was blazing furiously. I soon slipped into my clothes ; but before I could get downstairs, an excited mob had forced our shop door open, and were carrying out the goods with more haste than care. Flurried as I was, I could see that our stock, which the salvors were flinging pell-mell into the road, would be almost useless to us, if it was not all stolen, and that it would be wiser to let the bottles and jars remain on the shelves and take their chance, as our shop was 214 LAUNCHING AWAY. not actually on fire. So I managed to barricade our doorway up ; and, armed with a revolver (which was not loaded), I stood sentry outside, and scared the crowd off with my warlike antics, until the brigade inspector arrived. In an hour or two the fire was put out, without injuring our premises beyond blistering the paint on the shutters and cracking our show lamp. That was a timely blaze for me, whoever lost by it, for it afforded me something to think of distinct from my own personal troubles ; and I have since fancied that it saved my brain from getting " crazed with care " on that memorable night. I do not mean to say that to afford excitement enough to chase away one's sombre reflections, or blighted love throes, a neighbour's shop should catch fire, — that would be an atrocious senti- ment, akin to incendiarism ; but I do experimentally affirm, that active occupation of some kind is one of the best things in the world for diverting one's mind from distressing subjects, which, in harmony with the general laws of cause and effect, gather strength from being fostered. I was very unpopular with the noisy rabble outside for an hour or two ; but it did not trouble me much, for I know that it is natural for rogues to hate any one who tries to keep them from picking and stealing. They hooted and howled at me like cannibals all the while I was getting our stock back into the shop ; and a ferocious-looking sailor proposed that they should catch me, and make me swallow a bottle of horse-physic. CHAPTER XVIII. " We bear it calmly through a ponderous woe, And still adore the hand that gives the blow." — Pomfret. One of the Melbourne newspapers, in its report of the fire, commented very nicely on my sagacity and courage in protecting my master's property from the ravages of unauthorized salvors. I was pleased, as most men are when their efforts to do good are rightly estimated ; but my gladness was soon afterwards extinguished when I read the report of another daily paper, which harshly condemned my conduct in firing off the six barrels of my revolver over the heads of the mob, and endangering the lives of some young ladies at an attic window of the house over the way. I was grieved at such flagrant misrepresentation. The mute evidence of my pistol convinced the inspector of police that I was innocent of the charge of firing it off, for its rusty condition proved that it had not been loaded for several months. Still, the false report had gone far and wide, in perhaps twenty thousand broadsheets, one of which might possibly reach my parents' eyes, and make them fear that I was savagely altered since I left home. A pushing young lawyer wanted me to begin an 215 2i6 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, action for libel ; but when I got over my vexation, I declined to go to law, and took the softer course of writing a polite explanatory letter to the erring editor, which he inserted in the next day's issue of his paper, and I was pacified. My master lived at Boroondarra. When he came to business the next day, he found his shop in disorder, and myself and all the other employes busily putting it to rights. As I was the only assistant who slept on the premises, I had to give Mr. Cudbear all the particulars of the disaster. But he did not even look thankful to me for my exertions in saving his premises from being destroyed. From the peculiar tone in which he remarked to the senior assistant that he would have altered his shop-front if he had been burnt out, I judged that he was well insured. That evening I went again to the parsonage, accord- ing to promise ; but I would rather have stayed at home. On my way there I found myself encouraging, for a minute or two, a burning jealousy for I'^lla's husband, though I had no idea who he was or where he lived. I feel shame in making this confession, but I wish to be candid. If Morton had ran away with all my personal effects, and with my sister Emmy as well, I could hardly have felt a stronger grudge against the young man ; I think I would have turned the handle of a machine to half skin him. Of course I soon scouted such wicked thoughts. After tea, Ella again asked me to walk into the draw- ing room with her. She seemed more composed than ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 217 she was on the previous night. She sat down in an easy chair, and I modestly took the chair opposite to her, and tried to look calm, though my heart was sadly ruffled. It took her some minutes to conquer a rising emotion ; at length she said, in a low but sweetly clear voice, — " I will be as brief as possible with my disclosures, Mr. Larks way ; but I fear I shall overtax your forbear- ance. My earliest history you are already acquainted with. I have but a faint remembrance of my life in New Zealand. I think I was about six years of age when my mother returned with me to Sydney. Soon afterwards she went to live at Illawarra. The farm we lived on was then two miles from any school ; and I should probably have been as untaught as many neg- lected children on this great continent are, but for the disinterested kindness of a good woman who lived on a farm adjoining ours. She had two little girls of her own ; and as the public school was too far off to send them to it, she taught them at home, and she offered to teach me at the same time. My mother did not object to it, so I went to Mrs. Bell's house every day. Though not a well-educated woman, she had a happy way of imparting what she did know to young minds, and I learned from her the elements of a plain education, also to comprehend and prize the Bible, and to shape my life by its holy precepts. I shudder when I reflect what my moral character might have been to-day, if dear Mrs. Bell had not pitied my forlorn condition, and taken me under her training. I always picture myself when 2iS LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, I see a poor, neglected little girl in the street My heart yearns to take her into my charge, and teach her the right way of life from the wrong one, and perhaps save her from drifting into the way that leads to ruin. If I could devote my life's energies to work of that kind, Mr. Larksway, I think I should be happy. " Mrs. Bell used to take her own children and me in a cart to a Sunday-school ; and there a good minister took notice of me, and became a real friend to me. When I grew old enough to know the immorality of my unfortunate mother's way of life, I became very unhappy about it. Many times I implored her to leave the man with whom she was living. But my entreaties were all disregarded, and I was cruelly treated for presuming to offer advice. When I was a little over fifteen years of age, i^y mother wished me to encourage the visits of a young man of a low, profligate character, who wanted to marry me. I repelled him in disgust, for which I was subjected to a persecution too painful for me to relate. When nearly driven to despair, I sought the protection of the kind minister, whom I before mentioned. At his advice, and through his pecuniary help, I went to Sydney, and was hospitably received into the family of a respectable mechanic, who had formerly lived near Wollongong. I soon got a situation as assistant in a confectioner's shop ; but the young man I have alluded to found me out, and renewed his hateful overtures. I refused to speak to him, and he threatened my life. I dreaded violence from him, so I wrote to my good friend the minister for his advice and aid. He imme- ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 219 diately came to Sydney to see me ; and in order that I might live more privately, he got me a situation as pupil teacher in a ladies' school. For more than two years I lived there in quietude. My mistress was very considerate to me, and I acquired a sound English education, and some little knowledge of what are called the accomplishments. I studied hard, in the hope of qualifying myself for taking a situation as governess in the far bush. But that project was frustrated and my peace was again disturbed by the young man — my loathsome admirer. I somehow learned that he had been in jail for two years ; but soon after his release, he renewed his persecution to me, both by letter and by calling personally at the school where I was engaged. To avoid him, I determined to go to Melbourne. It seemed a desperate course, for I knew no person th''re ; but I hoped that by being far away from the scenes and connections of my early life, I should have a better chance of living quietly, and earning a respectable live- lihood. The secret of my purpose I entrusted to the mechanic and his wife, whose house I first went to in Sydney. They had a brother in Melbourne, whom they wrote to in my behalf. He was a cabinet-maker in Lonsdale Street — a reputable tradesman and a member of Mr. Benson's Church. He met me at the steamer on my arrival at Melbourne, and took me to his house. Both he and his good wife treated me as affectionately as if I were their own daughter. I was anxious to be employed, for I did not like to be burdensome to them ; so I took the first situation that offered, which was at 220 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, the restaurant where you first saw me. I was in that place only a few weeks, for the duties of a waitress did not suit me, or I was not expert enough for them. Though perhaps the majority of the daily customers in the dining saloon were gentlemen, and knew how to behave with dignified civility to a servant, the manners of some of the men who came there were not at all times decorous, and I could not endure their jocular familiarity. After the dinner hour, I usually had to retire to my room suffering from severe headache, caused by nervous excitement. Most of the young ladies there misunderstood me : they thought my reserved manner was pride, and that my extreme nervousness was affec- tation. Many cutting remarks were made, which were meant for me to overhear. I thought if those girls only knew the sadness of my heart, every one of them would have pitied me ; but I had not courage to make a con- fidante of either of them. At length I left the place, and went to serve in a confectioner's shop in Collins Street. " You see, Mr. Larksway, I have hurried over my history — have given you but the bare outlines of several eventful years," said Ella, with a sigh. " But now comes the most painful part of my story. I fear I shall weary you with my troubles ; and it is perhaps wrong for me to intrude so much upon your time." Poor Ella's forced composure here quite failed her, and an uncontrollable fit of grief checked her utterance for awhile. I said, feelingly, " My dear madam, let me persuade you to defer any further disclosure until ROGER LARKSIVAY'S STRANGE MISSION, 221 some other time ; I see that it is causing you much distress, and on that account it pains me to listen to you. You are looking ill ; shall I call in Mrs. Benson ?" " No, pray do not call her, sir ; she is with her sick infant. I have already given Mrs. and Mr. Benson much trouble with my affairs. I will finish my sad story to-night, if you will kindly listen. When I have told you all, my mind will be more composed." She sat for a few minutes as if trying to collect her thoughts, and then she said, " Amongst the daily customers at the dining-saloon, when I lived there, was a young man who usually came in by himself, later than the first rush of guests. He never seemed in hot haste, and he always took his hat off before he sat at the table. Those little marks of refined manners did not escape my notice, and I concluded that he was a gentleman. I soon observed that he invariably gave his orders to me, and I liked to wait on him, for he was polite, and he never rudely joked with me, as some of the other guests did. I often thought to myself, that young man has sisters. He was genteel in appearance, but I need not further describe his exterior : I will show you his portrait presently. One day, as he was leaving the table, he took a beautiful white camellia from his coat and put it into my hand. That act was noticed by some of the girls in the saloon, and I was much teased about it. From that time I avoided waiting on him. Soon afterwards I left the restaurant and went to serve in a confectioner's shop in Collins Street. About three days after I had been 222 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, ill that place, the same young gentleman came in at lunch-time, and asked me for a cup of chocolate and some pastry. He bowed politely when he saw me. For several weeks he came every day to lunch. He did not speak much to me, and he never offered me another flower ; but I could tell, from various signs which I cannot explain in words, that he was rather partial to me. It was but natural for me to feel a growing respect for a person who behaved towards me with such uniform gentlemanlike civility ; but I never, either by word or look, wittingly encouraged him to show me attention. I was naturally distrustful of the advances of strangers. One evening he accosted me in the street, as I was going to my home in Lonsdale Street ; but I went on my way without speaking, and he did not follow me. That is the course I usually adopt if I am spoken to in the street by a stranger, and I think it is the safest way for an un- protected girl to act. " The next day the same gentleman put a letter in my hand as he was paying me for his luncheon, and he immediately left the shop. I did not venture to open it until I went home, and then I found that it was a declaration of love and an offer of marriage. I showed the letter to my friends, Mr. and Mrs. Flitch. After some consideration, they advised me to write Mr. Morton (that is his name) and invite him to their house, and they would afterwards give me their opinion of him. I took another day to deliberate over it, and then I followed their advice. ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 223 " The ensuing evening, when I returned home, Mr. Morton was there conversing with Mr. Fhtch. He stayed till a late hour. Before he went, I promised to give him an answer to his letter in a day or two. I need not go into particulars ; it is enough to say that my own inclination and the opinions of my friends coincided. Mr. Morton told us that he was a clerk- in the ^ Bank, in Melbourne; that his salary was £2^0 a year, with a prospect of a rise, and that he had some valuable mining shares. Moreover, he told us that he left a bank in London three years before. From documents he produced, it appeared that his family connections in England were respectable ; he said he had no relations in the colony. He invited Mr. Flitch to call at Bank and make any inquiries he chose as to his character. The next day Mr. Flitch called at the bank, and the manager's report was satis- factory. My friends both congratulated me on the good match I had a chance of making. Caji it be wondered at that I felt elated at the prospect, poor and helpless as I was .■• I thought it would be nice to have a comfortable home of my own, and some one to protect me. I disliked serving in a shop, and I could see no chance of getting a situation as governess, for I was not thoroughly qualified. I confess that I did not feel the warmth of attachment that I had always thought I ought to feel for the man I married ; but I expected that my love would grow on a better acquaintance with him. Briefly let me tell it : I accepted him, and after five weeks' courtship, we were 224 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, married by the Rev. Mr, Benson, at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Flitch. Wc spent a week at Geelong, and then went to live at Emerald Hill, in a rather stylish cottage, which had been furnished for us by an up- holsterer in Melbourne, far more extravagantly than I could have allowed if I had been consulted in time. " For several weeks we lived very harmoniously. The only disquietude I felt was on account of my husband's reluctance to accompany me to church, and his entire disregard to the sanctity of the Sabbath. Sunday, indeed, was a day of feasting in our house. I did not at first object to a little extra cooking, be- cause it was the only day that he could dine at home ; but after a time it became my regular task to provide dinner for four or five of his bachelor friends. I then ventured to tell him the difficulty I had in persuading our servant-girl to do so much work on Sundays, and I hinted that those dinner-parties very much increased our housekeeping expenses ; for our guests drank an immoderate quantity of wine. My husband replied kindly, that he really did not wish to keep so much company, but he was afraid to appear shabby to his old friends now that he had a house of his own. He meant, however, 'to turn over a new leaf very soon. As to our house expenses, he said, I need not be uneasy about them, for he expected his mining shares would very shortly turn him in dividends, which would treble his income. I felt relieved, and then I took courage to say^ in the most gentle way I could, that it would so much add to my peace and happiness if ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 225 he would go to church with me on Sundays. At that he looked sorrowful, and then he confessed to me, that previous to his coming to this colony, he was a member of a Church and a Sabbath-school teacher, and that his father and mother and sisters were all religious. He also said that after his arrival in Melbourne he had been tempted to neglect his religious duties, and at length, he added with a sigh, ' I have become a complete infidel. Oh, dear ! it is terribly true that " Evil communications corrupt good manners," but I mean to reform, Ella, and I want you to help me to do it. I shall gradually cut off all my gam- bling acquaintances ; that is the first step for me. I made a grand effort to do so four months ago, and for a while I was very steady ; but my tempters have made a dead set at me lately, and they have proved too many for me. Cheer up, dear Ella ! I will make another solemn resolution very soon, and you shall see that I have some manly firmness left.' " I cannot tell you how comforted I felt, Mr. Larks- way ; but I grieve now that I did not say more to him just then, that I did not press him to begin to reform at once, and tell him that the only way he could keep right was by beseeching Christ to help him. Poor fellow ! I believe he meant to do all he said, but he put it off till it was too late. " We had been married about ten weeks, when I re- marked that at times he looked exceedingly depressed, and I was sure that something was preying on his Q 226 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, mind. My nervous fancy suggested that he was dis- appointed in me, and I became unhappy. At length I ventured to tell him what I feared, and then he said that the cause of his depression was temporary embarrassment in money matters ; that in anticipation of realizing largely from his mining shares, he had incurred liabilities, some of which were pressing. Then for the first time I knew that our household furniture was all bought on credit. I am sure you are pitying me, Mr. Larksway, but you have not yet heard the saddest part of my disclosure. " For a fortnight or more after that, my husband was absent from home every evening ; sometimes it was past midnight before he came. He told me that it was a busy season with the bank, and that he had to work overtime. I was pacified ; still, I used to feel very lonely. One night — I never shall forget it — he did not return ; but just before daybreak next morning he came home, looking so haggard and excited that I became alarmed, and was going to rush away for a doctor. He begged me to be still and listen to him. He was compelled, he said, by urgent business in behalf of the bank, to go away for a week. He could not stop to explain more, but would write me particulars as soon as possible. He did not stay quite ten minutes. After hastily thrusting a few articles of clothing into a valise, he kissed me fondly, and fled away by our back garden gateway. I will not try to describe my agonising distress, nor my horror half an hour after- wards, when two detective officers entered our house, ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 227 with a warrant to apprehend my husband on a charge of embezzlement and forgery." Poor Mrs. Morton here became so much overpowered with emotion that I went into the parlour and fetched Mr. Benson. He quite concurred with me that it would be unwise to allow Ella to say any more about her sad affairs just then ; and we prevailed upon her to retire to her bedroom. Soon afterwards I took my leave, after accepting Mr. Benson's invitation to tea on the ensuing Monday evening. CHAPTER XIX. " This is the truth the poet sings, That a sorrow's crown of sorrow, is remembering happier things." — Tennyson. The next Sunday morning it was my turn out, so I went to Mr. Benson's church. Ella was there, with Mrs. Ben- son and the children. I could see them, but they could not see me ; for I sat on the opposite side of the floor, behind one of those heavy gothic pillars which are so convenient for shy sinners and flirting couples. Though I tried to tone my mind down to a devotional frame, my eyes were constantly wandering from my book to the minister's pew, where sat poor Ella, looking pale and careworn, but sweetly composed and devotional. Mr. Benson preached with great energy ; but I might as well have been at home for any profit I derived from the sermon. I was thinking all the while how happy I might have been on that bright Sabbath morning, with dear Ella sitting beside me as my wife, if I had only had common sense enough when I first saw her at the restaurant, to ask her name in a civil, manly way, instead of assuming a jocose simper, and asking her if she came from Greenwich, making her fancy that I was some im- 228 ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 229 pudent booby beginning to flirt with her ; for poor girl ! she had never been to Greenwich, and perhaps did not know that there was such a place under the sun. Thus, through assuming a fast man's affected style for once, I had lost my chance of getting an amiable wife, I had spent more than ;^200 unnecessarily, and I had fractured my knee ! moreover, I had wasted more than a year of my life in a sort of wild-goose chase, and, worse than all, I felt that I had overburdened my heart with hopeless love. Then I thought of Ella's noble struggle against vicious and degrading influences, which had beset her from her childhood, and I thought of her persevering efforts to secure mental and moral culture ; of her strug- gles for an honest livelihood, and of her Christian-like stand against the temptations and dangers to which her personal beauty and her unprotected condition con- stantly exposed her in the gay city of Melbourne. I thought also of her more recent trials, most of which I might have saved her from if I had only used my wits for a single minute. Although my conscience sternly reminded me that to encourage such mundane reflections in church was a waste of time and opportunity, I still kept turning them over in my mind, until I became as wretched as if I were going to be tried that afternoon for poisoning a cus- tomer. A more miserable sinner than I was on that fine Sunday morning never sat in a church pew. When I went home, I could not eat my dinner, and I lay on my bed all the afternoon, nursing my woe as if it deserved tender consideration. 230 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, On Monday evening I again went to the parsonage. After tea I retired to the drawing-room with Ella ; and without much preliminary talk she resumed her sad story, as follows : — " I told you that the detective officers came to our house, Mr. Larksway. They did not stay many minutes. I honestly answered all the questions they put to me, but I could not give them much information. I did not know where my husband had fled ; if I had known, I should perhaps have gone after him, and that would have been a rash step. Soon after the detectives had gone, a gentleman called on me, who said he was a friend of my husband and a lawyer, and that he wished to help me. I cannot remember all he said, for my brain was almost distracted. I thought I should have gone mad. He advised me to keep possession of the house, and not to allow any one to enter it to seize my furniture ; but I did not follow his advice, for I knew the furniture was not honestly mine. That same afternoon I gave up possession to some official, who I think was sent from the bank. I took with me only two trunks containing my own wearing apparel, and I went in a cab to my friends, Mr. and Mrs. Flitch, who received me as affectionately as ever. I was dangerously ill for a fort- night ; but thanks to their kind nursing, I recovered. Sometimes I have wished that I had died then, but that was a sinful wish. I have since learned the only true way to find resignation and comfort in every time of need. When I got well, the Rev. Mr. Benson offered to take me into his family as a nursery governess. I gladly ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION: 231 accepted the situation, and I have lived here ever since." " Have you had any tidings of your unfortunate hus- band since he left you ? " I asked, feelingly. " Yes, sir, I have. A fortnight ago I received this letter. It was written on board ship. I cannot read it to you now ; but you may take it with you if you please, and read it at your leisure. You will find a photograph of my husband in the envelope. It was taken before our marriage." Ella handed me the letter, which I put into my pocket. I then said, " I hope Mr. Morton was well when he wrote to you, ma'am ? " " Yes, he was pretty well in health, Mr. Larksway ; but poor fellow ! he seemed to be in great distress of mind, as you will judge by his letter. He was on his way to Fiji when he wrote to me ; and I suppose he is there now. But what he will do there I cannot tell, for he has taken very little money with him — if he has taken any. When you first told me that my late dear father had left me a section of land in this colony, I thought of selling it and paying off my husband's debts, so that he might return to Melbourne safely. But Mr. Benson tells me that the bank directors cannot lawfully receive repay- ment of the money which my husband got from them by forgery and embezzlement, and let him go free from the legal penalties of his dishonesty. I am now think- ing of selling my land, and going to Fiji to search for my husband. If I find him, we may be able to go to- gether to California ; and there — where his misdoings will not be known — he may retrieve his position ; for he 232 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, has good ability, and I verily believe that when away from the influence of the unprincipled associates he had in Melbourne, he will be steady and honest." " May I ask you, Mrs. Morton, if Mr. Benson approves of }-our design in going to Fiji to look for your hus- band } " " I have not yet told Mr. Benson all my plans. I do not like to trouble him, for he has overmuch work to do." " It seems to me a very hazardous undertaking for you, my dear madam." " I know it is, Mr. Larks way. It is hazardous and very uncertain ; for I have no idea what part of Fiji my husband is in, and many parts of it, I am told, arc quite uncivilized. Still, I am willing to incur any risk if I can help him, poor fellow ! The Melbourne newspapers have printed many harsh things about him since he absconded, which have pained me excessively. I know that he is deserving of censure and of punishment, but I also know that he is not thoroughly debased. He has some good principle left. He may be saved from utter ruin, and I will try to save him. Though he is forsaken and despised by persons who once seemed proud to call him their friend, I will never forsake him. Sadly as he has misconducted himself, he is my husband, and I will act a true wife's part." Poor Ella again began to weep. I did not know what to say to comfort her, so I sat still and said nothing. I was glad when Mrs. Benson came into the room. Soon afterwards I left the house, in a very sorrowful mood. ROGEJ^ LARKSIVAY'S STRANGE M/SS/O.Y. 233 When I went to my bedroom, I sat down to peruse Morton's letter ; but first of all I looked at his photo- graph, and as I did so a wild, fiery feeling seemed to stir up again in my breast. I had the picture of a fine-look- ing young man before me, but my prejudiced eyes could not see any feature to admire. I flung the photograph on the table and read his letter, as follows : — " My Darling Ella,— " Words cannot convey to you a conception of the misery I have endured since the mornhig when I tore myself from you so abruptly. I could not stop to explain anything to you, and it is a bitter reflection that my last words to you were falsehoods. You have doubtless since heard much to my dishonour. The only gleam of comfort I feel springs from the hope that you will not judge me too harshly. I own that I have heinously transgressed, — have brought disgrace upon myself and you. I am a criminal and an outcast, fleeing I scarcely know whither, from the hands of justice. Would that I could escape from the stings of an upbraid- ing conscience ! " Let me tell you, my much-injured wife, a little more than you know about my unhappy history. Every word that I now write is strictly true. I have before told you, that in my parental home I was taught all that was virtuous and good, both by precept and example. The testimonials which you have seen in my desk will prove that my character was highly esteemed by the minister of my church, and by the manager of the bank in London where I was employed for several years. " I voyaged to Melbourne in a large steamer. There were nearly five hundred passengers ; many of them young men, and some of them very unsteady. There I first acquired a taste for gambling, and for conversation which was \vorse than frivolous. Immediately after my arrival at Melbourne, I went to the bank. I had a kind of letter of introduction to Rev. Mr. H , but I regret to say I did not deliver it. You may find it in my desk. My irregularities on shipboard had deadened my religious feelings, and 234 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, the influence of some of my profligate companions inclined mc to scepticism. I lodged in the same house with four young men, who were perhaps more vicious than myself; and I became a confirmed Sabbath-breaker and a midnight reveller. I do not know whether the managers or any of the directors of my bank knew of my un- steady habits, but if they did, they never spoke to me on the subject. Perhaps they thought they had no right to interfere with my doings out of the office, as I did my work satisfactorily. A few kindly words of ad\ice might have saved me ; but no person spoke a word to me in that way. '' During my first year in Melbourne, I won nearly ^300 by betting on horses, and gambling in other ways. I was greatly elated at my success ; and I then speculated in gold mining shares, and I made money rapidly. At one time I had shares which were sup- posed to be worth ;^5,ooo, and I thought my fortune was made. About twelve months ago I was unal^le to attend to my official duties from illness, and I got leave of absence for two months. It was supposed that I was suffering from low fever, but my illness was the result of dissipation. I went to Dalesford for change of air and rest. I lodged with a good old couple, whose kind at- tention and Christian counsel I shall never forget. While living there, I made a solemn vow that I would give up gambling and drinking, and every other vice to which I had been addicted. To aid me in keeping my vow, I took fresh lodgings when I returned to Melbourne, and as far as I could I cut all my wild associates. I forsook the expensive cafc^ where I formerly used to lunch, and I went every day to the 7-eslaurant where I first saw and admired your sweet face, my beloved Ella ! " Soon after we were married, I was tempted to break my vow of total abstinence, which I had rigidly kept for nearly seven months ; I then l)Cgan again to gamble niore intensely than before. !My aim was to win enough money to clear off some debts which were harassing me. Thus I was again led into the society of some wild, reckless young men. When I saw that you were unhappy on ac- count of my inviting so much company to our house on Sundays, I fully resolved that the next New Year's Day I would renew my broken vow, — that I would forsake all my dissipated companions, and thenceforward live soberly and righteously. ROGER LARKSIVAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 235 " I cannot linger on this painful topic ; my brain is almost burst- ing as I now write. My luck at cards and billiards turned against me, and instead of winning money, I lost heavily. To enable me to pursue my luck and retrieve my losses, I borrowed some money. I know that the law calls the act embezzlement ; but I solemnly declare to you, my dear Ella, that I meant to return every penny of it, and I had a fair prospect of doing so, for it was supposed that my shares in the Nabob Gold Mining Company would soon be- come immensely valuable. 1 borroiued some more money from my bank, and gambled with desperate earnestness, hoping to retrieve all ; but still I lost money. To prevent my defalcation being dis- covered at our half-yearly balancing, I had recourse to forgery — simply as a temporary expedient, and not with a fraudulent inten- tion. You know the rest. " I left Melbourne in this schooner, the Dora, which is bound for the South Sea Islands, on a trading voyage. I had but a faint hope of getting clear away when I left you. Why I was not searched for in the vessel is perhaps best known to others. I do not wish to implicate any one, so I will mention no names ; but it will be seen in the day when all secrets shall be revealed, that I was not alone to blame, though I dare say I am now made a scapegoat. " We are nearing Haabai, and 1 am writing in the hope of sending this letter by some vessel that may be going from thence to Sydney or Melbourne. We shall go on to Fiji, and it is probable that I may remain there for awhile ; but my future plans are all dim and un- defined. I think if I could by some means get to California, I might have a chance of earning an honest livelihood, and perhaps of sending money for you to come to me ; that is, if you will ever again link your lot with a wretched felon. The bare conception of what you are suffering, my beloved Ella ! and of the agony of my dear father and mother and sister, when they hear of my disgrace, almost drives me to despair. " May God have mercy on a miserable sinner, " Henry Morton." CHAPTER XX. " Oh, it is excellent To have a giant's strength ; but it is tyrannous To use it like a giant." — Sliakspeare. My brief experience in Mr. Cudbear's service gave me more convincing proofs of the unsatisfying nature of money than all the sermons I had heard Parson Blanche preach, or all the homilies I had ever read on the subject. IMr. Cudbear was moderately rich, though a few years before he was as poor as his present stable-boy, Ben. He had a fine house of his own at Boroondarra, with highly cultivated gardens around it, and perhaps all kinds of luxuries inside it. He rode to Melbourne every morning in a smart buggy, drawn by a fast-trot- ting horse, and he had no turnpike to pay. All day long he could hear ready money tinkling into his till ; for ours was a busy shop, and he knew full well that two-thirds of the takings were net profit. Moreover, he had an income from rents more than enough to support five city missionaries, and yet the man seldom looked even half satisfied ; and I never saw him look joyful for three minutes on a stretch. The sound of his buggy wheels in the morning was a warning for all the porters ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 237 and apprentices to look sharp, and the senior assistant used to put on a subdued look, like a man going to gaol for stealing a loaf. He was too valuable a help to be scolded by a master ; and he might have shown respect- ful dignity of manner, without fear of being summarily discharged for it ; besides, he had no wife or children to make him feel extra humble, but as he had expectations of succeeding to the business, he thought it was his duty — or his policy — to be servile, until he could afford to be otherwise. I had been so long used to the pleasant freedom of my uncle's establishment, that from the first day I went to Cudbear's shop, I felt it difficult to do my work well while my employer's stony, suspicious eyes were always watching me. I usually got on better when he left in the afternoon ; and then the senior assistant always grew chatty, sometimes extremely jocose. But I rather despised the man for his lack of independent spirit, so I could not make a friend of him or enjoy any of his jokes. For my part, I never would admit the right of any employer in the world to bully his servants, no matter how humble their capacity ; and I quite concur in a celebrated author's opinion, " That a man has no more right to say an unkind word to me, than he has to knock me down." I had heard Mr. Cudbear "blow up" every one in his employ, except the senior assistant and myself, and his blowings up were like hot hurricane blasts and hail- stones. I wondered whether my turn would ever come, and if it did come, how I should bear it, for I had never 238 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, had a strong scolding in my life. But I was not long left in suspense. On the very morning after I had sat up half the night thinking over Morton's letter, Mr. Cudbear came to the shop looking dreadfully upset. Some thief had got into his garden overnight and stolen all his early cucumbers. He was uncommonly cross, and there was a general discomfort in the estab- lishment all the morning. An easier feeling prevailed while master had gone to lunch, but that was only one hour's respite. On his return I happened to be the only person in the shop. Had there been merely a dog there besides me, it would have been kicked out, and I should perhaps have escaped for awhile ; but there was no- body save me for Mr. Cudbear to abuse — so I caught it, as the saying is. I was making up a prescription, and the tincture bottle that I held in my hand was almost empty ; that was a sufficient plea for his_ beginning to grumble at me. I calmly told him that I was going to make some more tincture that afternoon ; but instead of receiving my explanation, as a reasonable man would have done, he blazed up and called mc "a miserable crawler." His words seemed to lacerate my breast like a scratch from an old kangaroo's hind claw. Miserable I was, sure enough, — but crawler ! ugh ! snakes ! I was disgusted at the epithet. I politely asked my master to retract his words. Retract, indeed ! Mr. Cudbear was not a man to show such weakness to an assistant whom he could do without. He was further annoyed at my appeal,"and ROGER LARKSIVAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 239 said anything that came into his head — as angry men often do — without reference to truth or reason or com- mon sense. I tried to keep cahn, but I was very ner- vous. As a mild wind-up to his abuse, he said I was a wooden-headed fellow, and might take myself off as soon as I chose. " Then I choose to go immediately, sir," I said ; and I went forthwith upstairs, packed up all my effects, and an hour afterwards I was riding in a car to a friend's house at South Yarra, where I knew I could be accom- modated with board and lodging. As I rode along, I wondered what sort of a disposition Mr. Cudbear had when he was a chemist's assistant, a few years ago ; and I thought it likely enough that he was just such another cringing, common-souled fellow as his present head shopman. Mr. Cudbear owes me a small balance of wages ; and it is probable that he will always owe it, for he is too mean to pay money without being dunned for it, and I will never go near him again. It was not till I had lived for a week in the quiet rusticity of my new lodgings, that a full view or sense of my unhappy circumstances and prospects seemed to burst upon my mind. The explanation is, that I had had nothing to do but to sit and ponder over my troubles, and they naturally grew heavier, until they seemed to press me down like a whole cargo of coal, or a mountain of snow on the top of me. Never did I feel such a dead weight of depression since I was born. Mr. Cudbear's savage words were always grating on my memory ; and at length I got to believe that I really 240 LAUNCHING AJFAV; OR, was " a miserable crawler, and a wooden-headed fellow." I could see that the reason why I had always disliked my calling was because I had not capacity enough for it. I had served my apprenticeship to a trade which would not now yield me an honest living — because I was a dolt. Oh, I was miserable ! I blamed my worthy uncle for not candidly telling me of my defects, years ago ; and I blamed my sainted father for not making me a potter or a brickmaker, or some such calling, where mud is more needed than brains. How I could earn a bare living — after my little stock of cash was gone — next occupied my anxious thoughts ; and I could not decide what I was fit for, except for grinding at the pestle and mortar ; but that way seemed to be shut up when I remembered that drug-grinding is now done by steam power. I was forced to conclude that I was useless — a mere drone in the great human hive. Sleep forsook me, my appetite failed, and I got weak and very nervous. I longed for seclusion from the busy world ; and at length I resolved to go and live a week or two at Oueenscliff, that being the quietest place I had ever seen. Accordingly to Oueenscliff I went. I took lodgings, and whiled away my time strolling about the grassy streets, or along the shores of the bay, v.atching the fishermen, and wishing I had learned the fishing business instead of chemistry. I seldom spoke to any person, and I dare say the villagers thought I was a very unsociable fellow. The poor little children used to shy off from me, as if they were afraid I was going to pinch them, and I fancied that ROGER LARKSJVAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 241 even the street dogs used to lower their tails when they saw me coming. One fine day I walked to Cape Otway. From the top of a cliff I could see the identical rock on which I sat shivering with cold and hunger on the morning of my shipwreck. I remembered how uncomfortable those limpet shells were to sit on or to walk on without shoes or stockings ; and I also remembered the jump- ing joy I felt when I was rescued from my hazardous perch. But now, though I was dry and well clad, and was neither cold nor hungry, I had not a sparkle of joy in my breast — was indeed more miserable than when I was tossing about in the surf, with my mouth half full of sand and seaweed. It was to me a myste- rious anomaly, and that was all I could say about it. Of course I know now that I ought to have got medical advice, for my liver was sadly affected as well as my heart. I wandered along the cliffs till I found a sort of cave under a rock, and there I sat, like a native troglodyte, encouraging all sorts of gloomy forebodings, until (with a shudder I confess it) the terrible idea of suicide rushed into my mind. Some influence sug- gested how easily I could dive from my cave into the seething waves beneath, and end all my woes with a few struggles. I thank God that I was not over- come by that satanic temptation. Like John Bunyan's old pilgrim, resisting the attack of Apollyon, in the Valley of Humiliation, I resolutely wielded the same weapon that Christian did, and the tempter fled from R 242 LAUNCHING AWAY; OK, mc. To divert my mind from such fiendish imagin- ings, I again took Morton's letter from my pocket and read it. Then I lay down in the cave, covered my handkerchief over my face, and began to reflect on poor Morton's condition as compared with my own ; and I thought, that downcast as I was, I had the consciousness of possessing an unblemished character, while he was an escaped felon — a wandering outcast. Then all at once it occurred to me that I could be of some use in the world, however low old Cudbear had rated me ; I might go in search of poor Ella's unhappy husband, and in that way I could serve the dear, sorrowing girl, for whom I felt that I could gladly sacrifice my life, if need be. It was a happy thought, and the more I revolved it, the more clearly the way seemed to open, and the more strongly I felt impelled to undertake the work of mercy. I had still more than ;^200 of Cameron's money left ; and I thought, as it honestly belonged to Ella — though she would not take it from me — that I could not expend it more properly than by trying to find, and perhaps helping to reclaim, her misguided husband. She was planning to undertake that duty herself, but I knew it was utterly impracticable. As I pictured poor Morton's disconsolate condition, and thought of the anxiety of his wife, and also of his relatives in England, on his account, all selfish, jealous feelings left my heart, and I pitied them intensely. " What though it should occupy me another year?" I reasoned; "the time and money will be well spent if I can give ease and ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE' MISSIOh. 243 comfort to so many sad hearts ! " I thereupon re- solved that I would go in search of the fugitive, and if I found him, I would try my utmost to help him to retrieve his position in life. Strange to say, after I had come to that decision, I gradually grew more lively, and I longed to begin my errand at once. But I would recall the first word in the preceding sentence. It was not strange that I should be lively; for I was feeling the glow of comfort which naturally springs from the purpose to do good. Any honest heart may understand it. I returned to South Yarra without delay. Through- out that night I slept soundly, and did not dream of Cudbear. It was the first good sleep I had enjoyed since the memorable night of Ella's painful disclosure. The next morning, though suff"cring from weakness, my spirits were buoyant, and I felt my appetite re- turning. I thought I had better make all my arrange- ments for the voyage before acquainting Ella with my design, so I set about it with an alacrity which almost surprised me. I soon found that there was a schooner loadino' at the Queen's wharf for the South Sea Islands, on a trading voyage. When I first applied for a passage in her, I was told that she had no room for passengers ; but through the influence of a friend of mine, the captain was persuaded to make up a sleeping berth for me in the hold. It was by no means a comfortable-looking berth ; still, I was so fully bent upon my mission, that I think I would have gone if I had been obliged to sling a hammock on 244 LAUNCHING AWAY ; OR, deck all the voyage. I bought a necessary outfit, and when I had seen it safely on board, I called on the Rev. Mr. Benson and told him what I had resolved to do. At first he seemed incredulous, and I thought he looked suspicious ; but that was only my fancy ; he could not doubt the disinterestedness of my motive, for what selfish end could I possibly have in view } He soon saw that I was in earnest, and that my purpose \vas a kind one ; so he took my hand again and shook it heartily, and said some eulogistic things, which were encouraging to me. It would hardly seem modest of me to print all his compliments, but there can be no harm in my telling that he said he wished I had been trained for a missionary instead of a chemist. I have often indulged a similar wish, since I have seen how much useful work there is for missionaries to do. He further said, " Ella has told me of her design of going in search of her husband, and no arguments that I could use seemed to shake her determination. My wife is quite shocked at the idea of a young woman going alone to an uncivilized land on such an uncertain errand ; but I am sure Ella would have attempted it if you had not made this self-sacrificing offer. I thank you, Mr. Larksway, with all my heart on her account, for sparing the poor girl so much hardship and risk. I hope you may find her unhappy husband, and help him on to his feet again." At my request Mr. Benson said he would tell Ella ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 245 all about it, and I promised to call the next morning to receive any instructions she wished to give me, and to take letters and messages for her husband. When I called the next day, Ella's heart was too full to say much to me, but I could see that she was very thankful. Her beautiful eyes were swimming in tears of gratitude. She gave me a letter for her husband, and a Small sealed packet which I presumed contained money. I said a few comforting words to her, assuring her that I would use every effort to find her husband, and I would help him in the way that I deemed most expedient. She again tried to express her thanks, but her tongue faltered and she could not utter a word. I did not stay more than ten minutes, for I could not see any sensible object in prolonging the interview. I shook hands with her and left the house, with my heart full of a precious feeling which I cannot clearly describe, but it can be realized by persons who are conscious of having done, or being about to do, an act of genuine kindness for some one in distress. I took tea that evening with my "esteemed friends, Mr. and Mrs. Moss, and spent a izw hours very agree- ably in their hospitable home. Little Nellie ran up and kissed me as soon as I entered the doorway. She is a sweetly interesting child, but I do wish she would not so often remind me that I saved her from being drowned ; indeed, the whole family seem to be perpetually thinking of that little service I rendered them. Gratitude is nice, no doubt, like many other 246 LAUNCHING AWAY. scarce thing.'^, but too much of it is embarrassing to me. When I told ]\Ir. Moss that I had left IMr. Cudbear's employ, he smiled and said, " I did not expect you would stay there long, Mr. Larksway. I refrained from saying anything to prejudice you against the place, but I have been on the look-out for something better for you. When you return from your tour to the islands, don't forget to call on me before you make any other engagement. I may perhaps have something ready for you." On the following Sunday morning, at daybreak, the schooner Ariel got under weigh, and proceeded down Hobson's Bay with a fair wind. I was the only pas- senger on board. CHAPTER XXI. " I see the right, and I approve it too ; Condemn the wrong, and yet the wrong pursue."— Ct'/rt'. As I before hinted, my accommodation on board the Ariel was not in keeping with the high sum I paid for it. It would have been dear at almost any price. The only ventilation I got for my berth in the hold was through a sliding door in the cuddy bulkhead, and I got a glimmering of light through the same aperture. The captain warned me to be careful of fire, as there was half a ton of gunpowder stowed just below my berth ; so I could not carry even a bull's-eye lantern with any degree of comfort. For the first two or three nights I used to fidget about the awful position I might suddenly find myself in if the captain were to let a spark from his pipe fall through the lazarette hatch, or if the clumsy cabin- boy should upset the kerosene lamp. I daresay that thousands of persons on ship-board have incurred even greater risks of sudden death, without knowing any- thing about it, and I wished that I had been kept m peaceful ignorance of the dangerous explosives under my bed ; for I am sure that no unsuspicious person who was ever blown up by half a ton of gunpowder 247 248 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, suffered a fiftieth part of the mental worry that I endured, in the mere anticipation of a catastrophe which did not happen. I sometimes think that a dull, stupid-headed fellow would have more enjoyment, of a negative sort, than I get when travelling ; and I wish I were not so quick to discern danger or to realize remote contingencies. Few travellers ever had a better opportunity for studying the characteristics of rats in a dark place than I had in the hold of the Ariel ; and it is perhaps a loss to the cause of science that my fancy for animals does not extend to such vermin. There were hundreds of rats on board ; and we found when we got into port that they had nibbled away one of the ship's timbers, in the hope of getting something to drink. They could hear the sea-water splashing about the rudder casing, but of course they did not know it was salt. Man usually forces the brute creation to serve him in some way, or to stand clear of his vengeance ; but one would almost judge that rats have not had terms of service fairly propounded to them, that they continue, as a race, to be revolters from human authority or rule. I leave the subject for the con- sideration of anybody who does not mind spending time over a whimsical study ; but this much I may say about it, that no man, whether on shipboard or elsewhere, could wish inferior animals to show a greater disposition to fraternize with him than the rats in that ship did to me, for they frolicked about my berth like pet kittens, and I was sometimes awakened by the ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 249 peculiar tickle of a rat's tail and paws as he trotted across my face in the dark. Their tameness was really startling. I had letters of introduction from the Rev. Mr. Benson to several missionaries in the Fijian and Tongan groups of islands ; and on the arrival of the Ariel at Tonga, I met with a cordial reception at the house of a missionary. I might give some interesting particulars of mission work in those islands, but I wish to hasten on with the report of my own particular work ; ie., the search for poor, wandering Morton. I will say, however, that in no part of the world that I have seen are the happy fruits of Christianity so apparent as in the peaceful little kingdom of Tonga. I thought some of the natives made losing bargains when they bartered their cocoa-nut oil for bad spirits with the captain of the Ariel ; but it would have been hazardous for me to express my opinion on the subject, for such traders are apt to get cross if interfered with. After staying a few weeks in the Tongan group, we sailed for Fiji. At Ovalau I got a clue to Morton's whereabouts; so I left the Ariel, and went in a small coasting vessel to Bau. There I got further informa- tion, upon which I went to Rewa in a native canoe. At the northern entrance to the Rewa river the canoe was upset by a breaking wave, and I had a narrow escape from drowning. After being three hours in the water, clinging to the canoe, I was rescued, and taken to the mission-house at Matai-Suava, where I was hospitably cared for. 250 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, Saul wants mc to let him sparkle up the story, just now, with a racy chapter about those friendly rats in the Ariel. He says that seven-tenths of the folks in Christendom do not care a farthing for missionaries, or their useful labours, and would sooner read a comical sketch about vermin than read a mission sermon. I admit that my cousin is not far wrong this time; at any rate, there are millions of well-to-do persons Avho never give a farthing to the support of missionaries, or show any interest in them in other ways, but I think it is because they do not understand the im- portant nature of mission work. I could tell them a good deal about it, from personal observation ; and I hope to print something about it soon, but I cannot do it in this book, for Saul would certainly object to topics of so serious a character. For several days I suffered a little from the effects of my immersion and exposure to the scorching sun. My kind host insisted on my remaining quietly within doors ; and I am perhaps indebted to his friendly restraint from my escape from an attack of fever or dysentery, diseases which arc fearfully prevalent in Fiji. Perhaps I had better remind my readers that at the time of my visit Fiji was not a British colony. Except the missionaries and their families, the white population consisted of a few traders, and a sprinkling of runaway sailors and refugees from the Australian colonies, who preferred taking their chance among cannibal natives, to facing their creditors or the officers of justice. I had not much difficulty in tracking ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 251 Morton from Ovalau to Bau ; and I had reason to believe that I was still on his track, for I learnt from Mr. Goodson, the missionary, that a young man had lately gone to live with a small cotton-planter, a few miles up the river. Mr. Goodson saw that I was very anxious about the young man ; so in order to relieve me a little, he agreed to send one of his native teachers, "a sagacious fellow, to make a few quiet inquiries;" and try to find out if the stranger's name was Morton. If there had been a newspaper in Rewa, with a circulation equal to any of the Melbourne or Sydney papers, and I had advertised in it for Mr. Morton, I could hardly have given my business greater publicity than I did by employing the sagacious teacher to make quiet inquiries. A few hours afterwards there was scarcely a native in the district who did not know that there was a white man in the mission-house at Matai-Suava who Avanted to find another white man up the river, named Mortoni. The teacher returned in the evening, to inform me that he had found a young white man up the river, but he said his name was not Mortoni, but Browni. I suspected that he was the man I wanted. Brown is a modest old name that is often stolen by rogues and shams. As soon as it was deemed safe for me to leave the house, Mr. Goodson lent me his boat and two men to pull it, and I went up the Rewa river to the house of the planter. I landed at a rough wooden jetty, and walked to a shanty a few roods from the river bank. I was met in the doorway by a man 252 LAUNCHING AWAY; OK, whose external appearance was very unprepossessing, but I knew as soon as he spoke that he was not an uneducated man. I could hardly, however, mistake him for a gentleman, for he kept me standing in the hot sunshine, and I thought he seemed to be fiercely determined that I should not enter his house. To all my questions he replied with the wariness of a sharp police-office lawyer. He would not admit that a young man named Morton or even Brown had been under his roof ; in short, he would admit nothing ; but he looked savagely disposed to knock me into the river. I began to fear that I had missed my track. He evidently noticed my concern, for he presently said in a milder tone, — " You have asked me a good many questions ; now, sir, may I ask you if you are a Melbourne detective .-• Tell me candidly." "Detective! No — certainly not !" I replied. " I have come in search for Mr. Morton with the purest desire of assisting him, and thus relieving the minds of his distressed relatives. You may be convinced of that fact if you will only read this letter." " Why did you not tell me all this before? " said the man, excitedly. " Come inside the house. That poor wretch may be dying while we are palavering here." I followed him into the house. He went to the back door and shouted to some black men who were working in the plantation. When they came up, he said a few words to them in a language which was unintelligible to me, and the men scampered off in various directions. ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 253 The planter then said to me, " Morton has been lodging with me ; but a few days ago he heard that some fellow from Melbourne was tracking him. Of course he thought you were a detective, so he set off out of this directly, though he was scarcely able to crawl. Where he is now I don't know exactly ; but I am sure he could not have gone far away, for he was bad with dysentery. I have sent four of my kanakas to look for him, so you had better wait here till some of them return." My host then opened a corner cupboard, and took out part of a cold yam, some boiled pork, and a bottle of spirits. He said his fare was not tempting, but such as it was I was welcome to it. 1 declined to take any refreshment, whereupon he helped himself to some spirits, and said as I was not going to eat he would light his pipe. After he had puffed away for a few minutes, I asked him if he liked Fiji .^ ** No, indeed, I don't like it ; but it suits my con- venience to stay here for awhile." Presently he added, with a sigh, " I have a wife and three children in Mel- bourne. I wish you had brought me tidings from them, poor things ! " I hardly knew what to say to him, fearing that he might suppose I wished to pry into his affairs ; but after he had taken a second glass of spirits, he grew very communicative. He told me that three years before he had had a thriving business in Melbourne. That he was tempted to go out of his ordinary line to speculate largely in oats and gram, and to do so he had im- prudently used some trust money. The horse fodder 254 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, market became glutted, and prices fell. He was hope- lessly involved ; and to save himself from a criminal prosecution for breach of trust, he absconded from the colony. " Here I am pretty safe from the law," he added, with another sigh ; " but it is a wretched life for a fellow who has been accustomed to a stylish home and a jolly circle of friends. The truth is I am weary of it, and I should not care if the detectives were to ferret me out and carry me back to Melbourne, If I were in Pentridge stockade, I should be forced to work, so I should have less time to brood over my folly, than I have in this swampy solitude ; besides, I should see my wife and children occasionally." I could not but pity the man's forlorn condition. I asked him if it were practicable for his wife and children to come to Fiji to him .'* " No, I would not bring them here if they could come. I think this locality is the most unhealthy part of Fiji ; it is very low as you see, and the river sometimes over- flows part of my land. Besides, the natives of Bau and Rewa are often at war, and it is not very safe to be between two fires as it were. Oh, dear ; mine is a hard, lonely life ! " he added, as he helped himself to another glass of spirits from the bottle. " But if it were not for this cursed stuff, I should not be in my present plight. Grog is to blame for all my mishaps. It has been the bane of my life." "Then why do you drink it .^ " I asked, and I shuddered to see him pour the raw spirit down his throat in such immoderate quantities. ROGER LARKSIVAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 255 " Ha, ha ! why do I drink it, indeed ! That simple question proves to me that you don't know much about the clawing power of drinking habits. Happy for you if you never do know it. Grog is my master now. I would gladly give up drinking it if I could ; but I cannot do it. I have tampered with the cursed thing too long, and I believe it has weakened my brain." " Were you in the habit of drinking to excess in Melbourne ? " " It is hard to determine what excess really is. I did not consider myself a hard drinker, in comparison with some of my neighbours ; still, there is no doubt I kept the steam up pretty well. I knew scores, or I may say hundreds, of commercial men in Australia, who were constantly doing the same thing : they fancied they could not do business if they were quite sober. There is no mistake about it, young fellow, the tippling system is cankering the very heart out of our mercantile life. Ah, you may stare ; but it is true enough what I say, though I am half drunk." He looked at me as if he expected me to say some- thing in reply to his startling proposition, so I ventured to say I thought he was mistaken, " You are right ; I am mistaken, though not in that particular. I_have mistaken my way in life's high road, and have got into a bog, literally and figuratively. I was once as steady as you seem to. be ; but I was lured by the prevailing fashion around me to begin a fast style of living, and I wanted to make money fast in order to keep up my expensive establishment. I 256 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, gradually left my old honest sober track, and took the devil for my guide or driver on the broad-gauge line to ruin. You see where he has shunted me, for awhile. But dreary as my lot is now, it is perhaps luxurious and happy compared with what I may expect after I reach the terminus of death, if it be all true that the missionary over the river tells mc, and he seems an honest sort of man." " Then the missionary comes to see you sometimes ? " " Oh, yes, he comes often enough ; but it is no use of his talking to me — he would have a better chance of converting a cannibal native. Perhaps I might have been influenced by Christian counsel a iQ.\\ years ago, when I was just switching on to the main line to destruction ; but it is too late now. Here I am like a blasted tree in the wilderness, or more like an old storm-battered wreck on a quicksand. There is no hope either in life or death for poor Tom Ryan." He sat for some minutes apparently absorbed in gloomy reflections. I had just summoned courage enough to take out my pocket Bible, to read some words of direction and comfort to him, when he again clutched the bottle, and exclaimed mournfully, "Ah me ! God only knows how my poor wife and children are situated. They won't get overmuch sympathy from the world around them, poor things ! Anxiety about their condition makes mc half mad, and then I fly to this hot stuff for relief. Bah ! 'tis like pumping coal tar or turpentine on to a burning house. I don't know what your name is, mister ; but no matter. You ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 257 are one of the great human family, so you are my brother, and I warn you to beware of the grog bottle. I am not a teetotal lecturer exactly — but never mind that ; I know what I am talking about, if I am almost drunk, and I say again, Beware of strong drink, young man, or it will perhaps blast every glint of joy out of your life, and fill your soul with the horrors of despair ; that is what it is doing for me." As I gazed on the poor hopeless man, I again felt thankful that I had hitherto been saved from contracting habits which yield such a terrible harvest of woe. CHAPTER XXII. " What shadows we arc, what shadows we pursue ! "—Burke. Presently two of the black messengers returned, with news of the whereabouts of Morton ; so the planter volunteered to go with me to sec him. After crossing the river, he led me by a zigzag course through several swampy taro plantations, abounding with mosquitoes, until we stopped at a small native hut. I had to crawl through the low doorway on my hands and knees ; and when I got inside, it was some minutes before I could see anything for the smoke which filled the place. There was a smouldering fire in the centre of the floor, and beside it lay a man apparently un- conscious, for he took no notice of my entrance. His clothing was ragged and soiled ; he had evidently taken a straight course through the swamps, in his eagerness to get to his hiding-place. His hair was long and unkempt, and altogether his appearance was abject in the extreme. As I looked at his emaciated face in the dusky light, I could not trace any resemblance to the handsome picture I had seen of Morton, and I fancied that I had mistaken my man. Soon, however, he opened his eyes, and I shall never forget his ghastly look of error when he saw me. 25S ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 259 " I told you you had better let me crawl in here first, mister ! " said the planter, who was close behind me. " See how you have scared the poor wretch. Hallo, Harry ! Don't be frightened, old fellow ! This gen- tleman has brought you a letter from your wife. He is not a detective." The expression of Morton's face changed in an instant. He gasped, " Where is the gentleman ? Tell him to come to me directly. O Ryan ! I have been awfully bad since I left your house." " Here, take a drop of this stuff, Harry. It will perhaps brighten you up a little." R}'an then poured some spirit into a cocoa-nut shell which lay on the floor and handed it to Morton. It seemed to give him temporary strength, for he sat upright and extended his hand to me as I approached him. " I am sorry to find you in this sad condition, Mr. Morton," I said feelingly. " I have brought you some good news from your dear wife, and I have a letter for you from her." " Please to give it to me, sir," he said eagerly. " I think you had better first let me help you out of this close place." " No, no ; give me the letter now. I shall never go out of this hut alive. It is all up with me." " Don't trifle with a dying man ! Give him his letter ! " shouted Ryan peremptorily. I thought I had better obey, for Ryan was too tipsy to be reasoned with. So I gave Morton the letter ; and then I told him that I would go and get some dry clothing for him, and 26o LAUNCHING AWAY; OK, would come back again as soon as possible. I was glad to get out of the hut, for the stench inside was almost overpowering. I returned to the boat, and made signs for the men to pull as fast as they could. In about an hour I was back at the mission-house at Matai-Suava. When I told Mr. Goodson the state I found Morton in, he shook his head and said, " I fear this will be a fatal case, Mr. Larksway. But we will do all we can for the poor fellow, and we must do it promptly." He then put a mattress and two blankets into the boat, and taking a small medicine case and a valise, also a suit of my warmest clothes, we set off together in the boat, with four natives as oarsmen. I scarcely had an opportunity of asking Mr. Goodson what he meant to do with Morton, until we were seated in the boat, for he had been so busy with his preparations. " I mean to carry him down to the mission-house at once," he replied. " He will certainly die if we leave him where he is ; indeed, I wonder that he is alive now, if he has been lying in his wet clothes on the floor of that hut, as you say, for two days. Dysentery is the scourge of this land." When we got to the hut we found Morton in great agony. He was moaning piteously. His wife's letter was clasped to his breast. Ryan was lying on the floor asleep, with an empty rum bottle beside him. While ]\Ir. Goodson was preparing a dose of medicine for the patient, I whisperingly asked what he thought of the case ? He replied, — " While there is life we will hope. Put a cheerful face ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 261 on when he is looking at you, Mr. Larksway. Many a patient has been frightened to death by the despond- ing looks of his nurse. We must handle him tenderly, poor fellow ! But he must be taken out of this place at all risks. He will inevitably die in a few hours if he remains in this fetid air, and we could not stop with him long without fatal results to ourselves." When Morton saw us making preparations to remove him, he begged us to let him stay where he was. He said he knew he must die, and it was not merciful of us to prolong his sufferings. I was afraid Ryan would awaken, and then it is probable that he would have insisted on the sick man being allowed to remain, and there would have been an unpleasant scene ; but for- tunately he slept on. With the aid of our boatmen we carried Morton on a mattress to the boat, and rigged an awning over him. " It will be inhuman of us to go away and leave a helpless drunken man lying in that foul hut," said Mr. Goodson, " Let us drag him out into the fresh air before we start." Accordingly we returned to the hut, and taking hold of Ryan's heels we dragged him as gently as we could through the doorway, and were about to place him under the shade of a clump of bananas, when he awoke; and being too stupid to comprehend our kind motive, he flew into a rage, and would probably have stabbed us with his knife if we had not made haste to our boat. We pushed off, leaving him on the bank of the river, cursing us more fiercely than Shimei cursed King David. 262 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, " What a living picture of the degradation and misery of intemperance that poor man's history presents," I remarked, with a shudder at his frantic denunciations. " I wonder if his sad state would have a reforming influence on the fast men of Melbourne and elsewhere, if they could see him just now ?" "Not much permanent influence, I fear," replied Mr. Goodson. " Surely they have enough miserable ex- amples of this kind in civilized life, without coming to poor Fiji for them. I have tried my utmost to influence that unhappy man for good, but apparently to no pur- pose. I will not give him up while he has life and a glimmer of intellect left ; but oh ! it is heart-sickening to see a man who knows the right way so well, per- sistently going headlong to ruin." We made all the haste we could down the river, but before we got to Matai-Suava, Morton exhibited the worse symptoms of dysentery, and his pains were ex- treme. We carried him to a room in the mission- house, and administered such alleviatives as we could prevail on him to swallow ; but we saw that his end was near. Mr. Goodson and I sat beside his bed, and during the temporary cessations of his agony Mr. Goodson spoke to him, tenderly but plainly, of the awful change that was at hand. Poor Morton covered his face with his hands and wept bitterly. All that we could dis- tinctly hear him articulate was, that he was a wretched sinner, without a hope of mercy. Mr. Goodson then prayed earnestly for him, and read many passages of Scripture which were appropriate to his case, still he ROGER LARKSIVAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 263 seemed to take no comfort from them, for every now and then he would mutter, " Dark ! dark ! mercy, good Lord ! mercy ! mercy ! " "Do you believe the kind words of affection in your wife's letter, Mr. Morton ? " asked Mr. Goodson, softly. "Do you believe that she still loves you, and that she forgives you for all the sorrow you have caused her ? " The dying man pressed the letter, which he held in his hand, to his breast, and feebly gasped, " Yes — yes, Ella loves me, wicked wretch that I am. Yes, Ella forgives me. I believe that." " And God loves you, and is willing, for Jesus Christ's sake, to forgive all your sins. Can you not believe that, after all the encouraging invitations and comforting promises I have read you from God's own book ? " Morton's lips moved as if in prayer, but we could not distinguish a word he said. Soon afterwards he became delirious, and in his ravings he loudly cursed his luck in betting on a losing horse. Then he seemed to be having an angry dispute with one of his old companions named Charlie, whom he accused of cheating him at cards. Presently the scene in his troubled vision changed, and he was imploring the manager of his bank to wait till he received the dividend from his gold shares, and he would pay back every penny he had embezzled. Then he would fancy that he was again taking a hurried leave of his wife. During these various phases of his mental aberrance, the contortions of his features were shocking to look at. The mission-house was enclosed by a fence of 264 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, bamboos, about six feet high, lashed side by side, like long rows of organ pipes. Some of the canes were split by the sun ; and as the wind rushed between them it produced the most mournful music conceivable. I shall not soon forget my melancholy thoughts and feelings as I sat watching beside Morton's bed, through Hie weary hours of that night, listening to his dying groans and to the weird moaning of the sea-breeze through the bamboo fence, like sounds from the spirit world. I tried to picture him as he was four years before, setting out from his parental home with the wide world before him, looking very promising, no doubt ; and perhaps he was cherishing a hope in his heart that he would, a few years thence, return to his home with honestly earned wealth, to be the comfort and stay of his aged parents. Alas ! he had dashed all his life's hopes to ruin, like a child ruthlessly destroying its toys. Then I thought of the terrible grief his parents and sister would suffer when they heard of his untimely end on the far-off shores of savage Fiji, with only strangers to close his eyes. Then involuntary thoughts of poor Ella, and of my own strange connection with her sad history, filled my mind and aroused feelings of a pain- fully conflicting kind, which I have not courage to describe. It was indeed a dreary night ; and I longed for the morning light to cheer the sombre chamber of death. When I have since tried to picture any state or position that is most calculated to drive a man melan- choly, my mind has at once flown back to that lonely ROGER LARKS IVAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 265 night-watch in the mission-house on the sandy shore of Matai-Suava, perhaps one of the dreariest spots in all the islands of Fiji. And whenever I hear persons captiously ignoring the useful services of missionaries, I call to mind the self-denying zeal and patient en- durance of the Rev. Mr. Goodson and his exemplary wife. I feel morally certain that nothing but pure Christian love for their great Master's work could in- fluence a lady and gentleman of refined tastes to live in that dismal locality, and labour on from year to year in oft-disheartening efforts to evangelize the poor black natives, and to wean them from uncivilized habits. Just as day was breaking, Morton opened his eyes. I could see that consciousness had returned, and I took his proffered hand in mine. He softly whispered, " Yes, sir ; I do believe it. Tell my Ella that I am going to heaven ! God be merciful to me, a poor, wicked wretch, for Christ's sake ! " His voice failed and his eyes closed again. I ran out of the room to arouse Mr. Goodson from his bed ; I had promised to call him if I saw any change in the patient. In less than two minutes we were back by Morton's bedside ; but he was again un- conscious, and he remained so until he died. The mortal remains of that once promising young man lie beside the neat little native church at Matai- Suava. The ocean surges on the beach close by, and the winds, moaning through the bamboo fence in front, are mournfully chanting a perpetual requiem over him. 2C6 LAUNCHING AWAY. Three days afterwards a ship called at Rewa, on its way to Sydney ; so I sent by that opportunity full particulars of Morton's death to the Rev. Mr. Benson ; and I requested him to break the sad news to Mrs. Morton. CHAPTER XXIII. " Messmates, hear a brother sailor Sing the dangers of the sea ! " — Dibdin. In the preceding chapter I used the phrase "Savage Fiji" ; and lest it should be thought unfair to that fine young British colony, I would state that my experience of it dated several years ago. Then there certainly were many savages to be seen, both black and white ; and I am not sure which were the most depraved or treacherous. Fiji is now under British rule ; so it is far more civilized, and most of the savages have been taught better manners. But though the comforts of social life may be more readily obtained now than they formerly were, the climate is much the same as ever, and it is a trying one for European constitutions, especially in the low, swampy parts. The prospect of a free and easy life, which new colonies usually present, is no doubt alluring to some of the restless spirits of Melbourne and elsewhere ; but it will be well for such adventurous ones to consider the risk they run in going to Fiji. Persons who have been used to what is called a " fast life," had better resolve before they go there to be " temperate in all things," or it is sadly probable that they may soon fall victims to the prevailing diseases, fever and dysentery. 267 268 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, But nowithstanding these drawbacks, Fiji will doubtless become an important colony ; and its rich soil and but partially developed mineral and other natural resources offer tempting scope to British enterprise and capital. My object in going to Fiji was accomplished sooner than I expected. I will not say much about my feelings at the untimely end of Mr. Morton ; but I certainly was glad to report that it was the firm hope of Mr. Goodson, as well as myself, that he died truly penitent. Had I acted wisely I should have returned to Australia, and began to work for an honest livelihood. But I somehow found that steady work, in my old line, had grown more distasteful to me than ever. There was such a delight- ful difference between skimming about as free as a bird or a fish amongst those lovely fragrant islands, and being confined fourteen hours a day behind a druggist's counter, with an employer to please and physic to smell continually, that I could not help liking the change, and I half wished I were a black-man, '^ for the glorious privilege of being independent " of tailors. I found it quite easy to persuade myself that I might reasonably take a month for enjoyment, after my exciting work ; and as I had no friends near to object to my doings, my liberty was as perfect as I could desire. All I seemed to lack was an agreeable travelling companion. The latter part of my stay in Fiji was real holiday pastime. I should feel a delight in writing a few chapters from my notes, of what I saw in that interesting group of islands ; but instead of overtaxing my descriptive powers in that way, and digressing again from my story. ROGER LARKS WAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 269 I would refer my readers to the report of a much more experienced visitor than myself. A book has lately been written by Miss C. F. Gordon-Cumming, entitled " At Home in Fiji," which I have read with great interest. I am glad to know that the book has been widely circu- lated, for it cannot fail to be useful. I have seen some of the reefs or fields of coral which that enterprising young lady describes so pleasingly, and I have rusticated on some of the beautiful little green isles which her clever pencil has so graphically portrayed. I have sailed over the blue waves, with the swiftness of a mail steamer, in large double canoes, cleverly managed by Fijians, and I have seen a little of the domestic life of the natives. To the scientist as well as to the friends of Christian missions, Miss Cumming's book will be very interesting, and I cordially recommend it. It had a peculiar fascin- ation for me, and I could hardly lay it down until I had almost read it through. I can, from personal observa- tion, endorse much that the gifted authoress has stated about the evangelizing efforts of the Wesleyan mission- aries in Fiji and elsewhere ; and I know many of the ladies and gentlemen, and some of the native converts, whom she has named in her book. On the night before I left Fiji I was a guest in the hospitable home of a missionary at Rewa ; and at bed- time my host showed me to my chamber, which was a room detached from the mission-house, and built on a sort of conical mound, for the sake, I supposed, of being above the reach of flood waters. I remarked to my host, as he was about to say good-night and shut 2-jo LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, mc In, that I hoped it was not a gigantic ant-hill or a hornet's nest, that my bed-room was built upon ; when he smilingly said, " No; but it is the tomb of one of Fiji's most terrible cannibal chiefs." I forget the native name of the late chief, whose bones were buried beneath me, but the English of it was " The ground shark." Ugh ! I did not forget that awful name all the time I lay awake that night, and I wonder I did not dream that the late notorious old cannibal was exercising his idle jaws on some of my limbs. I rather wished that my worthy host had waited till next morning to tell me who my dead neighbour was. When I had spent as much time as I could afford in Fiji, I started for Samoa, in a small trading brig called the Bouncer^ and a hard time I had of it. I may here remark, that it is not uncommon for pas- sengers, now-a-days, to write grumbling letters to the newspapers about the ships they have travelled in, if everything on board was not up to their mark of per- fection. Formerly we heard comparatively little about the discomforts of ship life, not that there was nothing to complain off, but because fussy travellers were then not so numerous as they are now. I have not the least respect for ships that are unseaworthy, nor for dishonest owners ; but I do love fair play, and I tiiink there is some danger of our over-estimating maritime abuses in our zeal to cure them all with pen and ink, and a risk of blaming honest owners for unavoidable casualties. Break up rotten ships, I say to any one who wants a useful job, and punish all the roguish owners, too, if you can ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 21 1 catch them ; but do not condemn good ships, nor scold honest owners for mishaps which may be fairly put down as ordinary perils and dangers of the sea. Though I have had a more disastrous experience at sea than most persons would care to have, I do not call myself a professional sailor ; and I would not presume to say much about ships or their tackling in the dog- matic way that I have heard some simple young fellows talk, after their first voyage, perhaps, to the annoyance of seamen who may overhear their gabble. It would have been mere presumption if I had gone quizzing about the Bouncer, to judge if she were sound or rotten, before I took my passage in her ; and I went on board in confi- dence that I was protected by British navigation laws, as the majority of my countrymen do when they go to sea. But I had not been twelve hours from port, before I felt in danger of being drowned, and I wished myself on dry land again. I repeat it, I am not a seaman, but mere instinct would tell any man, when he heard the water sousing about over the ballast in the hold that the ship was not tight, that there was a hole in her somewhere. Unquestionably the Boiuicer was a leaky vessel. The crew pumped in a deliberate way, which showed that they were used to it, and the water came out of the pump-spout clear and sparkling ; still, I was not comforted so much as I should have been if the water had been pumped up thick and stench}'. The mate coolly told me that the ship was only leaking in her top- sides. But even that official statement did not relieve my anxiety, for I thought it would be much the same 272 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, to me whether the ship filled from the top or from the bottom ; for in either case she would sink, and I could not swim. I grew very uneasy. At length I politely asked the captain to put back to the nearest harbour in Fiji, and land me, and he might keep my passage money. I shall not print his answer to my request. I simply say it was a very ungentlemanly negative. I felt chagrined, and I went below to the cabin, which was by no means a convenient one. I knew beforehand that the accom- modation was rough, but I reasoned to myself, " the distance is merely five hundred miles or so." I had forgotten, however, that Samoa lay dead to windward, and that we should probably have to beat all the way there against the trade winds. The cabin boy told me it would take us a month of Sundays to thrash there. What he meant by that ambiguous reckoning I could easily guess. That night the captain got drunk and seemed disposed to quarrel with me, so I left him alone in the cabin and went on deck. The mate was sober, but he was a very dreary man, and would only speak when I spoke to him. He told me, in answer to one of my anxious questions, that the reason why he was carrying on so much sail was that there was a coral reef to leeward, and if he did not make the ship walk ahead, she would go ashore before eight bells. Presently he added, " I am afraid some of our sticks will carry away, for I don't believe the rigging has been set up for three years or more, and there is not a fathom of the running gear strong enough to tether a donkey. I wish I had never come in the old box. ROGER LARKSIVAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 273 Keep that pump going there, lads !" he shouted to the watch, who were stopping for a minute to Hght their pipes. " Have you been mate of the Bouncer long, Mr. Doom ? " I asked, in the hope of getting a crumb or two of comfort from his answer. *' No, by Jerry ! I have not been in her long, nor I don't want to be, either. I joined her last Friday at Levuka, because I was hard up — dead beat, as the say- ing is. On the same day one of the hands was bending on the fore-top gallant sail, when the foot-rope of the yard carried away, and down the poor fellow came to the deck. We left him ashore at the mission-house with a lot of his bones cracked. After that I had an overhaul at the gear, and blest if every rope on board isn't rotten or stranded. I never sailed in such a parish- rigged old hooker before, and I shall clear out of her as soon as I get a chance. I'd as soon go to sea in a baker's trough or a brewer's vat." " I wonder that you ventured to sea in her, Mr. Doom, or that you could get a crew to work her, knowing that she is unseaworthy." " Shough ! What's a fellow to do when he is out of luck .-• Did you ever know a ship go to sea without a crew to work her } " " No, I don't think I ever did ; but it seems mar- vellous to me that men willingly risk their lives. I can't make it out at all." " Take a small pull on that lee-foretopsail brace ! " shouted Mr. Doom to the watch on deck. " Hoy, hoy ! Hoo, hoy ! " sang the men as they T 274 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, pulled together at the brace. At their third pull, crash went the yard at the tie ; and the sail flapped about till it split into shreds. " Hang it all, lads ! What did you go sagging away on the brace like that for ? Do you think you are on board a frigate ? Look sharp and snug the sail in, or it will shake the masts out of her. Haul on to the top- sail buntlines and clewlines ! Ease off the sheets, hand- somely ! Bear a hand, now ! Call out the starboard watch, boy ! " Though I was somewhat scared, I had pluck enough to go and pull at the ropes to help the crew. When the sail was snugged in, as they called it, I went back to the quarter-deck. After awhile I remarked to the mate that the topsail-yard was not a very strong one. " Strong ! Didn't I tell you before that everything on board this old box is as rotten as stale turnip- tops ? " *' It is a shame and disgrace to allow such a bad vessel to come to sea," I said, with honest indignation. " You are right enough there, sir ; but who is to stop rotten ships from going to sea if their owners are sche- mers .-* Well, it's a good job that the yard carried away just now ; for I was going to reef topsails at eight bells, and then there would have been some broken necks on board, no doubt. Some of this after canvas must come off the ship now, and then she will sag to leeward like a haystack in a heavy flood." " Do you think we shall weather the reef, Mr. Doom .-' " I asked with increasing uneasiness. ROGER LARK'SIVAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 275 " Can't say, sir ; I don't know where the reef is myself, for the skipper never gave me the bearings of it. He told me just before he turned in, to keep my luff, for there were gibbers to leeward. That's all I know about it at present. I must go and rouse him out of his berth, drunk or sober." When the captain came on deck, I went below, for it was beginning to rain. It was a solemn season with me in that close, greasy cabin, and my mind was painfully active. I thought of my mother and father at home ; but I confess that I thought more about myself and the probability of my being drowned ; and I wished I had not left so much squaring-up work for my conscience, at a time when death seemed to be close alongside of us. It is a humiliating admission, but I candidly state the fact, that I require some powerful incentive, such as the fear of death or some other calamity, to keep me up to my religious duties. As far back as I can remember, I have always felt more devoutly inclined during a severe thunderstorm, than I have felt when the sun or the moon was shining in a clear sky. I should like to know if it is a constitutional peculiarity of mine, or whether it is common to humanity. Conscience tells me that it ought not to be so. That is all I shall say about it at present. I made some very good resolutions that night. I did not sleep a wink, for I expected every minute to feel the ship bump on to a reef. Just about daybreak the captain roared down the skylight to me to come on deck and take a spell at the pump, for he wanted some 276 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, of the men to fish the damaged topsail yard. I was going to stand on my rights and dignity as a passenger ; but I thought it was risky to argue with a drunken man, who had so much temporary power, so I put on my gloves and went to the pump. I set to work with my customary vigour, for I never could dawdle over a job. The sailor who was helping me at the pump-handle said drily, " You had better take it easy, mate. ' One hand for your owner and the other for yourself, to hold on by,' is a sailor's motto, always." I felt rather vexed with the fellow for trying to tempt me to skulk, and I pumped away more ener- getically to show my contempt for his lazy spirit. I have reason to believe that the man put but little of his strength to the handle, for it was very stiff in its down- ward action. Presently I grew short of breath, and I wanted to stop ; but he said, " We vmst keep at it, mate. Pump or sink, that is our luck now. The ship is leak- ing like an old pig's trough." His remark stimulated me to go at it again ; and I pumped like desperation itself, till my backbone seemed to give way in the centre joint, and I got as winded as a runaway horse. I sat down on the wet deck exhausted, and even the captain's savage threat to rouse me up with a handspike did not induce me to move. I think I shall never for- get that wooden pump if I live to the age of Old Parr. Many useful moral lessons on the penalties of fast life in general might be adduced from that simple expe- rience of mine. I am loath to let slip the chance of making it benefit somebody, but I must get on with my ROGER LARKSIVAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 277 story. If I should ever come out as a public lecturer on social reform or natural philosophy, the title of my first oration shall be, " The Bouncer s Pump-handle ; or, Take it Easy." For the next five days we made but slow progress towards Samoa, for the trade wind was strong and the Bouncer made much leeway. The pump was kept going until the sucker wore out ; and then it was discovered that there was no pump-leather in the store locker. The captain cut up his sea boots, but they did not answer well for suckers, and we had to bale the water out of the hatchway with a tub and a whip from the main-yard. I continued to take my fair share of the hauling-up work ; but I did not pull exhaustively. The pump was a caution to me that I could not forget. Fortunately for us the weather continued moderately fine, or certainly we should have foundered. On the sixth day out we spoke a ship eastward bound. She hove to at our signal of distress, and Mr. Doom was ordered to go on board and beg some pump-leather and a bag or two of buscuit, for we were running short of provi- sions. When I asked the captain if I might go in the boat, he said I might go to Bungaree Nore, if I liked. I had no idea where that place was ; but I went below for my portmanteau, and in a few minutes more I was off like an uncaged bird. Thankful, indeed, was I to escape with my life and property from that old regis- tered coffin. That is a short " Tale of a Tub " ; I might make it longer, but it would not be cheerful reading, and there is not much novelty in such a tale, as the short 278 LAUNCH ING AWAY. and simple daily newspaper reports of " Casualties at Sea " sadly testify. The ship we boarded was the Llay Queen, bound for California with coal. I soon made a bargain with the captain for my passage, and he seemed glad of my com- pany, for he had not any other passenger on board. It was a delightful change for me, for the accommoda- tion was good. That voyage with the cheerful chatty American captain is amongst my pleasantest recollec- tions of sea life. I was rather sorry when it ended, and I had to step on shore a stranger in the wonderful young city of San Francisco. CHAPTER XXIV. '•' Oh, 'tis the sun that maketh all things shine." — Shakespeare A BRIGHT Australian boy, about five years of age, said one day, with childlike artlessness, " Mother, sometimes when I am sad, if I peep up to the sky I feel glad again, because I think Jesus is up there looking at me." I am thankful to that mother for telling me many of her precocious boy's sayings, which have done me more good than some long doctrinal sermons I have listened to. There is often more practical wisdom or heart comfort in a simple remark of an intelligent child, than there is in a whole volume of metaphysical abstrusities. After leaving the May Queen to go on shore, I felt my constitutional depression creeping over me again like black spiders. It may seem childish of me to mention it, but just then little Sam's happy expedient occurred to my mind, and I thought I would try it. I looked upward for a second or two, and it made me sneeze ; but I tried it again, and as I did so I mentally reasoned with myself thus : " High up in yon blue sky is the glorious sun, and it is shining upon half the world, warming everything it looks at, and making the whole face of nature bright and beautiful and lively. Now, if 279 28o LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, I were to go and hide myself in the depths of a gold mine, or some other dark place when I get on shore, I should not see a glimpse of the sun's light, and should feel very little of its enlivening heat. The Almighty would not prevent me from burying myself like a mole if I were so inclined, but He does not decree or desire such seclusion. Nor does he wish me to be dreary while the heavens are declaring His glory, and when even these little mosquitoes are making music in the air, as if to trumpet forth their gratitude for life and freedom on this fine sunny morning. Why then should I not look with grateful eyes on the beauties of this new world around me, and bid my heart rejoice that I have escaped the perils and dangers of the sea, — that I sit here this morn- ing safe and sound, a living man with a thankful heart .^" That quiet mental exercise seemed to calm my spirits wonderfully, and I presently got so lively that I began to sing part of a hymn of Dr. Watts', that my dear sister and I have often sung together long ago, — " Why should the children of a king Go mourning all their days ? " I think the sailors who were rowing me to shore were glad to hear me burst out singing, for they smiled and seemed to put more springiness into their strokes. I felt as happy as a bird. I had often heard of ruffians with revolvers and bowie knives in their belts, who were always ready to slay a man for mere practice ; I had also heard of other ob- jectionable customs and pastimes of Californian society ; still, I stepped ashore with a confident air. I feared no kOGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 2S1 evil. I daresay if I had gone to look for rowdy com- pany, I need not have walked far ; but my tastes did not incline that way. Nobody molested me or showed any disposition to do so, that I observed. It is my opinion that a steady, honest man may find friends and congenial society in whatever part of the civilized world he may travel to ; and in general he has not much to fear from foes, if he minds his own business, and does not intermeddle with other people's affairs. Through the introduction of the captain of the May Queen, I got lodgings with a respectable family. A few days afterwards I went as assistant to one of the first druggist's shops in the city. My employer was a native of Boston. He had been established in San Francisco about five years, and had made money. There was as much difference between him and Mr. Cudbear, as there is between a blood horse and a donkey. Mr. Honeyman was a shrewd business man, but he did not make a slave of himself or of his helpers. He seemed to try to get as much happiness as he possibly could out of each day ; but in doing so he did not neglect his shop. I soon grew fond of him, for he was more like a brother to me than an employer. His kindness of manner incited me always to strive to please him. For six months I lived very contentedly. I had every Sunday to myself, so I joined a Church and took the Bible-class in a Sunday school. I grew increasingly partial to American institutions, as I became better acquainted with them and as my old silly prejudices wore away. I thought that America wa,s the grandest 282 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, country in the world ; that everything seemed to be planned by nature on a gigantic scale, and that the Americans as a people were destined to be great — or perhaps the greatest among nations. I encouraged serious thoughts of becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States ; and of thenceforward hailing the star- spangled banner as my national flag. How I came to change my mind again I will tell, as briefly as I can, for it is rather a delicate disclosure ; but were I to omit it there would be an awkward gap in my story, like a hole in a bridge. I will not allow anybody to dispute the fact that my voluntary search for unfortunate Morton was actuated by pure, unselfish kindness alone. That point is settled then. I confess that while I was following his mortal remains to the grave, a thought did once flash across my mind that his poor wife was now a widow ; but I scouted the suggestion that followed, without a moment's parley. The same idea obtruded into my mind from time to time, but I would never entertain it while — to use a common phrase — the poor man's corpse was still warm. I hate meanness. After the lapse of six months, however, I ventured to believe that there was no moral wrong or indelicacy in my thinking of Ella in a tender way ; and then my love for her soon began to glow again, and I longed to go and see her. That desire strengthened every day, until it grew stronger than patriotism, or love for my employer, or any other social or political virtue, and I was on the look out for a ship bound to Australia. What seemed to spur me on more ROGER LARK'S IV AY'S STRANGE MISSION. 283 earnestly was the idea, which came into my head all of a sudden, that Ella might possibly be wooed and won by some other suitor before I got back to the colony. I gave my employer a month's notice and pre- pared for a start. He seemed loath to lose me, and offered me a share in his business if I liked to stay ; but I would not have stayed if I had been offered the Presidency of the United States. I took a cabin berth in a ship that was loading flour for Sydney. Three days before I sailed a disastrous fire occurred, which destroyed fully a third of San Francisco city, including Mr. Honeyman's shop. I was exceedingly sorry for his loss, for he was not insured. The morning after the fire he remarked to me, in his usual off-hand way, " This is a bad turn for me, Roger ; but it is worse for poor Boles, the chemist in the next block, he has lost every cent he was worth. I shall sell my little farm at Sacramento River, and that will start me off again." Mr. Honey man owed me 160 dollars for two months' wages, which he offered to pay me ; but I positively declined to take the money. That same afternoon he went to a lumber sale and bought materials for erecting a new shop ; and I daresay he was doing business again in less than a month. If that man lives he will perhaps make a fortune. I hope he may, for he will do good with his money. He has the heart of a Peabody or a Stuart. After a fair passage I arrived safely in Sydney. I went to stay at my old lodgings until the next boat sailed for Melbourne. Mrs. Dyke was glad to see me 284 LAUNCHING AWAY i OR, again ; but her glad looks soon changed when I asked after her family. She presently told me that Selina's husband had left her, and she was then occupying the front room, and trying to get a living for herself and infant by taking music pupils. It was a sad story that I had to listen to. The substance of it was, that Mr. Burney had deceived them all as to his pecuniary means. He had always lived beyond his income, and he was in debt when he married. He had managed to get further into debt, for he liked good living, and he would have luxuries so long as tradesmen would trust him. The end of it was that he was forced into the insolvent court ; and as he had no assets save his furniture, his creditors took that, and poor Sclina had to go back to her mother. Mr. Burney was dismissed from his situation ; and after living for two months at Mrs. Dyke's expense, he started off to some new diggings, and had not since communicated with his wife. Poor Selina ! I pitied her. She was a nice girl, and would have made an excellent wife, if she had waited till the right man offered himself But she was in too great haste to get married. Perhaps she was anxious to outmatch some of her young schoolfellows ; at any rate she accepted a man without sufficiently scrutinizing his character, and now she has sorrowful reason to repent of her precipitancy. I thought Mrs. Dyke ought to have been more watchful over her young daughters ; but of course I did not even hint my opinion to her, for I could see that the poor old lady was in great trouble. ROGER LARKSWAVS STRANGE MISSION. 285 She further told me that her son Bob was still in the broker's office, at the same low salary. Bob was not so steady as she could wish ; but she hoped that as he grew older he would get more sense. It is a reasonable hope, and I trust it will be realized. On the following Saturday I started for Melbourne in one of the inter-colonial steamers, and, as usual in those golden times, it was over-crowded with passengers. I had secured a sleeping berth on the previous day, other- wise I must have put up with a shakedown on deck, as scores of berthless passengers had to do. In addition to the ordinary rush of gold miners going to the rich Victorian diggings, there were a score or two of sporting men, who were returning to Melbourne after their annual visit to the Randvvick Derby, besides the members of a travelling circus. It will therefore be judged that the saloon of the steamer was over full, and there was more excitement than any quiet man would like. I sat at the table that night reading, as well as I could for the dis- tracting noise around me. At ten o'clock I put my book into my pocket and prepared to go to bed. A friend in Sydney had given me some homoeopathic tinc- ture, which was said to be a specific for sea-sickness ; so I asked the steward for a tumbler, and carefully watching the roll of the ship, I managed to drop a single minim from a phial into the glass, then adding a tea- spoonful of water, I sipped it and went to a small cabin off the saloon, which I had to share with three gentle- men of the circus troupe. The unusual call for an empty tumbler had attracted the attention of the passengers 2S6 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, who sat at the long tabic, and I noticed that they left off card playing and watched me, with lively interest, as I dropped my infinitesimal dose into the glass. When inside my cabin I overheard one of them say, " That fellow has got some woefully strong stuff in his phial ; I wonder what it is ?" " Iron tonic, perhaps, distilled from old steam hammers and thunderbolts," remarked another man, drily, " It smells like potato whisky, or something of that bad sort," said a third joker. " I hope he hasn't taken a drop too much, for he is one of my cabin mates." Some time after midnight, I was disturbed in my first nap by a tipsy man blundering into the cabin to go to his berth, and being only half awake, I muttered an exclamation of surprise, which I but indistinctly remem- ber. I however heard the intruder go back into the saloon and laughingly say, " Ha, ha ! the chap who swallowed that tremendous dose an hour or two a^o is quite drunk, and he swears he'll blow up the ship with his little bottle, if we don't all go to bed directly." The next afternoon we put into Twofold Bay, to land some gold miners who were going to the Kiandra dig- gings. I was hopeful that the ship would be more quiet after they left, for never before in my life, either in savage Fiji, or elsewhere, did I pass such a comfortless Sabbath. But to my disappointment there was a little crowd of miners on the wharf at Eden, who had come down from the Snowy River diggings, and were going to try their luck in Victoria. I might fairly have expected to see a sedate company embark from a town'with such ROGER LARKSIVAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 287 a happy name as Eden ; but on the contrary, they were as prime a lot of rollicking "bhoys," as ever kicked up a shindy at Donnybrook fair, or any other lively place. As we passed out of Twofold Bay in the dusk of the evening, an unfinished lighthouse on the southern shore attracted my notice. There stood a lofty circular tower on a rocky eminence, but with no lantern to it, and of course it showed no more light than the rock itself did. The sight of it had a gloomy influence on me, like gazing at an old mummy. I am not able just now to expatiate on the moral lessons or reproofs it seemed to aim at me ; but any good pastor is welcome to reflect on the dark lighthouse, and use it in his pulpit as a solemn admonition to unprofitable professors. More than once on that cheerless Sunday evening I felt half impelled to stand up and show my gospel light or knowledge in the midst of that noisy company ; but my courage failed me, and I slunk off, like another Jonah, into the most out-of-the-way nook I could find below, which was not much quieter than the 'tween decks of a cattle ship. There stands the empty lighthouse to this day, as useless as one of the crumbling columns of ancient Sardis. But it often reminds old colonists of a romance in real life, which I will briefly notice in this chapter — " for auld lang syne." Somewhere about forty years ago, a young Scotch gentleman arrived in Sydney with an abundance of money, partly his own and partly the capital of his friends at home, who evidently had unbounded con- 2SS LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, fidence in his tact and ability to invest it for them in a profitable way. He was a remarkably fine-looking man, and of a highly-cultured mind — a fair type of *' Tom Brown " after his schooldays were over. When he stood on the deck of his handsome schooner yacht, he looked the very beau ideal of a sailor ; and if I add that he could handle his craft as smartly as any of the young Australian yachtsmen, it will be paying the highest tribute I can to his courage and skill on the water. He came to the colony at a time of severe depression, especially in pastoral aftairs ; so, as a buyer of stock and stations for ready cash, he was a welcome visitor to many an embarrassed man's home- stead in the bush. Mr. Boyd went in for investments with a steady pluck, as well as with deliberate judg- ment, and he was not particular what he invested in, in an honest respectable way, so long as it gave promise of fair interest for his capital. He bought sheep and cattle and horses in tens of thousands ; also town land and countr)' land, and whaling ships and steam ships. He had warehouses and wharves and a bank ; and a township was mapped out and named after himself, and the said lighthouse was built to guide vessels to safe anchorage off the site of the town. Boyd's super- intendents were numerous, and some of them were as aristocratic as the old East India's Company's officers, and their orders passed current in bush or city as readily as Union Bank notes. Some colonial croakers used to say that Mr. Boyd had ''too many irons in the fire " ; but that is a rusty old saw, which has often ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 2S9 jagged the credit of enterprising men. I vrill not try to explain the cause of the failure of Mr. Boyd's grand projects. They were not all successful, and many persons were sorry for it ; that is as much as I need say. Xo doubt he had much worry and anxiety with his very extensive investments ; and to get away from business for awhile and to recruit his health, he sailed in his schooner for the South Seas. Sad to relate he was soon afterwards murdered by the natives on one of the savage islands — or so it was reported. The crew of his yacht were returning to Sydney with the mournful news, when they went on shore in a gale of wind near Port ]\Iacquarie, and the beautiful clipper, Wanderer, became a total wreck. Many old colonists can remember ^Ir. Benjamin Boyd's tall athletic figure, and his cheery, sonorous voice. He was well-known and much respected in Australia ; and the non-success of his plans and his mournful fate caused a general regret. If he had lived to the present time, and retained his extensive pastoral possessions, he would be enormously wealthy ; and then Zi'ho would question his wisdom, or blame him for putting "' too many irons in the fire " ? Xo doubt there would, in that case, be a lantern on that deserted lighthouse, and perhaps the present bush-covered site of Boydtown would be a flourishing city. " Should auld acquaintance be forgoti And never brought to mind ? '' U CHAPTER XXV. " Save the love we pay to Heaven, None purer, holier than that A virtuous woman feels for him she'd cleave Through life to." — Sheridan Knowles. On my arrival at Melbourne, I went direct to Rose Villa, and was just in time for tea. The Moss family were glad to see me, and welcomed me back as cordially as if I were a near relative. They listened with much interest while I gave them a summary of my ad- ventures ; and they said some pleasing things about my kindness in volunteering for such a troublesome under- taking. The children were also very demonstrative in their affection for me, especially my little favourite, Nelly, who had grown amazingly during my absence, and was a most interesting child. After tea I went into the library with Mr. Moss, and there I opened my mind to him on the subject of my attachment to Ella ; and I asked him if he thought there was any impropriety in my making proposals to her without delay. " There can be no impropriety in your doing so, Roger ; Morton has been dead ten months. It would, perhaps, be more delicate for you to wait a few months 290 ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 291 longer ; but then you would run a risk of losing your prize, some man more bold and less scrupulous might forestall you." " Do you think so, Mr. Moss ? " " Yes, I do ; indeed, I have reason to believe that somebody is now looking at her with matrimonial desires. But do not be upset, Roger," he quickly added, as he perhaps observed that I was turning yellow. " I do not think she will accept Bushby, though he is rich and rather grand in his way ; at any rate you stand a better chance than he if you make haste, — I have no doubt about that. It would be absurd to compare you with him." "Who is Mr. Bushby.?" I asked, with affected calm- ness. " Don't you know old John Bushby .-• He is one of Mr. Benson's congregation, and M.P. for — for — I forget the place just now." " Rich and grand, and a member of parliament ! She will surely prefer him to poor Roger!" I thought; and I could not help sighing aloud. " Tut ! You need not be so uneasy, Roger," con- tinued Mr. Moss. ^" I scarcely believe she will accept a little old shrimp of a fellow, who has two daughters as old as herself." Those words revived me like smelling-salts. I had no fear for such a rival, if his money and title did not make Ella blind to his personal defects and heed- less of his incumbrances. I drew myself up to my full height again. 292 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, "Now I advise you to go and see the widow at once, Roger ; pop the question hkc a man, and don't mince matters, as you would have to do if she were a maiden and did not know anything about courting. I believe she will accept your offer without much press- ing ; anyway, if she prefers old Bushby to you, be sure that you will be better off without her, for it will be proof positive that she is a silly woman." " I had intended to wait till I got a situation, sir. I could offer her my hand with more confidence, if I knew that I had the means or the prospect of pro- viding a good home for her." " Quite rie:ht, Roger. But now let me tell you that I have something in view for you, which will be much better than an assistant's berth. I did not mean to name it to you to-night, but perhaps I had better tell you in a few words something about it. I am building three shops, not far from the Town Hall at Prahran. One of them I shall fit up in good style for a chemist and druggist. Prahran is a rising suburb, )-ou know, and there is a good opening for another chemist and druggist. A little fortune is to be made there in time, and you are a likely fellow to make it. I have been long anxious to show you some substantial token of my gratitude for your noble conduct in saving the life of my dear child, and I think I have now a good opportunity of doing so ; in short, I mean to set you up in business, if you do not object. Thus I shall help you, and serve myself by securing a good tenant. Ha 1 ha ! a lucky double hit of mine, you see. I hope ROGER LARKSWAY'S StRANCE MISSION. 293 you won't say nay to it, Roger, and upset all my plans." I was quite taken aback by that unexpected stroke of good fortune. I was stammering my thanks to my generous friend, when he said jocosely, "You have not time to spare for compliments, for it is getting late, Roger. I am glad to see that you do not object to my scheme. Now hasten away directly and make it all right with the pretty widow ; we can talk about the new shop some other time. The builders will not be out of it for a month, or perhaps five weeks." I took a cab and went off to Ivy House. I expected to find Mr. Benson at home, for on Tuesday evening he was usually at leisure. To my surprise and concern, both Mr. and Mrs. Benson received me with a stately politeness, quite different to their former friendly bear- ing. I felt hurt ; and if I had yielded to my first petty impulse, I should have taken my hat and bade them good-night. Happy for me that I was early taught to control my temper, or I should have made a sad mistake that night. By keeping cool and cautious, I soon found that Mr. and Mrs. Benson were under the impression that I had been wasting my time in Fiji ever since Morton's death. I have since learned that they got an unfavourable report of me from the captain of the Ariel on his return to Melbourne. I had offended the captain in some way when I was on board his vessel. I scarcely know how I did it ; but it is not a very unusual thing for passengers, however careful they may be, to excite the feelings 294 LAUNCHING AWAY; OK, of some sea-captains, especially at times of protracted head winds or more tantalizing calms. Master mariners at such times are, perhaps, short of patience. But there is the excuse for them that they often have impatient, unreasonable owners, who seldom will look into the log book, to judge fairly of the cause of their ship having made a protracted voyage, until after they have discharged the captain as a drowsy man. Mortal man cannot make a sailing ship go head to wind, nor make it go ahead in a dead calm. When I told the Bensons about my involuntary voyage to California, and especially when I showed them the testimonials I had received from Mr. Honeyman and the Rev. William Taylor, their frigid manner waxed warmer, and they welcomed me back with a cordiality which touched my heart and sweetened my temper in a minute. They had evidently resolved not to let me see Ella ; and had I been too hasty I should have gone away sorrowing. But when the misunderstanding was re- moved, they rang the bell and in walked Ella in her widow's garb, looking mournfully beautiful. Her manner was reserved at first ; but she grew more affable when Mrs. Benson had spoken a few words aside to her, of which I guessed the import. After awhile Mr. and Mrs. Benson left the room, and then I gave Ella a few particulars of poor Morton's death, which I had omitted in my written report. As she sat and wept over the memory of her deceased husband, I fancied it was a sort of sacrilege for me to foster thoughts of a new partner- ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 295 ship with her, and my courting resolution was failing me. But she soon dried up her tears ; and when I began to talk about her little pupils — by way of diverting her thoughts — she grew so fascinatingly lively, that I could no longer restrain my love from making itself heard and seen — and felt ; so I stood up and said, with the manly boldness which Mr. Moss had prompted, " Ella ! My darling Ella ! let me tell you again that I love you ardently. I have never ceased to love you since I first saw your sweet face. I cannot live happily without you. I have the prospect of being able to support you com- fortably, to provide a good home for you, and I will do my utmost to make you happy. Will you accept me? Will you consent to be my wife, at some early period .-• Say yes, my precious Ella ! and make me the happiest man alive." Without a minute's pause for consideration, she raised her head and looked at me with her beautiful truthful eyes, and there was a loving smile on her face which sent a rapturous thrill all through my system. She ex- tended her right hand, and said in accents tenderly firm: "Take my hand, dear Roger! and with it take my heart. No man on earth has a truer claim to my life's affection than you have, and you shall have it all." Oh, the ecstasy of that moment ! The precious over- flow of satisfaction ! I can no more describe it all than I could paint a view of Jerusalem. While uttering my short declaration of love, I felt as cautious as I have since felt while lighting a fuse in a deep mining claim ; but her prompt reply drove away all jealous fears for 296 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, old rickety Bushby, and surcharged my heart with a sort of dancing rapture, which only a first-class poet could depict. Need I say that I kissed her soft, un- resisting lips ? But perhaps I had better not say any more about that true-love scene. I will only add, in plain prose, that dear Ella and I made an engagement that evening ; and when Mr. and Mrs. Benson returned to the parlour, we told them of the happy fact, and they were glad. The next morning, after breakfast, I went to tell Mr. Moss of my successful courting, and he warmly con- gratulated me. We then went to look at my new shop at Prahran ; and, on the way thither, Mr. Moss told me that he intended to get me a cash-credit for ;^iooo, at the Commercial Bank ; so that I could buy my stock- in-trade and household effects with ready cash. I was thankful. Many persons beside myself have been vexed at the tardiness of builders. My patience was almost worn out by them. Day after day I used to pay visits to the new shop, by way of spurring on the drowsy workmen ; but they seemed to be insensible to my appeals, whether gentle or otherwise. Even the crown pieces, which I on four separate occasions gave the fellows, as a stimulus to their efforts to get out of the house soon, had a con- trary effect to that which I anticipated ; for each crown had just sufficed to buy beer enough to make them all tipsy and incapable of working for the day. The plasterers were the most tiresome fellows in the gang ; they always seemed to be waiting for one coat of stuff ROGER LARKSIVAY'S STRAN'GE MISSIONS 297 to dry, before they began to daub over the walls and ceiHngs again. I would have gone into the house with the bare laths grinning at me, if the fellows would only have taken their dirty affairs out. Expectant bachelors can sympathize with my impatience, if nobody else will. Ten weeks elapsed from the night when Mr. Moss first spoke to me about the shop, before those dawdling workmen had finished and carried off their tools. Thus the happiness of dear Ella and myself was deferred for more than a month beyond our anticipated wedding- day ; but she never uttered an impatient word or showed the least sign of disappointment. At length the house was finished and furnished. Tlie stock was also in the shop, and I had engaged a com- petent assistant. I never shall forget the pleasure and pride I felt in arranging the stock on my shelves and the show-bottles in my shop-window. When it was all finished, Mr. Moss paid me the compliment of saying that he did not think there was a neater little chemist's shop in Victoria than mine. Two days afterwards my devoted Ella and I were married by the Rev. Mr. Benson, Mr. Moss was my best man, and dear little Nelly was one of the bridesmaids, and remarkably pretty she looked. We took our wedding breakfast at Ivy House, — the nicest breakfast I ever partook of. Grandfather Moss threw an old slipper after us for luck, as we were leaving the hall door of the parsonage to get into the carriage that was to take us to the steamer, and loving congratula- tions sounded in our ears as pleasantly as silver bells. Whether there was some kind of attractive influence 298 LAUNCH LYG AWAY. in the igneous rock upon which I was first bumped on the coast, I will not try to determine, but Oueenscliff certainly had a peculiar charm for me. I proposed to spend our honeymoon there. Dear Ella said she could be happy anywhere with me ; so to Oueenscliff we went, and a precious fortnight we spent there. I shall never forget it. I would liked to have had a month of it, but remembered that I was only a young beginner in busi- ness ; and I fancied, too, that we might live more eco- nomically in our own home than wc could do at an hotel on honeymoon fare. CHAPTER XXVI. " Life's little stage is small eminence, Inch high above the grave." — Voiiii cr When my wife and I returned home after our bridal tour, we found many valuable tokens of the kindness of our friends. In the drawing-room was a handsome new piano, the gift of dear little Nelly ; on the mantel- shelf was an elegant clock, the gift of Mrs. Moss ; and sundry smart cushions and mats and other drawing- room luxuries, presents from Mrs. Benson and her daughters, Ella's young pupils. On the dining-room mantel-piece was another clock of a more solid make, the gift of Mr. Moss ; and on a little table, handy to my easy chair, was a family Bible, and on it a quaintly worded note from the donor, — Grandfather Moss, — giving his personal testimony to the value of the Bible as a guide-book for life's journey ; and urging me to use his present, and not to keep it merely as a smart parlour ornament. After tea I went into the shop, and received a cheer- ing report from my assistant. Two physicians had already sent in prescriptions, and trade had otherwise been encouraging for a first start off. When the gas was lighted, I walked over to the opposite side of the 299 300 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, street to get a fair view of the exterior of my shop and of the gorgeous coloured lamp, which showed my name over the door in large gilt letters. I felt proud, and wished my dear Uncle Jenner could take a peep at my new shop, which far outshone his own dusky establish- ment at Greenwich. Dear Ella was equally pleased with her house, which she had examined from bottom to top. It certainly was furnished with taste and eco- nomical judgment. After the shop was closed that evening, and we were almost ready to retire to our chamber, Ella looked at me with a solemn meaning, and then glanced at the Bible on the little table. I understood what she meant, but a peculiar nervous fluttering in my breast seemed to master my resolution, and I whispered, to her, " I cannot perform that duty to-night, my darling ; I have never been accustomed to it." " Will you allow me to do it, love ? " she asked, in such a gentle persuasive tone that I could not object ; so she rang the bell, and in came the servant maid. Ella opened the Book and read the ninety-first Psalm ; and then offered up a short prayer, with such fervour and simplicity of language, that every word touched my heart. I felt truly grateful to God for surrounding me with so many mercies and comforts, and especially for blessing me with such an exemplary wife. When we arose from our knees and the servant had retired, I kissed Ella, and was going to tell her that her prayer had done me good, but I could not utter a word. She noticed my emotion, and passing her arm fondly ROGER LARKSIVAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 301 around my waist, she said, " Come, dear, and hear me try my piano." We went into the drawing-room, and she sat down to the instrument and played " Ken's Evening Hymn," and sang it with exquisite pathos and feeling, reminding me tenderly of my early home and of my sainted sister, for it was a favourite hymn of hers. That night I promised dear Ella that I would hence- forth conduct family prayers every evening, a duty which she had so reverently begun for me. I have kept my promise. Why any man should be shy of conducting family devotion in his own household is somewhat puzzling to me now ; but so it is with many good men whom I have met with. I confess that it was a dreaded task to me at first ; but with Ella's encouragement I soon ceased to regard it as a task, and I used to look forward to that evening duty as a refreshing wind up to the busi- ness of the day. The first year of my wedded life is a memorable part of my history, and the retrospect has a mournful sort of fascination for me. But I will make this part of my story as short as I possibly can, for I could not make it interesting reading to strangers, shape it how I might. I do not think that any young couple could have been more loving than my wife and I were. It was all harmony and peace in our home. I am just re- minded of a verse in a pretty little song that Ella used to sing sometimes, to please me ; it aptly portrayed our domestic life, — • 302 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, " The summer has its heavy cloud, the rose leaf will fall ; But in our home love wears no shroud, never does it pall. Each new morning's ray, brings no sigh for yesterday ; No joy passed away would grief recall." As I retrace the time I fail to remember a single jar in our social intercourse. Nothing occurred to mar our happiness ; and our letters by each mail to my dear mother in England must have cheered and comforted her loving heart, for they were always full of good news. My business, too, was prosperous, almost beyond my expectations. Ella was not over fond of making new acquaintances, but our good friends Benson and Moss were always welcome visitors to our house, and they often called to see us in a homely, unceremonious way. Both Ella and I joined Mr. Benson's Church, and took classes in the Sunday-school, and I had the honour of being appointed leader of the choir in his church. I may mention that one day I was rather startled by reading a paragraph, copied from one of the New South Wales provincial newspapers, giving an account of the death of Mrs. Cameron, Ella's mother, through the explosion of a spirit lamp. In consideration for Ella's delicate condition, I did not let her sec the paragraph, nor did I mention the sad occurrence to her. I knew that she had rational views on the subject of mourning garments for deceased friends, and that it would not afterwards pain her to reflect that she had omitted to array herself in crape on the death of her mother. For my part I never did much reverence that dismal and costly custom of society. I certainly was ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 303 shocked at the awfully sudden death of Mrs. Cameron ; but I cannot honestly say that I felt much regret for the loss of a relative whom I had always dreaded, nor did I feel any compunction for neglecting to honour her memory by wearing a suit of black clothes in summer time. About fifteen months after our marriage, dear Ella and I looked joyously forward to the advent of a " little stranger." As the critical period drew near, I confess that I sometimes felt an anxiety, but perhaps not more than is usually felt by fond young husbands on such domestic epochs. Ella's sweetly placid manner was unaltered ; indeed, I never saw her ruffled save on one occasion which I have before noticed. I remember her saying to me one day, with tears of joy in her ex- pressive eyes, " O Roger ! I do feel very very happy this morning ! I seem to be so near to heaven, that I can almost realize its peace." Precious Ella ! Her ecstatic words made me feel nearer to heaven than I had ever been before. I love to recall that memorable morning ; for though it makes my heart sore, it seems to lift me out of the world for a time. Soon after breakfast I heard that my trusty friend Dr. Bloom had been thrown from his horse and broken his leg. That was troublesome news, for almost at the same time our nurse intimated that the services of the doctor would soon be needed. It was an unexpected dilemma ; but there was no time for deploring it. Another doctor lived close by, who was generally 304 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, acknowledged to be a clever practitioner, when he was not tipsy. I hastened off to his surgery. He was at home, and apparently as sober as I was myself. I ex- plained my errand, and he went with me to my house immediately. It was a protracted case Throughout that day and night, and until ten o'clock the next night, my anxiety was great. I kept in my shop, but I did my work as it were mechanically. At length I was told that I was blessed with a fine little daughter, and I almost danced for joy. Presently the doctor came downstairs, and after congratulating me in a few words he went away. I fancied he did not walk steadily, but I was too much excited to observe anything very carefully. Half an hour afterwards my servant maid ran into the shop, and said that the nurse wished me to go upstairs directly. I almost flew up into the chamber, and my first glance at dear Ella alarmed me ; but I made a desperate effort to appear calm, for her eyes were fixed upon me. As I stooped down to kiss her white lips, she feebly gasped, " Roger, dear ! I am dying." " O Ella ! my precious wife ! do not say that again. You are faint, love," I said in a tone of assumed cheer- fulness, and I put my arm tenderly under her drooping head while I administered some medicine, which I hoped would be a restorative. " Yes — dearest Roger ! I am — go — ing to — heaven ! Take care — of our dear babe — and — follow me — home ! " Those were her last wordsi They were uttered slowly, ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 305 but very distinctly, and there was an emphasis on the word Jwine which has vibrated on my heart ever since. I will not trust my pen even to hint, more than it has already done, at the cause of my beloved wife's untimely end, nor will I try to describe my gloomy home life for the ensuing nine months. Every room in my house seemed to be emptied of comfort. The declining state of my health at length became an anxiety to my friends, and Dr. Bloom gently insisted on my withdrawing from business, and taking a thorough change for awhile ; so I resolved to go to Sydney. I had before placed my darling infant in charge of a respectable married couple at Toorak, and Mrs. Moss and Mrs. Benson kindly offered to see that she was well cared for. Nelly Moss said, that if her mamma would allow her, she would go out every Wednesday half- holiday during my absence, and nurse dear little Emma. It cost me a struggle to leave her, and I never till then knew what a strong natural tie binds an infant to a loving father's heart. I went to Sydney, and soon a marked improvement was noticeable in my haggard fiice, and I felt that my strength was returning. One afternoon I went for a drive in a safety cab ; some street noise frightened the young horse (which I dare say was fresh from the bush), and he ran away and upset the cab. I was severely hurt, and was carried to my lodgings insensible. In the next chapter I shall say a little about my peculiar experience during the wearisome time that I was again laid up with fractured X 3o6 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, bones. After I recovered from the accident, I returned to Melbourne ; and before resuming my business duties I went to stay a fortnight at Toorak, in the house of the young couple who had charge of my infant. Part of that time will always be green in my memory, I used to walk about the garden among the flowers with my precious daughter, who could run alone and was just able to lisp simple words. I would sit for hours together under the shade of a spreading acacia tree, nursing little Emma and fondly picturing days and years of future happiness when my darling grew up to womanhood. What a cheering companion she would be to me ! How she would sooth and comfort me, and strive to supply the love of wife and sister, which I so sorely missed ! What a delight it would be to me to watch the development of her personal charms, and the expanding of her precocious intellect ! Ah me ! none of those fond anticipations were to be realized ; but I must hasten to the close of this sad chapter. A lady came to the house one afternoon. She wore a French merino dress, and she carried the germs ot death in its ample folds, for she had just before been on a visit to a house where some children were ill with scarlatina. I dare not repeat the plain words that Dr. Bloom vociferated against the lady for coming to the house and fondling my infant, nor tell how severely he condemned all the tribe of busybodies who go gossiping about the bedsides of fever-stricken patients, and then carry infection into other homes. I certainly think the said lady was thoughtless, but she was not ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 307 unkind. Sadly I state that my precious child took scarlatina on the very evening of the lady's visit, and all Dr. Bloom's special skill in fever cases could not avert the fatal effects of the disease. My darling died in my arms, after a season of such intense suffering that I was thankful to see her released, though it was a double wrench to my heart which words cannot describe. My late beloved wife and child are lying in one grave in the Melbourne General Cemetery. A white marble slab marks the place of their burial ; but I should know it without such a landmark. It is a sacred spot, where I have spent many meditative hours, both by day and by night. The subjoined beautiful verse is the epitaph: " Yet these new rising from the tomb, In lustre brighter far shall shine ; Revive, with ever during bloom, Safe from diseases and decline." CHAPTER XXVII. " One woe doth tread upon another's heels, So fast they follow." — Shakespeare. I CANNOT just now think of any way in which I might have aroused my Cousin Saul's feelings more quickly than I did the other night by innocently questioning his literary taste. He could not stand that, and we had a sad quarrel. I will soon explain all that it is necessary to say about the affair. Saul has several times lately complained that my story was getting too solemnly didactic to be popular, and he wished me to let him " spice it up," as he calls it, with some fanciful sketches from my diary of incidents of my travels. He said that such a collection of natural and sensational facts and scraps as I have in my note-book are as handy to an author as leather chips are to a cobbler, or as wooden skewers are to a butcher, and it is a sin to waste them. He was very cross because I declined to let him ransack my diary. It would be painful to me to see a chapter of his racy comments on things in general, just after my sad account of the death of my poor wife and child, and I told him so. He completely lost his temper ; and after abusing me and my book in words which any conscientious reviewer would shudder at, he took him- ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 309 self ofif, and I think he has gone to the diggings again. I am not very sorry to part with him, for of late I have dreaded his censorian visits almost as much as if he were a surgeon coming to take out my weak eye. No doubt I shall miss his literary help, now that I have got used to it, but I shall be happily free from the peculiar worry which a nagging companion always causes to a sensitive mind. Peace I must have, or I cannot work at all. Chesterfield says : "Wit is a very unpopular denomina- tion, as it carries terror along with it ; and people in general are as much afraid of a live wit in company as a woman is of a gun, which she thinks may go off of itself and do her mischief" My Cousin Saul is a wit, and I verily believe that he would not hesitate to scarify his own brother — let alone his cousin — for the sake of a new joke or a thrilling surprise. I told him on one occasion, when he was trying to show me the distinc- tion between allowable hyperbole and wicked lies in a moral book, that I would never ignore truth, modesty, friendship, or any other virtue, for all the literary popu- larity in the world ; on which he playfully remarked, "You have no more poetry in you, Roger, than a working bullock." " I cannot help that, cousin," I said ; " and I don't care much about my lack in that way, so long as I have honesty and common sense." The salutary effect of change of air and change ot scene on persons suffering from bodily or mental afiflic- 3IO LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, tion has been gratefully acknowledged by hosts of patients besides myself. I do wish I could devise some happy plan of making my experience in that way helpful to poor invalids who arc unable, from want of means, to try a change from their murky town or city homes to the pure air and enlivening peacefulness of the country. How glad I should feel this evening, as I sit writing, if I could be assured that some rich lady or gentleman will be influenced by this paragraph — when it is printed — to kindly furnish the means to a poor sick neighbour for a month's change into the green country ! From Melbourne to Sydney is about as striking a change as it would be from London to Colchester, or some other pretty inland borough in England. I do not mean to say that there is so great a difference in the size of Melbourne and Sydney, but the latter is more homelike to me, and there is less dash observable in its social life than there is in its handsome young sister city. Dr. Bloom showed his unselfish kindness, as well as his good judgment, when he recommended me to go to Sydney for a change. It was like throwing away his fees, but he knew that the trip would do me more good than all the physic he could prescribe. Blessings on the heads of doctors who study the weal of their patients more than they do their own pockets ! I have met with some good men of that disposition in my travels. I meant to have stayed in Sydney only a few weeks ; but I was, as I before stated, upset in a runaway cab, and broke my left arm and my right leg, so I was ROGER LARKS WAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 311 obliged to lie in bed quietly for several months. I lodged all the time at Mrs. Dyke's house. There was a Miss Pikey staying there, who had lately come from England. She said she was visiting Australia for the purpose of studying the manners of colonial society— to write a book, I suppose. She was not young, and had evidently seen much of the world, for she was very shrewd. After my accident she showed so much sisterly sympathy for me, that I could not but feel thankful. Nothing perhaps stirs up a man's grati- tude so much as kind attention from a woman in times of severe bodily and mental trial. An old song says, "The touch of a gentle hand sorrow will remove." I have no doubt it is true to a certain extent. Miss Pikey was very attentive to me. She often sat in my room for hours together and read to me, and tried to raise my drooping spirits by many other cheerful acts of kindness. By degrees she gained my confidence, and I told her all my troubles. She urged me to look upon her as a sister, and to use a brother's freedom with her. She was not prepossessing in her looks, but her manner towards me was soft and kind and soothing. It is no wonder that I enjoyed her company ; for it is very monotonous for a man to lie flat on his back without moving an inch, for months on a stretch. I wish now that I had kept my tongue as still as I kept my broken limbs, or that I had been less communicative to Miss Pikey ; but she had a peculiar way of drawing me out, and I thought she was honest and artless. I was as innocent as any brother on earth of a desire or inten- 312 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, tion to make love to her. How could I possibly think of such a thing, while my heart was still bleeding for the loss of my precious Ella? I confess that I kissed Miss Pikey when I parted from her for good, but that was a mere formal salute. Soon after my return to Victoria I wrote to her, and gave her — in the fulness of my heart — an account of the death of my darling child. She sent me a tender, sympa- thising letter by return of post, and enclosed some verses of her own composition, on " My infant in heaven." It was only right and courteous for me to write and thank her for her poetry ; and I did so with honest warmth. I subsequently received other letters from her ; but having many troublesome matters to engage my thoughts, I omitted to write to her again ; indeed, I never meant to keep up a correspondence with her. My astonishment and vexation may be imagined, when I received a letter rather sharply remonstrating with me on my neglect. I did not answer that letter; and soon afterwards I received another, imperatively calling upon me to fulfil my promise of marriage. Without taking time to coolly reflect on the danger of penning words that might be produced as evidence against me, I wrote her an indignant reply, hoping it would extinguish her love ; and that shows how little 1 know about an over-warm woman's nature. The next letter I received was from her lawyer, informing me that he intended to commence an action against me for breach of promise of marriage, unless I chose to pay his client, Maud Pikey, two thousand pounds, and professional costs. ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 313 I was very much upset. How could I be otherwise ? I felt a delicacy in speaking to any of my friends about it ; so I carried the dead weight, I may say, of my fresh trouble in my own breast. I soon had another unexpected trouble on top of it, and that was the last straw, or faggot, that broke me down ; and as a busi- ness man I have never got up again. I will explain it all as well as I can ; but it is not a pleasant retrospect. I before stated that I had a competent assistant. John Sams was his name. I got him direct from the ship that he arrived in from London, so I felt assured that he had no colonial nonsense about him. His testimonials were flattering. He was a remarkably quiet young man ; indeed, no one would have supposed that he was a chemist's assistant, he was so placid. I thought he was the most unselfish man I had ever met with in trade ; for he was always willing to stay in the shop and take the work off my hands, and he was most attentive and conciliating to customers. When I told him that I hoped to be able to increase his salary next year, he said he was quite satisfied with what I paid him. I never met with a man who seemed to care less for money than he did, or one who spent so little on himself Besides, he was very sympathising — or at least I thought so, for I have often noticed tears in his eyes when he saw me sorrowing over my bereavement. I placed unbounded confidence in him. It was just at the period for my second annual stock- taking, that I received the harassing letter from Miss Pikey's lawyer. Mr. Sams saw that something was 314 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, troubling me, and he said he was willing to take stock without my help ; he would work day and night at it. I thought it was generous of him to make the offer, but I would not agree to it ; for I considered it would be imposing on his good nature. We took stock ; and after summing up carefully, I found, to my surprise and chagrin, that I was not much better off than when I first opened shop. Mr. Sams seemed astonished, and said he could not account for it. Perplexed beyond measure, I went off to tell my new trouble to Mr. Moss. He looked carefully over the balance sheet, which I carried with me, and then he said emphatically, and with a look of real pity, — " I will give you my opinion in a few plain words, Roger. That shopman of yours has been robbing you." " Do you think so, sir ? " " Yes, I certainly do, and I believe you think so. The truth is, I have suspected, for some months past, that the fellow was a schemer ; but I had no means of testing his honesty. The first time I mistrusted him, was soon after you left for Sydney. When he was telling me how deeply he felt for your sorrows, there was a roguishly cunning look in his eyes which I was afraid of; and I thought to myself, If you are not a thief, Mr. Sams, your looks just now belie you. Now I advise you, Roger, to go and start him off at once. Get rid of the robber before he murders you." " But I think it is my bounden duty to bring him to justice. It is not fair to let a thief loose on society." ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 31S " How can you prove that he is one ? " "This miserable balance-sheet is enough to prove it, sir, I am positive that my business has incressed rather than fallen off for the last twelve months." " True ; but all that does not amount to legal proof that Sams has robbed you. You cannot touch him, and he knows it, the wily rogue. Go home and dis- charge him directly. That is the best thing you can do; and mind you do it quietly, quarrelling with such a fellow would only injure yourself." I went home, and by a strong effort I managed to say calmly to Mr. Sams, " I shall not require your services any more. You must leave my house immediately." " Very good, sir," he replied, in his usual snivelling tone ; and without another word he left the shop, and went to his room to pack up his effects. I sent an advertisement to the newspapers for another assistant ; and the next forenoon I had several ap- plicants. I engaged the smartest-looking young man in the lot. He had a strong recommendation for ability from some chemist at Ballarat. Two days afterwards, Mr. Sams walked demurely into the shop, and asked me to give him a written certificate of character. In an instant my indignation bubbled over, and I shouted to him, as I pointed to the door, " Walk out of my shop instantly, or I'll thump the life out of you, you abominable rogue ! " That was all I said, but it was more than I could afford to say, for each hard word cost me nearly fifty pounds. I was very much excited, and I did not reflect until it 31 6 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, was half a minute too late. Sams shuffled off at once, no doubt pleased at the success of his speculation. I then put on my hat and went off to Rose Villa. I stopped there several hours, for I wished to see Mr. Moss to tell him what had just occurred ; but he did not come home that evening. When I returned to my shop at nine o'clock, I found my new assistant lying down be- hind the counter, drunk. I went for a policeman and had him carried away to the lock-up. Because I unfortunately happened to get two bad specimens of the genus, I by no means wish to under- rate chemists' assistants in general. My third was one of the right sort — a young man of principle, and thoroughly trustworthy. I am sure he would say that I was not a bad master ; at all events, he would give me credit for lightening his Sunday work as much as I possibly could. I have no doubt that with his talented co-operation, my trade would have revived again ; but I seemed to have lost all heart and energy for business. I longed to get into some pleasant nook in the country, where I could be quiet for awhile and rest my heart. Mr. Sams soon brought an action for defamation against me. He had my late sottish assistant as a witness, and he swore terribly hard. No doubt he was paid for it ; besides, it gave him a nice chance of paying me the grudge he owed me for putting him in the lock- up. Sams got a verdict and ^^ 150 damages. The law costs were nearly ^100 more. It will be a lifelong warning to me, to "hold my tongue." About the same time I got notice of action, at suit ROGER LARKSWAY 'S STRANGE MISSION. 317 Pikey versus Larksway. In a desperate spirit of resist- ance, I vowed that I would not let all my honest creditors' money go into the pockets of swindlers ; so first of all I sold my business to a ready-money purchaser. I made the more haste over that bargain, because I heard that Mr. Sams was going to open a shop in the neighbourhood. I sold the section of land which had belonged to poor Ella, for ready cash, and I paid Mr. Moss, and every other creditor in full ; then I went to Sydney to defend the lawsuit. Some friends of the plaintiff came to me on the evening that I landed from the steamer, and proposed that I should settle the case amicably, namely, by paying all law costs and giving the plaintiff a moderate compensation ; but I sternly replied that I would be skinned alive before I would pay Miss Pikey even the price of a brass bodkin. It was a vexatious suit for me, though it afforded much amusement to the crowded court, and some nice sensa- tional stuff for the newspapers. Miss Pikey lost her case ; and I should guess from her miserable appearance in court, that she was very sorry she had been persuaded to sue me for damages, and make a show of herself I have heard some talkative persons say that "they never did anything they were ashamed of." I should be ashamed to say as much as that for myself, because it would be untrue ; but I can honestly affirm that I never did half as many wickedly mischievous tricks as the counsel for the plaintiff tried, in his cross-examination, to make me confess to. He ransacked my history down to my school-days ; and any simple-minded person in the 31 S LAUNCHING AWAY. court might have conchidcd that I was a suspicious character, if not a downright rogue ; for I could not possibly help getting confused sometimes, and making mistakes in my answers to the many very cross ques- tions that were put to me. Miss Pikey's' antecedents too, came in for a searching investigation by the learned counsel for the defence. Her virtues got a thorough sifting ; and vexed enough I was to see her subjected to the humiliating ordeal ; for though I consider that she acted foolishly and unkindly, and caused me no end of worry, yet in all fairness I will say I do not believe that she was such a depraved woman as my barrister emphatically declared her to be. His address to the jury grated on poor Miss Pikey's virgin fame, like a baker's rasp on a French roll ; and I really blushed for the seeming lack of gallantry in my learned counsel, liut he did not seem to care what he said, and there was no more signs of blushing about his face than there is in a plaster bust of Napoleon Buonaparte. I have reason to believe that Miss Pikey was the dupe of a plausible mischief-making fellow, at that time well known in the colony, and who was notorious for instigating simple folks to go to law and fool away their money. CHAPTER XXVIII. " Round our path and round our bed Angels ever watch and wait." — Anon. On my return from Sydney, after the harassing law proceedings which I have briefly noticed, I was in a weak state of health, and my doctor said it was neces- sary for me to rest awhile to recruit my strength. He advised me to get into some suburban locality, away from the whirl of business affairs, but where I could see a little pleasant society occasionally. At the recom- mendation of a friend, I went to lodge for a month or two in the house of a homely, respectable family, near Emerald Hill. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson were from the north of Scotland, and had been several years in Aus- tralia. They had an interesting family of young chil- dren, whom they were " training up in the way they should go." Both Mr. Robinson and his wife had seen much trouble and sorrow, so they knew how to sym- pathise with me in my varied afflictions ; and I have often been cheered and helped by their intelligent. Christian counsel. They had also several relatives in the neighbourhood — exemplary people — to whom I was introduced ; and I rightly estimated the honour. It is indeed a privilege to me to have some nice 319 320 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, friends with whom I can occasionally spend an hour pleasantly and profitably. I have an unconquerable dislike to domestic gossip, which often means scandal ; and I think I would almost as soon be out on a common in a moderate snowstorm, as be sitting by the fire indoors, if I were obliged to listen to a company of confirmed newsmongers. But I do dearly love a little easy chit-chat about things in general, or the social and religious news of the world. One way that I like to spend a fine leisure day, is to start out soon after break- fast for a day's ramble in the bush or by the sea-side. If I can get two genial companions, so much the better ; for then the talking, if fairly divided, comes easier to one whose lungs are not over strong. But if I cannot get two companions, I am glad to get one, of the right sort. I am always willing to carry my own share of the day's provisions, and also to do my fair share of the talking. Many a day's real enjoyment I have had in that way in Australia, with valued friends, some of whom have ceased their earthly rambling, and others are now living in distant lands, and perhaps have nearly forgotten me and " the days when we went gipsying." During my resting time at Emerald Hill, it was not always practicable to find a nice companion who had a day to spare ; so I often took a stroll by myself. One of my favourite haunts was the Melbourne cemetery. There arc many "sermons in stones " in that secluded retreat ; and the solemn quietude of the place was always soothing to my wearied spirit. Another fa- vourite resort of mine was the Melbourne Botanic ROGER LARKS WAYS STRANGE MISSION. 321 Gardens. I usually returned homeward by way of Richmond Bridge, and along the northern bank of the charming Yarra to Princes Bridge, and then took a car to Emerald Hill. But there are many other walks in the suburbs of Melbourne that were delightsome to me for their rural quietude, and also for the English-like appearance of some of the gardens and hedges about the many ornate homesteads. One afternoon I returned to my lodgings, after a prolonged visit to the cemetery ; and on entering the parlour my hostess and a lady friend of hers were sitting there, and I thought they were discussing some tender subject, for they were both shedding tears. I apologised for intruding, and was about to retire to my bedroom ; but Mrs. Robinson begged me to stay, and she introduced me to her friend, Mrs. Foster. " We were just then talking of my darling child in heaven, Mr. Larksway," said my hostess ; " you will remember I told you a little about her the other day. This lady was dear Eva's governess ; and she could tell you that I have not overstated my sweet child's amiable qualities." Any reference to a child in heaven was attractive to me, for it reminded me of my own sainted infant, whom I had parted with just as her innocent blue eyes were beginning to look at me with loving intelligence. So I sat and listened with real interest, while Mrs. Foster descanted affectionately on the precocious virtues of her late favourite pupil, Eva ; who I judged was about five years of age. Y 322 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, " You know, Mrs. Foster, I once told you of the pre- sentiment I had, that my darling Eva was not long for this world," said Mrs. Robinson, with increasing emotion. " I never saw a child of her age of such an uniformly gentle, heaven-like disposition." " She was, indeed, a most amiable little girl ; and I can truthfully say that I never had her equal in my school," responded Mrs. Foster. For ten minutes or so, poor Eva's mother and her late governess exchanged tender memories of the dear departed one ; and while I sat and listened to them, I was trying to recall the loving features of my own precious infant, whose grave I had recently visited. Presently an allusion to a mysterious occurrence at Eva's death so excited my curiosity, that I asked Mrs. Robinson to give me the particulars of it. (I may here state that I am giving assumed names, and my memory will not serve me to relate the incident precisely as it was told to mc ; but allowing for those variations, it is substantially true.) After partially recovering her usual composure of manner, Mrs. Robinson said, " My dear Eva was coming home from school one afternoon, when she was met by a boy leading a fierce dog by a chain. The boy be- haved in a rude way to her ; and upon her resisting him as well as she was able, he threatened to make his dog bite her. Poor Eva ran away very much frightened, and did not cease running until she reached home. Her father immediately went out in search of the boy, but could not find him. Eva did not go to school again ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 323 for a day or two, and then I took her there. I meant to have fetched her home, but some other duty pre- vented me. At the usual time in the afternoon Eva came home, looking excited but not alarmed ; on the contrary, there was a peculiarly joyous expression on her face which strangely impressed me. As soon as she entered the house, she said to me, ' O mamma ! I have seen such a beautiful man ! ' " ' Have you, m.y dear ? Who was he } ' I asked, and I took her up in my arms and kissed her. " ' Oh, I don't know who he was, ma ! He had such very bright eyes, and he looked at me all the way home.' " ' Where did you first see him, my dear .-' ' " ' I saw him at the corner, opposite the school. I was running home, for I was afraid of the boy with the big dog, and I saw the beautiful man. I don't know which way he came, ma.' " ' What did he say to you, Eva ? ' " ' I didn't hear him speak, ma ; but he looked so very, very kind at me. Oh, I wish you had seen him, ma ! He was so beautiful ! ' " ' Was he walking beside you, my love .-' ' "' Yes, ma ; and he wore a long dress. Very, very white it was ! ' " ' But you know, my dear, that clouds are sometimes white, and they look something like men and women .'' Don't you remember you have told me that you often fancy you see pictures in the clouds ? ' " * Yes, mamma, I know I have ; but the beautiful man was not up in the clouds. He was almost close to 324 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, me, and he was near me till I came inside our front gate.' "' Did you not feel afraid of him, dear? ' " ' No, mamma ; I did not feel afraid. I thought he would not let the big dog bite me.' " Question the dear girl as I would, her testimony was not in the least degree shaken," continued Mrs. Robinson. "After that she did not seem timid of going to school alone ; still, I thought it was better to send some one with her, and I always took that precaution. A few months after the strange event she was taken ill. Despite all our care, and the best medical skill we could get, her disease baffled our efforts ; and at length all hope of saving her life was gone. Our darling Eva — the light of our home and the idol of our heart — was to be taken from us. On the night she died, I was watch- ing beside her cot in this very room. Every little event of that mournful time I remember as distinctly as if it were but yesterday. The gas Avas turned down low, and the Venetian shutters outside were closed. It was near midnight, when Eva opened lier eyes and gazed towards that window. I shall never forget the sweet expression of her face when she whispered to me with her dying breath, ' Oh, mamma ! Look ! look ! There is the beautiful man again at the window ! ' Those were the last words my sainted child uttered in this world. Soon afterwards she died in my arms." I freely confess that I know comparatively nothing about modern spiritualist mysteries ; and I believe poor ROGER LARKS WAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 3^5 Eva's mother knew no more about them than I do ; so . I can confidently say, there is nothing of that sort of philosophy connected with her touching little story. I am equally certain that good Mrs. Robinson did not in- vent it with a sensational object (sedate Presbyterians are not often that way inclined), and if it was only a delusion of dear Eva's excited brain, I must say it was one of the most happy delusions that I ever heard of a child experiencing. I have ventured to put the incident into my book, because I feel sure it cannot do any harm ; and \t may, perhaps, help to point some bereaved mother's drooping spirit to the home where her darling child has gone before. "There is a special Providence watching over chil- dren." I have heard that axiom quoted with a sort of playful composure by parents who are not over-careful in looking after their young families. Of course I be- lieve the axiom is true ; for if it 'were not for a kind, protecting Providence, there would be sudden deaths and mutilations every minute of the day among the hosts of young children who are allowed to stray and play about the streets everywhere. We certainly do hear now and then of a child being accidentally killed or maimed in some way, but such disasters are wonder- fully rare considering the number of poor children who have no attendant nurses and no playgrounds but the public highways. I remember some years ago seeing a picture in a shop window in Sydney which much interested me. It repre- sented a pretty little infant boy of two or three years J 26 LAUNCHING AWAY. old, who had strayed to the verge of a mountahi preci- pice. He was stretching his hand out to pluck a flower that was growing over a chasm ; and it would have made one shudder to see the awfully dangerous position of the child; but there was an angelic form floating, as it were, on the air, with its hands spread out to catch the child if it fell, or to bear it up and save it from falling. " lie shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands." Those Divine promises came to my mind as I gazed at the picture. I wish now that I had bought it. A child belonging to a family that I knew fell from an upper window on to a paved yard, and she was not seriously injured ; and a little girl, the daughter of a missionary from the South Sea Islands, fell from the balcony of a house a few doors from where I lived in Sydney, and she was not hurt in the least. I have often looked at the lofty balcony, and asked myself the ques- tion, ** If it were not a special interposition of Provi- dence which saved that child from being killed or seriously injured, what was it that did save her?" I could give many other examples of a providential guardianship over children, if my testimony were needed. I firmly believe in the doctrine. But while I would gladly try to cheer and encourage parents who are doing their best to keep their children out of harm's way, and to train them up in the way they should go, I should be sorry to pen a single line that might induce careless parents to leave to a *' special Providence " what is manifestly their duty to do themselves. CHAPTER XXIX. " Gold ! gold ! gold ! gold ! Bright and yellow and hard and cold."— Hood. It is about seven weeks since I finished the preceding chapter. In the meantime a change has taken place in my circumstances which will put a stop to my literary work for awhile. No one will suppose that I regret it when they know of my rare good fortune. I am almost too excited to explain it all in a common-sense way. I could more easily write about my ill luck for years past, for I am so well acquainted with it. In my first chapter I alluded to a chancery suit that I had then pending. I have always been rather chary of mentioning it, for poor persons who have chancery suits are continually hearing annoying old jokes about " Paddy's rope," and other queer things that are sup- posed to have no end to them. But I have no dread of stale jokes of that sort now, for my long-pending case has come to a satisfactory close. About three years after dear Ella's death I was at the Castlemaine diggings. I had a share in a deep claim with several other young men. One day I came up the shaft at about dinner-time, and was sitting in a hut with my mates, when my eyes accidentally caught sight of an 327 328 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, advertisement in an old copy of the Age newspaper, in which half a Dutch cheese was wrapped. I took up the paper and read as follows: "John Cameron Campbell. If the above-named gentleman, who left Scotland for Australia about the year 1S38, be still living, he will hear of something greatly to his advantage by communicat- ing with ]\Iessrs. McPhce and Co., Edinburgh. Any person who can give authentic proofs of the decease of the said John Cameron Campbell will please communi- cate with Mr. John Coke, solicitor, Collins Street, Mel- bourne." It was impossible for me to avoid showing excite- ment, but I did not explain to my mates what had affected me so suddenly, and I allowed them to conclude that I had some bodily ailment. Instead of going below to work again, I told them I was going to Melbourne to get some advice. They did not demur to my going, so I dressed in ni}' best clothes and off I started. The next morning I went to see Mr. Coke. I told him in a plain, straightforward way what I knew about the late John Cameron, and that I had married his only daughter, who was deceased. Mr. Coke said he would like to see documentary proofs of the facts I had stated ; so I ran off to I\Ir. Benson's house and got my writing desk (the one that had belonged to Cameron) and car- ried it to Mr. Coke's office. He seemed pleased at my honest trustfulness, and asked me to leave the desk just as it was, and call again to-morrow. When I called again he received mc very pleasantly, and said that my proofs seemed satisfactory so far as they extended. ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 329 but that the certificate of Mr. Campbell's marriage with Miss Clara Bond, and the proofs of her decease, were wanting. Those were the missing links ; and if they were supplied, he thought the evidence would be con- clusive, and my heirship would be acknowledged. I will not give the details of my troublesome journey, the second time, to Mr. Jerry Badkin's house, nor of my tedious and expensive negotiation with him and his tricky wife. I will simply state that after the exercise of much tact and patience, I got Clara's marriage certifi- cate, and the district coroner's certificate of her death. I hastened back to Melbourne, and handed the papers to Mr. Coke. He then said he would forward all my documentary evidence to Scotland, and would communi- cate with me as soon as he received a reply to his bud- get. I left him my address, and then went back to the diggings, after two months' absence, and resumed my groping labour in the bowels of the earth. By the way, what a chilling difference there was between my hard, daily routine as a gold digger, and the enticing picture my fancy had conjured up of the work before I had even seen a deep mining shaft ! It was almost as striking as the difference between the real drudgery of writing my book, and the poetical ideas I indulged in about author- ship before I tried to compose my first page. " Things are not what they seem." About a year after I had returned to Castlemaine, I received a letter from Mr. Coke requesting an interview with me. I hastened to Melbourne again, and then I was told that the paper I received from Mr, Bad kin was 330 LAUNCHING AWAY: OR. the certificate of marriage of a Jolin Cameron to Clara Bond ; in short, the proofs had been disputed by the executors of the will of the testator, Mr. Angus Camp- bell, and his estate had been thrown into chancery. I did not then quite understand the meaning of that signi- ficant legal term ; but I have since had leisure to study the thing more than enough, for my estate has remained in chancery nearly twelve years. In the meantime I have had numberless interviews with Mr. Coke ; and I have explained the whole par- ticulars of Cameron's motive for dropping his patrony- mic. Nothing could be logically clearer than I made that simple circumstance to appear on paper ; still, the Master in Chancery could not sec it. His lordship's obtuseness was really marvellous to my honest senses. Relying on the justness of my claim, I have secretly clung to the hope that I should one day get my rights ; but the day of decision seemed to be intolerably slow in its approach, and I own that I sometimes encouraged heathenish opinions of British law. I once made up my mind to go to Scotland and plead my own cause in person ; but I was dissuaded from the step by Mr. Coke, who moreover had possession of my papers, and politely declined to part with them until his costs were paid. For years I have been battling with poverty, and the fight seemed doubly hard to me, knowing that I was the rightful heir to a lot of money, which the law, through its lazy, tortoise-like movements, was keeping me from enjoying. It is no wonder if I have grown rather fretful of late. ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 331 That was the tantalizing state of my affairs until the arrival of the last Suez Mail, on Tuesday week. I shall not forget that day in a hurry. While I was in the act of writing a conciliatory letter to Saul, and urging him to come and help me to finish off my long story, so that I might raise a little money on the manuscript, I received a note from Mr. Coke asking me to call on him without delay, as he had some pleasing news to communicate. I was very soon at his office, and there I learnt that my chancery suit had been decided the right way, and I was the acknowledged heir to the real and personal estates of the late Mr. Angus Campbell, of Ayrshire. Furthermore, Mr. Coke informed me that he had authority to furnish me with any ready money I required. The good news nearly knocked my legs from under me. On that morning I had not a shilling in my pocket, nor had I left any money at my lodgings ; more- over I was faint for want of a good meal. I timidly asked Mr. Coke if he could let me have ten pounds. I thought I had asked for too much, and I was just going to say five pounds would do, if he could not spare any more, when he said, " You may have ten thousand pounds, if you like, Mr. Larksway ; or twice that sum if you really wish for it to-day." I was so thoroughly stunned that I burst out crying. But it was only a temporary outgush of feeling, the next minute I was laughing at the idea of my crying over a princely fortune. Mr, Coke smiled at me pleasantly, and said, " I think 332 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, you had better let me pay a little money — say a thousand pounds or so — to your account for immediate use. Where do you bank, sir ? " " Oh, my dumps ! Ha ! ha ! bank indeed ! I have had nothing to do with bankers for many years past. But say the * Commercial,' I like to encourage colonial institutions. Perhaps you would not mind giving me fifty pounds at once, Mr. Coke ? " " Oh, certainly — by all means ! " said the obliging lawyer. He took up his pen and wrote a cheque in a minute, and then told the clerk to run across to the bank and get the cash for me. " Please to get gold, will you, Mr. Gill V I said to the young man. " Notes have a musty smell — like cat's meat." Mr. Coke smiled again at me. I dare say he thought I was soon getting fastidious. Presently the clerk re- turned with fifty new sovereigns in a small linen bag, which I put into my pocket. I then shook hands very heartily with Mr. Coke and his clerk, and away I went to my humble lodgings in a state of wild excitement, which perhaps was mistaken by some strangers who passed me for the influence of drink. My dinner was waiting for me when I got home ; and my landlady said she feared it was cold. " How much do I owe you, Mrs. Goody ? " I asked, stopping her apology for the cold sheep's tail and pumpkin on the table. "Let us see, sir. Two pounds for a month's rent, and eighteen pence for your coals, and ninepence for — " kOGER LARKSIVAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 33^ "Never mind totting up any more items ; hold your apron up," I said, and I shot out about half the contents of the linen bag, without counting it. " There, take that to begin with, ma'am." The dear old lady staggered back for a pace or two, and looked as scared as if the sovereigns were live cockroaches. "Don't drop it, Mrs. Goody. It is all honest money, never fear ! I have got my fortune at last, and I mean to spend it like a man. Hurrah ! — ' Oh, hard times, come again no more ! ' " " Bless my soul ! " exclaimed the kind old creature, who seemed to be quite mystified at my strange be- haviour, it was so unusual for me to shout and sing ; for years past I had hardly spirit enough to sneeze. "Don't be frightened, ma'am ! Let me explain every- thing in a few words. I have been long waiting for a chancery suit to end. It is ended at last, and I am a rich man. That's all about it. I am a little bit excited over it just nov\^ ; but I shall cool down presently." " I am very thankful indeed to hear it, sir," she replied, warmly. " I am sure you deserve something rich, for you know what it is to want." " Indeed I do know it, Mrs. Goody ; and I should have known worse straits if it had not been for your kindness. You have often made shifts, rather than dun me for money when you knew I was very poor. Now I promise that you shall never know what poverty is 334 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, again. Don't weep, my clear old friend ! You have been almost as kind as a mother to me, and I will never forget you, so cheer up ! Go and spend all that money this afternoon. Ikiy yourself a lot of new clothes and some blankets. Don't be afraid to spend the money ; I'll give you plenty more, to-morrow. You shall have a new carpet for your parlour, and everything else you want to make you snug and comfortable for life. Never mind thanking me any more to-day ; I shall have some time to spare next week." I was too much excited to eat my dinner, so I sat down and finished the letter I had half written to Saul, and begged him to come to me immediately. I gave the little boy next door a shilling to run with the letter to Saul's lode:inG:s. I meant to have a bit of fun with my crusty cousin before I told him of my good fortune. In less than an hour Saul entered my room. I knew he would be glad enough to come to me if I asked him ; still, it was not in his disposition to look pleasant after a long sulk, without a deal of coaxing. He first lighted his pipe, and then he asked me what I wanted with him in such a scalding hot hurry. " Ha, ha 1 look at this, Saul," I said, and I shook the little bag and made the new sovereigns tinkle like fairy music. I thought that the sound of the best kind of current coin would put him in a good humour in a minute ; but, to my surprise, he got almost as excited as if I had thrown a mullful of Scotch snuff into his eyes, and he exclaimed fiercely, " l^y Jemmy ! if you have sold that manuscript, Roger, I'll summons you to ROGER LARA'S WAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 335 court for swindling. One-third of it belongs to me, and I'll have it out of you too." " Tut tut ! bother the manuscript ! " I said, and I took the packet out of a closet and tossed it to him. He caught it, and then sat down looking as puzzled as a boy at some clever conjuring trick. It was so strange for me to exhibit a bagful of sovereigns that it fairly staggered him. I could not keep my spirits down any longer, so I said, " Saul, my boy ! What do you think ? My precious chancery suit is ended, and I am a wealthy man. Ha, ha ! I am as rich as old — what's-his-name, of Carlton. Mr. Coke sent for me this morning to tell me the news. I told you it would come to pass." I think I would sooner have a full-length portrait of Saul (if it were possible to get it), as he appeared at that moment, than I would have the second best picture in the Melbourne Gallery of Art. It would be one of the most striking exemplifications of the subduing influence of wealth that was ever seen in real life, — a glimpse of him was as impressive as it would be to see a mounted policeman shedding tears. In an instant the bullying scowl slipped off Saul's face, and a Iamb- like or rather a sheepish shyness came over him. He in- stinctively took his hat off, and pushed his pipe all alight into his waistcoat pocket, as if he were ashamed of his impudence in smoking before a rich man, with his dinner on the table. I was not calm enough to reflect on the curious subject just then, neither have I time to write much about it now, but it will be a nice study for me by- and-by. I dare say I shall soon develop into a philo- 336 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, sopher. Rich men often do that, for they have so much encouragement. In figurative words, I may say Saul was struck dumb for a minute or two, and he seemed as humble as a blind beggar. I could not enjoy the sight of his embarrass- ment, though he had so often worried me ; so I extended my hand to him, and said, " Saul, my dear fellow ! Let us bury all past grievances. Now, not another word about them," I added, stopping his stammering apology. " Let us love one another for the future, and forget that we have not always done so in the past. We are blood relations, you know — the only pair of our kin on this side of the world. How are you off for money } " " I have not a single penny, Roger. Downright hard up." " I guessed as much ; but never mind, I have plenty. Here is a sovereign for the present. I hope you won't get drunk with it. I shall want your sober advice presently." " I promise you on the word of a man, that I will not touch a drop of grog this blessed day, cousin." " That's right. Be a man and keep your promise, and then I shall be encouraged to trust you further, I must go now to see my good friends the Mosses and the Bensons, but I shall be back this evening. Will you come here at eight o'clock ? " " Oh yes, cousin ; I will be here at that time. But do you mean to stop in this dingy cottage now you can afford to hire a mansion ? " " I would not pain kind old Mrs. Goody by leaving ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 337 her suddenly ; but as soon as I have seen her house put in comfortable trim, I shall take a suite of apartments at Menzie's or Scott's." I went in a cab to Mr. Benson's, and afterwards to Mr. Moss's. I need not say that those staunch friends were really glad to hear of my good fortune. I had a long chat with them all. In the evening I returned to my lodgings ; and just as the clock was striking eight Saul arrived. I can hardly tell whether I was more astonished at his extreme punctuality, or at his meek style of handling the knocker. Formerly he used to hammer at the door like a tipsy boiler-maker, and make Mrs. Goody jump. I never before heard him give such a modest rat tat. He was quite sober, and was not smoking. His manner was nervously deferential at first, but he soon regained confidence as he saw I was not lofty. After a little talk about town news, I said, " You will not be surprised to hear that I am soon going to Scotland, to look after my property ? " " I hope you will not go away and leave your new book unfinished," he replied in a pleading tone, which sounded very strange to me after my long experience of his rough censorship. I remember that he once told me my manuscript was not worth a bunch of carrots. " Never mind the book, Saul. I am tired of it." " I daresay you are, cousin ; but it would be a sad pity to waste so much labour of your clever brain. Will you allow me to suggest that you publish the manuscript, and state, in a nice modest preface, that the raw material for another book, and a much more spirited one, is on z 338 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, the literary anvil, and only wants hammering into cor- rect shape. And you may safely say the primest parts of your interesting experience are to be written ; for as your very sad subjects are done with, there will be full scope or run for fun and fancy, eh, Roger ? There is always a comical side to poverty, you know ; and there is poetry in an empty pocket." " If so I surely ought to have seen or felt some of its charms. I will think over your suggestion, Saul, when my brain calms down a little. I have ample material for some useful books, and I shall perhaps write them when I have leisure." " As I have often said before, I have no doubt the present book will sell well ; and it is more likely to be remunerative now that you are independent of it ; that is usually the case. But I am going to suggest, Roger, that if you will trust me with your diary or note-book, I will do all the work of the second book while you are away. You shall have no trouble at all." " It is kind of you to make the offer, Saul ; but perhaps I may want to take my diary with me. Will you allow me to offer you a little friendly advice } " " Oh, certainly, cousin. I shall be proud and thank- ful." " Well, then, I hope that while I am away you will settle down into some useful occupation — turn steady, you know, and try to do good in the world. Only think what an influence you might exert among some of the wild young men of Melbourne, if you would hencefor- ward live soberly and religiously. It would delight me ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 339 exceedingly to see you make a fresh start off in the right way, from this very night." " There is not much use in trying to make an old crooked tree grow up straight," remarked Saul gloomily. " That is true, cousin ; you cannot bend an old tree, and there is perhaps not much prospect of turning the course of life-long habits in an old man, though even that is not a hopeless work to attempt. But you are a young man yet, just in your prime ; and suppose you were to live till you are ' threescore years and ten,' what a vast amount of good you might do in the world in forty years ! " Saul sighed again, and looked uncommonly thoughtful ; so I gave him a little more advice of an encouraging sort, and he listened as submissively as if he were one of the little boys in my Sunday-school class. I need not tell all I said to him ; but I am glad to state that before he went away he promised me that he would try to follow out my good counsel. He said he would make a beginning in the right way by being moderate in the use of intoxicants ; and he thought that was one grand step towards a thorough reformation of his whole char- acter. I have not much faith in his moderation scheme ; still, I am willing to accept of any instalment of good from him. When I have more time to spare I will talk to him again, and advise him to try total abstinence. I hope I shall not prejudice any one against my cousin by the somewhat pettish remarks I have made about him in the course of my story. Poor fellow ! 340 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, though he certainly is wild, I do not think he is wholly lacking in good principle, and under other circumstances, perhaps, his virtues might have nobly developed. Un- luckily for him, he brought his capital to Victoria in ready money, and he was an easy prey to the sharpers who are always on the look out for " new chums " of his class. Of course he soon lost his money ; and worse still, he lost his character for sobriety and industry — at any rate, no mercantile firm would venture to give him employment, although he was a very competent clerk, and I think he would have stuck well to his duties if he had got a situation with a considerate master. For the last two years or more he has divided his time between " fossicking," as he calls it, at the diggings, and living at my expense at Melbourne. Surely he has suffered enough for his folly in " letting his best friend creep out of his pocket." That is the expressive way he speaks of losing his money. I have heard many persons ask in a reproachful tone, " Why does not your cousin get something to do ? " I was tempted to say to one of those complainers, " It would be a real kindness if you would help him to get employment, sir ; and I am sure he would be thankful, for he is not a lazy man." I think that suggestion of mine, mildly as I put it, offended the gentleman, who was one of the fault-finding genius, and not a helper of the helpless. I daresay other persons have privately grumbled at me in a similar way for years past, as they have seen me going about threadbare and dejected, earning a precarious livelihood as an itinerant dentist ; ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 341 but not one man in this large city has come to me and kindly inquired into my circumstances, or asked me if he could assist me in any way. Oh ! what a luxury and comfort it would have been to me if a sympathizing friend had kindly put his arm in mine some day and said, " Come and take a walk for half an hour, Larks- way, and tell me what makes you look so dispirited, and show me how I can help you." Any one might have said as much as that to me without fear of my asking him for a loan of money, or of my troubling him very much in any way ; the sympathy was what I wanted — it would have been like balm of Gilead to my sad spirits. But those days of hardship and neglect are gone and past ; perhaps I shall not be slighted now that I am rich. I do trust that the dreary experience I have had may be put to practical use in the world, and that I may be instrumental in leading many poor, downcast, sensitive fellows off the bleak common of poverty, and putting them into a happy way of helping themselves and earning an honest livelihood. If I keep in this Christian-like disposition — if my wealth does not make me unmerciful, selfish, and proud — I hope I may have a very long life ; and though I may not put the world wholly to rights, I will do something towards it. There is no denying the fact that Saul has been very cross with me occasionally ; but no doubt he has had 'much to worry him besides my literary dulness. An insufficiency of wholesome food is naturally irritating to a young man with a strong appetite. Besides, I think I am in a measure to blame for submitting to his con- 342 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, stant nngging, till he has got to believe that I would not go along without it. In a retired country place, where I lived a sort of hermit's life for more than four years, a man used to pass my house almost every day with a donkey and cart. The man invariably walked about two yards in front of the donkey, with his hands behind him and his head bent down, as if he were thinking out some abstruse point in mental philosophy. There was something so uncommon about the man and the animal, that I was curious enough to observe them carefully, as opportunity offered, I found that punctually every three minutes the man would turn half round and shout, " Come up ! " But the gruff command did not seem to influence the donkey, except to make it wag its ears now and then ; it moved on its own even way, and the driver kept his position in front. He was not a surly man, I judged, for he was usually singing in a low minor key, but he stopped his tunc at measured intervals, to growl out, " Come up ! " to the donkey. After studying the two characters for several months, I came to the conclusion that the man systematically shouted to his patient com- panion from mere habit, more than from any idea that it was necessary to do so ; and the donkey had got so used to the stern appeal, that he did not mind it any more than he did the noise of the wheels behind him. Perhaps the poor beast knew that it was hopeless to " attempt to run away, for the cart was usually laden with vegetables, and he thought his best policy was to bear his owner's gruffness quietly. Some unlucky Benedicts ROGER LARA'S JFAY'S STRANGE MISSION: 343 that I have met with were equally patient under the constant home naggings they received, knowing that they could not run away with their load of family re- sponsibilities behind them. I have usually been silent under Saul's rhetorical rasping, and perhaps that has encouraged him to give me more than I deserved. But the poor fellow is sorry enough for it now, I can see ; so if that were any compensation to me, my virtue of patience would be amply rewarded ; and after all, as good Jeremy Taylor says, " Harsh words never broke a man's back." " The smallest dog that e'er bow-wow'd will surely have his day, For that ail canines are allowed — or so the poets say." Saul is extremely anxious for me to leave him my diary. He says that he is sure he can find real sensa- tional plots in it, and facts and fancy enough to make a lot of books, which will sell like paper collars or canned Swiss niilk, or any other pure and useful production of nature or art. I daresay he might find subjects for his active fancy to stretch to any tragical or ludicrous length ; but I know my loving cousin too well to trust him with my private jottings in his present state of mind. If I can help it, my diary shall never go into the hands of any man who is not conscientious and prudent; for I do not want anything that I have penned to do mischief, or to cause pain to any one in the world, after • I have gone hence. I know that a famous phrenologist once examined Saul's head, and found some monstrous bumps or organs, which give him a natural aptness for humorous composition and fanciful mental colouring. 344 LAUNCHING AWAY. I would not undervalue such gifts, for they may be made very useful if kept under good moral control, and guided by religious principle. In this age, when cheap literature of an awfully pernicious character is being extensively circulated, I think it is wise to encourage any man or woman who has the skill and the goodwill to write wholesome, readable books, of an amusing or entertaining kind, which may in some degree counteract the mischief which those positively wicked books are doing to the minds and bodies of millions of young persons all the world over. If the happy change that I am hoping for takes place in Cousin Saul, I shall be delighted to take him into my full confidence, and to let him do as he pleases with some of my voluminous notes of travel and observations on things in general. In the meantime, I must act with proper caution. I mean to entrust this MS. with an old friend, who will see it through the press ; and I shall leave it to his judgment how far to allow Saul to help him in the editorial work. The Rev. Mr. Benson has kindly promised to look after Saul during my absence, and to supply him with funds on my account. I shall be very glad if the good advice and example of that gentleman should induce a thorough reform in my clever but wayward cousin, and help him to properly estimate the value of a good cha- racter. CHAPTER XXX. " Glories, like glowworms, afar off shine bright, But seen too near, give neither heat nor light." — ]Vt'bsfcr. I AM now preparing for my voyage to Europe, and am rather flurried, which is perhaps natural enough under the circumstances. Many congratulatory letters have reached me from old nodding acquaintances, who have heard of my good fortune ; and a few of the letters contained requests for loans of money. I have been wondering how much either of the bold applicants would have lent me a fortnight ago. But I never did ask any one for a loan of money, so I have not thoroughly tested my neighbours, and it is not exactly fair to conclude that they would not have helped me, if I had applied to them. The Bensons and the Mosses have always been true friends to me, money or no money, and their children are almost as dear to my. heart as my own young cousins. It is nearly sixteen years since I pulled little Nelly Moss out of the sea, and I think our friendship has been growing firmer every year. Nelly has de- veloped into a very fine young woman ; and it is a remarkable fact that she strikingly reminds me of my 345 346 LAUNCH mC AWAY; OR, sainted Ella, for she has the same lovely blue eyes, and the same gentle, confiding disposition. A few years ago she used to run up to me, whenever I called at Rose Villa, and throw her arms round my neck like a little sister ; but she is now too old for that tender sort of greeting. I remember when she was growing up a tall child, or about stretching out of her childhood and her short frocks, she used to blush and look rather funny when' she first came into a room to receive me, and I felt somewhat embarrassed on her account. Of course I liked to kiss the little darling, but I could see that her maidenly modesty was beginning to feel gently shocked at the idea of kissing a man, now that she was entering her "teens." It is hard to break off early-formed habits, as I have found in that simple instance, but it was need- ful to make the effort ; so I studied my part carefully, and one day when I went to Rose Villa, I put on a good resolution, and said, as if it were a sudden idea, " Why, Nelly, my dear girl ! you seem to have grown quite a woman, since I was here a month ago. I am half afraid to kiss you now ; and I think you must, in future, only shake hands with me at meeting and part- ing, as you do with other gentleman friends." I could sec that dear Nelly was relieved, and I was glad I had been self-denying enough to adopt the sensible expedient. I have reason to believe, from what Mr. Coke told me yesterday, that my Scottish tenants are making prepar- ations for giving mc a grand reception on my arrival at Ayrby Park. For my part I had rather they would let ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 347 me go there quietly. I have not been used to grand ovations or glorifications. It strikes me I shall not stay- long in that cold country ; it will not suit my nature after so long a residence in this genial climate. I believe that Australia will be my home. My dear mother is still living, and I wish she were able to return with me and share my home and fortune. I have kept up a regular correspondence with her ever since I left England, and it is a comfort to me to know that I have not neglected my filial duty in that respect. In the course of my wanderings, at the gold-diggings and elsewhere, I have met with men who have confessed to me that they had not written to their parents for years. One young fellow told me that he knew his dear old widowed mother was very poor, and yet he had often spent more money in one night's drinking spree than would keep her for a month. I got him to pro- mise me that he would send some money to his mother in England by the next mail, and I have reason to hope that he kept his word ; anyway, I don't think he will soon forget the few kindly words I said to him on that subject. As a set-off to those cases of filial neglect, I have much pleasure in telling something of an opposite character. I was one day the guest of a gentleman who has risen to wealth and honour in Australia, and who is specially useful in his own immediate neighbour- hood. When walking with my host over a part of his estate after dinner, we came to a fine stone monument, which he told me was erected by him to the memory of his late beloved parents. He added, with reverential 348 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, feeling, " I believe that I owe my great success in tem- poral aftairs mainly to my careful observance of the Divine injunction to honour my father and my mother." I think my friend had not inherited money or property from his parents, for they were dependent on him dur- ing the latter part of their lives. If I were at liberty to state the circumstances which he told me, confidentially, it would be as clear to the reader as it is to me, that he has not over-estimated the direct advantages he has gained by obeying that Divine law. He is an Austra- lian by birth, and I am proud to claim him as one of my most trusty friends. There is a small estate on the banks of the beautiful Yarra Yarra, a few miles above Melbourne, which has often delighted my fancy. For landscape beauties, on a limited view, I have not seen anything to surpass it since I left Suffolk. I daresay the owner will want a fancy price for his pretty homestead ; but if he can be persuaded to sell it, it shall be mine, and I will exercise my taste in laying out my grounds, and building my house, when I return to Victoria. I remember when passing Sunbury a few years ago, on my way to Sandhurst, I was struck with the natural and artistic beauties of a spot, which I was told belonged to a young millionaire. I remarked to my informant, " The gentleman has shown extremely good taste in laying out his grounds, and in the architectural style of his mansion." I have not seen the place since it was finished, for it was dark when I last rode past it ; but I daresay it is very beautiful, a residence fit for the Queen. ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 349 I should like something after the same style, but on a much smaller scale. I think it will afford me infinitely more satisfaction to beautify some nice rural nook, that I can call my home, with my superfluous capital, than it would do to lock it up in bank stock or foreign securi- ties. I want to do something towards making the world look better. If I can secure that choice little estate at Hawthorn, and can carry out all the designs that are now pleasantly floating in my brain and glowing in my heart, I hope I shall be happy. But still I seem to have more doubts on that subject than I was ever troubled with before. It is a curious fact, that though I am rich — I may say very rich — I do not feel wholly satisfied with my lot. Two or three weeks ago, I should have had a difficulty in raising ten pounds, if I had sold or pawned every article of personal property that I owned ; to-day I dare- say I could raise two hundred thousand pounds by merely signing, " Roger Larksway," Mr. Coke told me as much yesterday; and yet I felt more composure of mind in the days of my poverty, and I could then sleep more soundly at night than I can do now, for I often lie awake for hours together, planning what I shall do with all my houses and farms, or puzzling my brain to compose replies (that will look well in print) to the forthcoming addresses of my dutiful tenants. I do not mean to say that I am sorry I have come in for a large fortune — by no means— and perhaps I should feel sorely troubled if I were to lose it all again ; still, I do solemnly declare, that the possession of wealth does not yield me a fifth 350 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR. part of the delight or satisfaction that I anticipated from it before it was mine, and when I was afraid that the chancery lawyers would eat it all up. But after all, perhaps this is only morbid feeling, which will soon wear off amongst the ga}- and festive society I may expect to meet with on board the mail steamer. I shall travel first class, of course ; and if any one on board should suspect that I ever travelled second class, he will not be likely to let me know it, consequently I shall not feel my pride wounded at all. Ill-natured thoughts are as powerless to hurt as stuffed snakes. I have bought a variety of nice presents for my most valued friends in Melbourne ; but I have instructed my agent not to deliver the articles until I have started. The diamond necklace for dear Nelly is the richest one I could get in the city, and it is a really splendid orna- ment. I should like to see her wear it on her approach- ing birthday ; but I shall be at sea. I trust the rumour I heard, last week, that Nelly is engaged to Mr. Jolly, is not correct, for I do not like the }-oung man. I think he is rather too bold. I should wish to see her marry some one who is thoroughly worthy of her. My good friend, Mr. Benson, has promised to keep mc posted up in news of interest while I am away ; so no doubt he will tell me occasionally how dear Nelly is getting on. I have purchased a comfortable little annuity for Mrs. Goody. Now she will have no more anxiety about her ways and means. Poor old soul ! she has had more than enough of that sort of worry in her lifetime. I feel it is pleasant to have money to spare to give nice presents ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRA.YGE MISSION. 351 to deserving friends, and to help the poor and afflicted. I pray that I may not grow miserly ; and that I may be ever ready to distribute. I had almost forgotten to mention, that a few days ago three electors of a small suburb of Melbourne waited on me at this hotel, with a request that I would allow myself to be nominated as a member of Parliament for their electorate, at the forthcoming general election. The leading spokesman, in a few studied sentences, expressed his admiration for my principles, and hoped that I would honour the constituency of by consenting to represent its interests in the Legislative Assembly. I had not the least idea of the object of the visitors when they were ushered into my private sitting-room, so my astonishment may be imagined when they stated their errand. How they became so well acquainted with my political principles was a mystery to me, for I had never seen either of the gentlemen before to my know- ledge, and I have lived very secluded of late years ; be- sides, I never did show any disposition to come out as a public man. I replied, " Gentlemen, this is an unex- pected requisition. I have no alternative but to decline it ; and I ask you to kindly forgive me if the abruptness of my answer should seem to indicate a want of due appreciation of the honour you would confer upon me^ You have certainly made a mistake in your estimate of my fitness for the duties of your representative; but your mistake is excusable considering that I am quite un- known to you." 352 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, " I beg your pardon, sir," said a second speaker. " I knew you years ago, when you kept a drug shop at Prahran ; and sorry enough I was when you shut up, for I never could get any physic that agreed with me and my missus, Hke the liver pills you used to sell us at a shilling a box. Perhaps you remember my name, sir, John Fisher ? It is in your books." I said, " I know that my vegetable pills were really good, for they were ''carefully prepared from a recipe which I got from my worthy uncle ; but, Mr. Fisher, you surely do not consider that " The third man interrupted my pointed question by saying, " We consider that you are an honest man, sir ; and we know that you are rich and have a great stake in the country. We believe that you are a fit and proper person to represent our town in Parliament, and we re- spectfully request that you consent to do so." " My good friends," I replied solemnly, " you are in error in supposing that I have a great stake in the country, for all my property is at present on the opposite side of the world. Whether or not, I know that I am not qualified for the post you kindly wish me to fill, and on that account I could not conscientiously undertake it ; indeed, I would as soon think of setting up as a physician with my bare skill to make liver pills. I quite agree with you that it is the duty of every man to do what he can to serve his country and his fellow-men ; but it is clear to my mind, that going into Parliament would not be the best way that I could make myself useful to the community. Your present member, Mr. ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 353 Mason, is an honest man, and an experienced politician ; will he not consent to be nominated for re-election ? " " Oh, no doubt he will be willing enough, sir," said- Mr. Fisher, who was the most fluent speaker. " But we think that a little opposition, or fresh blood, as the say- ing is, will be good for our electorate." " And perhaps be good for certain trades during the contest," I suggested ; whereupon the deputation winked. "Well, gentlemen, I thank you for the honour you would confer upon me ; but when I tell you that I am preparing to go to Europe by the next mail steamer, you will see that I cannot possibly accept your invita- tion. If I am spared to return to Victoria, and I then feel assured that it is my duty to offer myself as a member of Parliament, I promise you that I will not shrink from it ; but I shall decidedly not aspire to the honour and responsibility, until I have, by a course of diligent study, in some degree qualified myself for the important duty." I daresay the decided tone in which I spoke convinced the gentlemen that they need not stay any longer ; so they wished me good day and departed, looking rather dissatisfied that they had not succeeded in luring a rich simpleton into an expensive electioneering contest. Most heartily do I wish that I had the power to express in convincing words my opinion on a subject of vital importance, which the foregoing incident suggests. I wish that before I leave these shores I could appeal to the colonists in general, from Cape Leevvin to Cape Melville, and all the way round again, and persuade A A 354 LAUNCHING AWAY. them to use their honest judgment in electing thoroughly competent men as their representatives in the Parliament of their respective colonies. This is indeed a great and a good land, teeming with richness and fair promise ; and it is a sad pity that its young growth should suffer from careless or inefficient legislation. There is certainly no lack of able men in the countr}-, and I do wish they would all wake up to their duty. I state as a grim fact (and it is far from being a personal compliment), that many men who are even less qualified than myself, have been deluded into offering themselves as members of our colonial legislature. Surely that is not the wa}- to " Advance Australia ! " if. if. H^ ^ ^ I will now shut up my writing-desk, for it is near mid- 4iight, and I have yet to finish packing a portmanteau. Mr. Moss is coming in the morning, to drive me in his carriage to the boat jetty, at Sandridge. The mail steamer will start from her moorings punctually at nine o'clock. Dear, patient reader ! good-bye, for the present Yours trulv, ROGER LARKSWAY. Scott's Hotel. CHAPTER XXXI. " Here, at the dead of night, By the pale candlelight, Weary and sad, I vnhe — Sitting alone. Write, though my feeble pen Nearly drops, now and then, As my heart faints again — Always alone." — Desart. I, Saul Jackson, have been politely invited by the editor to add a sort of postscript to the foregoing narra- tive, written by my respected cousin, Roger Larksway, Esquire, of Ayrby Park, Ayrshire. It would be about as easy for me to get a church bell into my leathern hat box, as to compress what I would like to say into a few pages, and that is all the space I am orfered. I must be brief this time. I have had the honour of receiving several letters from my cousin since his departure from Mctoria, a year ago ; and if I had space enough for it, I should be proud to give a description of his enthusiastic reception by his Scottish tenantry, and other interesting parti- culars of his brilliant career in his own native land. It seems almost marvellous to me, that the general respect 355 3S6 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, for my cousin should have increased so immensely with- in the last fifteen months ; but so it is, and he merits it all, "for he is a jolly good fellow," as the song says. In his last letter to me he expressed regret for having written a few sentences in his narrative which some- what reflect on my virtue, and he wishes me to ask the editor to erase every damaging word from the manu- script. It is kind of Roger to be so careful for my feelings, but I am sure I deserve all his strictures, so I modestly decline to allow a syllable to be altered. I have been a sad tease to him, I know, but I hope soon to let him see that I am a reformed man. One of my quondam sporting friends jocosely remarked, yesterday, that I was looking as serious as the owner of a blown-up powder mill ; so I coolly told him that I had been a grinning fool long enough. I would not venture to put into print the delicate dis- closure I am now about to make, did I not know that it is almost certain that before this volume can be issued from the press, the marriage of my honoured cousin 'with Miss Nelly Moss will be announced in the Austra- lian papers, and of course will go all over the world. There is great preparation for the solemn event going on at Rose Villa, and the fortunate bridegroom elect is expected to arrive in Melbourne by the next Suez mail steamer. I daresay he is at this moment wishing the screw propeller was being driven by electricity, and that the Bombay was going ahead twice as fast, or twenty- four knots an hour. Young bridegrooms usually are rather impatient. ROGER LARKSWAY'S STRANGE MISSION. 357 As I now look at it with neutral calmness, it does strike me as being the most sensational affair of the kind that ever happened in real life — that my cousin should have been close at hand at the identical minute, years ago, when little Nelly Moss slipped off that old, rusty steam-boiler into the sea ! Nobody can reason- ably doubt that it was an accidental slip of Nelly's, and her screams were as natural as the quacking of a little duck. Had she been twenty years older, it might be an open question, for some full-grown women will try any sort of startling expedient when a nice young man is within hail. But dear Nelly was an innocent baby, and my cousin's act was one of unselfish kindness — pure and genuine as virgin honey in white wax. I should not like Roger to hear me laugh, but I cannot help a little sly merriment at the serio-comical idea, that the drip- ping, squealing morsel of humanity — not much bigger than a lobster — that he was carrying on shore under his arm, was his future wife and the sharer of his immense fortune ! Ha ! ha ! it certainly is wonderfully funny ! And I say with hearty meaning, though in trite, un- poetical terms, I wish I had been in Roger's shoes, wet as they were ; but shoes or no shoes, I wish I had a nice affectionate wife of my own, for I am tired of living a lonely Robinson Crusoe sort of life — it isn't natural. By the way, the other day I read in a London news- paper of a fellow — not a savage islander, but an English- man — who saw a young child drowning, and he did not pull it out of the water because he was afraid of wetting 'ms feet. That cowardly booby will never fish up an 358 LAUNCHING AWAY; OR, amiable young wife, as my cousin did ; indeed, I hope he may never find a girl silly enough to marry him, for it might be a calamity to our race. Roger Larksway did not scruple to wet his feet nor his waist, and he will soon have a substantial reward for his manliness — a pretty young wife, who will love, honour, and cherish him all the days of her life. Oh dear ! I cannot explain my feelings exactly, but I do think that if I could fish up such a precious jewel of a girl, I would dive, head first, into a hot spring after her at this present moment — that is if the water was not quite boiling. But alas ! there is no such luck for poor Saul ! I shall never get such an opportunity of distinguishing myself, though I am always on the look out. There is a difference of about sixteen years in the ages of Nelly Moss and my happy cousin, and some tame folks that I have heard speak of it think the dis- parity is too great ; but I should certainly not make it an insuperable objection if the chance were mine, and Roger evidently takes the same yielding, affectionate view of it that I do. There is no use in taking notice of what young Dick Jolly says about the match, though it is natural enough for him to object to it. A paragraph in a Scotch paper that I saw a few weeks ago, stated that the fortunate young heir to the Ayrby estate was beginning to pull down a long range of brick buildings which had been used, half a century ago, by some sporting members of the Campbell family, as stud stabling, dog kennels, etc. The materials of the buildings were to be used in the erection of thirty ROGER LARKSWATS STRANGE MISSION. 359 cottages for aged men and women. And an old brewery, also detached from the family mansion, was to be taken down, and the materials used for a school of art in the village close by. It further stated that Mr. Larksway had promised to give a thousand volumes of books, and some valuable oil paintings, from his picture gallery and library. The same newspaper also gave a report of some Highland sports at Ayrby park, on Mr. Larks- way's birthday; when two unlucky Scotchmen sprained their backs in tossing the caber. Both the sufferers and their families had been provided for by Mr. Larksway. I hope he won't have too many capersome pensioners. I cannot yet make out if my cousin is going to sell his estates and settle down as a Victorian colonist, or whether he will return to Scotland and take his young bride with him. If he should go back, I .shall try to induce him to take me with him as his private secretary. That little billet would suit me better than trying to get into " the house," as member for the new Rampant Rush diggings, though the ;^300 a year is not to be sneezed at by a poor fellow like myself, to say nothing of the honour of the thing. It would not seem modest of me to write much about my own virtues, so I will merely remark that I have kept the promise I made to my cousin, like a man. I have never been drunk since he left Melbourne, though I confess I have had some hard struggles to conquer my obstinate old habits, and I have very often longed for a fortnight's spree. Good Mr. Benson has watched over me with a father's care, and I shall ever feel grateful to 36o LAUNCHING AWAY. him. He urges me to be a teetotaler, and says that I shall find it much less trouble to do without grog entirely, than to tease my appetite with what I call my sober allowance of three or four glasses a day. I told him the other evening that I would consider over his kind proposal. I am still considering over it, with the sort of shivery indecision that I felt when I was about to take my first dive into the sea from the top of a bathing machine at Brighton. I want some good sober fellow behind me to give me a friendly push off. I think I will wait till my cousin returns to Melbourne ; he is the soberest man I was ever closely intimate with ; and if he advises me to take the teetotal pledge, I'll take it, and I'll stick to it too, like John Gough or Father Matthew. Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London. ^untiap Lifirarp foe goung: IPeople. Each Volume Illustrated and Handsomely Bound. PRICE ONE SHILLING EACH. I. THE STORY OF A RED VELVET BIBLE. By M. H. II. MARY MANSFIELD; Or, the Time to be a Christian. By the Same Author. III. ARTHUR FORTESCUE; Or, the Schoolboy Hero. By Robert Hope Moncrieff. IV. THE SANGREAL ; Or, the Hidden Treasure. By M. H. V. WITLESS WILLIE, THE IDIOT BOY. 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The tenderness of the sentiment which binds the friar to Cicely is depicted with such exquisite refinement and delicacy that many a bright eye will be dimmed with tears in the perusal." — Court "Journal. II. THE FLOWER OF THE GRASS- MARKET. With Five Illustrations. Cheap Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3^-. 6h}J\Ti EASTERBROOK., An Oxford Story. By Tregei.i.es Polkinghorne. With Frontis- piece. Handsomely bound, 5^. " An exceedingly interesting story." — Rock. "A bright, vigorous, and useful work." — Freeman. GIFT BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG. 23 BY MARIE HALL nee SIB REE. I. NOBLE, BUT NOT THE NOBLEST. Crown 8vo, 3x. dd. "The picture is skilfully drawn, with tender touches and with artistic tights. We heartily commend it. To those who have read the author's previous stories of 'The Dying Saviour and the Gipsy Girl,' 'Andrew Marvel," etc., this is scarcely necessary." — British Quarterly Review. " A more eleg.intly written, graceful, and powerful story the present story season has not yielded us." — Freeman. II. ANDREW MARVEL AND HIS FRIENDS. A Story of the Siege of Hull. Fourth Thousand. With Four Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth, 5^-. "Mrs. Hall's knowledge of the historical details is as exact as her imagina- tion is fertile and faithful. The pictures are good, and the beautiful photograph of the statue of Marvel at Hull well deserves to be noted. Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton have certainly made it a beautiful and attractive book." — British Quarterly Review. III. THE DYING SAVIOUR AND THE GIPSY GIRL, and other Tales. Fiikenth Thousand. Crowji 8vo, cloth, 3^. 6d. " The stories are gracefully written : they are marked by good feeling and refined taste, and the moral conveyed by them is unexceptionable."^ Spectator. IV. THE DYING SAVIOUR AND THE GIPSY GIRL, and THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. Two Stories. Eighteenth Thousand. Fcap. 8vo, price is. " A literary gem not less admirable for the beauty of its diction, and the artistic finish of its details than for its lucid exhibition of the gospel. The ' Old, Old Story' was seldom told in sweeter words." — .i". .S. World. 24 GIFT BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG. CHEAP ILLUSTRATED EDITIONS OF J. B. DE LIEFDES STORIES. I. A BRAVE RESOLVE ; or, the Siege of Stralsund. A Story of Heroism and Adventure. With Eight Full-page Illustrations. Crown Svo, hand- somely bound, 3^. 6(/. "Gives a capital picture of the Siege of Stralsund in the Thirty Years- War. It is an e.\cellent historical novel."— TVz^; Guardian. " A highly interesting romance. The exciting events of the Thirty Years War are depicted with much fidelity, and the love story lends an additional charm to a thoroughly readable book." — Court Journal. " It is admirably done — we have not read a better historical story for a long time." — British Quarterly Review. II. THE BEGGARS; or, the Founders of the Dutch Republic. With Four Illustrations. Crown Svo, handsomely bound in cloth, 3J-. 6d. " Mr. de Liefde's ' Beggars ' is a piece of genuine historical romance, fu of incident, and not wanting in colour and lesson. The book is a good and lively one, and we cordially recommend it." — Argosy. "This is an interesting and animated story, the scene of which is laid ir^ the Netherlands at a time with which Mr. Motley's works have made us familiar. The hero of Mr. de Liefde's tale engages in an attempt to rescue Count Egmont the night before his executiun, and afterwards takes service in the fleet of Sea Beggars, which was so troublesome to Spain, and of such service to the young Dutch Republic. There is no lack of adventure in the book." — Athenceum. DAVID LIVINGSTONE. The Story of his Life and Labours ; or, The Weaver Boy who became a Missionary. By H. G. Ad.vms. With Steel Portrait and Thirty Illustrations. Fifty-seventh Thousand. Crown Svo, cloth, 3^. (^d. " An admirable condensation of ' The Story of the Life and Labours of Dr. Livingstone.' Comprehensive in range, abounding in detail, and vividly- presenting the graphic description of the great explorer himself." — Record. ^ FK\AVE RF.SOT.VE. Specitiien of the Illustrations. 26 GIFT BOOK'S FOR THE YOUNG. RE-ISSUE OF JACOB ABBOTTS STORIES. I. JUNO & GEORGIE. II. MARY OSBORNE. iir. JUNOonaJOURNEY. IV. HUBERT. With Frontispiece. Fcap. 8vo, cloth, price is. 6 J. each. " Well printed and elegantly bound, will surely meet with a hearty welcome. We remember the delight we took in them years ago, and how lessons which they inculcated have left their traces until this day. Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, was one of the warmest admirers of the author of ' The Young Christian,' and recognized in him a man of congenial spirit. For strong common sense, knowledge of child nature, and deep religious fervour, we have had nothing superior to these four delightful stories." — Freeman. "The author of ' The Young Christian ' is really an English classic. One of his little books exerted such an influence on Frederick Robertson of Brighton, that its perusal formed a turning-point in the life of that great preacher ; and there havo probably been thousands on both sides of the Atlantic similarly affected by the writings of the same author. We there- fore welcome with peculiar 'satisfaction the elegant edition of four of his best stories." — Christian Leader. SHORE AND SEA. Stories of Great Vikings and Sea Captains. I]y W. H. Davenport AUAMS. Ten Ilkistrations. Handsomely bound, gilt edges, " A book which is as thrilling as any romance." — Scotsman. " An interesting book for adventure-loving boys. It contahis a capital description of the life, customs, and manners of the Norsemen, together with much pleasantly-told information concerning ' Sebastian Cabot,' ' De Soto,' 'The Early Colonizers of Virginia,' ' Drake,' 'Hudson,' and ' Henry Morgan.' This collection will be deservedly popular." — Fa/i Mall Gazette. " This is a carefully written and thoroughly good book. Mr. Adams has tried to sketch the lives of famous sea captains with fidelity as well ts with graphic power. ... It is the romance of the sea as it has been tctually realized, -and boys will fiiid it as instructive as it is interesting." — Britith Quarterly Kcview. JACOB ABBOTTS STORIES. Specimen of the Illustrations. 28 HODDER AND STOUGHTOA'S BY MARY PRYOR HACK. I. CHRISTIAN WOMANHOOD. Uniform with " ConsecrateLl Women'' and "Self-Surrender." Elegantly bound, 5^. " We know no more suitable present for a young lady than this charming book, with its sketches of Mary Fletcher, Elizabeth, last Duchess of Gordon, Ann Blackhouse, Frances Ridley Havergal, and others. It will be a verj' fountain of inspiration and encouragement to other good women." — Sheffield Independent. II. CONSECRATED WOMEN. Fourth Thousand. 5^. Handsomely bound. " The memorials are all deeply interesting, bright, and vivid."— Freonan. " Some of these brief biographies are deeply interesting." — Record. "The stories of such philanthropic women are profoundly touching." — ■Spectator. HI. SELF-SURRENDER. A Second Series of " Consecrated Women." Second Thousand. fj. cloth elegant. " A most delightful book, written by a woman, about women, and for women — though it may be read by men with equal pleasure and profit. Each of the eleven chapters contains in brief, the life, history, and work of some sister who was made perfect either through service or suffering." — Oiristian. THE SISTERS OF GLENCOE ; or, Letitia's Choice. By Eva Wynne. Twentieth Thou- sand, Crown 8vo, cloth elegant, price 5.f. " Its life pictures are skilfully drawn, and the most wholesome lessons are enforced with fidelity and power " — Tetitperance Record. " An admirable story, illustrating in a most effective manner the mischief arising from the use of intoxicating liquors." — Rock. GIFT BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG. 29 BY ALEXANDER MACLEOD, D.D. I. THE CHILDREN'S PORTION. Crown 8vo, cloth, 5j-. "Asa preacher to children, Dr. Macleod has perhaps no living equal In these delightful chapters he seems to us to be at his best." — Christian. " Sunday school teachers will be glad of the very numerous illustrations and anecdote contained in it." — Literary World. " Admirable specimen of what such addresses should be, thoughtful, earnest, simple, full of affectionate appeal, and freely illustrated." — Sunday School Chronicle. "This is a collection of short sermons addressed to children. They are well adapted to strike the fancy and touch the heart of the young." — Record. II. TALKING TO THE CHILDREN. Tenth Edition. 3^. dd. " An exquisite work. Divine truths are here presented in simple language, illustrated by parable and anecdote at once apt and beautiful." — Evangelical Magazine. III. THE GENTLE HEART. A Second Series of "Talking to the Children." Fifth Thousand. Crown 8vo, 3^. bd. Mr. Spi'Rgeon says : "We have been fascinated with the originality and beauty of its thought, charmed with the simplicity and elegance of its language, enriched with the store of its illustrations, and blest in spirit through its abundant manifestation of ' the truth as it is in Jesus.' " LINKS IN REBECCAS LIFE. An American Story. By Pansy. With Frontispiece. Hand- somely bound in cloth, 55. " By one of the ablest and sprightliest of American story-tellers." — Christian. " We should like to see every young lady of our acquaintance fully en- grossed in the reading of this book. It is an admirable five shillings' worth." — Sword and Trowel. 30 HODDER AND STOUGHTON'S BY THE AUTHOR OF " CHRISTIE REDFERN'S TROUBLES," etc. I. THE BAIRNS ; or, Janet's Love and Ser- vice. \Viih Five Illuslralioiis. ThirteeiUh Thousand. Crown 8vo, cloth elegant, 5^. "A special interest attaches to 'The Bairns.' The characters are forcibly delineated, and the touches of homeliness which seem almost peculiar to oui northern kinsfolk impart a peculiar charm." — Record. II. FREDERICA AND HER GUARDIANS; or, The Perils of Orphanhood. Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth, ^s. td. "An exceedingly well-told story, full of incidents of an attractive character. The story will be admired by all thoughtful girls." — Public Opinion. "A s'.veet, pure, and beautiful story, such as may be put with confidence into the hands of any English girl." — Sheffield Independent. III. THE TWA MISS DAWSONS. Crown 8vo, cloth, price 5^. " We gladly welcome a new book by the author of ' The IJairns.' That charming Canadian story opened a new field for readers of fiction. The present story is limited to Eastern Scotland. It is a family picture, settling down chiefly to the e,\periences of a charming old maiden aunt — a most admirable delineation — and an equally charming niece." — British Quarterly Review. YENSIE ^VALTON. An American Story. By J. R. Graham Clark. With Frontispiece. Crown 8vo, cloth, 55. " In tone and spirit, plan and execution, this is a superb story. Rich in delineation of character, and in descriptions of real experience. A more fascinating and inspiring picture of a school-mistress, in one prolonged, prayerful, and sustained endeavour to lead an orphan pupil to Christ, was never drawn." — General Baptist Magazine. GIFT BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG. 31 BY EDWIN HODDER. I. EPHRAIM AND HELAH. A Story of the Exodus. Eighth Thousand. Crown 8vo, cloth elegant, 55. " Mr. Hodder gives a vivid description of the daily life of the Hebrews immediately at and before the time of the coming of Moses. The picture is full of interest." — The Queen. II. TOSSED ON THE V^AVES. A Story of Young Life. P'ifteenlh Thousand. Fcap. 8vo, cloth, " We cannot think that a boy could take up the book without feeling its fascination, or without rising a better lad from its perusal. The scenes of life on the sea and in the colonies are peculiarly attractive." — British Quarterly Rci'iew. III. THE JUNIOR CLERK. A Tale of City Life. Fourteenth Edition. Crown Svo, clotii, 2s. 6d. " Mr. Shipton observes that the author described this tale to him as a fiction. He remarks : ' It may be so to him, but for every one of his state- ments I could supply a fact. It is not merely true to nature as a narration of the means by which young men may be — it is a true record of the ways in which many have been, and many still are being — led to dishonour and ruin.' Such a recommendation as this will be sufficient to ensure for this little book a hearty welcome from many readers." — Christian lU'orld, THE WHITE CROSS AND DOVE OF PEARLS. A Biography of Light and Shade. By Sarson C. Lngiiam. Sixth Thousand. Crown Svo, cloth, 5^. " ' The White Cross and Dove of Pearls ' will not disappoint the expecta- tions of those who may already have formed justly high opinions of this strikingly original and sympathetic writer's ability to interest, to amuse, and to elevate her readers. It is a fiction without false sentiment, without un- healthy imagination, and without a single vulgar or frivolous idea." — Daily Telegraph. 32 " GIFT BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG. WORKS BY IV. M. THAYER. A Shilling Edition of FROM LOG CABIN TO WHITE HOUSE. The Story of President Garfield's Life. Now Ready. 140th Thousand. In Paper Boards, Illustrated Cover, with Fine Steel Portrait. Cloth Edition, \s. 6d. ; Cloth gilt, 3^. 6d. ; Illustrated Edition, gilt edges, 5^. Suitable for Presents, Prizes, and School Libraries. XL GEORGE 'WASHINGTON : His Boyhood and Manhood. With Steel Portrait. Fifth Thousand. Handsomely bound, 55-. "The character of Washington was a very noble one, and his life may- well be taken as an example by boys. The biography is writted in a lively and pleasant tone, and without any of the dryness which is too often_ the accompaniment of this form of literature. While the details are all strictly historical, the characters are made to live and breathe." — Standard. III. TACT, PUSH, AND PRINCIPLE. A Book for those who wish to Succeed in Life. Crown 8vo, cloth, handsomely bound, 3^. 6d. IV. THE PIONEER BOY, AND HOW HE BECAME PRESIDENT. The Story of the Life of Abraham Lincoln. Tenth Thousand. With Portrait. Handsomely bound, 51. Many of the details of this work were furnished by President Lincoln himself, and by his early associates and friends. " Mr. Thayer is not merely a biographer, a compiler of dry details, but he invests his subject with a halo of delightful romance, and the result is as pleasing as the most imaginative book of fiction. So cleverly has the author done his work, that the result is a combination of jiictures from the life of this great man, with humorous anecdote and stirring narrative."— ^i^aV;!)'. " The author has done his work thoroughly well, and the result is a book of exciting narrative, of humorous anecdote, and of lifelike portraiture." — Daily Telegraph. __^ LONDON : HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 27, Paternoster Row. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. Form LO-Sorips 493!» ':^^ja7 J>:::^J-% f 1-nn I1LUIUI\JML LIDrWriT f-ALILl I Y I nil I II nil II II II Hill AA 000 376 157 4 <° - PI I •• * = VI — t PLE^fiE DO NOT REMOVE THIS BOOK CARD « T -^(i/QJITvOJO^ University Research Library iL, 3 J ] 1 _] M