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Philosopher Dick

Chapter VI

page 129

Chapter VI.

When Jim Pipe had concluded his affecting story, Raleigh said that he would have to be up and going, but Jack and his youthful mate urged him to accompany them to their out-station, "The Glen." Jack, who was a bit of a dog-fancier, was most anxious to show him his kennel, and extolled the beauties of a certain bulldog he had become possessed of in such glowing terms that Raleigh could not but express a wish to see this wonderful creature, although in reality he took very little interest in the canine race.

They promised him also a day's pig-sticking, in which exciting sport the said bulldog was expected to take a prominent part; and as, moreover, the prospect of another dreary night in the oppressive loneliness of the Mountain Hut was not attractive, there was no resisting such a pressing invitation.

"But what about the sheep?" he said; "they will be over here again to-morrow for certain, and then we shall have all this infernal trouble over again."

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"Oh, don't worrit about them sheep," replied Jack; "let them rip. We'll be a-looking after the boundary, and give 'em h——if they comes this way."

"My word," said Jim, "they got a taste of it this morning."

"Well," said Raleigh, "I shall hold you responsible. Now, 'Lead on, Macduff!' I will follow."

The three started to their feet.

The only beaten track to Sailor Jack's hut followed the ridges of the dividing range; it was a very round-about way, but it headed the gullies and avoided much of the broken ground. The straight line was shorter by some miles, but it crossed a succession of high spurs and deep ravines of most forbidding aspect. Jack and Jim, however, decided on the short cut, if only "to take a rise" out of their companion, who they expected would make rather a poor figure in a tramp across such rough country. They gave one another a wink, and dashed off on a headlong course down the first stony declivity, and were soon out of sight amidst the rocks and bushes.

Raleigh followed leisurely, picking his steps down the rugged slopes, availing himself of the numerous sheeptracks that zig-zagged the hillside, and using his own judgment as to the best direction to take.

The philosopher, on principle, never hurried him-page 131self; he made a point to take everything in life as coolly and as calmly as possible; and he was consistent in applying this line of conduct to the most trifling as well as to the most momentous incidents of his chequered career. So he lagged behind, trotting complacently along, with many a halt to regulate his course or to admire some pretty glimpse of scenery; while his companions had forged ahead, and could be heard in the distance breaking their way through the tangled masses of brushwood, and making the echoes ring with their shouts and laughter. By the time he had reached the bottom of the first gully Jack and Jim had pushed their way through the scrub, and were clambering up the precipitous bank on the other side. Here he stumbled across a cattle-track, which gave him occasion to pause again.

"It is evident," thought he, "that this gully leads to the river, and it is evident that this cattle-track leads down the gully—ergo, the track will lead to the river, which is one point gained. Secondly, on the maxim that 'Tout chemin mène à Rome,' and with the experience that there are no road engineers like bullocks, I may safely embark on this unexplored route—so here goes!" He soon found himself lost in the dark intricacies of the scrubby hollow, tramping through a swampy jungle into which the light of day page 132hardly penetrated, and which was impassable except where the cattle had forced a narrow opening through it. He became quite bewildered in the interminable twists and bends of the track—ascending steep banks, dropping into black cavities, and crossing the creek in its tortuous course many scores of times. He was lost in the maze, and felt as if he was travelling in an endless circle; but he stuck to the track and walked by faith, which, he thought to himself, is the safest plan to adopt in more instances than this one. So he sped bravely on for more than an hour, without the faintest idea of whither he was going, but confident in the reflection that the sagacious brutes that had forced an entry into this dismal entanglement had quite sense enough to find a way out of it.

At last there appeared an opening; the blessed sunlight shone once more around him, and a widening horizon afforded some indication of the country. Here he paused a while to look about and take in the position. He found himself on a gentle slope, with the valley scrub at his feet, and the rocky ranges towering behind him. He had evidently travelled some three or four miles, and was approaching the base of the mountain, but he could not perceive the river, and the locality was quite unknown to him. The track here forked into several divergent branches, page 133and it became necessary to decide on which course to follow; but the more he pondered and debated the question in his own mind the more puzzled and uncertain he became. "Oh for the instinct of an ox!" thought he, "how much better it would serve me than all my brain-power. While I was in yonder dark labyrinth the road was simplicity itself—I had only got to follow my nose; now that I am in the open ground, and can see where I am going, I am utterly lost. Let's toss up—heads for the right, tails for the left. Heads have it—so right wheel and en avant!"

The track to the right happened to be the right track on this occasion, for the traveller had not proceeded for half a mile before, at a sudden turning, a delightful and well-known prospect opened to his sight. A grassy slope led down to the steep escarpment of a wide rivercourse. The broken cliffs that formed the banks on either side rose in massive piles, like the straggling walls and dismantled towers of some vast and fantastic battlements; here and there, along the line of white crags and jutting bluffs, patches of verdure would appear sloping to the water's edge, clumps of trees, and shady recesses. Down in the deep hollow a shallow stream rippled over the shingle, divided above into many little rills, and united lower down into one broad sheet of water that glit-page 134tered in the vivid sunlight. Along the side of the stream, under the shade of overhanging cliffs and half hidden in the luxuriant herbage, a mob of cattle could be seen peacefully feeding, and a few stray horses dotted about. A well-defined cutting in the nearest bank indicated where a bridle-track took its descent to the river bed, while on the opposite side the windings of a narrow road could be discerned in the distance rising up the spurs and skirting the crags until it disappeared in the shadows of a forest of pines. Raleigh stood still, gazing with delight on the lovely scene; he realised with gladness that he was not only on the right road, but very near to his destination, and he felt convinced that he had stolen a march on his companions, and outrun them on their own ground. The laugh would be on his side. This was a subject of unmixed satisfaction, even to a philosopher, whose elevated mind might have been expected to indulge in higher flights.

It was a warm sunny day; the air was balmy, the scenery was charming. Raleigh looked about for a soft shady spot, near the beaten track, where he could stretch himself and recline at ease, while cogitating on the blissful sensation of the present moment and the mutability of all things.

"Upon what slight and trivial conditions does our page 135happiness depend!" thought he. "Here I am, basking in the blessed sunshine, inwardly singing a pæan of triumph, drawing in unmitigated satisfaction with every whiff from my pipe, overjoyed at my own efforts, and delighted at the discomfiture of the other fellows—and all this because I happened by chance to take a turning to the right. If tails had turned up, and I had taken to the left, I should probably have been miles away by this time, altogether out of my reckoning, tired, bothered, and disgusted, indulging in profane language, and with the unpleasant anticipation of being laughed at for my pains. Such is life!"

Just then the sound of voices was heard, and snatches of a conversation carried on in very loud tones reached him as he lay under the bushes.

"He ain't in sight nowheres," cried a shrill voice.

"Hope he ain't stuck in the mud in the Pig's Gully, or got drowned in the Dead-horse Creek, or broke his darned neck over them white rocks," replied a deep bass.

"Devil a bit; he knows a trick worth two of that. He'll turn up right enough."

"He allers takes his time, that's one thing."

"Let him alone for that."

"My word! you did travel up them spurs, Jack, and no mistake. Darned if I ain't about baked."

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"Hang me, if I ain't about bursted myself."

"Them swell coves ain't no good over rough country," continued the shrill voice. "They starts fair enough, but when it comes to the running they shuts up like a knife."

"You may shut up," shouted Raleigh, as he jumped to his feet, and startled the other two out of their wits.

"Well, I'm blowed!" gasped Sailor Jack, open-mouthed with astonishment.

"So you are, my fine fellow, very much blowed," continued Raleigh sarcastically; "and yet you haven't much to blow about either. What a time you poor beggars took to creep over these bits of hills! I got quite tired of waiting for you."

"Why, we left you a mile behind," stammered forth Jim.

"So you did," replied the philosopher coolly. "I thought that I would just give you a fair start, because you were evidently not up to much over rough country, and then I put a little steam on, you know. But I couldn't stand your way of crawling along. It was too slow for me. That style of dawdling takes more out of a fellow than a good swinging pace."

"But we never saw you pass us," expostulated Jim, who was lost in amazement.

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"Of course not; you evidently didn't know the way. I took a shorter cut."

This was the unkindest cut of all. Jack collapsed altogether, and became morose, while Jim kept on scratching his head with unabated vigour. After a time Raleigh took compassion on them and let the secret out, whereupon the wonder ceased and harmony was restored.

They crossed the river barefooted. The water was not running knee-deep, and by following the well-defined shallows it was easily got over, but to Raleigh's tender feet the boulders felt painfully hard. Jack's hut, The Glen, was close by the river-side, in a sheltered nook among clumps of pine trees. It was a three-roomed cottage, substantially built of sun-burnt bricks, thatched with native reeds, and shaded with a little verandah. The inside was clean and neat, the walls whitewashed, and pasted over with gaudily-coloured prints from the illustrated newspapers.

"Welcome to The Glen," said Jack, as he opened the door with a flourish; "make yourself at home, and have a stretch on my bunk while we get dinner ready. We ain't got nothing in the reading line for a scholard like you, but I can show you the finest bulldog in the colony, and such a litter of retriever page 138pups as you might covet. They are all bespoken, hevery one of 'em, and I could sell as many more at a pound apiece."

"You must make quite a good thing out of your dogs," remarked Raleigh.

"My word!" said Jim; "only they wants lots of looking after, both as to diet and exercise. Jack borrowed the Yankee trap yesterday, and had them all out for a drive."

"What was that for?"

"Just to give 'em a bit of a hairing like, and to show 'em a little round about," observed Jack gravely.

"I hope they enjoyed the outing," said Raleigh, amused.

"Didn't 'em, just. To see the keen hinterest they takes in heverything, and the happetites they brings back."

"I can quite understand their keen appetites," replied Raleigh, laughing, "but a keen observation is another thing, especially for pups only two months old."

"I wouldn't have believed it myself," said Jim, "if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes."

"Of course that settles it," replied the philosopher.

Jack and his mate were soon actively engaged in page 139hospitable preparations. One lit the fire while the other ran for water. A sheep's carcass, that was suspended at the top of a tree, enveloped in a bag to protect it from the flies, was lowered down and cut up for chops. The kettle and frying-pan were brought into requisition, and Jim was soon actively engaged in stirring up some white compound in a basin.

"Why, this is not a bush feed, but a sumptuous feast you are preparing for me," said Raleigh. "Potatoes, by Jove! well, that is a luxury. Why, what's this? Eggs! I do declare; wonders never cease. Butter next, I suppose. Why, you fellows must live like fighting-cocks."

"Well, you see," said Jack, "when us 'umble folk have to hentertain a swell like you, we likes to do the thing in style. Sorry we have nothing stronger than tea to wash it down with."

"No apologies, my dear fellow; I am quite astounded at the richness of your larder. I shall never be able to do justice to half of it. By-the-by, what's become of Tommy Smart? I don't see him about. He will never forgive himself if he misses this feed."

"He cleared hout last week," grumbled Jack, "and a good job too."

"I thought you were working up for a row when page 140I last saw you together. You didn't look amiable, Jack."

"We didn't speak for hever so long afore the final burst hup. I couldn't abear the chap, he was that selfish and greedy like."

"Yes," put in Jim; "he wouldn't do his share of the work, or stand his whack either, and cared for nothing but his grub. He always wanted the biggest spoon, and the biggest pannikin, and the first cut, and the lion's share of everything."

"I stood it until I couldn't stand it no longer," said Jack.

"What brought about the climax?" asked Raleigh.

"Well," said Jack, "it was hall about a hunch of bread. You know the first slice of a cut loaf is wery dry, so as we sits down to our grub I cuts 'alf the top through, and passes the loaf on to him. 'Stead of him taking t'other 'alf he goes and cuts under my side. I twigged it, but never let on. Next time I takes a thick piece down the side of the loaf and passes it on as before. He cut right under me again. 'Fair doos! you hanimal,' says I. And with that hup I jumps, and goes for him straight, and we had a set to."

"My word," said Jim, "it was a set off, for that page 141cock wouldn't fight. He was a sparring, and a dodging and a capering, and a putting on no end of side, until Jack fetched him one under the lug that sent him spinning. Up he jumps again. 'Time!' I calls out. But instead of coming up to the scratch he turns into the hut, rolls up his swag, and takes off, without never saying good-bye. And we never seed him no more."

"A case of cut and run," observed the philosopher.

The table was laid in regular bush style, with tin plates and pannikins, iron forks and spoons, and every man expected to use his own sheath knife. A huge loaf, of the full size and shape of the camp oven in which it had been baked, occupied a central position; a large tin of brown sugar, and smaller ones of salt and pepper, completed the furnishings of the festive board. Jim passed the frying-pan round, and every one harpooned a chop out of the boiling fat. Jack fossicked out a dozen baked potatoes from under the hot ashes, and from a black kettle poured out the dark beverage into the shining pannikins.

"Now this is what I call luxury," cried Raleigh, as he prepared for action.

"Wait a bit," said Jim, as he produced a brown jar; "here is something to flavour your spuds with."

"Salt butter, by Jove! Well, I never!" and as page 142the philosopher contemplated the rapturous prospect of slitting a fine mealy potatoe in halves, and inserting a plug of butter in between, his emotions were too much for him; he could not trust himself to speak, so he simply performed the operation in silence, and gulped down the choice morsel with a look that was unutterable.

"Now, mates, help yourselves, and despatch them ere chops, as I wants the frying-pan for the pan cakes," cried Jim, with an air of conscious importance. The other two sipped their tea complacently while watching the interesting process, and the agility which Jim displayed in tossing the cakes about in the seething fat without splashing it all over the place evoked loud commendation. The pancakes were voted delicious, and were done ample justice to.

Raleigh, who was ever ready to moralise on the things of this world, favoured the company with a short address on the subject. "These articles of wholesome food," he said, "are eminently palatable and satisfying, but they should be partaken of in moderation. Excess in pancake eating is far more objectionable in its consequences than an ordinary surfeit, and may even be attended with dangerous results. When I was last returning from town," he related, "I stayed a night at old Mac's, and we page 143tried an experiment on a boy who had an inordinate appetite for this dish. We had pancakes for dinner, and some one suggested that a fair trial should be made of the utmost quantity this youth would be able to devour at a sitting. Mrs. Mac—dear little woman—was rather alarmed at the proposition, for she knew what the boy's capabilities were, and she was rather afraid that the cook would jib upon it. But we talked her over, and at last she entered fully into the fun of the thing. Well, there was an enormous dish of pancakes placed on the table, and the boy never took his eyes off them while he ate steadily and voraciously; he kept it up until everybody had finished, and the cloth had to be removed, when he reluctantly shrank away; but we knew that he was hovering about in the hopes of getting some more. Then old Mac hit upon a capital idea. The cook was let into the secret and coaxed into compliance, and she kept at it with a will. A plateful of fresh pancakes, piping hot, was placed on the window-sill, opening into the yard. Those who took an interest in the experiment took it turn about to watch. Soon a hand was seen protruding out of the darkness, and one of the pancakes disappeared; another followed, then another, until the plate was bare. A fresh lot was in readiness, which soon disappeared like the page 144first, and so on for ever so long. The cook stuck to it like a brick, and old Mac was determined that the supply should not run short if it took all the flour in the store. At last the man on the watch cried out to stop; the last pancake had remained untouched, and we concluded that the boy was 'full up.' Then we compared notes, for a correct tally had been kept, and the quantity consumed was something awful. Then some one proposed that we should look up the boy, but he could not be found. Mac got alarmed, he searched high and low; we whistled and 'cooed;' the women ransacked the house, while the men examined the back premises. The boy was not forthcoming. Then some one said he heard a groan down below, and it was decided to explore the cellar. And there the poor wretch was found, rolling about on a heap of coal in speechless agony. They dragged him up, and put him on a stretcher, and sent off post-haste for the doctor. Next morning I heard that the boy was as well 'as could be expected,' but he had had a near squeak of it, and the doctor said one more pancake would certainly have finished him."

"I am so glad he didn't die," exclaimed Jim, whose tender sympathies were easily aroused.

"So am I," replied the philosopher, "although from page 145a purely scientific point of view the experiment would have been more conclusive if he had."

"Them big sarpents in South Amerikee, observed Jack, who had seen the world, "they swallows at one mouthful as much again as their whole selves."

"Yes," said Raleigh, "a well-conditioned boa, with a moderate appetite, and as big round as your thigh, would have swallowed the boy, pancakes and all."

"Never!" ejaculated Jim.

"A fact, I assure you. Only it would take the boa about three weeks to digest its breakfast, so that it comes very much to the same thing in the long run."

Dinner finished, the party adjourned to the kennel, and the philosopher was duly introduced to Cæsar and other celebrities. As ugliness is typical of beauty in the bulldog breed, Raleigh had to admit the claims of Cæsar to pre-eminence. The brute was supremely hideous; half its body was head, and half its head was jaw. But the moral character of the animal was equally deserving of admiration. Cæsar was a creature of singleness of mind, with but one aim in life, with but one accomplishment, and with but one idea, and that was to "hold on."

The retriever pups were next inspected, and their points duly commented on, and a couple of leggy, fero-page 146cious-looking kangaroo dogs were also passed under examination. These latter had many virtues dashed with one foible, for, in the absence of any higher game, they would occasionally take to worrying the sheep. This, as Jack explained, was not due to any vicious propensities on their part, but to a sportive tendency, and the exuberance of animal spirits. Nevertheless it was a failing which, however morally excusable, was practically of serious moment, as the havoc occasioned to Mr. Grey's flocks fully testified. So it had to be kept quiet, and Raleigh was earnestly entreated not to "split on them," which he willingly agreed to, on the ground that it was no business of his.

Having duly admired the animals and seen them fed, it was decided to take a stroll into the bush and pay an afternoon call to a party of splitters who were camped in the neighbourhood. The walk was considered too long for the pups, and not long enough for the kangaroo dogs, which, when denied active exercise, were likely to get into mischief. Unfortunately Cæsar had taken a dislike to Aleck the German's poodle, and on a previous occasion had with great difficulty been induced to relax his hold of the latter's left ear. It was therefore decided to leave him chained up also; and thus, with the exception page 147of their collies, the party proceeded on their way dogless.

The shingle-splitters' encampment was soon reached. It had been pitched in a cleared space in the forest, and consisted of an open galley, constructed with some slabs on end to afford shelter, and a small calico tent.

In this low narrow crib four men were crouched on the ground, partaking of their evening meal, and excluded as much as possible from light and air.

"Hullo, mates!" cried Jack, as he pulled aside the flap of the tent and peered into the dusky enclosure, "are you chaps at tea in there? Why, it's pitch dark; you can't see what you're eating."

"We don't want to," replied a gruff voice; "it won't bear inspection."

"We've tried it all manner of ways," called out another, "and we likes it best in the dark."

"And it keeps out the flies," piped forth a third voice. "Oh dear, I've just swallowed one since you opened the door," and a youth in tattered garb and with face contorted rushed out into the open air and indulged in a violent fit of spitting and coughing painful to behold.

Raleigh gave him a friendly thumping on the back, and Jim presented him with a pannikin of tea to wash it down.

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Unfortunately the tea had been standing for some time, and several dark objects might be seen whirling about in it. These the unhappy youth in his hurry and dismay swallowed unwittingly, and nearly went into convulsions afterwards.

"This is lively," remarked Raleigh.

"It is very lively—the meat especially so," replied the gruff voice, as a fine stalwart figure emerged from under the canvas. "Such mutton as you brought us, Jim, would be a caution to cats; you ought to be made to eat it."

"The meat was right enough, and fresh killed," replied Jim; "but you should keep the flies off."

"Ay; roll it up in a bag and turn it pea-green in a day," growled the tall man, with a volley of oaths.

"We have tried every plan; hung it up, buried it, peppered it, smoked it, pickled it. D——me, if it was blasted with hell-fire, then it wouldn't keep."

"So we just asks notings, and eats him in the dark," put in Aleck, with a horrible grin.

The young man in tattered garments and with contorted face, who had recovered from his second degustation of flies, now approached and gave vent to a piteous wail. He was a new chum, and he looked it. "The flies are horrible," he whined forth; "the plague of the Egyptians was nothing to it. We page 149are choked, blinded, distracted with them; the tent is black with them, the sugar is alive with them, they crawl into our blankets, they creep up our clothes; the meat—ugh!" And the young man was taken bad with another fit of expectoration.

"You ain't colonised yet," remarked Jack, and the audience guffawed.

The new chum, as soon as he had recovered his breath, continued, addressing himself especially to Raleigh, in whom he could notice a glance of sympathy—

"The flies are bad enough, but what is still more horrible are the fleas. We pitched on an old camping ground, and we are infested with them. I believe there are a thousand crawling in my blankets, and my clothes are full of them," and the young man fell to scratching himself violently, especially about the legs.

Certain actions are catching in their very nature. If a man at the head of his company yawns, the whole rank and file will follow suit, but there is nothing more communicative than fleas and scratching. The new chum's unhappy allusion inflicted the whole party with the itch, for they stamped and rubbed and dusted themselves incessantly afterwards.

"Can nothing be done?" pleaded the unfortunate young man.

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"Hang out your blankets in the midday sun," said Raleigh. "When it gets uncomfortably hot the fleas jump out."

"But what about one's clothes?"

"Go without them," growled the tall man.

"Bile them," observed another; and the flea-bitten youth became the butt of merciless chaff until the subject was thoroughly exhausted. But he had suffered too much in the flesh to feel acutely the sting of ridicule.

"Then there are those dreadful mosquitoes," he cried. "Their buzz is almost as bad as their bites; they are intolerable. I cannot sleep for them; they have stung me until my skin looks as if it was subject to a rash. Yesterday morning when I awoke I could hardly see out of my eyes for bites."

"There is a simple plan to keep away mosquitoes," observed Raleigh. "Collect a few armfuls of dry cow-dung, place it in a heap round you, set fire to it, and sit in the smoke; the mosquitoes don't like it."

"Neither should I," groaned the poor new chum.

"Dat ist not much, dat sthink," observed Aleck contemptuously.

"There's a better plan," remarked the tall man, "and I shall insist on this youth adopting it. Let him expose a portion of his person to the attacks of page 151the insects—the broader and the softer the part the better—the mosquitoes once gorged will molest no longer; thus he may protect his face and hands, and even protect us."

The idea was very favourably received, and, barring the new chum, who was an interested party, it was adopted unanimously. Even Raleigh, who was accustomed to cavil at everything, was forced to admit that the proposal had much to recommend it.

Raleigh approached the new chum, and entered into conversation with that hapless young man. There was something comical about the lean, forlorn, and ragged appearance of the youth, but there was also a look of helplessness and suffering on his pale and meagre features that excited compassion.

"You are learning to rough it with a vengeance," remarked the philosopher in a friendly way.

"It is past endurance!" replied the other, with a tragic air. "Oh! the horrors of this existence are indescribable. I shudder to relate them. I have never tasted a good meal, or obtained a night's rest, or known an hour of peace, since I have been here. We camped here on a dark stormy night, and I have lain on the damp ground ever since, until the cold seems to have struck right through me. Then think of four of us having to pig down in an eight by ten page 152tent, nearly stifled in a sickening atmosphere. I have had to jump up in the night and rush outside in the rain and darkness, gasping for breath. And I have stood out in the open, shivering and wet through for hours, sooner than seek for shelter in that suffocating hole. Then the food we have had to swallow—their grab, as they call it—would turn a dog's stomach. And to pile on the agony, they have forced me to cook it. I have been appointed "doctor" to the party, and have not only to serve up this horrid mess, but to stand all the abuse and revilings of the exasperated crew. Oh! and the language of these men. Well, there; I thought I could stand a good deal in that line, and I used to rail at the enforced correctness of our talk at home, and kick at the ever-lasting 'good behaviour' business, but I never could have conceived such revolting profanity, such concentrated beastliness, such—— I do believe they indulge in the vilest expressions because they can see how they shock me, how I wince under them. And then that frightful word they use at every turn. Well, sir, I can stand a good deal, but I cannot stand that. I can put up with slang and abuse; I don't mind being sworn at; I have allowed myself to be d——d, but I cannot, I will not calmly submit to be"——

"Colonized," interjected the other with suavity.

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"'What's in a name?' as the poet says. Never mind mental contamination, you can protect yourself against that by not listening, but with material comfort it's different. Where do you draw your water?"

"From that hole yonder," replied he, pointing to a slimy pool that was almost hidden in rushes and dead wood.

"That's more serious than profanity," observed the philosopher gravely. "You must be careful what you drink, or some of you will be leaving your bones here. You should have camped near the river, in the open, and with a little care and practical knowledge there is no reason why you should not be able to make a camp, if not comfortable, at least bearable."

"Not with this set," muttered the new chum, in a hopeless way.

"What brought you into such a set?"

"Well, I had a letter of introduction to Mr. Grey, and not knowing what to do on my arrival in the colony, I came up-country to present it. He received me with a certain gruff hospitality, for such an old bear, and I stayed some weeks at the station. Then he asked me what I proposed doing, and I told him I was on for anything where money was to be made; that I was quite willing to work if I could only get a chance, and that I rather liked the idea of page 154roughing it. So when these fellows started shingle splitting, he asked them as a favour to give me a show, and I was fool enough to come with them. I shall know better next time, if I ever live to see it."

"And, if I may ask, what brought you here at all, for you don't seem cut out for this sort of thing?"

The new chum dropped down on a log, and covering his face with his poor blistered hands, he commenced a rambling and doleful account of his emigration and colonial experience.

He said that he was the eldest son of a general, on the retired list—a stern and stiff old buffer, according to his son's idea, and a strict disciplinarian. The young man did not appear, even from his own account, to have suffered much from paternal tyranny, but he objected to some of the regulations of the household as an undue infringement of personal liberty. The governor was very firm on some points; he would not permit smoking in the bedrooms, dogs were not allowed in the drawing-room, and he insisted on his son dressing for dinner. Outside of these arbitrary rules the new chum had to admit that his father was kind and even indulgent, but the young blood rebelled at any sort of restraint; he had imbibed democratic notions about liberty and equality, and a supreme contempt for the artificial page 155restrictions and stupid prejudices of a bloated society. His proud spirit resented dictation, and after many outbursts, culminating in "an awful row," he finally broke loose from the hateful bonds, and severed his connection by taking a passage to the Antipodes.

Under cross-examination the new chum rather weakened his case, and made some damaging admissions. So far as the paternal edict against smoking in the bedrooms was concerned, it turned out to be a dead letter, for the young man did not smoke—it made him sick. The order against bringing a dog into the drawing-room could not have seriously affected him either, insomuch that he never kept a dog. But the great source of trouble, the one bar to the entente cordiale, the rock upon which they split and parted, perhaps for ever, was the intolerable infliction of having to dress for dinner. As an amateur Bohemian, of irregular proclivities, the young spark refused to bow to a silly and uncongenial custom; as a retired general officer of Her Majesty's service, and an upholder of authority and deportment, the stern parent was inexorable. And so the trouble was brought about which ended much to the disadvantage of the new chum, who had suffered greatly, and been brought so low, as he ruefully page 156remarked, that he could scarcely get lower, unless it was to go under the ground.

"It's a bad case," observed Raleigh; "but I don't know that we ought to commiserate with you. According to the Ancient Philosopher, whom no doubt you have studied, pity should only be aroused by the sight of undeserved calamity; while it must be conceded that you have thoroughly deserved your fate. However, the main question for you is to find some relief from present miseries; and in your helpless condition I hardly know what to advise you to do, unless it is to roll up your blankets and make tracks for the port, and thence, by the first chance that offers, find your way home again, even if you have to work your passage before the mast."

"Never!" piped the other, in broken accents. "Besides, I have no money, no clothes, no friends, nothing left."

"What has become of it all? You surely did not arrive here naked and penniless, and you have not been a year in the colony. As a last resource you have, I suppose, your famous dress suit—

'To you the direful spring,
Of woes unnumbered.'"

"No; I pitched that overboard on leaving the old page 157country, in a fit of bravado. I spent all my pocket-money on the voyage out at loo and in drinks. We were a jolly lot of fellows on board, and we had a fine time of it while it lasted. I left my silver-mounted dressing-case at my hotel in town, as security for my bill; I parted with my gun—a regular beauty, worth thirty guineas—to pay for a week's spree at the half-way house, where I met a couple of my shipmates who were also on the tramp. It was an awful sacrifice, but what could I do? I paid away a brace of revolvers at the next two pubs on the road, and I sold all my fine linen and other things at a mock auction held at Grey's station; my best white shirts only fetched a shilling apiece, which was, of course, much under their value, although I have no idea what they cost—but what's a fellow to do? I begin to think I must be a fool."

"If you have seriously arrived at that conclusion, your colonial experience may not have been entirely thrown away. But tell me, have you nothing left?"

"Nothing whatever but two letters of introduction;" and the disconsolate young man pulled out two crumpled, greasy, and blackened objects from his breast pocket. "I had a packet of them when I first came out," he continued, "and I managed to live upon them for six months or more. Now I page 158have only these two left. One is to Mr. Smith, who I hear is since dead, so of course that is of no use to me; and the other letter is to a Captain Somebody—the name is illegible—who, I believe, is in active service in the North Island."

"Present that letter by all means," exclaimed Raleigh, brightening up. "The Captain might possess enough interest to have you enlisted in the ranks. You are the son of a soldier; become a soldier yourself, and if you can do nothing else for this your adopted country, at least you can be shot."

Aleck the German, who overheard the latter part of the conversation, rolled out with his fine tenor voice a verse of the inspiriting song—

"Let me like a soldier fall,"

which was received with a round of acclamation; but the new chum slunk away disgusted. He would willingly have borrowed a pound or two from the philosopher, to meet his most pressing requirements, and have listened to words of sympathy, but such advice was not to his liking. That a man of his breeding and high temper, who had thrown up family and fortune, and broken from his luxurious home, sooner than stoop to the restraint of having to put on a dress-coat for dinner—that such a man should page 159be advised to enlist in the ranks, to submit to be encased in a common uniform, to turn and wheel about like a puppet, to pipeclay his own gaiters and black his officer's boots, and have to stand up to order to be potted by some grinning savage—that was too much!

Even in his forlorn and degraded state, tanned, starved, flea-bitten, and broken-hearted, he had still enough spirit left to resent such a suggestion as an insult.

Sailor Jack and his mate had amused themselves in lighting a huge bonfire. With piles of brushwood they set it going, and then big logs were rolled on the top of it until the flames rose fierce and high and threw up a dense volume of smoke and showers of sparks, that glittered in the air and then fell in flaky ashes around. Sometimes a gust of wind would burst in upon the fire and make it roar furiously, until the whole scene would be lighted up, and the dark recesses of the forest would be revealed to view in a lurid glare; then the flames would quickly subside again into a dull red glow, and a pall of darkness would suddenly drop over the scene and hide it from sight.

With childish glee all hands went to work to feed the flames, and one after another would disappear page 160and return with branches and logs. Jack called forth a ringing cheer by staggering forward under an enormous bundle of dead wood, which had once formed the top of a big tree, and with a dexterous throw planting it on end in the middle of the conflagration. Then there burst forth a blaze like the discharge of fireworks. The flames flashed along the dry twigs; the dead leaves frizzled and crackled, and for a moment the whole place seemed on fire. A rustling gale caught the flames, and played with them to and fro; sent them hissing towards the group of onlookers, who fell back in dismay; then whirled them round, and flung them upwards with a defiant roar. The dead limb glowed forth in its garb of fire in the midst of the furnace, until one by one its outstretching branches smouldered and dropped off into the burning mass below, and then the whole collapsed into a heap of red-hot embers. The smoke cleared away, revealing the star-lit heavens, and the black shadows crept round once more and shrouded everything in mystery and gloom, and the stillness of night was restored.

The party now drew near; a billy of tea was placed on the hot ashes; the men lit their pipes and lay about on the ground, chatting and smoking, and basking in the warm glow.

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There was a call for a song, and Aleck the German, after the usual amount of pressing, was induced to favour the company. He was a dull man, coarse and phlegmatic, and of a rough exterior, but when he stood up to sing all personal defects disappeared in a glorious voice. He walked a few paces away, turned his back to the audience, and launching forth his sonorous notes to the tree tops, began a Canadian boat song, with a ringing refrain to it that resounded loud and clear through the echoing woods.

As Raleigh reclined on the fern-covered bank, and listened to the peal of melody, the whole scene became transformed to his brooding mind: he felt carried away from the darksome surroundings into distant regions of beauty and enchantment. He fancied he heard the splash of the waters of some mighty river beating time to the joyous cadence of the song, and visions of mysterious grandeur glided before him as in a dream.

Then the song was changed to some national air of the Vaterland. It rang out in lusty tones, rising merrily, falling tenderly, and then bursting forth in a stirring appeal that made his heart throb quicker, for it spoke to him of youthful hopes, and warm friendships, and rollicking scenes of boon companionship. It carried him back to his student days.

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The song changed to some more plaintive melody, which with saddening effect altered the tenour of his reflections. The memory of past events now appeared to him like a vast panorama, full of light and shade, but in which a melancholy tint prevailed. And here he could trace the lengthy course he had followed since he left the shores of the Old World; crossing boundless oceans and desert plains; the trials he had undergone; his years of solitude, and the many shattered illusions that stood like landmarks along the track of life's dreary pilgrimage.

The voice ceased, and the spell was broken. The soft radiance vanished and revealed the rugged ground, the crouching figures, the smouldering glimmer of the camp fire, the black shadows, and the lowering gloom of the great forest trees.