BUSH SKETCHES.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8479, 10 May 1893, Page 2

BUSH SKETCHES.

By Hotspur, (Weekly Presß.) V.-A DAUGHTER OF THOR It is now many, years ago since the Danish barque Altona landed in New Zealand a number of Danish emigrants. These had left their northern home with the Intention of settling in this English colony of the southern seas. Five of the passengers aboard came from the same little fishiug town, in Jutiland. Four of these made up the Olsen family, viz., Ole Olsen, the father, Minna, the mother, Thora. the daughter, and a baby boy. The last of the five passengers was a surly fellow of the name of Carl Christisson. This man kept very much to himself on board. He made no friends and mingled as little as possible with his fellow passengers. Hia favourite seat was on the spring of the bowsprit, from whence he would peer into the east, as if endeavouring to find in the clouds ahead a forecast of his future. Through Ole Olsen the passengers learnt much about the man. Olsen told them them that in Denmark Chriatisson had passed as a fairly well-to-do farmer, and there was much surprise evinced when, for no ostensible reason, he had surrendered his lease, sold his stock, and announced his intention of seeking his fortune in a distant land, and as Olsen went on to say, that in his own opinion Christisson must be worth, five or six thousand krooner, the steerage passengers regarded him as a man of wealth and distinction. But Carl had, aa I have said, little to do with them. The only person on board ship with whom he cared to talk, and whose regard he appeared to covet, was little Thora, the pretty six-year-old daughter of his huttrble fellow townsman. He always greeted her with a kindly word, ! and though the little maiden showed no } great love towards him, he bribed her to I favour him with her company by gifts of preserved fruits #nd other delicacies, only ; obtained from the steward of the vessel. ISo Thora disguised her want of affection for the man in order to gain his presents, thus instinctively, only following the example of many a woman before her. Christisson was by no manner of means a handsome man. His features were rugged, and his faced bore a hard expression that never softened.. The wrinkles upon his forehead seemed to tell of a past sorrow. He could not have been more than thirty when he come out. His beard flowed down his breast in a rugged, untidy stream. Its colour contrasted strangely with the light flaxen of his hair. He was short and thick set and bore the reputation of being the strongest man on board. The Danes, on their disembarkation, scattered far and wide in search of land and employment. The two men Olsen and Christisson with a number of their shipmates came into the bush, and took up land. There they formed a settlement not many miles from Bushvllle, Olsen occupied a holding of about eighty [acres. Chmtisson up no less than half a square mile., and, not; content with thig, he opened a small store for the convenience of his fellow settlers and his own profit. In the years that followed, Olsen made little, progress, Christisson much. Every • thing the latter touched seemed to turn into money, Penge layer Penge (money | makes money) was his mental comment whenever he looked over his books and calculated the profits of the year. " > The seasons seemed against Olsen. Bad burns left their mark upon his little property—marks It would take years to obliterate. He invariably met with an accident, when the road making was on hand, thus depriving him of a chance of earning a few pounds. Some of his best cows were lost through eating tutu—a poisonous shrub. In short, nothing prospered with him. Carl Christisson generously came to his aid. Twice would Olsen have become bankrupt had bis opportune assistance not been forthcoming. Christisson held a mortgage over the section, but ho never pressed his poorer countryman for repayment, and never refused him credit at the store. It waa through hicn that Olsen was enabled to keep his head above water till a good time should come. It was long in coming, but ib came at last. Tbe price of cattle went up, and Olsen made a good bargain with a drover. He sold a batch of calves and two-year-olds, and received in payment eight fivepound notes, besides two or three pounds in silver. He determined forthwith to take the _tO to the store and reduce the debt that had been mounting up in the books there. He handed the money to I Carl himself and took a receipt from him. ! Then lie went home with his mind more at ease that he had been able to pay off so i much of his store bill. The mortgage was [ not due for gome time yet, so he felt little apprehension on that score. This receipt was given about ten years after their arrival in New Zealand. During this time Thora had been attending the little village school which stood on the banks of the deep wooded gulley, l through which the road ran. Christisson's store was by the way. The read-headed, ruddy-faced storekeeper soon found out that it bad grown iuto quite a habit of his to stand in the .doorway when she passed, and to greet her with " Gut dag, Fraulein." He would often call the little maiden into the shop, and choose the daintiest jujubes to give to her. , Pretty little Thora bad a great friend, a boy of the name of Oscar Hansen, who was two or three years older than she was. She often shared with him the gifts the storekeeper bestowed upon her. Experience bad taught her that to take him iv with her would mean that the lollies and Christisson's smiles would be less nice and pleasant than if she came unattended. So she profited by experience and always went alone. Her playmate awaited her around some wooded corner, and then the twain divided the presents the girl had received.

With him she was wont to stray away, now paddling in the stream that rippled over its pretty bed, now hiding themselves in a forest glade. He was her slave. She made him fetch and carry for her, and queened it over him to her heart's content.

In course of time Oscar grew up and obtained employment on a sheep station In Hawke's Bay. He got on very well. He had one id*a only in view, and with that idea was Thora connected. He wrote glowing accounts of his prospect's in long letters to bis old playmate. She in return scribbled little notes in reply. These notes were very short, for somehow she found that the shorter the letters were tbe longer were the replies she received, and she did not object to their length were they ever so long.

She was blossoming fast into a most beautiful girl. All the folk said that Thora was the prettiest girl about. A true daughter of the North, as fair as was Swaahild, whose beauty is famed in song unto this day, was the verdict of old Hans the fiddler, who knew the old legends well and who could sing many a saga. A straight, slim, supple figare, a fair bright face, shadowed over big waving masses of golden hair, which when the light of the sunset fell upon it showed strange - patches of rich auburn, bright blue eyes, frank and fearless, with a gleam an of merriment in their clear depths, a broad forehead, a clear-cut face, a mouth somewhat large perhaps, but when the full ripe lips were parted ia a smile, there was disclosed such an even row of glistening white pearls that one almost wished tbe month were larger still, in order to see more of their regular whiteness—such was Thora, the acknowledged beauty of Danish town.

When she had reached tbe mature age of sixteen it was high time, her father said, that she should enter into Rervice, but as her mother was alwaya ailing sho stayed at home, milked the cows, and, among other duties (that I should have to say it grieves mc), hood, banked, and dug up the potatoes. A year or two later, when she was about eighteen and in the full bloom of her girlhood, Carl Christisson took a atrauge fancy for coming over in order to pay a friendly visit to her father. He would »it with bim on the old maiti log, jost outside the door, and the smoke of their pipes would rise lazily in the still air of tbe summer evening. Olsen and his wife were highly honoured that one, so rich and respectable should come to their poor cottage as a friend. He was, moreover, their creditor to some extent, for since tbe forty pounds, that Olsen bad paid to him two years before, he had sold him a quantity of goods, but had been paid for very little. ....__ „ Oisen was getting very short sighted, so short sighted was he that he could scarcely see to read. But be reposed such confidence in the storekeeper that the monthly bills that came were cast unheeded into the fire. He told his friend so one day. Red bearded Christisson gave a whiff his pipe and grunted out, " Ah, iss da* so f' Tbe very next day he came to Olsen's as usual. But he was more taciturn than he generally was, and smoked away very steadily. He was in a thoughtful frame of mind, that was evident. Then at last, after much cogitating, he burst out with— " Olsen."

" la, Mem Herr." "I've been a good friend to you, have I not ? I've lent you money, sold you goods on credit, and bought your potatoes from you at a good price; have I not t " You have, Herr." "Now," said Christisson, "I want a return for all this. I am, as you know, an unmarried man, and I want your daughter. If I marry her within a month I'll give you a receipt in full for all you owe mc. If not you will have to t> pay every farthing. Do you understand? * His listener understood only too well. There was no mistaking the man beside him. He knew what he had done to others who had failed in their debt to him. And now Olsen perceived the reason o£ his lenience to him. And the knowledge was forced on him, that if he could not prevail upon Thora to accept his creditor, he would—and he shuddered to think of the almost certain consequences the refusal would entail upon him. A picture of bis home in other hands, and himself, old and blind, struggling for a livelihood, flashed across his mind. He deliberated for Borne time. He knew Thora almost hated Christisson—it was only by the parental command that she stayed in the house to meet him. He also knew of the understanding between Oscar Hansen and his daughter. It would be no easy matter to make Thora cast oiT the love of her old playmate. He took refuge in procrastination and told the elderly suitor that he would prepare the girl for his visit the next day. Carl Christisson puffed out rings of white smoke with an air of intense satisfaction. He did not even dream of Thora refusing to obey her father, and looked upon the realisation of his long-cherished hope as a settled thing. He rose and took his leave, firing a parting threat behind him.

"If I do not marry her I tell you, Olsen, I'll ruin you. .Got nicht." There was a stormy interview that night in the little cottage by the road. Ole Olsen tried persuasion first. He appealed to her to save her mother being turned out with him, without home and friends. He spoke of the old farm where she had been reared passing into other hands. He exhausted all his powers of persuasion., and all to no purpose. Then he resorted to threats. He cursed and stormed. He promised to kick young Hansen, the length of the village, and to lock Thora up till she came to a proper consideration of what he deemed to be her filial duties. He even threatened to beat her. Unmoved by his persuasion, in spite of his threats, Thora grew firmer as he grew more boisterous. She pressed her pretty lips together and swore never to forsake Oscar Hansen, and, least of all, for that big, ugly Carl Christisson. Next morning betimes Carl Christisson came for his answer. Olsen waa ready, axe in hand, to go out to the work he was fast getting too blind to do. He noticed in bis early visitor's hand an envelope, and guessed at once that it was meant for him if the answer were unfavourable. He was right, for when with many stammering words he had explained that Thora would not hear of it, the storekeeper put the paper in his hands. . "I give you till the end of the week," he said, " to think it over, and for her to change her mind. Meanwhile this is for you." Olsen watched the burly round shouldered form till it sunk out of view behind the rise in tbe road before he opened the envelope. Then he strained his eyes over the figures. At last, with much difficulty he made them out. He Btarted. He read them over again as if to make sure he had read them aright. Then he hurried to the house and handed the bill to his daughter requesting her to read it aloud. The first item was account rendered, .£lO5 5s lOd ; then the goods bought in tiie preceding month were, detailed. On the other side was only the entry of £5 for potatoes. Tbe amount" of the bill staggered Olsen. He remembered that when he bad paid the forty pounds there were only a few pounds against him. It was impossible, he knew that he and his family could have spent _eios iv twoyears. Where was the receipt that Christisson gave, or even some of his old bills that he might gain some idea of his expenditure. Then he and Thora commenced a thorough search. They looked in the old japanned tin box, which was the receptacle of their few papers. Pockets in coats and dresses were searched, corners and cupboards rausacked, but all to no purpose, the receipt could not be found, and not even one of the many store bills. He went down to the store-keeper, who received him kindly, and even showed him the books where there was no mention of tbe sUm, Carl Christisson said that he hoped tbe receipt would be forthcoming, even though it proved, bim in error. Olsen went home, a dejected man. It all seemed to bim like a dream. Surely his senses were not leaving him with his eyesight. Surely the circumstances about the payment of the forty pounds and the selling of the cattle were real, not imaginary. He began to feel doubtful about his own memory. It was hard enough to raise the sixty pounds, and this forty on the top of it would crush him. He wouldhave to sell his very dairy cows to meet the demand. And his mortgage was falling in soon. Under the circumstances, it was useless to ask his creditor to renew it.

He made a fierce attempt that night to make Thora alter her determination. He stormed and pleaded, pleaded and stormed till tho poor girl, weary of the trouble, sought shelter in her own room ; there she wrote a letter to her young lover on the northern station. It was written by the light of a flaring tallow candle, and great blots showed where tears had fallen upon the paper. It told the shepherd how sorrow nad entered tbe house of Oisen and ruin hovered over the doorstep. It was Eosted early next morning by Thora, who ad risen half-an-hour before her usual time in order to catch the mesaing mail, and lightened somewhat in heart because she had told her old playmate her trouble. Thora went back to her milking of the olu cows that soon would have to be sold if she would got marry her richer lover.

After the milking she and her father renewed their search for the missing receipt-, every nook and cranny was examined, but without success.

Then the enraged father turned on his child with fierce sea thin jr. words and laid on her shoulders the blame of all his disasters. " Because it is that you are pret.y,"he stuttered in his broken English, tor Thora had forgotten most of her Danish. "It is that we are ruined. You are " Niddering " and do nothing. It is through you tnat we have our land to leave."

The girl answered the hot words with speech just as fierce and just as logical, while the poor invalid mother wept and feebly interceded between them, and Oswald, her pet child, timidly nestled beside her.

But when her husband had gone to his work, for to do him justice he waa a hard working and industrious man, and hereon had gone to school, the mother tried the effect of soft persuasion on the girl, and the soul that had exhausted itself in braving tbe storm, wavered before the gentle words. " Marry him, my dear," said the invalid mother, who thought of the fine thing it would be to be the storekeeper's mother-in-law, and the position both she and her daughter would attain. " Marry him. •An old man's love will last unto the grave. A young man's fancy may die tomorrow,"

So she ran on. The text of her discourse was how- lightly young men love; how faithfully old men worship. She talked much of position and made much of riches.

Thora wept bitterly. She said she ought not to leave Oscar Hansen; she could not

*So Qevel ma-ad Kjarllghia -rii tare Ul GdaveA £a TJaft mand Eatkti ril M_a*-_€ do. I Motgiai.~~fQ

stive him up. But she was doubting. Then Ser mother, wiser in her weakness than her father in his strength, left her alone, hoping she would follow the dictate* of worldly wisdom and marry the well-to-do lover instead of the comparatively poor Bt Tbora might still have remained fsithful to her old lover, had it not been for the advice of her bosom friend, Hilda Jensen, a Sly. simpering little thing. She whose ideas in life were fixed on the beauty and texture of a gown, and whose ambition it was to marry a man with a nice house and good income, was quite aa___ ed when Thora told her of the proposal made to her. She jumped on to her and covered her with kisses. . . ... . "Ah, Thora, how nice; how splendid I You'll be quite a grand lady now, and have nice dresses to wear. You'll forget all about poor mc. who has to go to service as soon as Hedwig can milk the cows. Oh, I do wish I was you." Thora stopped her in the outflow ol her congratulations, and made her acquainted with the true atate of affairs, at which Hilda was much astounded. She could not understand the attraction in Oscar Hanson that could outweigh the purse and position of his rival. She thought she had been too precipitate in her congratulations, for if Thora did not know the value of her prize why should she tell her. She had never looked on tho storekeeper as a marrying man before. Thora left her, debating sadly in her own mind on the matter. Her thoughts would contrast the stralsrhtlimbed, bright faced boy with tbe burly suitor whom fate had thrust so rudely upon her. She remem bered Oscar well as when he left her last, his bright face clouded somewhat at the thought of leaving her, aud his parting words came back to her memory and mingled strangely with the soughing of the wind in the forest beyond. "Darling, he said, " I'll soon come for you, and we shall be happy for ever." Then the thought of her mother with her low pleading voice, and the congratulations of her friend swept the boy's image from her heart for a time and she thought of the luxuries and blessings that riches would bring. She ws.3 hesitating between riches and poverty. Hilda, the sly little puss, was by no means devoid of good looks, and when her friend left she prepared to do a little business on her own account. A trout loose in the stream is sport for anyone. She donned hor neatest and went straight to the store where, for half-an-hour, she aired her graces before the rich storekeeper himself. But all to no avail. He took little interest in her and she went home, regretting tho walk, the dust on her dress, and most of all the motive that had taken her out on so unsuccessful an expedition. We left Thora hesitating, and she was lost. Olsen, blustering and fuming, attacked her again that evening, and tbe girl, mentally tired with the struggles of the last two days, her remaining strength undermined by the softer influence of her mother, and her desires for riches and comfort aroused by the advice of her friend, yielded a reluctant consent.

The night ensuing was very bitter to her. Its hours seemed endless as she lay awake, Her pillow was web with many tears, for she wept till she could weep no more.. ; Then dry-eyed, with burning cheeks, she tossed on her hard haystuffed mattress, thinking sadly of the fresh-faced youth, who she knew would evermore think sadly of her. And she thought with a pang of fear, into his sadness a flavour of contempt would steal, because she had sold herself for gold. Carl Christisson came up the next day, looking very unlike the lover of her girlish dreams, and very, very unlike the one she had featured in the burning thoughts of the restless night gone by. A great, rough, uncouth man her betrothed seemed to her in contrast to the one she must ever love, but in secret. Hut he, too, loved her in his own way. His harsh voice softened to an unwonted tenderness when he spoke to her.

" Thora, my darling, I love you, and I'm glad that you'll marry mc, though it is ver' hard that I had to force you. You is like the woman I loved in the old land, I loved you just because you were like her when she was a little girl, and I played with her. Then because you were Thora." He sighed a little as the girl listened wearily; her eyes, so lately grown sad. fixed on the northern bills, that loomed bluish gray in the far off horizon. She seemed not to be listening to bim so much as to the wind that rustled in the bush behind. This strange courtship, where all the love was on one side, lasted but for a day or two. Then Thora began to grow reconciled to her impending fate. Her friends so continually impressed upon her the idea that she was a lucky girl, that she began to believe she really was one. Carl wanted the wedding to take place as soon as possible and it was fixed for Thursday, her name day and birth day, which made it nearly a week from the day she accepted him. He made great preparations. He engaged the pastor and ordered up large quantities of liquors. He made out a list of invitations and contracted for the supper. He hired the Konawa Brass Band and left old Hans out in the cold, The marriage of Carl Christisson and Thora Olsen, be wished to furnish the subject of gossip and the theme of admiration in the bush district for months to come. And all things were nearly ready. Suddenly the rumour ran like wildfire through the settlement that Oscar .Hansen had been seen. The statement was true. The young man was not going to be defrauded Of bin bride without a struggle, and like an old Norse hero, he had rushed dowri to measure swords with the would-be spoiler. He did not look a jilted lover. He bore himself wolland bravely. He even met Christisson and accosted him to that worthy's astonishment who scowled at him. " You are going to marry Thora Olsen, I hear, Mr Christisson?"

" Ya," growled the storekeeper. " I wish you joy," said the youth with a smile. " I only hope she will be worthy of * you.' It's on Thursday is it not." The man took no notice of the question, but marched away. The wrinkles on his brow became more clearly defined, and the hard expression more pronounced as a horrible suspicion crept into his mind. What if the youth were jeering at him 1 What if he lost the girl he had set his heart on, when just on tbe point of win. ning her! He banished the thought with an effort, but a moment later the thought recurred. It could not be banished, do what he would. At last de determined to go up to Olsen's and be in possession if Hansen should call there. But he was too late.

He opened the door and entered an unwilling witness upon a scene that shattered his dearest hopes, He saw the girl he hoped to make his wife before the week was over, wrapped close in Hansen's embrace, crying with joy. Ole'Olaen was by the window, trying to make out the writ ing on an old piece of paper, written on the back in a large, unformed girlish hand.

Tbe intruder was greeted with a laugh from the young man. His projected father-in-law looked at him as if he would be angry with him, if he dared, but that prudence kept wrath in restraint.

"Here's the receipt," Olsen said, approaching Christisson, whose eyes shot sparks of fire beneath their white lashes, but who outwardly kept perfectly calm and quiet. "That the receipt!" he answered in measured tones." Then the mistake must have been of my clerk. I have more sorrow than I can cay. But I yet do believe that my friend owes mc over £100. I should be glad if he will pay the debt." Whether what he said waa true none could tell. It might have been as he said a mistake of his clerk or It might have been done on purpose. Be itaait may it was never cleared up. Oscar Hansen came forward and spoke to the baffled man.

" Look here, you can't force Olsen to pay you the mortgage yet. It's not doe for two months. All that Olsen has to pay you ia ?our store account. You must take off rom that £40 and <-iend in a full list of all Olsen has had. If you don't we'll take you to court. I don't think you'll like that."

The long pent up rage of the Dane burst out at last. With a curse In his native Danish he sprang upon the youth and endeavoured to draft him down, but he met with his match. Hansen had not spent three years on the coast station withouttaking lessons in the art of self defence. Chrlstisson's blows fell on empty air and were returned by swift, neatly delivered strokes that nearly blinded tbe storekeeper with the force with which they fell. And soon he shrank from before the boy, who seemed .to be able- to hit him when and where he liked, but whom be waa unable to hit in return. At last he fouud himself pushed outside the door with stidgt-g places on bis cheeks and ew that were gradually •closing up. He .«£_. the cottage, a baffled and dejected man. His schemes to get the Olsens in hi*, power had failed. He would be the laughing stock of the settlement, that be knew.

Thora was, as her father had declared her to be, the cause of the loss of the receipt. It had been her habit to write short notes to her lover on spare scraps of paper. She had picked the receipt up one day when she had wanted to add a postscript to some other note and had sent 16

north. Hansen read It joyfully and put It away with other valued letters In a secret °° x \ 2^"I ,c i n he BCt he noticed figures on the back of the paper but had not read them, scrawling writing engrosHlng all his attention. Then Thorn's tear-blotted letter came, and he thought of tho figures he had seen. They turned out to bo those of the receipt. So he posted down to the bush, with all tho money he could draw or borrow and with the receipt in his h_md he came to save his low from* the fate that was being so forcibly thrusfupou her Then there took place an alteration in the management of Olsen'. farm. Han sen took it over from tho old man who wai going nearly blind, and almost Incapable of the necessary work. Hansnn also leased another section adjoining tr. did remarkably well In a short in?«««? time. He made a lucky dead ln!amt cattle that brought him In a decent n£S? before the year was out. His W_.f_a c of sheep enabled him to trade In „H_? with profit likewise. Then there tl?_ place the gayest, prettiest weddlna «•__ K no _ Tn J n oftuißhto _' , 1 '; when Hansen w__ the bridegroom and Thora was the brhW Hans, the fiddler, played old Danish tuna. upon his cherished fiddle, which wasffl father's before him, anA the lad. ml lasses footed It merri y to the nIS -tirring strains. Oscarf in a brief manly speech, thanked the guests for their comlug to him on what withe happiest day of his life except one h_ added, and that waa when he had da__A_ down from the uorth, and had h_*n enabled to save Thora from beln_ _h»i_Y isson's wife. Aud the folk there cheered the pair again aud again. "wvu There had been another wedding befom this ono. At this there had been mot© to drink, and richer drinks, and the Konaw_ Brass Band had played instead ot Han-*! But the peoplo said they enjoyed It less than tbe poorer and happier wedding. The drink and the band were in honour of Carl Christisson aud Hilda Jensen, for Hilda had hooked tho big trout, according to her wish. She drove in a buggy at last and was able to wear the finest dresses In tho village. But sho married a master in her husband. He will neithor apeak of the Hansens nor allow her to speak ot them, nor even to know them. And Hilda driving past the little cottage, where the newly planted trees are just beginning to oast a shade, and the garden was blossoming into its first season of bloom, longs to speak to her old friend Thora, who seems so happy with her baby, and slogs so gaily while the milks the cows.