MIGNONETTE.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9253, 2 November 1895, Page 2

MIGNONETTE.

By David M'Kee Wriciht.

When I was rabbiting on Barravale thoro was a garden there unequalled on any of the stations of the plain, and tho magician who made it so was a little yollow man with a shaven head, bound by Beveral yards of shining, black pig-tail. There never was such a wonderful place for plums and cherries, and from the little sheltered space surrounded on three sides by willow and poplar trees came great supplies of cabbages and cauliflowers and big yollow and green striped vegetable-marrows. There was a lawn in front of the house margined by .'simple flowers where a tenuis court was marked and a net of woven wire stood permanently, roses and ivy climbed up tho trellised verandah, and there was a vinery at that end where the sun shone brightest. It was always a delight to come to the homestead in the heat of summer. After leaving behind the bare, brown plain and the yellow, tussocky hills, one made his way, between the fresh green irrigated paddocks to the shady avenue that led past the house to the men's hut. How welcome the shade was and how doubly welcome the breath of flowers and bee 3 that was wafted over the privet hedge. Mignonette was the Chinaman gardener on the station. His dutieswere many and varied, He groomed hores, milked cows, grew cabbages, trained ro3e bushes, chopped up wood and carried ooal for the girl at the house, went for the mail, and filled up his spare time catching rabbits. How he came to have any spare time was a mystery to us all. Many men had failed more or less in the same situation, but Mignonette did it all with ease. He was always smiling and pleasant, and as people said of him, " a white man in his way." Whenever I came in to the station it was always— " Hillo, Fled ! How you get on *"" "Oh, all right. How're you doing yourself Mr M'PJierson ?" I might answer. " Wha' fo' ? You too much lalakin, Fled. No call mc Mr M-Phelson." '' What then ? Mr Brown *>" "No Brown. Mm Let." "Oh, Mr Mignonette." " You catchec plenty labbit?" "No, not many." "Ah, you too muchee no good. Wha' fo' no' many ? You go bad place by 'n bye." Then he would pas 3on laughing. He lived in a storm of endless chaff, giving interest on all he got—a light-hearted sunny fellow who never made an enemy on the station. Man who professed to hate a yellow face always made an exception of Mignonette, j He was a Chinaman in a thousand. i Big Pat" O'Brien used to say, telling us of the golden days of Victoria— "Sixteen of us chased a Chinaman wid i long-handled shovels, and the miserable coward he run." Probably most Europeans might have done the same in similar circumstances. But Mignonette had plenty of courage. The roughest on the station to ride was the old mail-horse, Jerry. He was a nervous brute, too, and would shy on the smallest provocation. Often he had left our Chinaman in the middle of the road, and on one occasion in the middle of the river. He used to say sadly,; " Jilly, him blute to lide, him s'y." But he rode him bravely all the same. Mignonette would not be imposed on by anyone. He did his work well but he would not be interfered with in his own way of doing it. He used to carry the day's siipply of coal into the kitchen oi the house directly after breakfast. One day in doing so he was stopped by the girl—Agnes was the name of the one who wa3 there then, " Why can't you bring in tho coals earlier. I don't want you tramping in here with your great hulking feet while I'm scrubbing the floor." " All li', mc no care. Mc take him back." He took the coal away again and went back to his work in the garden. An hour later he returned to the house with some vegetables he had been told to bring. "You can bring in the coals now, Mm Let." " Oh, mc no savee. Mc no bling coal any more one fortni'. You bling coal you' self, Agnee. Mc no catchee time lun after you allee time." He turned and went away again while Agnes went to complain indignantly to her mistress. "Mm Let," said Mrs Martin, when he next appeared, "why did you refuse to bring the coals in for Agnes . Go and get them at once." "Mc no savee. Mc bling coal one time. ! Agnee say, 'Mc no wantee.' Wha' for'!j Mc no savee bling coal back. Agnes j go bling coal now. Mc no savee." Mrs Martin went away in a passion to her husband and told him the story. j "He was quite right," he said. "Mm Let has plenty of work to do without running about after you women. You never know when a man isdoinghia work well." A week later Agnes said coaxingly— " Mm Let, do fetch mc in some coal, I'm so busy." But Mignonette turned on his heel. "Mc no savee. One mo' week," he said holding up seven fingers, and he kept his word." But as time wore on Mignonette's feelings towards Agne3 underwent a great change. He used to like to linger over his work about the house, and he often forgot to set his traps for rabbits even when the days were long and the weather was good. He was changed too in other ways. The smile did not come so readily to his lip 3 when anyone poked fun at him, and I have seen him sitting in the hut with quite a melancholy look in hi 3 little brown eye 3. . "1 reckon his moneys what troubles him," Jack, the cook, would say. "He used to keep a store for the Ckiukies over the valley way, and he has a lot of bad debts that he can't get paid." Sometimes when he came up late for dinner Jack would chaff him about Agnes— in those days he very often was late. He seemed to have grown sleepy and careless over his work, and everyone noticed it, though few suspected the real cause. " What's keeping the black and tan fellow ?" Jack would ask. "He aint what he used to be coming to his meals, I'll have to alter this." A moment later perhaps the Chinaman would appear with a sack of green vegetables over his shoulder. He would stop, look at the clock, and then pull put his watch which was of the cheap iron-clad variety. " Wha' fo' him clock no keep li' time." " It's your watch that don't want to keep good time." " My watch, him velly good fellow, Jack. Him one mince, two mince, three mince— three mince 310w." " And you're ten minutes behind time. I know what it is ; you stop down there yarning with Agnes." "Wh'fo'? Mc no stop talk Agnee." [ " Oh, that'll do you now, Agnes told mc all about you." '' Jack, you velly bad fellow, you no savee, Agnee no Likee C_m_rr__r_" *' Chinaman likes Agnes all right though." '' Wha' fo' ? You too muchee no good, Jack." Once sitting alone in the hut with Mm

Let, I asked him, for lack of something "i better to say, when he was going back to ■ "Ah, mc no savee," he said, with a long /If drawn sigh. "PTaps mc never go back. jW Mc nea'ly allee same European now. P1 ap3 » jfM mc stop here allee time." ...,,.,__. (Jf " Why do you wear a pig-tail then 1 Him H no good," I said. ■ . ' § He shook his head quite seriously. | " By'n bye cut him of pTaps. g "No fear." „ I " By'n bye pTaps. Him no good. | «' You're in love Mignonette. * | Again lie shook his head. jj "Mc no savee, what him? Mc go feed 1 horse now." ~•..._. i Away he went at his shambling trot to the Jf stable, and I smoked my pipe and wondered 1 at tho little comedy being played before mc. I It seemed such a laughable thing to see a I Chinaman in love that I could not treat it I very seriously, but long afterwards I learned I that Mignonette's love story was more than § half a tragedy. We in New Zealand are | willing enougli to assert " that all men are I born equal and free," but then we can never 1 quite bring ourselves to think that China- | men are men. 1 "You likee stlawbellee," Mm Let said, i as he laid a large cabbage leaf of the fruit I that were his pride on the dresser in the kitchen. Agnes looked up from the wash-tub where she was at work—a plain, rosy-cheeked, country girl. "Oh, what beauties," she cried. "How good of you Mm Let." " You work very hard, by 'n bye you no wash clo' !" " When, Mm Let?" " Oh, by 'n bye you get malice." "Get married? I'm not going to get married, Mm Let." " Wha' fo' you no get mallee?" " Nobody would have mc." "Oh, plen'y fellow have you by 'n bye." " Plenty fellow takes a long time to ask mc. Will you have mc, Mm Let ?" Mignonette's little brown eyes grew quite big with pleasure. " Oh, yon too muchee joke, Agnee. You I no wantee mc." S Agnes laughed, but did not answer. I "You no mean him, Agnee?" he said f very seriously, coming nearer. Agnes laughed still more, and moved away from him, holding out her dripping hands. At that moment Mrs Martin's step was heard in the passage within, and Mignonette darted to the door more rapidly than ever he had been known to move before. "Agnes, have you seen Mm Let?" Mrs Martin began. "Ah, there you are. Mm Let, Mr Martin wants you to have the buggy ready by two o'clock to go to Maruina." " All li, mc get him." Mignonette trotted off on his errand, and Agnes very much disconcerted returned to her washing. "What was Mm Let doing here?" Mra Martin asked. y Agnes looked still more confused, and for a moment did not answer. "He brought mc some strawberries," she said at last. "What right has he to bring you strawberries ? My! What beauties! I must take these to Mr Martin, he hasn't been feeling very well. I had no idea there were any ripe." She dipped her short white fingers into the leaf and tasted the fruit, then she carried them all away. Agnes flushed very red, and rubbed furiously in the water. That afternoon there was no one at home at the house but Ag_e3. Most of her work for the day was done. She had hung out the clothes to dry on the wire lines between the elder trees, and now she waa giving the finishing touches to her kitchen after the ( stern ordeal of the wash tub. % Mignonette came in from the garden. 1 " Hullo Agnee," he said, quite shyly, Agnes looked up, flushed with the exertion of using- th^hroom. "Mc wantoe talk you, Agnee. Misses > \ take away stlawbellee ?" •*!' '■•■ " Yes. Oh, she's a horrid old thing. I {■ won't stand it much longer." "No matter, mc bling some mo." " Oh, never mind, Mm Let." " Oh, mc bling him." The little man trotted away and brought back another leaf of the juicy treasures. " You eat him now; missee not know." " You're very kind, Mm Let." "No matter, him all' li." Agnes sat down and began to eat the fruit. " You get mallee by'n bye," Mignonette said. Agnes looked a little frightened at the renewal of the subject. ■- " No, mc not get married, Mm Let," she T said. " You listen, mc tell you what. By'n bye you get mallee, some fellow cook, some fellow shepherd, p'l'aps noda fellow Tabbiter. Allee same, him no good. Yon poor -a woman, allee same Chinaman. Him fellow ji* dlink, you work; him follow go away, you 7 ely; him fellow no good, you velly solly. Agnes laughed at the recital of her com« ing woes. "But I don't want to get married, Mih Let." "Oh, yes, you want got mallee. Evelly girl him say that. Mc like you Agnee." Mignonette heaved a great Bigh. " Why don't you ask mc to marry yott then, Mm Let." Mm Let's brown eye 3 got big again and he hardly looked like a Chinaman at all as he stood before her. . Nothing can make beautiful as love can. He began to speak hurriedly—— "Agnee you allee same mallee mc. You no work hard. Mc wash, nw sclub, mc mend clo', mc catchee plen'y money. By'n 1 bye mc cut off pig-tail, allee same Eulopean, / • mc no go back China any mo.' Agnee mc love you." It had only just dawned on the girl that the Chinaman was making her an oifer of marriage. She was so anxious to get a husband and a home of her own, that she would have married almost anyone—anyone but a Chinaman. " You're joking,. Mm Let," she said, but she knew very well that he was not, for the veins stood out on his forehead like knotted cords, and he looked as if he pleaded for his life. "Mc no joke, you mallee mc, mc always love you." " No, no, Mm Let, I couldn't marry a Chinaman. No more of this nonsense." The little man's passion seemed to tan* away. "All li', all li'," he said, slowly, "by'n bye you bs velly, velly solly. Mc no say any mo." , Mignonette went away and Agnes 100-ea after him with ever euch a little touch 01 pity in her gaze. By and bye she was very* very sorry. A month later they wanted a new gardener on Barravale, for Mm Let had gone Thome ta the Flowery Land. """** I