Chapter VI.

Otago Witness, Issue 1583, 25 March 1882, Page 25

Chapter VI.

Turn, fortune, turn thy wheel with smile or frown, With that wild wheel We go not up or down ; ; Our hoard in little, but our hearts are great. Tennyson. ' Six weeks afterwards, and a glorious morning late in October, an English ship is entering Hobson's Bay with the morning tide; her white sails spread and glistening in the sun. On her deck stands a group we know; Mrs Allon, Francis, and Kenneth, the Smiths, with their two children, and Dr. Gryffytha. Out of the seventeen persons who had been in the boat these eight alone survive. After the events recorded in the last chapter, five more days elapsed before they were rescued; days of horror such as none of them will ever forget. They bear traces yet of what they have gone through. How eagerly they watch the shore, which they are fast approaching. It seems as if they could not fully realise their safety until they stood once more upon the solid earth. Dr G-ryffyths, his hands behind him, holding his stick firmly planted on the deck to serve as 'a pivot, has been questioning Mr Smith concerning his destination. • The diggings first,' decided that gentleman. 'After we've made our fortin', we can look round, and see what's like to be the best investment for it. Mr White, (one of the passengers) he says as sheep-farming'll pay better'n the diggings in the long run. But that wants capital, which it's precious little we've got

IIUW. ' By-the-bye,' interrupted Kenneth, Allon ; 'what will you do with that baby, if its father is not forthcoming ? I don't suppose you will find many workhouses or orphanages in Melbourne ; those are luxuries reserved for a more advanced stage of civilisation than we are likely to find there.' ' / hope its father won't be forthcoming ;' boldly declares Mrs Smith. 'It would go to my heart, it would, to part with her now, precious lamb ! Why, she's a'most like my own little one to me, that died just afore she were born.' • ' So she is,' assented Mr Smith, ' and if nobcdy claims the child, wife, you may keep it, if you ain't af eared o' the trouble. We'll be rich in no time, and shan't rob Mary Jane here by providing for it.' ' Now by the ashes of my last walking stick,' cried the doctor, wheeling round on its successor as upon a pivot ; ' this is a generous thing of you to do ; yes indeed ! ' and you with nothing in the world but what you stand in.' ' What folly !' commented Mrs Allon aside, to her youngest son ; ' but some people never know when they are well off.' ' I think it is a noble deed,' said Kenneth, warmly. 'What would have become of the poor little thing ? I doubt if ever any one will claim it.' Mrs Allon shrugged her shoulders. ' That is no business of the Smiths ;' she replied coldly. ' They have done more than could have bpen expected of them already. And I say again, it is folly to burden thonibe.lvca with a strange child, and they just Landed in a new country, without a sixpence between them.' Kenneth turned away without replying, pained, as he had often been before, by his mother's utter selfishness.

As soon as the vessel reached the wharf, Bhe was beseiged, It appeared that, a, week be-

fore her arrival, a new goldfield had been discovered, to which there had been a general stampede. Clerks and shopmen left their masters to their own devices — that is when the master did not close store or office, and shouldering pick and shovel, ' lead on to fortune !' Lawyers left their clients in peace ; doctors gave their patients a last chance of life— by deserting them; and at least one diminished congregation found itself, when Sunday came round, minus a minister ( It followed, therefore, that the arrival of a crowded emigrant Bhip was a welcome event to the townspeople. There was quite a scramble ameng them to be first on board to secure the pick of the emigrants. Of course the latter knew of the new rush ten minutes after the vessel came alongside; but the Melborunians were equal to the occasion. The dangers of the road (bad enough at the best) were magnified tenfold, and the rush itself proportionately; cried down. So that many of the emigrants, thinking that a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush, accepted comfortable homes, and treble the wages they had been used to» receive, resigning, for the present, their dream < of golden nuggets. Some, however— amongst them the Smiths' — were proof against all blandishments. The diggings were the El Dorado of their hopes; and thither they were bound to go ; though how, Mr Smith did not, at present, see very clearly. The two Allons were pounced upon at once by a stout, pursy little lawyer, who loved his ease far too well to adventure it at the diggings ; and who was at his wit's end for want of a clerk. He offered what seemed a fabulous salary, but Francis, who had almost recovered from the injuries sustained at the time of the wreck, treated the offer wish scorn. He had not come out to Australia to turn clerk ; he should go straight to the diggings, make his fortune at once, and return to London, which was the only place fit for a gentleman to live in. Mrs Allon, who had listened in spent horror to the appalling account of the diggings, and the road thereto, turned imploringly to her youngest son, and vehemently urged him to accept the situation. 1 1 am a widow now ;' she cried plaintively, using a plea of which she already knew the power — at least with this son. ' I could not remain alone in Melbourne; and how could / live in a tent, on those awful diggings ? Think too of the terrible road, for a delicate creature like me.'

' And the bushrangers,' suggested the astute lawyer. ■ ' , 'And those horrible savages;' cried Mrs Allon. ,*Oh, Kenneth, accept this good gen-, tleman's offer while you have the chance ; and now we arc safe, for goodness sake let us re: main so.' And Kenneth did accept; though it was a great sacrifice. True, the salary was extra^ vagantly liberal ; still it was only a , salary ; and he had so set his heart upon making a speedy fortune, and being able immediately to begin the payment of his father's debts. Until the last of them were cleared ,off, Kenneth would feel that his faculties, time, money-^ all he possessed— was owed, and must be devoted to that one object. Besides' which, 1 he had all a boy's love of adventure ; and the excitement, the very danger of a gold-digger's life fascinated him. But Kenneth knew thaj; he had decided rightly. Francis and he were now their widowed mother's sole support and protection ; and if Francis shirked that duty^ —so much the more reason why Kenneth should perform it. Francis felt inexpressible contempt for his brother's decision ; the idea of preferring the plodding life of a lawyer's clerk to his own brilliant prospects ! But he took care to conceal his contempt; finding it very convenient- thus to delegate the care of their mother to Kenneth. _ > ! Energetic enquiries were at once instituted after Mr Eustace Smith, supposed to be th£ little Australia's father, but without the least success. Our friends were permitted > by the humane captain to remain on board his vessel for the first two days ; and when the baby's story got about, as Dr Gryffyths took care that it should do,— a subscription was started for the child's benefit. Though confined to the ship at first, it soon spread to the town, and the result was a most substantial sum was subscribed, which, being placed in Mr Smith's hands, as her /guardian, completely relieved his embarrassment as to how he should reach the gold-diggings. Kenneth, having posted poor Captam Hencke's letter, handed over to Mr Smith the remainder of the packet, containing the only memorials of her mother whioh the poor little orphan would ever possess.

(To be continued).