Chapter I.

Otago Witness, Issue 1727, 27 December 1884, Page 8

Chapter I.

A SEA OF TROUBLES. 11 shape my old course in a country new.' was a plowing morning early in Juno. The hedgerows were gay with blossoms red and white, and vocal with the songs of innumerable birds ; the elms " laid their great arms about tho field," making shadow- patterns on the daisysprinkled grass. Down the lane, and through the '' •" '. gate, and. across the Bmooth lawn of Holly Lodge trippdd Faith Blake — not, however, with the light step and cheerful bearing natural to her. There was trouble at Holly Lodge ; Faith saw dark days approaching, and, worst of all, she instinctively felt that her Uncle Henry was not one to be depended upon in the hour of need. He would henebforth be the sole support of his family, and a frail support he was likely to prove. So Faith feared, and her fears were not groundless. Henry Blake considered himself a clever man : ha oertaiuly was a fortunate one. As the younger son of a spendthrift baronet he was not born to fortune, and he never could have achieved it ; it had been literally thrust upon him, a distant and almost unknown relation having chosen him as his heir. That with Mr Blake's passion for speculating and unbusinesslike habits be 6hould have retained this wealth till past middle life, might be considered another proof of his good fortune. At last, however, the often used pitcher had come to grief— in other words, one speculation after another had failed, and Mr Blake awoke one morning to find himself penniless. To any reasonable man this catastrophe would have been looked forward to- as inevitable, sooner or later ; to Henry Blake it was as a ' bolt froni the blue.' He collapsed utterly, and Faith had left him and her aunt miugling their tears and lamentations together, while she hurried off to the Park to acquaint the family chief with their misfortunes, and request his assistance. This was the second son of old Sir Stephen ; the eldest— Faith's father— had walkad in the ways of his father, wasting his substance in riotous living, so that when he died Faith, then a child of seven or eight, was left absolutely penniless. The new baronet, Sir Joshua, was as thrifty and business-like as his father and brother had been, the reverse. He had long before been ostracised by his family for disgracing their escutcheon by entering into trade.. However, he made money, and in course of time they would have forgiven him, but he declined to be forgiven. When he entered into possession of the estate he cleared off the mortgages, pulled down the decayed old house, and built a fine new one, and effected various improvements, but he and his plebeian wife refused utterly to have anything to do with Faith. Lady Blake was the daughter of a rich soapboiler. Her marriage with Joshua had carried horror and dismay to the whole Blake family. This she knew very well, and having, like her husband, a good memory for slights, Faith's claims were ignored, and but for her goodnatured uncle. Henry, who adopted her as his own, the child would have fared badly. For some years the two brothers had not been on speaking terms ; hence when this trouble befell the Henry B lakes, to Faith was deputed the task of seeking assistance from Sir Joshua.

Her errand was unsuccessful^ and she returned slowly, reluctant to face the distress of her uncle and aunt. But a surprise awaited her. She had left them in the depths of woe, she found them in animated conversation, and her uncle greeted her with a boisterous laugh. ' Here you are at last, my girl. Now let's go to luncheon— on my life I'm famished ; could not eat a mouthful of breakfast.'

'You have had good news— things are not bo bad eS you thought ? '

' Indeed they are, and worse. What then ? \yb,9n fortunes are to be had for the picking up, what; need to cry over spilt milk ? But don't ask a hungry man for explanations, Come to luncheon.

Bailiffs were at that moment in possession, and yet here was the table furnished with the usual abundance, notto gay extravagance; • Mr Blake loved good eating. ■ When ho had taken the edge off his appetite* he looked up. 1 Well, Faith, what did Joshua say ? ' She hesitated.

' Won't help us— eh ?, Ah ! I expected that. Joshua is like the what do you call 'em ?— armadillo. Touch his pocket and be rolla up at once.'

And Mr Blake laughed ; he thought that illustration rather neat.

' Uncle Joshua said the very best thing we could do would be to emigrate,' said Faith, 'and ha offers to help us to the extent of paying our passage.' „,. ' Now I call that a "providence,' exclaimed Mr Blake, bringing hia hand down on the table, to tne imminent; danger of the wineglasses. , ' It is the very thing we are going to do. We are going to Queensland, my girl, to the gold diggings. According to the Times (and if the Times is not to believed, I should like to know what is ?) one can pick up gold out there for the trouble of it. Really I hardly regret my failure, as but for this I should never have dreamed" of' emigrating. Now in ,say three years I shall have doubled, or even quadrupled my late fortune. Then we shall come back to old England, and buy an estate ia Devonshire. Devonshire is my native county, and T always preferred ifc to Surrey.' ' Yes, and you can build a house to suit you then,' chimed ia his wife ; ' and you know, dear, that is w,hat you have always wished td do.'

' Aye, and hothouses too, and then perhaps I shall get a grape fit to eat,' said Mr Blake, surveying the bunch on his plate discontentedly. 'We must preserve our first nugget, Sophy ; you and Faith shall have a brooch a-piece out of it, and I will have & ring. It is not every gentleman that can say he dug the gold of which his ring was made.' And Mr Blake laughed again. Faith listened to all this with dismay. Her knowledge on the subject was not extensive, but she knew enough to feel sure her uncle and aunt would be about as much out of place on a Colonial goldfield as £hey would be in a coal mine. This she said, but neither Mr nor Mrs Blake paid the slightest heed ; they were both as sanguine as if they already trod upon gold dust. And so the die was cast ; and when a few weeks later this remarkable couple stood on the deck of the good Bhip Hero, outward bound, they seemed to consider their troubles aa at an end. Faith, who of course accom panied them, felt as if hers was but beginning