TALES FROM THE LAND OF LIGNITE, GOLD, AND BARREN HILLS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2284, 9 December 1897, Page 46

TALES FROM THE LAND OF LIGNITE, GOLD, AND BARREN HILLS.

Br T. BEND

[All Eights Reserved.]

VIII.—A MAY EPISODE.

The wind sprang up with the break of day, and as the sun rose higher increased in violence, until long ere noon it had assumed the proportions of a terrific gale. It blew the water in dashe3^ of spray high up above the surfaces of the water races, tore up some of the sturdiest trees from the plantations around the houses, and had it not been for the breakwind these plantations afforded would doubtless have carried away several of the buildings also.

To work in the opan while this continued

was a matter of impossibility. Even to walk. out in it was such ; for in order to keep on one's feet it would have been necessary to have something to hold on to. Yet no one fa tbo locality considered ifc a matter to make much of, for gales snch as this in ppr^ocs of Central Otago are not uncommon. - '

By night time the gale had abated but little, and the appearance of the sky indicated the approach of a heavy storm of some kind. Dense black clouds had gathered overhead; there was no moon due, and the intensity of the darkness badß well to equal that of the innermost recesses of an extensive subterranean cavern. Presently thß sky towards the south began to wear a rosy hue. The colour quickly deepened to a lurid red; and Hartley, standing in the doorway of bis hut, was puzzed to account for the Buddenness of the illumination. "Too brilliant for ths Southern L'ghts," thought he ; "it looks mors like the reflection of a house on fire." Ba\, as there were no houses of any kind in that direction, he decided to take a walk aB far as the top of the bill and discover the cause cf it.

By holding on to scrub and tussock as he almost crept along, he managed to reach the summit ; though before he got there he bad several times fallen foal of the sharp-pointed speargrass and thorny matagauri that grew in his path. Irritated extremely by the prickings he got from these, he gave full vent to his injured feelings on realising that what he had gone forth to get a better view of was only, as he put it, " A darned old grass fire after all 1 "

Yet had Hartley had the eye of an artist he migbt have considered himself amply repaid for his trouble in the view he got : Distant snowy peaks made roseate by tbe reflection of the flames; jagged edges of dark, frowniag mountains of a lower altitude thus revealed ; and over these a monstrous inky sky looking wrathfully down at the leaping tongues of fire that were making a playground of the wilderness of tussocks away beneath it. This was the scene that met bis eaze— a scene that, while possessing a wild

and rugged beauty, was. awe-inspiring InltS impressive loneliness. v * When Hartley got baok to his hot he was still further annoyed to find that he had dropped his last stick of tobacco either going up or coming down the hill. To search for it would have been a hopeless task, and as the wind now began to show signs of slackening he made np his mind to go into the township and get a fresh supply.

An hour afterwards he had done botb, and was repairing homewards when a violent snowstorm came on. The storm caught him when only a little way out of the town, and he turned back to seek shelter and await its ending; but finding after some hoars of waiting that it still continued, he gave up the idea of returning home nntii the morning. So he secured a room in one of the hotelß and went to bed. When he awoke ia the morning he peered through the window of his bedroom and saw that it was still snowing. The look of the eky foreboded no early cessation either, ai;d the day befog Sunday he lay awhile cogitating with himself as to how be would pass it. It was not a churoh day, there being only three of those in the month up there — one for the Aoglicans, one for the Roman Catholics, and one for the Presbyterians, the AngUcans and Presbyterians using^the same building.-. Btit whether church, day or not it would haye been just the.isame to Hartley, for ho .wksi an idolater. •♦■His religion," bo .he need to say when under the influence' <jf liquor, " was . /;hor6es "—a form., of worship of which I think he was not the sole professor. * His cogitations- resulted in a decision to visit an old . mate who dwelt some distance' beyond the township, and after breakfast he went forth to carry it out. Tbe visit occupied the wbola of the day, and night was approaching when ' ho left his friend'?. It was quite dark when he arrived at the township— too dark by far to think of venturing home across the snowclad kills ; so he tnrned towards the hotel to again bespeak a room for the night. While moving thither the indistinct sound of a distant cooee reached his ears. Standing still he listened. The cry waa repeated. It was tbe sound of a woman's voice — a faint and feeble treble.

" Oooee ! " responded Hartley with the full vigour of his lungs, and'then rushed hurriedly into the hotel to get a lantern.

" What's np ? " asked the publican, who bad heard him shoutiDg, and waß eager to learn the cause of his excitement.

" Beauty in distress," returned Hartley ; " beauty in distress, me boy ! Hurry up now and get U3 a lantern, will yer 1 I'm going to fetch the lady home."

" And I'll go with you," said the grog diepanser as he got a bottle of whisky to revive the lost one.

Then after getting a lantern he and Hartley hastened forth. Outside the hotßl -they were joined by a few others, who -had come up to ascertain the -reason of Hartley 'rf cry. -Tneir litttle band trudged off in single file through the snow, in many places knee -deep, cooeeing as they went and moving ever in the direction' of tbe responding cry. Their route lay- first through a loiigfwindiDg'gully; then - across a fcouple of - bill?, and again ' tbrough-a'notber gully, to .xhe left of which was a hill towering high above the others.:^ ' Scarcely a wordtwas spoken on the way, for each man'a thoughts were ocenpied m picturing the fair object of their seaich. Visions of female loveliness of various types were conjured vp — some d«rk, some fair, some tall, some short, but all more or less good-looking, though tear-stained and dis--hevelled.

On arriving at the foot of the last-named hill they looated the cry about half way up its rugged side. They climbed this anxiously, and underneath a sheltering rock discovered her whom they had gone forth to rescue. Alas for the dreams of beauty in distress ! Said beauty turned out to be the midwife of the district— a weather-beaten, wrinkledvisaged old woman of over 60.

" What in the name of goodness, Mrs Watkins, brings you out on such a night ? " asked the hotelkeeper as soon as he saw who it was. "Why, it's a wonder you were not lost completely. Here, take a drop of this and we'll help you home." She barely tasted the whisky, although she was shivering wretchedly. Then she answered :

" It's a bad case, or I would not be out here, I can assure you. Mrs Brown's first, too," she whispered ; " and lam afraid I shall be late after all. Perhaps you'il be so kind as to put me on the road agaiu." - , ; " You ought to have left earlier," said the publican. "So I shonld have only for the snow. . Still, there was light enough when I cams out, but it got dark earlier than I expected and somehow I mi3£ed the track," said she.

"Here, Hartley," called the man of wines and spirits, " strike a light while I cut this c ndle in two."

tlartley struck a match, and the other withdrew the candle from the lantern, blew it out, and halved it. He replaced and relit one of the pieces, and handed the other to Hartley, along with the' whiskey bottle. ".Now," he said, "you fellows can empty that bottle and make a Ballarat lantern of it. I'm going across to Brown's with Mrs Watkins."

Bidding the rest " Good-nigbt," he and Mrs Watkins then went off.

" Well, this is wettin' the child's head with a vengeance," said Hartley as he took a- last pull at the bottle after it bad twice gone round. Then he deftly knocked the bottom out of it, and lighting the piece .of candle, dropped it into the neck. This done, he headed the party for the township. There was a crowd waiting around when they got back, and a deal more wetting of tho child's head was indulged in after the news was told. Hartley did not reach home till Monday afternoon, and, like several o£ his companions of tbe previous night, employed much of the remainder of the day in wetting his own head. Like most of the others, also, he was scarcely satisfied with the adventure, which they considered was not sufficiently romantic by reaeon of the age of the heroine. , ' Yet such is life. We look for the ideal, and experience usually the plain, matter-of-fact, and unpoetic real.

— He : "It makes rae a better man every time I kiss you, darling." She : " Ob, Harold, how good you must be nowl*