NEW CHUMS.

Otago Witness, Volume 02, Issue 2420, 2 August 1900, Page 67

NEW CHUMS.

I am a colonial — I hope -without prejudice — "What I can't stand is whon a new chum talk 3 to me like this : " Keally ! Are thoso oaks and chestnuts ? Dear me, how very small!" Then placidly asks if you've seen those at Sir Somebody's Hall. They think it incumbent with all they see to find fault, And that, too, mind j'ou, while they are eating your salt, All that we do Is wiong, nothing we have is right— I've known 'em make it a grievance that we haven't any twilight. Our houses are most inconvenient; not like they are built at Home, When you hear the comforts you wonder what possessed them to roam ; Then our meal? — oh, dear! they can't understand it at all, The food's so very different, even the breao loaves are small! In the beef there's no gravy, the mutton is tough, or 'tis fat, The fish quite without flavour, and they don't like this and that; Our horses and cattlo are indifferent— you'd think, to hear them talk, They were indigenous to thi3 country, and our milk we make from chalk. Our laws are 3imply scandalous, we have no ragard for birth, They might be Lords of Creation ; colonials, scum of the earth. "When they travel by train 01 steamer, 'tis a shoek — alas ! , We havenit tha slightest method of distinguishing 'twixt class and class. Our public works are a failure, nothing we have is good, The railways are too near the coastline ; bridges are built of wood The roads art fairly passable; trains are terribly slow, They " always travelled in England by tho fast express, you know." They can't understand there waa a time, not vejy fa-r away, Where now they can ride a cycle you couldn't have driven a dray, When they have pulled you to pieces — manners, customs, all that, And upon some subject you're well up in, contradicted you flat, Ask how you like the colony, and if you har« been here a year, Confess you are so unfortunate (?) you're nerei lived elsewhere As the truth dawns apon them, you smile, thej look sc small, To think they couldn't recognise a colonial, affceS all. — C. N. W, July, 1900.

— There is only one sudden death among women to eight among men. Beef is the most Nutbitiotjs of all animal food. It takes 401b of the best beef to make lib of Liebig Company's Extract — .i.e., the kind signed J. V. Liebig in blue, and UPWj, called "Lemoo."

The Royal Lifeboat Institution, which Controls the bulk of British lifeboats, has been instrumental in saving nearly- 30,000' lives with ite 300 boats. - ■ ■ — The latest labour-saving contrivance is Said to be an electric collection box. No sidesmen are required, for as soon as the clergyman has touched a- button in the pulpit the box runs along wires from pew to pew, j &Bd the congregation do the. rest.

— Newfoundland imports nearly 50,000 tons of salt annually for its codfish. — Recently some 'big prices for canaries were paid at Norwich. A green-crested hen was sold for £15, while " for a variegatedcrested hen, picked up cheaply for £Z 10s, £8 was futilely offered. One group of a score of birds fetched no less than £80, while in a number of cases JS6 was parted with for a single bird.

(By E. Gladys Harvey.)

Muriel Dane slowly filled her basket with glorious Lord Raglans. They grew, a very wealth of roses, above her, around her, and showered their red leaves over her white gown and into the coils of her fair hair. How she loved those red roses ! Their fragrance filled her with ecstacy, while she gazed at them lingeringly, touched them caressingly. They blotted out the present, and carried her thoughts away on a tar backward flight. Her surroundings vanished, the great rose tree disappeared, and in its place she saw a fciny slip, coaxed to grow but by the greatest care and watchfulness. Again it was the night her lover had brought it home to her, and transferred it from his dark coat to the fluttering chiffons of her white dinner govvn. How he, too, had loped the beautiful red roses ; even now she remembered his delight and hei pride when she had given him the first fair bud.

And soon after that came that dreadful time when all her youthful happiness had fled, leaving but the outward torm of the ,' old Muriel Dane.

She shivered in the warm sunshine as she thought of jthe day, now ovei eight years ago, when Leon Raymond had been, found guilty of forgery! She remembered, as if it were but an hour ago, the last time she had seen him. Then she had used her womanly beseechings to win from him a promise to abandon gambling, and he had made a hasty response. "Now, Mu., don't lecture, dear! It is in my blood ! I inherit it from my Spanish mother who was all fire and warmth, not a bit of English sculptury like my father." And then he had taken her in his arms and rained hot kis&es on her brow and hair. Before she saw him again he was a prisoner ! She brought her thoughts back to reality as her over-flowing basket reminded her, of her mission. One afternoon in each week she set apart to take her roses to the hospital. She went inside, put on her hat and" armour, oa she called that sweet set smile that hid from the eyes of the world the surging, passionate nature of the woman who wore itr Then out she went into the sunshine and away up to the hospital to distribute her flowers among the suffers. Both nurses and invalids gave her a smiling welcome, and she wandered at will among the wards with charming tact, saying a kind thing to one, a bright jest to another, and the while scattering her roses on each " coverlet.

At last she went into the Accident Ward. The first bed had a new occupant, and her look of surprise brought the nurse across with an explanation : " Martin lias gone home. _This is a new case — a dreadful afiair. It was brought in last 'night. A poor man run over by a train. He is terribly injured, and Dr Hamilton thought lie wouldn't have lasted the morning." She turned to one of the patients, and Muriel ■walked over to the bed.

The man lay motionless, with his forehead bandaged down to his eyebrows ; and fearing to wake him, &he softly placed three of her rarest Lord Raglans on the edge of the bed. As she moved away she was held spellbound by a low ejaculation : " Lord R-aglans ! "' She turned, to find Leon Raymond gazing at her. "Muriel!"

" Leon ! " Instantly the old whimsical smile played over his face and he exclaimed :

" Can't offer my hand. Am pinioned like a wild duck dressed for dinner."

With a strong effort Muriel regained her self-possession. "Leon, tell me what has happened?" "What! Since I last saw you?" " No, no ; that would take too long." 'For Avhat — my time or yours?" A breathless fear played round Muriel's heart, but she answered calmly :

" You will tire yourself, and I have not very long to stay." "Nay ; you will wait viral the last. Let me talk, Mu. There is not much to tell ; but as Fate has willed it thus, let me say my say. I know I'm done for, but don't fret, dear," as he saw the quick indrawing of her breath and knew how strong a control the girl was exercising over herself. " It's a thousand times bettei as it is, — and just fancy the luck of me having you at the end in spite of them all. But to start, and be brief. When my father disowned me after my disgrace I went off to the bush. I made love to Dame Fortune on the goldfields, but she only flirted with me. I taught bush children music ; I went on the stage ; I did a hundred and one things. There were some wild days and many, many very dull ones. When I heard they were going to send troops to South Africa from New South Wales, I hurried down to Sydney. I was too late Tor the first contingent, but was one of the first chosen for the second. Don't laugh, but once I donned my khaki togs I seemed a different man. I seemed to step into a newer, better manhood. The glamour of the gaming tables left me ; red wine tasted as water, and my two vices became vices no longer. In my tent I planned out a new page. I was eager to be away. I was going to do wonders — to carve a name with my sword, to win my spurs as did the knights of old ! I was going to win my lady as well. 0 Muriel, all I dreamed and planned ! Away on the hills near Winberg I was building a veritable ' castle in ohe air.' A pretty white cottage surrounded by roses — Lord Raglans, of course ! Red roses, the coloui of the stained swords of the Crusaders ; pink roses, the colour of my girl-love's cheek ; and white roses, rJie symbol of saintly womanhood. Thai was gonig to be the guerdon of my well-doing. Then I would have come to you, a humble but proud suitor. Muriel, would you have sent me away? " " No, Leon."

"The accident? I am coming to that. I was crossing the line about a mile from the station. It was just before the Bathursb down train, came by, and I law a

f little kiddie playing right on the track. | A mite of a thing she was, with hair like yours. She had a string of old sardine tins — for trucks, I suppose — and she was prattling away to herself. I saw the train coming, and shouted to her as loud as I could ; but she was too intent with her play, and took no notice. Then the train came thundering on, closer and closer. There was but one thing to do I—one1 — one chance for her. I made a dash, just touched the kid, and the train was upon us. I gave her a fling on one side, then a erash — then a blank, and, I think that is about — finale ! " And Muriel knew it was so. _A ray of sunshine stretched right along his bed, making the lovely red roses glow like gleaming rubies. He noticed it with a smile.

" I am soon going nc ,v, my own darling. One request ere it is too late, though. Don't, if you love me, have any headstone mockery stuck over my grave. A handful of Lord Raglans, if you like ; but nothing else. And, still one thing more. You know Arthur Merlon, do you not? " "Yes." "You see him sometimes?"

"Very often."

"Then tell him one day that .ere I died I told you the truth of the old affaii." We were chums from boyhood, and that night I dined "with him we had wines, champagne — I know not what,; but at last -we Avent up to his room, and "there he confided to me hs was xising the bank's money, and it was on the evs of a balancing. I* don't know all he said. I remember he wished he was as clever with his pen as I was. I know I signed his uncle's name, to see how it looked. I have a confused remembrance of him pr°ssing my hand as I left, and declaring he would own up to it if things went wrong, and confess to his uncle when he got his money. As you know, he clearpd out and left me to face ii alone. Serve me right, I say now ; but I did not think po then. Now I think I have really done. See, the sun is setting, and my sun is setting too. A sip of water, one long last hand clasp, and then — what?"

Muriel beckoned the nurse over for water, and as she retired she drew a screen around lhes.e twain.

And Muriel slipped down on her knees and whispered loving, parting words.

The parting was very^neai. Just one tremulous pressure of the hand in his, a peaceful sigh, and Leon Raymond's troubles were om\

' Lord Raglans bloom above a nameless mound. Muriel is the loving gardener who tends them, yeai in and y«ar out. Un&elush still beneath the weigM of her life's romance, she never forgets to brighten that grim Accident Ward with seasonable gifts of her cherished red roses.