Part 6 (1/2)

”Right you are, my friend, but in your steady coo in for money and respectability Now I've made a clean breast of it, and you know all about me”

In spite of this statement there was not one of his three companions who did not feel sure that there was much in Fletcher's history which he had kept concealed, and possibly for very good reasons

CHAPTER VI

A NIGHT INCIDENT

The path of a gold-seeker in Australia was beset with difficulties The country about Melbourne, and far inland, was boggy, the soil being volcanic, and abounding in mud which appears to have no botto been ploughed up by bullock teae the cooal they sought But the attraction of o, enabled them to triumph at last over the obstacles that intervened It was not long before our party began to understand the nature of the task they had undertaken The cart sank up to the hubs in a bog, and the oxen stood still in patient despair

”Well, if this don't beat all creation!” ejaculated Obed ”I've been in the Western States, and I thought I knew so about mud, but Australy's ahead I say, Fletcher, is there h?”

”Mud's the rule, and dry land the exception,” answered Fletcher coolly

”Well, that's co a deep breath ”I s'pose people do get through after a while”

”Yes, generally I was six weeks getting to the Ovens once”

”I e had sorie one”

There was nothing for it but dogged perseverance It took an hour to get the oxen and cart through a bog a hundred feet across, and the appearance of the party, when they finally reached the other side, was et along here?” suggested Harry ”I can iine the poor fellow's despair”

”His trousers would suffer some,” said Jack ”I think it would break his heart The sea issailor looked down at his led clothes, and his shoes caked thickly over with the tenacious ree with you there, Jack”

Arrived on the other side of the bog, they were obliged to give the tired cattle a rest Indeed, they needed rest themselves

At the end of the day they e, they were about eight ht miles; and how far is the whole distance?” asked Harry

”About a hundred o through in twelve or thirteen days, then”

”You mustn't expect this rate of speed,” said Fletcher ”We shan't average over five et paid for it,” said Obed ”If we don't I'd better have stayed in Californy We haven't any such mines as this in that country”

”You'd better have stayed there,” said Fletcher dryly, and he evidently wished that his companion had done so

”'Variety's the spice of life,' as my old schoolmaster used to say,”

responded Obed ”I kinder want to see what Australy is like All the salobe”

The travellers encaum-trees, and it may readily be believed that all slept well The boys felt dead tired, and it ith difficulty they were awakened in the