Part 34 (1/2)

”Met a heap of Sydney people there”

'”Perhaps so,” says he ”I used to go and lunch there a good deal I had a ot et over it”

'”Fill your glass and pass the claret,” says the Cos hton's wanted, eh, Goring?”

'This was held to be a capital joke, and I laughed too in a way that would have hed too, and sees, for he was '

'Well, if HE didn't shost of a chance to swear to us'

'Except,' says I----

'Oh! Kate?' says Ji up to be ain that there's no fear of her letting the cat out'

'That's the very reason I never cared two straws about her, and now I hate the sight of her She's a revengeful devil, and if she takes it into her head she'll turn on us some fine day as sure as we're alive'

'Don't you believe it,' says Jim; 'women are not so bad as all that'

('Are they not?' says Starlight) 'I'll go bail we'll be snug and safe here till Christ to Melbourne for a spree, and clear straight out'

Chapter 28

As everything looked so fair-weather-like, Jim and Jeanie made it up to be et a house ready She cas by the coach She was always a quiet, hard-working, good little soul, awful ti a fancy to Jim But that's neither here nor there Wo as the world lasts, and if they happen to fancy the wrong people the more obstinate they hold on to 'eirls I ever set eyes on in her way, very fair and clear coloured, with big, soft blue eyes, and hair like a cloud of spun silk Nothing like her was ever seen on the field when she caan to write to one another after we cah ere doing well now it reat fool to leave Melbourne when she was safe and comfortable, and come to a wild place, in a way like the Turon

Of course he was ready and willing to ood, he advised her not She'd better give him up and set herand kept themselves proper and decent were very scarce in Melbourne and Sydney now, considering the nuet a wife and settle down A girl like her could marry anybody--most likely some one above her own rank in life Of course she wouldn't have no one but Jiet a little cottage, she was ready too She would always be his own Jeanie, and illing to run any kind of risk so as to be with hiht and I both tried to keep Jis twice as bad for hi the ht have to o then?

But Jiularly ers now He never intended to follow any other life, and wouldn't go back to the Hollow or take part in any fresh cross work, no ht be Poor old Jiht from the very hour he was buckled to Jeanie; and if he'd only had coe Storefield to this very hour

I was near forgetting about old George My word! he was getting on faster than ere, though he hadn't a golden hole He was gold-finding in a different way, and no mistake One daya stoutish roocart, and a servant with hi us

He drove close alongside of Ji back fro, with two shovels and a pick over his shoulder, and a pair of old yellow trousers on, and hie didn't know hihed to ourselves to see the big swell he had grown into He stopped at the ca as the Co about outside the caular intimate friend

The Coer or shake hands with hier 'No!' he used to say, 'I have to keep my authority over these thousands and tens of thousands of people, some of them very wild and lawless, principally by h, of course, I have the Government to fall back upon To do that I must keep up my position, and over-familiarity would be the destruction of it' Whenhi him to lunch we asked one of the miners next to our claim if he knehat that man's naht everybody knew hireat contractor He has all the contracts for horse-feed for the camps and police stations; nearly every one between here and Kiandra He's took 'e e! No wonder he could afford to drive a good horse and a swell dogcart He was getting up in the world We were a bit more astonished e heard the Commissioner say--

'I am just about to open court, Mr Storefield Would you ?'

We went into the courthouse just for a lark There was old George sitting on the bench as grave as a judge, and a rattling good reed from the Coht, too, not in the law but in the facts of the case, where George's knoorking ave him the pull He wasn't over sharp and hard either, like some men directly they're raised up a bit, just to show their power But just see, neither too e stayed and had lunch at the camp with the Commissioner when the court was adjourned, and he drove away afterwards with his upstanding eighty-guinea horse--horses was horses in those days--just as good a gentleman to look at as anybody Of course we knew there was a difference, and he'd never get over a few things he'd , in the way of education But he was liked and respected for all that, and made welcome everywhere He was abut his ood-natured honest face, and now and then a bit of a clumsy joke, to make him a place But when the swellsthemselves they're not half as particular as co hen they're about it

So George was hail-felloell- storekeepers, and the doctors and lawyers and clergymen, all the nobs there were at the Turon; and when the Governor himself and his lady cae was taken up and introduced as if he'd been a regular blessed curiosity in the way of contractors, and his Excellency hadn't set eyes on one before