Chapter I
A DETAIL OB TWO. The little town of Pilgrim's Gully could not boast of many inhabitants, but those of which it could, were it ever guilty of so undignified an act, were very justly esteemed — particularly among themselves. Not that Pilgrim's Gully was a mutual admiration society — far from it ; but a community conspicuous for its moral ascendency, its domestic virtues, and, above all, its intense religious enthusiasm, may naturally be expected to entertain an exalted opinion of itself. JSsor was that opinion the offspring of presumption or vanity. The good folk knew their worth, and duly appreciated it. Per- VOL. I. B haps they did not look with a too lenient eye on the backslidings of their neighbours : perhaps their moral code was too harsh, too high for the generality of mankind. But be that as it may, they lived, or tried to live, up to it, and consequently had little sympathy with those who preferred to wander blindly in the outer darkness.
It might be said that they wept tears of blood at the folly and sin about them ; for there was little selfishness in the nature of these people. Partakers of that divine grace which shed such a lustre upon their lives, they wanted the whole world to share the glory with them. Pil grim's Gully, they said, was built upon a rock. No explanation as to the nature of that rock was necessary. How the place came by its quaint name no one seemed to quite know, though there was a legend extant to the effect that one William Pilgrim, a hardy gold-digger, was the first to come here in search of the precious metal. Pilgrim's Creek it was called at one time, and a very evil reputation it bore during the first few months of the o-0ld fever; but a body of devout Wesleyans, coming soon after him, quickly changed the tone of all that.
In opposition to the flourishing grog shanties, they erected a chapel, or tabernacle, which they called by the enticing name of The Rest. And that it was a Rest in the proper meaning of the word there can be no doubt, for not alone did it afford rest and consolation to the soul, but the body likewise benefited to an appreciable extent. Beneath its humble roof the diggers ate and slept during the week, and held service three times on Sunday. Now such rare devotion very naturally formed the subject of no little discussion among the less godly, and, half-jeeriogly at first, the devout band was nicknamed The Pilgrims, a name which was destined to spread to the whole of the community, so that the scoffers were eventually to gain some profit therefrom ; for the mere association of virtue is not without its reward.
That the Pilgrims objected to be so designated is not credible, for what else were they but pilgrims — travellers in a vale of tears journey ing to that far-off land ? How many of them ever reached their destination is not b for me to say. Many, I have no doubt ; many more, most probably, may have lost their way. Such things do happen. But if there were occasional slips and stumbles, our pilgrims were merely human beings ; and there are many obstacles on the road, and the feet grow weary at times. However, of this I am certain : whenever a Pilgrim died he was spoken of as " our dear brother in heaven " for a week after, and that, I take it, was an inkling of the whereabouts of the departed. That people should live in perfect harmony in a vale of tears comes not within the ex pectations of a reasonable man.
Conse quently, Pilgrim's Gully was no exception to the rule. Truly, on the face of things, there was little vice and less immorality, and only some half-dozen public-houses of the most approved pattern in the town ; but there were discords of another and a graver nature, the chief of which was the dissension between the Wesleyans and the Bible Christians. Why they should quarrel or fight, or never speak as they pass by, exceedeth the ordinarv comprehension, both being Methodists and intensely devout. Yet it remains an indubi table fact that they hated each other as only religious sects can hate, and that never an opportunity to traduce or decry each other was neglected. Now, all this was very wrong, and often brought the Pilgrims into a bad odour, but, utterly callous of the world's opinion, they pursued their evil way.
The different pulpits resounded with con demnations of such un-Christianlike pro ceedings, and the elders of the churches shook their heads deprecatingly at the bare mention of such an unseemly business ; but the thing went on in spite of them — perhaps not so much against their wish. How the feud originated no one could quite say, though many declared that it began with Mr. Joseph Polgarth's secession from the Bible Christians. Now Mr. Joseph Polgarth was, perhaps, the most influential man in the town, having both riches and honours, and a spirit full of the grace of God. He was one of the early pioneers of the place, he and his brother Joshua. Leaving their early home in Corn wall as young men, they had sailed away to the southern El Dorado in search of gold, the discovery of which was then tickling the ears of the world.
Arriving in Melbourne, they had worked their way first to Forest Creek, and then later on to the Bendigo diggings ; but it was not till they reached Pilgrim's Gully that good luck came their way. Though only common men, they had yet a good deal of natural shrewdness about them, a quality which did not at all run counter to their religious scruples. Thus might it be said that they were ever ready to cut in with a profitable deal ; whether it be the buying of gold dust or the advancing of a trifling loan. So long as the thing was done legally, so long as the brothers Pol garth could make sure of their share of the business, and a fairly substantial share it in variably proved, their conscience and their scruples slept. As miners they worked for a considerable time — in fact, till the alluvial diggings gave out.
Then the shaft which Joseph and his brother had sunk having struck a paying reef, they very wisely turned it into a com pany, the management of which was given to Joseph. Now came his chance, and his natural shrewdness here stood him in good stead. In two years he had established the company on a firm basis, was employing fully a hundred men, while the Great Pilgrim's Reef, as the mine was called, was generally considered one of the best bits of property within fifty miles of Bendigo. At this time Joshua, the brother, while still retaining his interest in the company, opened a large general store, the like of which the town had long been wanting. The community was now seriously settling down after its mad search for gold, and so successful was Joshua's store in consequence that it might be doubted which was the better off of the brothers.
Undoubtedly Captain Joe was a great man ( the Cornish miners invariably call the manager of the mine " Captain "), em ploying many men, but Joshua had likewise a considerable standing in the place, for he had given much credit. He had, in con sequence, many a firm hold where the elder brother was merely respected. It is quite twenty years ago since the brothers first came to Pilgrim's Gully, and during that time they have seen many remarkable changes in the place, not the least of which is the change in their own position. Then they were hungry, half-clothed, with scarcely a shoe to their foot ; now they are the leaders of this sober little township, the capitalists who employ labour — who give credit : the respected of the community. It is true Pilgrim's Gully can only boast one street of any pretensions, but the houses are scattered over a considerable area, and if the intervening spaces only fill up, as the in habitants fondly hope, there will be no bounds to their city.
Neither Joseph nor Joshua would greatly object if that time were to hasten onwards, for they own much of the land hereabouts, which at present is of little value. But things were not fated to turn out exactly as these chosen ones wished, for though the half-dozen mines worked with unfailing regularity, there being no other industry in the place, the town itself stood still, so that it might almost be said that its importance decreased as the years rolled on. For it is not in the nature of things earthly to stand still, yet hold their own. Push on must they in the foremost ranks, or else drop behind to miserably perish at last. Yet if the general community failed to flourish, the individual here and there continued steadily to thrive. At least, it was so with our good friends Joseph and Joshua, the latter, in the course of the years, being duly crowned J. P. Then it was that little Mrs. Joshua gave herself 'more airs than ever, for she verily believed, nor did she hide the belief, that her good man was on the direct road to a knighthood.
There are no bounds to the dreams of some people, and Mrs. Joshua had an imagination of the liveliest description. A wonderful woman she was too. Sharp as a needle in all affairs relating to business, it was generally conceded on all hands that she had set her husband on the high road to prosperity, though to do that husband justice, it was as readily admitted that no one could possibly appreciate his wife's abilities more than he did. This was exactly as it should be ; but apart from this, Mrs. Polgarth had other and higher claims to the esteem of her kind. In such a small community the church was sure to play a conspicuous part, and among a people pre-eminently pious it was something to be generally acknowledged the chief. Such then was Mrs. Joshua's enviable reputation, and if the less virtuous were ever heard to even hint their doubts respecting her sincerity, the general tongue denounced them in no measured terms.
Yet even the general body cannot always snuff out the obstreperous few, and though it may be doubted if their whispers ever reached her ears, they nevertheless offended those of her champions. But if she heard she heeded not, which showed her uncommonly good sense and the depth of her tolerance. All the time she could spare from her domestic duties and her husband's business she placed at the disposal of the Lord (her own expression) ; and the new minister, the Reverend Stephen Hope, had on more than one occasion publicly declared that Mrs. Joshua Polgarth was the chief pillar of the Church. Church, he called it, though many of the Pilgrims objected to the word. It savoured too much of conformity to be palatable. Chapel, their fathers had called it, so had their mothers, and chapel they would call it, having no sympathy with pretence and new-fangled notions.
But they were only the common people, and with them, luckily, we have nothing to do. Cap tain Polgarth said church, Mrs. Joshua said church, so did all the aristocrats. So will we. Now, these encomiums were exceedingly pleasant for Mrs. Joshua to hear, more particularly as they came from the earnest lips of Mr. Hope, the aforesaid young minister, for whom she professed an un bounded admiration. He had only been with them about a year, but during that period he had, by his amiability and his earnestness, endeared himself to all classes of the community. Even those who went to no church at all had a good word to say for him, and when he appeared in the local eleven in the great match against their hated rival, Eagleton, and by his batting and bowl ing fairly pulled the game out of the fire, it was universally confessed that a better par son never wore choker.
Of course, there were some who decried the act, for not a few of our Pilgrims were rigid Christians. These looked astounded when they heard of the shameful deed ; others, not quite so strict, confessed they thought it extremely un dignified of a clergyman to play cricket, and gave their feeble reasons for so thinking ; but, strangely enough, on the next Sunday, at morning service, every member of the Pilgrim's Gully Cricket Club that was in the town put in an appearance — a fact without a parallel. Indeed, it might be said that that successful first appearance in the cricket-field was the making of him, doing more for him in one day than a hundred successful appear ances in the pulpit. Nor was he slow to seize the advantage thus gained. Where he could not go as the minister he went as the friend, and cricket and football chatter came as natural to him as praying.
Anyway, he seemed to know as much about one as the other, and for the sake of that knowledge, coupled with his known skill, they forgave him his prayers. Therefore he was a welcome guest wherever he went, his mode of adapting himself to his surroundings being excellent, characterized as it was by sincere good-fellowship, while yet reserving to him self a certain manner which marked the difference between him and the person to whom he spoke. Mrs. Joshua found him a particularly agreeable man to work with, and he found in her a helpmate after his own heart. Did he want to start a bazaar, a tea-meeting, a sacred concert — for sometimes our Pilgrims bordered on the profane — he had but to whisper it in her ear, and the thing was as good as done. A treasure of a woman was she — at least, so he believed.
What though the envious many sneered at her devoutness, or put her down as a meddlesome busybody? Are not ungenerous people to be found in every community? And though Pilgrim's Gully had many more saints than sinners, there were not a few who, being evil them selves, saw no good in others, or only such good as would ultimately lead to their own benefit. Among such as these, Mrs. Joshua was not held in any great esteem, but as she never came in contact with them, or heard their whispers, she was utterly oblivious of the enmity to which she had given birth.
Chapter II. The Home-coming Of Ruth
On the top of the little hill which overlooked the town of Pilgrim's Gully lived the widow Trevarrow with her two daughters, Ruth and Grace, in a not very pretentious habitation. But as they lived a life of no pretence, they had never yet blushed for their home. It was a wooden building, and one storey only, but it had a pretty little bit of garden in front, and round the verandah posts the creepers had been coaxed to twine, giving the place an inviting appearance. And if the outside of the cottage was inviting, the in side proved equally as pleasant, for though the furniture was of the most modest de scription, everything within the rooms was so scrupulously clean and neat that the jaded soul entered them with a sense of ineffable peace. For full twelve years now this house had been occupied by the Trevarrow family, for here it was that Mr. Trevarrow, on the verge of bankruptcy, as it were, came with his family in hope of better times.
That the times he wished for never came we know — they hardly ever do — but being fortunate enough to obtain employment in the Great Pilgrim's Reef Mine, he was not slow to work himself into the position of a subor dinate managership, and, what was more, into favour with his chief, Mr. Joseph Polgarth. That great man condescended to take an interest in him ; came often to tea and not infrequently to dinner ; had been known to pay Mrs. Trevarrow, whom he knew in England, many a compliment in his blundering way, and professed a profound regard for the two girls, Ruth and Grace. And when the pretty little cottage on the hill became vacant, Captain Joe, who was the owner thereof, insisted upon his dear friend Trevarrow taking it at a reduced rental, which proof of that good man's graciousness Trevarrow hugged delightedly to his soul.
A weak, good man, Trevarrow had ex perienced so many checks in his career that this unexpected piece of good fortune fell like manna in the desert of his life. The son of a well-to-do medical man of Redruth, in Cornwall, Trevarrow had had many excellent opportunities of making his way in the wrorld, all of which he, somehow, had let escape him. Originally it was intended that he should take up medicine, with a view to following in the footsteps of his father, but after the first year's study both he and his father came to the conclusion that the medical profession was one in which he was not destined to shine. So into a lawyer's office he was put; but, unfortunately, the law had no attraction for him either, and the father, beside himself with rage and dis appointment, was on the verge of turning him out to make his own way in life, when news reached the sleepy old town that the people out in Australia were actually picking up lumps of gold merely by looking for them.
Here was the chance the father sought. " I'll pay your passage out, and start you with a hundred pounds," he said, as he laid the scheme before his dutiful offspring ; " but that's the last, Jack, so the sooner you turn over a new leaf the better it will be for you." Jack, only too glad of such a splendid offer, accepted it with alacrity, and without any qualms or heartaches, set sail for the land of the Southern Cross ; and the first thing he did upon his arrival in Melbourne was to wed himself to Miss Matilda Dennis, a young lady who had entirely captured his susceptible heart during the voyage. Now this action was in keeping with all his others, the one thing of all others he was most likely to do, just because he shouldn't. Moreover, he had played the girl a rather sorry trick in giving her to understand that his position was a solid one, and that his prospects were of great promise.
As a matter of fact, he had only fifty pounds to his name when he landed, and by the time the marriage ceremony was performed that sum had diminished by half. As for his prospects, he simply had none. True, there was health, and strength, and a grim resolve to succeed ; vol. 1. but people cannot live on resolves, as he was soon to know. Yet of one thing he was certain, and that lightened many of his darkest hours. Come what might, sink he ever so low, there was one by his side who lived only in the glory of him. Of course she cried a little when she first knew of their true position, and upbraided him gently for deceiving her ; but when he threw his arms round her and told her that what he had done was all for love of her, she burst out weeping afresh, but there was more joy than sorrow in her eyes this time.
Oh, how proud she was of him, of his great strong figure, his golden hair and beard. Not that in her estimation these were the chief cause of his glory, though for what else she could be proud of him none of her neighbours could tell. Their feelings would have taken a different turn had they such an indolent man about the house. Yet, in her eyes, nothing he could do was wrong ; be cause he did so little, her friends said. Even when he rolled home a little the worse for liquor, which he occasionally did in the hot weather, she never thought of blaming him. All the vials of her wrath she discharged upon the heads of the imaginary villains who had led her good, weak man astray. Even after she had borne him three children, the third of which had died in infancy, and they had many and many a time, through his negligence, been on the verge of starvation, she still loved him as blindly as ever ; and whatever faults he may have had, there can be no question of his not honouring his wife above all other women.
So that to say they were unhappy would scarcely be true, for her happiness lay in Jack, and his in having the day provided for. He had been taught that sufficient for the day was the evil thereof, and he had literally lived up to that maxim all the days of his life. But it was not a very happy life for all that. Being master of neither trade nor profession, Mr. Trevarrow had to stoop to some very menial offices to fill his cupboard and provide his little ones with frocks and shoes. Indeed, had it not been for his happy-go-lucky disposition, he would have found the life he now led almost insupport able. He tried everything in turn, but, as in c the old days, succeeded at nothing. So he sank lower and lower, till his patched breeches and heavy boots proclaimed him one of the great forgotten.
And thus, while his fortunes were at their lowest ebb, he one day tramped over from Bendigo to Pilgrim's Gully in search of work, and happening to obtain an interview with Mr. Joseph Polgarth, was engaged forthwith. The sanctity of Pilgrim's Gully was not without its effect on him. He soon saw that through religion only could we expect social as well as financial salvation, and he at once became intensely devout. Not that he had not always a strong religious bent. Indeed, he had at one time thought seriously of entering the Church, only things do not always turn out in this world exactly as man proposes. But now the inclination which was in him had ample scope to atone for past transgressions and lost opportunities, and, after a long interval, he renewed his ac quaintance with the inside of a church.
That acquaintance was destined soon to ripen into a very close friendship, and in a remarkably short space of time Mr. Trevarrow was one of the leading lights of the Pilgrim's Gully Wesleyan Chapel. And now fortune began to shower her favours on him, which was proof positive of the efficacy of prayer, and he had just received a very considerable rise in the mine when an accident happened underground of which he was one of the victims. The ground fell in on some half-dozen men, mangling them in the most shocking manner. He was taken from underneath the debris alive, but he died soon after reaching the surface: The shock was so great that for a week poor Mrs. Trevarrow lay at death's door, and had it not been for the extreme solicitude exhibited by Mr. Joseph Polgarth during that most trying period, there is no knowing what would have become of the widow and her two daughters.
A more perfectly help less trio it would be difficult to find, for the elder daughter, Ruth, had only just turned sixteen, the other, Grace, being two years younger. But like a ministering angel came Mr. Joseph to the rescue. He sent for a doctor, and interviewed him when he came ; conveyed the good news to the girls that their mother only wanted rest and quietness ; saw to the father's funeral, and accompanied Ruth and Grace in the mourning coach to witness the last solemn rites. After the sad ceremony he kissed Ruth as a father would ; told her that she was to rely upon him for everything ; that he would be as a father to her now, and that he should feel extremely annoyed if she did not treat him as such. But the poor girl could only say, " Thank you, oh, thank you," and weep in his arms.
After this Mr. Joseph was indeed a true friend to the widow and her family. He let them live on at the pretty little cottage at a mere nominal rental, and, what was more, got the company to grant Mrs. Trevarrow a pension such as would enable her to live without fear of utter penury. That it was Mr. Polgarth's intention and wish to do all this in secret, knowing the man, we have good reason to believe, but it was not in the nature of things that such generosity could remain long in obscurity. Bit by bit the story leaked out, and that very secrecy which he had so religiously observed redounded greatly to his credit. Like many another unsuspecting giver, he had done good by stealth, and then blushed to find it fame. Yet it must be confessed that he bore with no little modesty the acclamation of the town ; pooh-poohed the idea of having done anything exceptional, and expressed the magnanimous wish that he could perform a similar service to every poor family in the country.
Mrs. Trevarrow, however, held other views. She thought that Mr. Joseph was the very best man in the world, that what he had done was exceptional, and that he was really little lower than the angels. Whenever he visited the cottage, which was very often now that he had become, so to speak, the guardian, she waited on him with an ardour which was almost embarrassing, and it grieved the good soul exceedingly to find that her daughter Ruth had not the same enthusiasm for the man. Yet it must be admitted that she had not, though she was ready to confess that Mr. Polgarth had done much for them, more even than their own father had. More than this she could not be got to say. Grace, however, joined with her mother in singing the manager's praises, and between them they almost persuaded her that she was the most ungrateful girl beneath the sun.
And so a couple of years slipped quietly away, and during that time Ruth had grown from a long slip of a girl to a beautiful young woman. Fair of head and blue of eye, her figure was as grand as her face, which was saying a great deal. Even the rough miners, who were slow to see the aesthetic side of beauty, declared to a man that she was the finest girl they had ever set eyes on, and among themselves they wondered who was to be the lucky swain. The young men dressed for her ; sat near her at church or in the Sunday School, and never by any chance omitted an opportunity of displaying their rough gallantry before her, while the more venturesome even went so far as to besiege her with more valour than discretion. And she laughed con sumedly at them one and all, but she let them know that they were not for her, nor she for them.
In strange contrast to her, though none the less interesting on that account, was her sister Grace. She, poor girl, had always ailed as a child, so that her frame was over grown and weak, and her figure such as tall sickly girls of sixteen are often burdened with, which is no figure at all ; but set in her delicate face were two of the grandest eyes that ever brightened a human head. She was many a shade darker than Ruth ; so dark, in fact, that you would never take them for sisters, though about the nose and mouth of each there was, when you examined them closely, a striking resemblance, though Ruth had the fuller mouth of the two. And so these good people lived on con tentedly, if knowing no great happiness, till one day Ruth surprised her mother by informing her that she had grown weary of the aimless life they led, and that she intended doing something towards her own keep.
To this the mother would not listen at first, while Grace implored her elder sister to abandon such an idea — at least, while their mother lived ; but Miss Ruth, who could be very determined when she pleased, had made up her mind to go, and go she accordingly did. She had, through the instrumentality of Mr. Polgarth, whose wide-reaching influence was the wonder and admiration of Pilgrim's Gully, received an appointment in one of the State schools in Melbourne, and away to the capital in due course she journeyed. Great was the sorrow of mother and daughter at parting, and full of heart the advice which was so tearfully imparted. The sisters wept hysterically in each other's arms, Ruth, strange to say, weeping most bitterly of all. For something over the year she was away in the capital, and then one morning the little cottage was thrown into a tremendous state of tumult.
The post that morning had brought them a letter from her in which she said that she had resigned her appointment, and that before she sought another she had decided to come back to them for a few weeks. She was dying to see them again ; to see the dear faces, to hear the dear voices. She sent them oceans of love and thousands of kisses, and remained as ever, their loving daughter and sister. And then the great day of arrival came, and when the poor mother and daughter, who were trembling with excitement, saw a cab drive up and an elegantly-dressed lady alight therefrom, it took them some little time to identify her. Grace, however, was the first. " It's Ruth, it's Ruth," she cried, and darting down to the gate, she flung herself sobbing in her sister's arms. And beautiful it was to see the two sisters embracing each other and crying, Ruth in particular hugging her sister with an affection which was almost hungry in its intensity.
The opening of the book is shown; the full text loads in the reader.
Loading the full text…
The end
You’ve reached the end of The Pilgrims. A bit of Cornwall in Australia.