Golden gifts: an Australian tale

Front matter

GOLDEN GIFTS: AN AUSTRALIAN TALE. BY MAUD JEANNE FRANC, AUTHOR OF "MABIAN," *' VERMONT VALE," ETC, ETC. ifonUon : SAMPSON LOW, MAESTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET. 1883. [All rights reserved.^ By MATJDE JEANNE FRANC. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, gilt edges, Beatrice Melton's Discipline. 4s. Emily's Choice. An Australian Tale. New Edition. 5s. Hall's Vineyard, is. John's Wife. 4s. Little Mercy; for Better, for Worse. 4$. Minnie's Mission. An Australian Temperance Tale. 4s. No Longer a Child. 4*. Silken Cords and Iron Fetters. A Tale. 4*. Vermont Vale. 5s. Golden Gifts. Two Sides to Every Question. 4s. Marian; or, the Light of Some One's Home. 5s. LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, AND RIVINGTON, CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET.

Preface

. Beneath the hard crust of earth, deeply embedded below its surface, wandering in strange and curious veins, hidden from the human eye by huge masses of strata, lies the golden ore, so plentifully scattered through our sister colony (more sparingly bestowed upon our own), which needs the aid of pick and shovel to upturn, and disinter, and reveal — requires the hand of the diligent, the strength of the strong, and the wisdom of the wise to bring it to the light of day; how gladly is that strength bestowed, how is the utmost diligence expended, how is man's wisdom heavily taxed, and how well is all that care, and labour, and anxiety repaid by the brilliant golden nuggets obtained. But it is not of material gold we have written, dear readers, or to which we desire your attention. Our " Golden Gifts " are not to be sought for in the surface of the earth ; they are around you on every side — they are within you — they are above !

These gifts are yours. Seek earnestly, seek diligently, and you shall find. MAUDE JEANNE FRANC. CONTENTS. CHAP. FAGB I. The New Home 1 II. Plans and Resolves 8 III. Progress . 16 IV. Winnie 24 V. Near Neighbours ........ 32 VI. The "Pearl of Days" 43 VII. Black Visitors 53 VIII. Offence and Defence 62 IX. Monotony and its Results 71 X. Dukes and Ducks 80 XI. Winnie's Plight 88 XII. Winnie's Welcome 96 XIII. The Tonic of Ocean Breezes . ... . . 104 XIV. More Golden Gifts furbished up .... 112 XV. Winnie's Prospects 120 XVI. Martin's Lecture 129 XVII. Thurza's Invasion 137 XVIII. Doings at Aland Creek 146 XIX. Work of All Kinds 154 XX. Winnie's Preparations 162 XXI. Edith's Friendships 170 XXII. The, Visit to the "Wren's Nest" .... 178 XXIII. New Influences 187 XXIV. "Wren's Nest" Mentorship 197 XXV.

Harry's First Venture 206 XXVI. The Gold Fever 214 XXVII. The Parting Gift 223 XXVIII. Arcadian Doings 233 XXIX. What Befell Ada Grey 242 XXX. Help in Need 252 XXXI. Thurza in Trouble 261 XXXII. Spring 271 XXXIII. Shadows 281 XXXIV. Fire! Fire! 289 XXXV. Beauty for Ashes 297 XXXVI. The Oil op Joy for Mourning 304 XXXVII. Finale AN AUSTRALIAN TALE.

Chapter I. The New Home

" Be mine the hut That from the mountain's side Views wilds and swelling floods." — Collins. Fifteen years ago, a traveller on the road to Mount Barker from Adelaide (and neither so near the one nor the other as to entirely satisfy the curiosity of our readers as to the exact site of our tale), deviating from what was then the main road, and selecting a well-beaten dray-track as his guide, would have passed a little slab hut, nestled away from general observation by clusters of trees and a large undergrowth of flowering shrubs peculiar to the neighbourhood. It was, as we have said, of small dimensions, and, like many others scattered here and there in the same road, of rude slab construction, with a rough excrescence at one end of stone and pug, terminating at the top with a square chimney, from which gracefully curved the blue wreaths of smoke, giving it an habitable appearance even before the front was seen.

This latter, unlike many other colonial huts, bore the impress of civilization in the B shape of two neatly glazed windows — so neat indeed as to be almost out of place in the midst of the rough slabs— and a door of regular English formation, which rather oddly con trasted with the whole character of the tenement. Windows and doors evidently enjoyed a character of their own, and per haps at the same time stamped somewhat of the character of their inmates. At the period we have mentioned, when travellers to Mount Barker and beyond were rather rarer objects than at the present time — when the rough mail cart attempted difficulties that no slighter vehicle could have mastered, and the pas sengers therein, provided they arrived at their journey's end without let or accident, did so at the expense of a severe shaking of bone and taxing of muscle — this little slab hut was a new erection, merely the growth of a few weeks.

The erectors thereof were a study in themselves — a tall, well-developed young man of some four or five and twenty, and a slender youth of fourteen. Brothers they evidently were — the colour of hair and eyes, and even of complexion, told that ; though on the younger of the two the rose tint — birth only of an English climate— bloomed fairly on cheek and lip. With hands all unused to the work, they had lifted those rude slabs ; for on what had evidently been smooth and delicate skin, many abrasions were already visible ; but will had evidently made up for want of strength and muscle and aptitude, for slowly and surely slab was added to slab, eked out by the rounded trunks of young trees, whose slight base afforded less work for the wielding of the axe. The chimney grew like a monstrous mushroom at the end of the buildino- • interstices were carefully filled by a mixture of chopped straw and mud, and then was added the roof— slender poles cut from the surrounding scrub, and bound together with tarred rope were laboriously raised to their proper resting-places.

It was no child's play to strong and well-accustomed hands j to those THE NEW HOME. 3 so little tutored in the paths of labour it was labour indeed; but the spirit of the elder one was dominant, and that of the younger followed suit, and up went the roof at last, a finished structure. Not much difficulty after that — the nailing on of ready purchased shingles, That work went on rapidly, and with a pleasure heightened by the knowledge of possession. This dwelling had been the dream of many months, it was a reality now; and perhaps never had marble mansion been viewed with greater delight by its owner than was this same little slab hut when it stood in a finished condition ; doors and windows carefully, if not artistically, fitted in their places ; and the first up-wreathing of smoke from that miracle of a chimney, rising gracefully above the tops of the trees.

The outside was done — the interior was all that remained to complete the dwelling. It was already divided into two portions, one side being walled partly off for a bedroom, while the larger portion — containing the chimney and entrance-doors, back and front — was the sitting-room par excellence of the establishment. The flooring was composed of some rude composition, and levelled as smoothly as unkempt hands could level — dried, too, as rapidly as large fires could dry ; and at last the two brothers — having given the finishing touches, or at least all the finishing touches they then contemplated, to their work — carried the tarpaulin that had formed their tent within, spread it upon the scarcely dried floor to secure them selves from the ill effects of damp, and upon that placed their bed and bedding — sleeping for the first night for many weeks within closed doors.

It was the autumnal season of the year when the hut was finished ; the summer, with its heat, had passed away, and flowers were springing up again among the scrub, and mornings and evenings were waxing cold. The gardens on the road to Adelaide, that here and there gave beauty to the b sides of sloping hills, or to the depths of gullies, were in their sere and yellow leaf; and now and then among those hills a wild wind went sighing and moaning, bearing a promise of what the winter would bring. And so the brothers sat by a glorious fire, eating their supper of bread and cheese, and drinking tea from their blackened pannicans, in a state of high gratification, for they were enjoying to the full the result of their labour. " You will send for Lizzie and Edith now, won't you, Martin ? " asked the younger brother, as he sat on the broad high slab of the hearth, contentedly eating his supper, and reviewing between whiles the comfortable roof and walls around and above him, pleasantly illumined by the brilliant jots of gas that sprang from all parts of the huge back log — they needed no better light.

" Yes, Harry ; I shall post a letter to-night," smiled his brother. " Poor girls ! they will be glad enough to obey the summons, I'm thinking ; and their staying in Adelaide has run away wittunore money than we can well spare. However, that can't be helped; they could not have roughed it in a tent as we have — at any rate I should not have liked them to do so." "I wonder what they will think of our house?" said Harry, in a tone of voice which expressed his own idea of its perfection. "Well," replied Martin, " you must not be disappointed, Hal, if they do not view things quite through the same rose coloured medium you and I do. We have done the work, and have the extra pleasure of seeing it finished. It will seem rough enough to them, I fear. But there is one thing," he added with a laugh, " they will not be prepared for auything very great from our united labours, Harry ; so I should not wonder they will be more than satisfied."

That was pleasant ; and Harry evidently thought they ought to be satisfied ; and he sat basking in the warmth and watching THE NEW HOME. 5 his brother as he wrote his letter of directions ready for the post — the back of a tin dish for his desk — till, warmth and pleasure and fatigue combining, he nearly fell asleep. He was aroused from this at length, for the letter was finished, and Martin, tired as he was, prepared to sally out for a walk of a couple of miles to the nearest post — a slab hut of very tiny dimensions, on the Adelaide road. " I think, Harry, if I were you, I would just go to bed ; you are tired out, and will be asleep in a moment. I'll lock up the door when I go," said Martin kindly. It was very lonely, very dreary, being left alone with no house near. Harry half shuddered at the thought ; but fatigue and sleep held the mastery, and Martin's wordsproved right: — he purposely lingered a little to see if they would not do so.

The heavy head had scarcely touched the pillow when sound sleep closed the eyes to all outward objects. He was far away in the land of dreams when his brother opened the door, and leaving the cheerful glare of the firelight behind him, went out into the cold and darkness of the night ; and when he returned, the same deep slumber rested on Harry's eyelids. There had evidently been no movement ; he had slept on in unconscious happiness. Smiling at his brother's happy slumber, Martin quickly resolved to follow his example, first having consecrated his new dwelling by prayer and praise ; for Martin Wallace was one of those who, viewing God as one in whom we live, and move, and have our being, referred back all to Him — viewed every blessing as flowing from Him, aud rejoiced in the belief. Need we wonder, that his sleep was sweet to him.

The Wallaces, brothers and sisters, were of an old and respectable family in England, who had grown up amidst competence, and surrounded by luxury ; but whom the clouds of misfortune had brought to the necessity of reflecting upon the " ways and means " of life. To this necessity they were first awakened by the death of father and mother, both of whom succumbed before that dire foe of London, the cholera of 1849, leaving their affairs in that unpleasant state of entan glement that involved the loss of nearly all their property, enriching the pockets of the men of law, to the detriment of their unfortunate clients. In fact, at the final winding up of affairs, our friend Martin found himself and sisters and brother turned adrift on the world with five hundred pounds, and their own dormant energies.

Not entirely dormant, however, for a good deal of latent energy in each member of the family had run to waste on minor objects, for want of more definite and positive. Lizzie's had expended itself, as far as it could, on the domestic supervision and arrangements of home. She was two years her brother's senior, and the adviser-general of the family — one of those gentle and lovable women who guide with a silken and almost imperceptible thread all those con nected with them. The loss of such women is a positive loss to the circle in which their happy government has existed. Lizzie Wallace had many friends, but no one had hitherto succeeded in drawing her away from the dear home associates to form the centre of a fresh circle. Her heart had hitherto remained constant to the Lares and Penates that had possessed her affections from her earliest childhood.

Martin's energy had early developed itself in a fondness for all bold and daring and masculine sports ; and as he grew in years the necessity for working off some of that energy betrayed him into the paths of horticulture. The garden at home was almost all the produce of his own labour, and beautified by his handiwork. The curious rocky fountain ; the paths lined with shells ; the trellis-work covered with roses the early peas and beans ; the forcing-beds for strawberries — all came from that energy that would not be repulsed by the often repeated words of expostulation, "no need." It was well for him that he possessed in himself such a hidden mine THE NEW HOME. 7 of wealth ; for, after all, what element for good is there in mere golden treasure without this kingly quality ? a quality that has led to the construction of all most wonderful in the universe — to the bringing forth of all most bright and fair and valuable into existence !

A well-directed, energetic mind is indeed a gift to be esteemed. A bright, happy, merry spirit was Edith, giving life to all who knew her, brightening many a weary hour, bringing sunshine into manya weary heart. She was never weary — her studies, her music, were pleasant companions to her ; and as she had little else allotted to her in the family group, all the energy of her life was thrown upon these. Perhaps if she had any secret wishes it was that she had more to do in the world, a more comprehensive niche to occupy ; as it was, her pathway had hitherto been very smooth and pleasant and delightful. She Was the darling of all hearts, and only nineteen. As to Harry, he had not left school when the happy family circle was broken up, and a new sphere of life became impera tive. He looked up to his elder brother with affection, mingled largely with admiration ; all he liked, he tried to like too.

But he was the least robust of the family, a slender stripling of a youth, growing rapidly, and perhaps somewhat beyond his strength. Altogether the family formed a combination of singularly harmonious elements. The " ways and means ! " Rest assured, dear readers, that the united family energy was at once brought to bear on the subject. What was five hundred pounds for the future of so many, and especially a family brought up as they had been ? They must throw off the shackles of society, and put their unwonted hands to the plough, that was certain. But could they do that in England ? No ; a touch of old family pride declared that at once. Why not then in Australia ? why not ? Not a dissenting voice answered the question. For many reasons that was decidedly the land for carrying the threads of their scattered fortunes ; and that night they went to bed to dream of the long voyage and its termination — of a long farewell to conventionalism, and a welcome to freedom of thought, and feeling, and action.

We have already introduced Martin and his brother Harry during the first development of their energy in the new land of their adoption. Their sisters had been left for careful keeping at a little house somewhere near the Port, the dwelling of an old servant of their father's, who had entered the colony some years previously, and who gladly welcomed the children of her old master to a share of the two poor little rooms that were all her possession, with the exception of a ne'er-do-weel of a husband and half a dozen children. Martin was right — Lizzie and Edith were weary of their sojourn at the Port, and earnestly waiting and watching for the summons to a home of their own once more ; and strong faith as they possessed in his ability to do most things, there was just the shadow of a fear in their minds whether, after all, the first strong puff of wind might not blow their house down.

Chapter II. Plans And Resolves

•' There is beauty in the rounded woods, dark with heavy foliage, In laughing fields, and dinted hills, the valley and its lake — There is beauty in the gullies, beauty on the cliffs, beauty in sun and shade In rocks and rivers, seas and plains — the earth is drown'd in beauty." Tuppee. " And you really are not disappointed ? " asked Martin Wal lace of his sisters for, perhaps, the twentieth time, as he watched them running about the hut adjusting their little modicum of furniture and other possessions, with a glad alacrity and beaming eyes that really rendered this question unne cessary. " Disappointed ! I look so— don't I ? " said Edith, turning round with an arch smile on her lip. " Well, yes, I am dis appointed, for I see no shaking rafters, and I can't positively push out one of those slabs with my hand.

The roof, too, looks really as if it would not come down ; and the smoke, I declare, goes quite respectably up the chimney ! " " As for me," Lizzie replied, in answer to the questioning eye that turned upon her, " I am so very glad to be away from those two poor little miserable rooms at the Port, kind as poor Nancy was to us, and so very glad to have any shelter over our heads that we can call our own, that I am by no means disposed to be critical. But really, dear Martin, I did not think you and Harry could accomplish such great things, well as I knew the energy of your nature." "Always had a turn for this sort of thing, Lizzie; active employment I always considered a blessing ; and you know, girls, there must be a beginning to everything. "Who can tell what ' golden gift ' fortune may yet have to bestow upon us ?

" " Have we not ' golden gifts ' continually from the hand of our Heavenly Father," said Lizzie, smiling at her brother's enthusiasm ; "health, and energy, and affection, each of them a golden gift in itself, dear Martin? We have need to re member the Hand which bestows them." The little slab hut was already beginning to wear a comfortable aspect. The half-dozen chairs, purchased in Adelaide, if they were expensive (as they most certainly were fifteen years ago), were strong and heavy, and of unpolished cedar ; so was the table, whose chief merit besides was that of being a large size and square. Two plain cedar sofas completed the furniture for that room, and, according to the arrangements of many bush houses, excellently furnished it was. Two iron stretchers, and many large boxes, provided the furniture of the bedroom; but tasteful fingers and ready knack soon formed these into settees, and toilet-table and wash-stand ; tasteful fingers draped the windows with snowy curtains ; and the little bush house, with its unadorned walls, was soon as snug as many a house of stone, and far more complete in its arrangements.

If it was comfortable within, it was lovely in the extreme without ; wild and lovely : Edith thought she should never be weary of gazing. Just in front of the house the trees had been felled in preparation for a garden, and such a vista opened that the sisters clapped their hands with delight as they first discovered it. Through a very forest of trees — towering gums, and tall pines stripped of their bark, and looking like columns amidst the rich dark foliage of their neighbours — the eye went on — on, to a deep ravine or gully, the sides of which were clothed with foliage and verdure ; hill upon hill, and then one far delicious peep of the sea — the wild, tumbling, tossing, foaming sea they had crossed — like a pure line of silver against the blue sky. Oh, it was lovely, very lovely ; it reconciled them to all that was new and strange and queer in their new home.

"All was new, and fresh, and naive, and delightful," Edith declared. She would not for worlds, for her part, have come 16,000 miles to a new country just to have entered on the same mode of life she had experienced in England. Why, it was like a fairy tale — quite as good as one ; mere play at living — pleasant play too ; and though Martin laughed, and, pointing to the roof, declared that he had found it something more than play to raise that above them, she tossed her head till all the brown ringlets fell back from her sunny brow, and held to her opinion. Nicely sheltered they were from the mail track ; indeed they lay some distance back, though one corner of the few acres they possessed overlooked it for some considerable way. A good deal of their land was yet scrub and rock, but about two or three acres of cleared land sloped downwards from the house to a well-watered creek, that gave ample promise of future irrigation.

Unfamiliar sounds saluted their unwonted ears on all sides. The whirr of the opossum, the croak of frogs, the hooting of the owls, the soft plaintive cry of the cuckoo'-like mawpawk, the rich melody of the magpies, and the cawing of innumerable crows ; while as a soft accompani ment to all these was the sighing of the wind through the shea-oaks, and the rushing of the waters of the creek, as they eddied and whirled through pieces of rock, and obstruction of roots, and finally fell gently into a basin of the same rocky formation at some little distance further down. A slender column of smoke through the trees a mile off pointed out the situation of their nearest neighbours. Beyond that, and in various directions, were indications of a similar kind. They were a little band of themselves, however, and the distance of neighbours, whom they neither knew nor had seen, troubled them not.

They sat round the table and enjoyed their tea that second evening after their arrival with a zest they had seldom known in the midst of the luxuries of the home-land, the light of a splendid fire lending its witchery to the scene, and embellishing with delicate touches all the rough and uneven aspect of affairs. It lingered lovingly on the rich brown curls that fell in natural grace round Edith's fair brow, and touched the soft, dark bands of Lizzie's hair, so tastefully and neatly arranged in classic beauty. Who does not love the firelight of the wintry evening ? who has not sung with Cowper — " For me, perhaps, the glowing hearth May satisfy awhile, with faint illumination That uplifts the shadows to the ceiling f " Nor was the firelight less pleasing in the Australian hut because there was no ceiling upon which the shadows might be uplifted ; on the contrary, it added another grace to the whole, the very shadows were embellishments.

" These cakes are very nice, Lizzie ; I never tasted any such before," exclaimed Martin, complacently stretching out his hand for another. " You never have, sir, of my making," said his sister, laughing. " This is a new accomplishment I learnt from poor Nancy ; for this and bread-making I am indebted to my sojourn at the Port. So you see I was not idle there." "Idle ! it would not be easy for you to be that anywhere. I fancy I see you baby-nursing and washing, and bread-making into the bargain. But really I fully appreciate these cakes." " Scones, sir, scones. Give them their name proper. They are regular Scotch scones ; and Nancy declares I make them to perfection. But I see the air of the hills increases the appetite to an alarming extent. I must take that into con sideration when I make scones in the future.

Have you made up your mind what to do first, Martin ? " she presently added. " When will the cows and our poultry arrive ? I am quite anxious to see them." " And I am all impatience," cried Edith ; " I want something to pet." " The cows and fowls ; well, that is our next work ; a little snuggery for the last, and a bailing-place for the former ; though I believe they are quiet enough, and capital milkers. Then, Lizzie, my dear, hard and fast for the fencing. I don't care how soon that's done, for I have not quite lost the home feeling of encircling one's property from all intrusion. Be tween whiles we will lay out the garden, for they tell me the rainy season will soon be in, and then, hey ! for our seeds ! Work for you, girls. Ah, Edie, no fear of your being idle ! " " Better for you, then, I can assure you ; for never was a truer moral sentiment expressed than that in the two lines of Dr. Watts— ' Idle hands some mischief still Will ever find to do.' Let me be idle, and you'll come into closer acquaintance with the reality of them !

" " Not much fear of having too little work, Edie," laughed Harry. / " Look at our hands ; see what a state they are in already." " Scarred with honest and honourable labour, dear Harry," said Lizzie, fondly regarding her young brother. " But, Martin," she again continued, " have you really decided what we shall do for a living ; cows and fowls will not quite keep us — will they ?" "Not quite," laughed Martin. "Yes: I've learnt a thing or two since I've been up among these hills, and I'm convinced I cannot do better than just keep to that for which I have the most taste as well as inclination. I intend forming a regular market-garden, and supplying Adelaide with the produce. There is excellent land, abundance of water, and we are not so far distant from Adelaide that our produce may not easily reach the market.

It's an old hobby of mine, and I believe will prove successful. I shall just put in wheat enough for our own consumption, and feed for our horses and cattle. There— that's my plan ; of course it must be properly matured and arranged, and will take time to be so. Meanwhile, my dear girls, we have a little cash on hand, plenty of good stores of all kinds, and energy and good will, and love enough to make up for all the rest — ' golden gifts,' every one of them, as Lizzie calls them ; and not a bad name either." And so they chatted over their tea, till that pleasant re past was over. The tea-things were washed and put away, the candles lighted ; and while the two sisters sat down to work at some large thick rugs they were knitting of string and many-coloured pieces of cloth for the hearth and bedside, Martin and Harry betook themselves to one end of the room with their carpenter's tools and some strips of deal, out of which they were busily manufacturing shelves for books aud various household utensils, an invaluable acquisition to their bush home.

Pleasantly busy days they were that followed these scenes. Bright days, too — spring-like and lovely. To the newly arrived, the sun seemed to look down very hotly upon them ; indeed it retained for some time a great deal of its summer heat this year,but the evenings were chilly and the dews copious, and a good fire was esteemed a very welcome thing indeed. Martin Wallace, with the assistance of his sister Lizzie, had made a great many purchases before leaving England, that were very useful to them now. Indeed it was soon discovered that a little "lean-to" was an imperative addition to their house, wherein to stow their stores ; and very useful it proved when accomplished. The hen-house was soon completed. It was built entirely of the long, thin pine trunks, and just at a sufficient distance from the garden in prospective, which mean while was gradually making its appearance before the house.