Our Alma. An Australian story

Front matter

OUE ALMA U B ALMA AN AUSTRALIAN STORY BY HENRY GOLDSMITH When the wattle-gold trembles 'Twixt shadow and shine." LONDON SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO. PATERNOSTER SQUARE Richard Clay and Sons, Limited, london and bungay. CONTENTS CHAP. „ „ PAGE I. ALMA ... ... ... ... I II. JACK ... ... ... ... 03 III. JACK'S MATE ... ... ... ... 47 iv. alma's feiends ... ... ... ... 74 v. alma's lover ... ... ... ... 93 vi. me. jingleby explains ... ... ... h3 vii. alma's flight ... ... ... ... 132 VIII. foe alma's love ... ... ... ... 150 ix. in the tunnel ... ... ... ... 170 x. what alma heard ... ... ... ... 193 xi. matteo eeceives a letter ... ... 213 xii. jack's eeward ... ... ... ... 231 conclusion

Chapter I Alma

It was past four o'clock, and Alma was sitting in her favourite seat under the willows, waitings for Jack. The fierce December sun was beating down piti lessly on the field where she could see old Matteo and Giacom making the hay, with their bared brown arms glistening in the sun, aud their woollen shirts open at the throat, showing their hairy breasts beaded with perspiration, but here in the dense shade of the hanging branches she was protected from the heat and glare. The hot shimmering air outside, glistening with tiny wavelets that made the heat p. appear as if it were almost tangible, was heavy with the fragrance of the new-mown hay and the gorse and ripening fruit and honey; but here in her shady retreat it was tempered to a delicious coolness, which was in a manner emphasized and rendered more delicious and palpable to the sense by the murmur and ripple of the stream at her feet.

As she sat there, with some mysterious piece of feminine work lying idle on her lap, and now and again humming a snatch of a song, she and her appurtenances, as the lawyers say, formed a most enchanting picture. Her sunshade-hat lay on the rustic seat beside her, and she leaned back against the stem of a large willow, resting her head against the hands which were clasped behind it. In the calm light beneath the trees this peculiarly becoming attitude showed a bright young face, in which the beauty of the Italian was charmingly blended with the softness of the Saxon — large, liquid, deep-brown eyes, and a broad white forehead fringed with clusters of black-brown hair. Seated thus, dressed as she was in a common print frock, scrupulously neat and clean, touched up with ALMA 3 a few red ribbons, and adorned only by a bunch of roses at her throat, with her little feet crossed before her and encased in dainty shoes, she formed altogether a picture which you would have said it was worth while going a very long way to see.

At any rate, so thought the water-wagtails, who dashed over from their shady nooks among the ti-tree and blackwoods on the other side of the river, flash ing across like a streak of blue and gold, just to take a peep at the picture, and then go home to the bosom of their families and tell them all about it. So thought the merry crickets, who made their way out of the fissures in the caked and blistered ground, and skipped and gambolled about on the gravel path and among the fallen leaves and withered grass, and dried sticks of willow that lay about ; and then sought the cool retreat of their underground abodes, and chirruped their loudest and merriest tunes in her honour. So thought the old sheep-dog Doddles, who lay sprawling at her feet in the sand, looking up now and then into her face for a smile (which you may be sure he always received), and who, with a joyous exclamation that was something between a bark and a grunt, changed his position and lay with his head between his forepaws and with wide-open eyes, so as to get a better view of her.

So thought Nibs, the magpie, who had followed her down to her bower, and who now, after an indis criminate skirmish among the crickets which scattered them in all directions, threw back his head and pro pounded the inquiry (to no one in particular), " Ain't she a daisy ? " and then put his bald old head on one side, and winked and blinked at her like the hoary old reprobate that he was. Why, even the old sun himself did his best to get a peep at her, but couldn't manage it very well for the willows, though now and again, as the drooping branches swayed gently in the light air, he got in a glance through a chink in the foliage, and threw bars of gold across her face and her dress, and some times, when he got a favourable opportunity, encircled her entirely with a halo of his glory. A few yards from where she sat, and almost at her feet, the river gurgled and rippled over the sandy shallows, leaping and splashing over the stepping- ALMA 5 stones that formed the crossing-place to the old home of the Badgerys.

It was ostentatiously called a river on the Government maps, which of course are bound to make the best of things, but at this time of the )7ear it was only a small creek, murmuring and eddying through the swaying rushes and the tufted grass roots, and round moss-grown boulders, aud over and under old fallen trees; though in the winter flood-time it could be fierce and boisterous enough, as though it then were attempting to justify its more pretentious name. Through the willow branches and over the tops of the ti-tree scrub Alma could see the roof of Badgery's hut, now tenanted by a stranger, nestling in a small gully which ran clown from the hills, where the wattle trees blossomed in the early spring. On her other hand was the Garden. Beyond the figures of Matteo and Giacom, toiling patiently in the blazing sun among the apple-trees, she could see the quaint patchwork old house, with its stores and stables, and wine-cellars and fruit stores, shining white against the rich green of rows upon rows of vines on the hill at the back ; her own little room, half-buried up to its roof in banksia roses and wood bine, and standing above the other buildings like a second storey of the house ; the terraced walk leading along the side of the hill down to the dark deserted tunnel on the hill-side, and thence down to the field on the flat where the old men were at work; and the long flight of stone steps cut into the hill through the vines and fruit trees as a shorter pathway from the fields to the house ; while behind them all rose the high hill that stretched back to the railway in the distance, with its jutting, lichen-stained rocks, and its former verdure dried and white and sere from the summer heat.

Alma's hands fell on her lap, her soug ceased, and her memory carried her back into a dream of the days of her childhood. She was growing quite old now. It was over ten years since she first came to the Garden, and now she was nearly seventeen. Quite a grown-up girl ! She did not know who she was; that is, she did not know who her father and mother had been. She knew that her Christian name was Margherita — affectionately called Alma, and sometimes Our Alma by her ALMA 7 friends, as signifying the establishment of a limited proprietorship in her ;— that old Matteo was a Paroli; that her present life was a very happy one ; and that everybody was very kind and good to her. But that was all. In a far-off, misty kind of way, as in a dream of ages ago, she remembered being once lifted up by a nurse to kiss the face of a dark cold man who was lying on a bed, and who was her dead father, and afterwards spending the night in her little cot in an agony of crying and sobbing.

Then she remembered a dreary, monotonous life of poverty and wretchedness in a close alley or courtyard, where she was turned out to play with some other children, who were uncouth and rude, and who, with the usual British contempt for foreigners at even the earliest age, called her Frenchy. How long this lasted she had no recollection, but she remembered a long sea voyage in a big ship with a hard, sour-faced woman, who told her that her father and mother had died long ago, and that she was going out to Australia to be taken care of. At the end of the long dreary voyage she had been met on the ship by a dark old foreigner, dressed in a rough tweed suit and wearing a bright red necker chief, who knew her at once, though she could not understand how, and who knelt down before her on the ship's deck, and clasped her to his breast with a cry that sounded like a groan.

" Oh, Alma ! Alma mia ! " The tears ran silently down his furrowed cheeks, and his voice was choked with sobs that shook his frame as he knelt. The emotion of the old man, the soft, mellifluous Italian language in which he spoke to her, and which she did not understand at all, and above all, the kind sympathy and love which beamed in his eyes and in his smile, won the child's heart at once, and she threw her arms round his neck and kissed him tenderly as he still knelt on the deck. Thus she first met Matteo. Never after that day had he suffered her to see the slightest trace of such emotion in him. Loving and watchful as he ever was over her every action, his long life of patiently borne hardship, of an ever continuing struggle against poverty, had schooled him to conceal his feelings under a cloak of taci- ALMA 9 turnity.

But a child's instinct is precocious, and she could read his love for her in the old man's heart, and cherished his affection, and gave him all her love in return. A long train journey brought them to the township the same evening. Tired out with the fatigues of the day, the strangeness of the journey, and the lateness of the hour, Alma had fallen asleep in the train, and was lifted out lovingly and carefully by the old man so that she should not be awakened, who left her small box at the station, and carried her in his arms to his home. It was nearly two miles from the station to the Garden, and the road was rough, so it was late when they arrived ; and Mrs. Badgery, who was waiting in expectation of their arrival since she had heard the train pass, took charge of her, half-dazed with sleep and fatigue, and put her to bed in the little room which had been prepared for her, overlooking the Garden, and the river, and the hill where the wattle blossoms grew.

At this stage of her reflections Nibs, who had been in unsuccessful pursuit of a lizard among the rocks by the river, reluctantly abandoned the chase, after having vainly endeavoured to roll aside a three ton boulder under which the lizard had sought shelter, and returned to see that Alma was all right, and that nobody had run away with her ; and having satisfied his mind on this point, and noticing Doddles comfortably recumbent at her feet in an apparently refreshing slumber, took the opportunity of minutely investigating the softest portions of his paws. Doddles drew in his feet with a growl, and Nibs at once transferred the base of his operations to the long hairs growing on the tip of the dog's tail. With a patient sigh of resignation Doddles rose, and taking up a position on the other side of Alma's seat, again settled himself to peaceful slumber.

Nibs then proceeded to take the enemy in the rear, and hopping round behind him, commenced to operate on the tip of his ear. This last assault conquered the patience of Doddles, who with a low growl made a vicious snap at the bird, which, had it proved successful, would have infallibly terminated all his pranks for the future. His escape was one of those miracles that only happen to magpies. ALMA 11 He indignantly perched himself on a fallen bough well out of reach of Doddles, and ejaculated, " Oh, my ! " in his most sarcastic tone, after which he hopped across the field to Matteo and Giacom, and devoted his inquisitive genius to the contemplation of a gun which Matteo always kept beside him to shoot parrots and sparrows, and which was lying at half-cock at the foot of a pear-tree. The diversion caused a break in Alma's medita tion, but peace being at length restored by the de parture of the aggressor, the current of her thoughts flowed on, taking up the threads of her memory where she had left off when interrupted.

She remembered nothing of the night when she was brought home. She was awakened at sunrise the next morning by the melodious song of the wild magpies on the big gum-tree on the hill at the back of the house, and two golden bars of sunshine came through the chinks of the window-blind and smote the <*audy picture on an illuminated almanac that hung on the opposite wall over her little bed. She sprang up hastily, drew aside the blind and threw open the window, and for the first time in her life had a glimpse of the glories of nature. Surely this must be fairyland ; the whole earth could not contain so much glory as this. The slope below her was a sea of blossoming fruit trees ; through the trees on the flat she could detect the bright-green patches of the early corn crops ; beyond them, the willows along the river-side, backed by the dark-green foliage of the blackwoods ; in the valley beyond, a little picturesque hut with the smoke going up lazily from its large wooden chimney; and at the back of all, the long range of hills dotted with peppermint and box and stringy bark-trees in the various shades of their budding leaves, with here and there the stem of a white gum standing out, gnnrled and twisted, in bold relief; and set in among all these, the wattle-trees in full bloom like gigantic balls of burnished gold.

The broad river valley on her right was dotted with clumps of gum and peppermint, and the course of the river could be plainly followed by the darker tint of the blackwoods that grew on its banks. Further on, about a mile away, were the Falls, and ALMA 13 through the trees and undergrowth of shrubs she could catch the glint of a tiny stream that trickled over them like silver. And below the Falls, on the far side of the river, were the ruins of an old blue stone flour-mill, the water-wheel of which was still there, decayed and broken, and almost buried in the dense scrub that had grown up around it. To the left, and just beyond the tall hedge of blackberries that ran from the tunnel mouth to the creek, forming a boundary fence to the Garden, a large bluff jutted out from the hill, shutting out from her view the valley of the river below, and stood out boldly against the green hills across the river, and the haze and purple mist that enwrapped the moun tains in the far distance.

With the solitary exception of the little hut no habitation was visible, though from the valley below the bluff could be seen the curling smoke rising from early fires, and the deep bark of a dog or the crowing of a cock could be dis tinctly heard, evidencing the near residence of some of the miners who lived on the river. And the whole rich, luscious scene was bathed in the glorious light of the morning sun, which had just risen above the tops of the eastern hills, and danced and played over her face and neck as she gazed in rapt entrancement at the wonder. The twitter of innumerable birds, and the harsh laugh of the distant kingfisher, afterwards more familiar to her under the popular name of the laugh ing jackass, softened by the dreamy buzzing of early bees, smote upon her ear, and the bright crisp morning air was laden with the mingled perfume of wattle blossom, and gorse, and hawthorn, and sweet briar, distilled into a delicious fragrance by the early dew.

Alma stood entranced at her window in her little night-dress gazing at all this glory, when the voice of Mrs. Badgery called to her from somewhere outside. " Sakes alive, child ! what are you doing out of bed at this time of the morning ? Don't you know it's Sunday, and there won't be a soul stirring for hours yet?" As she spoke, she came round the corner of the large stone wine-cellar, with a bundle of kindling wood in her arms. " Oh ! " cried Alma excitedly, and only anxious to ALMA 15 communicate her ecstasy to some one else. " Come here and look ! Is it really real ? Can anything be so beautiful ? " Mrs. Badgery, who had seen the same sight every spring morning for some years, and who had more over but little appreciation of the beauty of fruit blossoms and gum-trees and wattle blooms, even under the most favourable circumstances, did not enter into Alma's ecstasies, but her stern front relaxed under the enthusiasm of the child.

"Well, child, since you're up, get your clothes on, and I'll fetch you a cup of milk and a slice of bread and-butter, and then you can run down and see the Garden." She was dressed in a few minutes, aud hastily swallowing the milk, and taking the bread-and-butter with her, ran clown the flight of stone steps from her room into the glorious morning air. No one was stirring except Doddles, who came up to her with a welcoming wag of his tail, and put his cold nose into her hand, and made friends with her at once. Doddles conducted her all over the wonderful Garden iu a state of delighted bewilderment, now stopping to look across the river at the gorgeous hills, and now turning round to look back at the house and the vines, and the garden on the hill, and to listen to the song of the magpies, who were still singing their orisons among the branches of the old gum-tree.

On her return she was met by old Giacom, who had risen earlier than the others, to milk the cow and look after the horse. He was standing at the foot of the stone steps when she came up the path, and when he saw her he advanced to meet her. He introduced himself, but without words. With the native grace of an Italian peasant he raised his hat, and offered her a sprig of wattle blossom. " For the signorina." He could speak no English, and she could speak no Italian, but she nodded and smiled at him, and took the blossom and held it to her face, and kissed the luscious fragrance. Then she extended her hand to him, and he took it with a grace and reverence he would have bestowed upon a queen. He was her servant and knight-errant for ever after that. Then came her first meeting with Jack. In the afternoon, a few young gentlemen arrived ALMA 17 -v in company with a few young ladies.

The gentle men were all faultlessly though conspicuously attired in cut-away coats, hats with no brims to speak of, brilliant neckties, and trousers very tight at the knees and very wide at the feet, insomuch that they completely covered the fine-pointed high-heeled boots that adorned their extremities. The ladies were also attired in very gaudy, flaring colours and jaunty hats, and all of them talked loudly and laughed uproariously, and chased each other about the Garden, and over the low walls, and up and down the stone steps, enjoying themselves very much indeed. In after days Alma learned to distinguish these young ladies and gentle men as a distinct class, who were known as larrikins. Instinctively she failed to appreciate this kind of society, and strolled away with Doddles for a companion down the long terraced walk that led to the hay field, bordered on one side by a rough stone retaining wall covered with trailing creepers, and on the other side by wild cherry and almond-trees.

A small flight of rough steps led down from this walk into the field where the apple-trees grew, in which was part of a small haystack of last season, c r~ kept for the winter fodder, and propped against the haystack was a ladder. This was a temptation the child could not resist. She ran down the short flight of steps, mounted the ladder, and sat on the top of the small stack. Then it occurred to her that it would be a fine thing to slide down the other side on to the loose hay that was lying scattered on the ground. She immediately put this project into execution, and seating herself on the roof of the stack, started off down the slope. The drop was only a few feet, but still it was greater than she had anticipated, and she arrived on the ground in a most sprawling and undignified position ; her hat blew off as she fell, and she felt that her dress was thoroughly crumpled and out of shape, and that her hair was rough and untidy.

It was very fortunate indeed that there was no one there to see her. She was startled and amazed to find that she had fallen close beside a well-dressed young man of one or two and twenty, who was leisurely sitting on the loose hay with his back propped against the stack, reading a book. He looked up as the extraordinary vision ALMA 19 flashed through the air from above, and greeted her arrival with a hearty laugh. It was a very pleasant laugh too, Alma thought in the midst of her distress. " So you are little Alma, are you ? " inquired the stranger. " Come to me from the sky ? " She was dreadfully confused and ashamed at first, and knew instinctively that she must look horrid, and was in truth a little inclined to be cross about it, but she soon joined nervously in the young man's laughter, and attempted to rise, when she gave a sharp cry of pain.

He wa3 up and beside her in an instant, aud had lifted her tenderly on to her feet. " I'm afraid you've hurt your foot, little one. Can you walk ? No ? Then I'll have to carry you up to the house." He put his book in his pocket, and took her tenderly in his arms, and she clasped him round the neck for support and to still the pain of her twisted ankle. " Does your foot pain you, little woman ? There ! Now we are all right. You should not have tried to take such a jump as that. You are little Alma, are you not ? " " Yes." She was almost crying now with the pain and the fright, and nestled more closely to him. " I thought so. I heard you had come last night. " She looked up earnestly into the smiling face that bent down over hers so kindly and winningly. The gentleness and tenderness of his manner won the child's heart in a moment.

" What is your name ? " she inquired, with a child's inquisitiveness. " I am Jack." She raised her small hands to his head, and drew it down quietly to her face and kissed him. " I love you, Jack ; " that was all she said, and nestled to him again. He carried her up to her room, and her ankle was bathed and bandaged by Mrs. Badgery, who caressed and scolded her in turns till she was asleep. It was only a slight twist after all. Her ankle was almost well the next morning, and she was up and about early enough to make the acquaintance ALMA 21 of the miners who came over the stile on the hill to work in the tunnel, swinging down the long path with their tin billies in their hands, and their pipe clayed trousers tied round below the knees with pieces of string, like garters. Ever from this time Jack had been her foremost and staunchest friend, and her guardian and pro tector.

He petted and spoilt her most completely, but never lost sight of the fact that a duty seemed to be cast upon him by the arrival of this little child. It humanized him in his rough life. As time went on he took entirely upon himself the burden of her education. And then, what pleasant times they had together, when Jack would walk with her into the township, or, better still, when he would take her to see a travelling circus that was passing through, even though he had sometimes to carry the child, tired and weary from the excitement and late hours, all the way across the rough fields to her home. Or he would take her to see the Easter sports in the township, where all the people were congregated in their holiday attire, and she wondered with a fearful wonderment at the gay and brilliant dresses she saw there as she walked about, always with one hand in Jack's, and the other diving every now and then into her pocket in search of the nuts or cakes he had bought for her.

No one was ever so kind to her as Jack. And now she was nearly seventeen — quite grown up. It seemed so very, very long ago that all these things happened ; it was all like the dream of another life. And so, on this broiling December afternoon, she sat on her favourite seat under the willows, waiting for Jack, JACK 23

Chapter II Jack

A low growl from Doddles and a strange step on the gravel path caused Alma to look up. Standing on the path that led from the hayfield to the river, and just outside the shade of the willows, was a radiant young stranger. He was of medium height, and apparently not more than twenty-one years of age, and his attire was faultless. He was dressed in a light tweed suit of the fashion known as dittos, the coat being buttoned down the front, and showing only a small portion of a light necktie embellished with a diamond breast pin. A corner of his pocket-hauclkerchief peeped carelessly from the breast-pocket of his coat, and his gold link watch-chain was arranged in full symmetry outside his coat. His head was covered by a jaunty straw hat, and he wore gloves. He was altogether rather a good-looking young man, fair and pleasant of feature, and his upper lip showed the budding germ of an incipient moustache, whose owner nursed and tended it fondly, and in fact almost killed it with kindness.

His right eye bore unmistakable evidence of the rather forcible use of an eye-glass, which, however, was apparently not on active service to-day, being buttoned up, string and all, beneath his coat. Altogether Alma rather liked the look of him. In his left hand he held a few cherries, which he threw aside when he saw Alma. He raised his hat, and bowed elaborately. " Good-afternoon, Miss Alma." Alma said " Good-afternoon " too, out of politeness, for the young gentleman apparently knew her, though she had never seen him before, and he was evidently disposed to be friendly; and besides, she did not exactly know what else to say. He continued airily — "How nice and cool you look in the shade there. JACK 25 Quite like the haunt of the wood nymph, don't you know, and all that sort of thing. May I not come into that lovely shady nook of yours ?

" he asked, with a broad insinuating smile, and taking off his hat again. He looked so satisfied with himself, so very good natured, and so happy in the consciousness of his own perfection, that she could not help being amused with him. "Excessively hot, ain't it?" he said, standing before her with his hat in his hand, and giving her no time to reply to his former question. " Very hot indeed," said Alma, " out there. You'll get a sun-stroke." She half rose from her seat. " Would you not like to sit down in the shade ? " "No; thanks, very much. Couldn't deprive you, you know. Oh, I say ! " This ejaculation had reference to Doddles, who had risen, and was carefully investigating the quality of his trousers, and whose touch had caused the young man to start back abruptly. " He won't bite, will he ?

" " Oh, no," she said, laughing. " Come here, Doddles." Doddles did not appear to be by any means satisfied with his cursory examination of the quality of the airy stranger's pants, but concluded that the weather was too warm for much altercation about it, and lay down in the sand at Alma's feet, intently regarding each motion of the intruder. " He'll not hurt you while I am with him," said Alma ; " but you had better come in out of the fierce sun. " Ah, thanks ; don't mind if I do." She gathered her skirts round her, and motioned him to a place on the seat beside her, which he took with a certain degree of alacrity, reposing in an attitude of studied ease and elegance as far away from Doddles as he could conveniently get. " He's such a dear old dog," said Alma enthusi astically, stooping down to pat his shaggy side, "and thinks it his imperative duty to take care of me.