The Book of the Bush

rs then at work on Bendigo, viz., three hundred more or less, and of the three hundred I don't think our gully could boast of one. All were finding a little gold, but even the most fortunate

to my share into a wooden match-box, which I carried in my pocket. I knew it would hold twelve ounces--

d by our small tent. While at work we were always dirty, and often wet; and after we had passed a miserable night, daylight found us shivering, until warmth came with hard work. One morning Philip lost his temper; his only hat was s

g up here, and I persave this morning we have an I

fell into a sudden fury; you might h

aying down the gully, and this

e Donkey. "We are in a

a visit to some dying digger, for Death would not wait until we had all made our pile. His messengers were going around all the tim

ere were no pews, benches, or chairs. Part of the congregation consisted of soldiers from the camp, who had come up from Melbourne to shoot us if occasion required. Six days of the week we hated them and called "Joey" after them, but on the seventh day we merely glared a

spoke after Mass. He said the priest did not preach with as much energy as the ministers in Scotland. And yet I thought Father Backhaus' sermon had that day been "powerful," as the Yankees would

h a German accent, but

s

k it is a blessing, but when you get it, it is often a curse. You go what you call 'on the spree'; you find the 'sly grog'; you get drunk and are robbed of your gold; sometimes you are murdered; or you fall into a hole and are killed, and you go to hell dead drunk. Patrick Doyle was here a

time enough for me to take warning from the fate of Paddy Doyle when

ks, Father Backhaus, before steppin

f there is anyone here willing to do so

lip among the crowd when he

" he said. "Would you have any objection? You know we are doing no g

ve our short partnership, and leave me alo

ver kept sc

much trouble. There can't be many children around here

o wistful and anxious that I had not the heart to say no. Philip went into the ten

he would bottom it. He bottomed on a corpse. The claim had been worked during the previous summer by two men. One morning there was only one man on it; he said his mate had

garly looking young man cam

l gone away and taken the tent with them; so I want to ask y

and concerts on shipboard. Scott, the artist, admired Bez; he said he had the head, the features, and the talent of a Shakespeare. He had a sketch of Bez in his portfolio, which he was filling with crooked trees, common diggers, and ugly blackamoors. I could see no Shakespeare in Bez; he was not

ny partner. I understand you are a tailor by

ness. I am now a sailor. You know yourself I sailed from Liverpool to Melbourne, a

uantum valere potest.'" Bez looked solemn; a little Latin goes a long w

a tailor. I could never hold up my head among the diggers if they should discover that my mate was only the ninth part of a man. You must carry to the tent a quantity of clay and rocks sufficient to build a chimney, of which I s

irate; he swore naval oaths strong enough to still a hurricane. Among his digging outfit was a huge pick; it was a two-man pick, and he carried it on his shoulder to suggest his enormous strength.

alled "The Twelve Virtues of a Good Master," and he was studying it daily in order to qualify himself for his new calling. He had undertaken to demonstrate one of Euclid's propositions every night by way of exercising his reasoning faculties. He was also making new acquaintances amongst men who were not diggers--doctors, storekeepers, and the useful blacksmiths who pointed our picks with steel. He had also

they had married Catholic immigrants, and sometimes went to church, but more out of pastime than piety. One of these men, known as John Barton-- he had another name in the indents--stood under the gum tree, but not praying; I don't think he ever thought of praying except the need of it was extreme. He was of medium height, had a broad face, snub nose, stood erect like a soldier, and was strongly built. His small ferrety eyes were glancing quickly among the faces around him until they were arrested by another pair

d, and what are

rton. "I came in here to hide. There are

der you in broad daylight? My impression is, my friend, that you are a sneaking thief, and that you came here

t with his stockwhip. Then this man jumped at his master, pulled him off his horse, dragged him to the wood-heap, held his head on the block, seized the axe, and was just going to chop his master's head off, when another man stopped him. That is what I had to flog him for, and then he was sent back to Sydney. So you can just think what a man like that would do. When my time was up I went as a trooper to the Nyalong district under Captain Foster, the Commissioner, and after a while I settled down and married an

en was brother-in-law to Barton, and had been a fellow-trooper with him under Captain Foster. Barton had entered into family relations as an honest man; he could give himself any character he chose until he was found out. He was too frightened to stay another night on Bendigo, and he began at once to bundle up his swag. Gleeson and Poynton accompanied him for some distance beyond the pillar of white quartz on Specimen Hill, and then he left the track and stru

e. Once I went to a rush of Maoris, near Job's Gully, and Scott came along with his portfolio, a small pick, pan, and shovel. He did not dig any, but got the ugliest Maori he could find to sit on a pile of dirt while he took his portrait and sketched the tattoos. That

hich was flaky, and sticking on edge in the pipeclay bottom. I found some gold also in Sheep's Head, and then we heard of a rush on the Goulburn River. Next day we offered our spare mining plant for sale on the roadside opposite Specimen Hill, placing the tubs, cradles, pi

ge. When we came to a swamp we carried the baggage over it on our backs, and then helped the horse to draw the emp

advised to come to Australia, in the hope that a change of climate and occupation might be of benefit, but he had already walked once from Bendigo to Melbourne, and now he was obliged to go again. He did not like to start without letting someone know his reason for leaving us. I felt full of pity for Scott, for I thought he was going to his death alone in

an set fire to my tent in order to rouse his banker. I dragged Bez outside the tent and extinguished the fire. There was bloodshed afterwards--from Dan's nose--and his account was cl

Four or five troopers and officials rode slowly about the diggings and the cry of "Joey" was never raised, while a single unarmed constable on foot went amongst the claims to inspect licenses. He stayed with us awhile, talking about digging matters. He said the police

to feel anything but pity for the man, for his life was ruined, and he had ruined it himself. I had also under my care a vegetable garden, a paddock of Cape barley, two horses, some guinea fowls, and a potato patch. One night the potatoes had been bandicooted. To all the early settlers in the bush the bandicoot is well known. It is a marsupial quadruped which lives on bulbs, and ravages potato patches. It is about eighteen inches in length from the origin of its tail to the point of its nose. It has the habits of a pickpocket. It inserts its delicate fore paws under the stalks of the potato, and pulls out the tubers. That mor

mister. I have as much right t

st night, and you've left the marks of your dirty feet on the ground. The poli

as a strange man approaching rapidly, and the bandicoot's courage collapsed. She sli

gate, but stood looking over the fen

t Fiery Creek, and I don't thi

small frame, well dressed for those days, but he had o luggage. He loo

friend of D

. My name is Carr; I h

bout a bullet between his knuckles, another was hiding in a house at Chilwell.* He had lost one arm, and the Gove

ting news from the lips of a warrior fr

here until the doctor ret

te Peter

lying forth, how many men or women he had called upon to stand in the name of her gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, how many skulls he had cloven, how many diggers he had "slewed," and how many peaceful prisoners he had brought back to the Government camp. On all these points he was silent, and during his stay with me he spoke as little as possible, neither reading, writing, nor walking about. But there was something to be learned from the papers. He had be

Sovereign Lady, the Queen, we do not, and will not, respect

e to the shoulder of Dr. Carr, who was reading inside, went through the lid of the open medicine chest, and some splinters struck him on the side. There were in the hospital at that time seven diggers seriously wounded and six soldiers, including the drummer boy. Troubles were coming in crowds, and the bullet,

and the doctor was so silent and unsociable, that, by way o

In the meantime a total change had taken place among the occupants of the Government camp. Commissioner Rede had retired, Dr. Williams, the coroner, an

incoherent speech to the crowd at the Exchange. His last public appearance was in a police-court on a

hus succeed in creating a "practice." Occasionally they meet with disaste