Tom Gerrard
seat opposite his sister with a smiling face, and in a few minutes, under the sunshine of his genial manner, Mrs West
hree days before you expected me, L
a letter from him this morning. He said in his last letter he would be sure to return
r than I expected. Then at Melbourne I caught the steamer for Port Albert, just as she was leaving. At Port Albert, instead of waiting two days for the coach for Marumba
ssary expense, Thom
n and all included, didn
h fare would have been but three pounds!
uy the horses, and all the gear from me. I think I can jew him in
rty
d to be shocked at the word 'quid.' You know you've heard all th
homas-too frequen
n't matter now. By-the-way, doesn'
s. I'm sure she and that dreadful boy Jim will get you to inspect their 'cubby house' down on the river bank in the course of the day. Sometimes Edw
s much of a boy as he was twenty year
ard was travelling to Sydney in the Balclutha, he-as he always does-made the acquaintance of every seaman on board. One of them, a quartermaster, turned out to be the man who had been washed on shore from the Cassowary. Of course Edward was very much interested, a
the boy'
m, but what was their name was never ascertained. It was believed that they were newly-arrived emigrants, for no inquiries were made from any quarter about them, and so Coll, who seems to be a very kind m
said Gerrard gravely, "and shows him
or-the father, I suppose, earns about seven pounds a month as quartermaster, and there are nine children. I think it was ridiculous of
act they must have been, or they would not have kept him for six years,
s what they sho
ou known of the matter. You have father's heart, Lizzie, under that pretty blouse of yo
old-hearte
her moment, Mrs Westonley found herself
ve said in the past I 'take back' as we bushmen say, and I want you to give me some of your affection. I know you have tons of it concealed under that prim little manner of yours, but you are too proud to show it. And see, Liz
I cannot-I really cannot change my nature and be anything more than politely civil to the friends he sometimes brings here-they are rough, noisy and bucolic. I am always urging him to leave a manager at M
rnished room, and, mentally compared it with his ow
s, Lizzie," he said; "there are not many such
f the country houses in England, Thomas. And then another reas
on girls at Black River station, only ten miles away; th
ret of it. Her father was a fishcurer at In
nd bears herself like a
s from an old Scottish family, could marry her, I cannot unde
a very happy man
l over the country after kangaroos, in company with a lot of rough men in shirts and moleskins, attending
Brooke?" asked Gerrard; "surely they
t, and her mother has absolutely no control of her; then Mr Brooke himself is more
ent in despair. "I'll tell you what you want, Lizzie," he said,
it is hot, dusty, dir
n Sy
ill stay there more than a week-he is always
, and see what I can do wi
Then we'll see this cubby house, and
d Gerrard stretched himself out in a squatter's chair on the verandah to smoke h
le, and the owner of it wondered what made her voice
r. He, you, and Mary, and I are a
nt, the boy came to her to where
, this
d up and held
sunburnt face. "By Jove! you are a big chap for a ten year old b
lor, sir; but now I'm g
urdy chest, and his face was almost as deeply bronzed as that of Gerrard himself, and two big, honest brown eyes m
and you'll have to tote me around, and ke
s,
in Marum
m, Murray cod, jew fish, and spe
nough. Got fishing
s,
along. Where i
dancing with pleasure; "she was too excited to eat any breakfast, unt
anything-from fishing to riding bull calves, or cutting out a wild bees' nest from a gum tree
saddle
r, tailless gentleman," and he jumped to his fee
and the children looked wonderingly a