In the Roaring Fifties

mosphere 'tween decks drove him into the open. It was a fair day, a big placid sun was shining, an

azy abandonment, leaning over the side, smoking comfortably, and spitting with a certain dreamy satisf

their society and friendship upon him. He looked at none of the faces turned curiously in his direction, and his expression of stubborn enmity killed the cheer that sprang from a few of the forecastle passengers, and it tailed into a feeble absurdity. Leaning upon the old wooden gun-carriage, with his arms

rcise a certain power of restraint up to the point at which his fierce temper blazed; he reached the stage of ignition without those displays of sparks and smoke that are usual preliminaries to a 'flare-up.' He had learned, too, in the course of his schooling, to simulate an im

ntain the barrier he had set up between himself and his fellow-travellers. When Jim Done set foot on board the Francis Cadman he was flying from an intolerable life, seeking to escape from des

t whom he had lived his life kept him in his native place till after his twenty-first birthday. He rebelled with all his soul against the animal unreason of these men, women, and children, puzzling over the fanatical stupidity of their prejudic

ley district within the memory of the oldest inhabitant was done by a member of li

tableaux, and was incorporated in the history of

e of his punishment. They became creatures apart. With all Chisley understood of the terror in those dre

ne evening went quietly to her room and died. Jim's sister, ten years older than himself, took up the struggle where the mother dropped it, and sustained it until the boy could go into the fields and e

y and with proper gratitude; but for years Jim had been reasoning things out in a direct, childish way, and in his loneliness he was filled with an inveterate hatred. He chose to live on as he had lived, accepting no

l that the pugilists and wrestlers could teach him he picked up with extraordinary quickness, and to the arts thus acquired he added cunning tricks of offence and defence of his own co

every insolence. There was a sudden epidemic of black eyes amongst the youth of the village; cut faces, broken ribs, and noses of abnormal size served the heirs of Chisley as stinging reminders of the old shame and the new

istic details, and, having beaten him in fair fight, broke his collar-bone with an atrocious fall. For this outrage Jim o' Mill End was call

mmunity from open insult; the young men and their elders were careful to give him no reasonable opportunity of asserting the rights of man in their teeth with a dexterous left, and Jim was now beyond disputing with children. The unhappy boy was not deceived by the new attitude his neighbours had assumed towards him. He saw an incr

ith a consuming idea; how they gather around him, fall open to his eye, and give up the thing he yearns to feed on. Without the knowledge necessary to selection, Jim had an affinity for books of pessimistic doctrine, and though both means and opportunities were limited, he gathered together, in the course of two years, quite a library of precious volumes, and he came forth from these an intellectual giant refreshed. He saw Chisley on a plane far below him, a sink of ignorance, and judged it like a god-or a boy. Whatever Chisley respected he found e

r he was strong and efficient, and gave double value for his wages-he had no mates. Girls he had seen grow up from babyhood developed into beautiful creatures, with miraculous eyes, round limbs, and cheeks so red, so tender, that their soft ripeness haunted his dreams. Under cover an

rmit of his abandoning a struggle even with men so contemptible as these ignorant villagers. But the hunger for humanity filled him with visions of a new society in which he would be one with his fellow-men, and then his enemies seemed so pit

ife almost daily, sometimes broadly and briefly, as given here-sometimes going into excruci

his business and the affair of the previous night to the great absorbing topic of the past four months-Australia, the l

was a handsome lady in black, who had already created in Jim's mind a confused impression of massed raven hair and big, innocent dark eyes that had

lunge, my lad?' inquire

scious of the eyes signalling app

ire after the yo

ing of her, Captain. I un

anly attention, you know

le, and the line of b

'm glad the young lady's well again, but gen

ver bully-damned a ship from the gates of hell on a blind night, and was proud of his first-cabin accompli

d moderately; but the lady held out dainty glov

te a hero, Mr. Done,'

the ladies and gentle men grea

rave,' added Mrs.

esentiment of mischief

meeting to consider the idea of-ah, expressing their ap

ntly the fact that the ladies and gentlemen of the first class wished to put on record their very proper respect for British pluc

r and his ship manner, the manner with which he worked the Francis Cadman-and it was a mere step from one to the other. For a moment he was perilously near assuming his natural and most successful manne

ou approve, Mr. Done.' But the inference was that he co

' said Jim decisively,

pt

st not be shy!' m

emonstration or accept a

believe; but I'm rese

ctions like yours cannot be total

re!' from

yself. I asked nothing from anybody on this ship, but simply to be left alone. That's all I ask now. Perhaps I appear boorish

g face, 'we'll say no more about the matter.' He moved away, but the lady exten

gs,' she said, as if m

m like a guardian angel with exquisite teeth, and the scamp turned again to the s