The Tale of Timber Town

ter-Gol

ndersized, rabbit-faced youth, whose head was thatched with a shock of coarse black hair. He possessed a pair of spreading black eyebrows upon a forehead which was white when well washed, fo

this was, without doubt, a gross perversion of the truth. Benjamin Tresco's countenance was as benign as that of Bacchus, and as open as

but I am prevented from giving rein to my impulses by the expansiveness of my soul. That I developed myself. I could go up the street and rob the Kangaroo Bank; I could go to Mr. Crewe, the millionaire, and compel him at the pistol's mouth to transfer me the hoards of his life-time; I could get blazing drunk three nights a week; I could kidnap Varnhagen's pretty daughter, and carry her off to the mountains; but my soul prevents me-I am the battle-ground of contending passions. One half of me say

plate of gold, which was destined to adorn the watch-chain of the

he nicks out little pieces of gold according to design, which pieces fall into the apron of the bench-and, behold! he is engraving. The work needs contemplation, concentration, and attention; for every good goldsmith carries the details of the design in his

th him at the bench and was now working industriously with a blow-pipe up

s master, like a ferret examining an angry ter

s give to mend," he replie

g arm, and took the gem. T

oung pukeko, like you, presumes to cut me out! You mend that lady's trinkets? You lean over a bar, an' court beauty adorned in the latest fashion? You make love to my 'piece' by fixing up her

or which he had schemed. Between the two there existed a queer comradeship, which had been growing for more than two years, so that the bald, rotund, red-faced goldsmith had come to regard the shock-headed, rat-faced apprentice more as a son

f slate; these he placed deftly where the gold hoop was weak; over the top of them he laid a delicate slip of gold, and bound the whole together with wire as thin as thread. This done, he put the jewel upon a piece of charred wood, thrust the end of his blo

e room at the back of his workshop to call in sweet falsetto, "Benjamin, come to dinner! Come at once: the steak's getting cold!" As he used to say, "This my domicile

n a bowl of clean water. A little filing and scraping, a little rubbing with emery

estic comfort of nearly fifty pairs of newly-darned socks; with her sitting, stitching, on one side of the fire, and saying, 'Benjamin, these ready-made socks are no good: I must knit them for you in future,' and me, on the other side, smili

eather-beaten hat of strange outlandish shape, placed the ring

ole length, and the walks on either side of the macadamised road were asphalted. Benjamin, wearing the air of Bacchus courting the morning, walked a hundred yards or so, till he came to the centre of the town, where four streets met. At one corner stood the Kangaroo Bank; at another a big cloth

andish vehicles that ever came within the category of cabs licensed to carry passengers. Some were barouches which must have been ancient when Victoria was crowned, and concerning which there was a legend that they came out to the settlement in the first ships, in 1842; others were landaus, constructed o

nner, a goodly sprinkling of Timber Town's ci

un shining above him, were recognised by all who passed by. It was, "How do, Benjamin; bobbin' up, old party?" "Mornin', Tresco. You remind me of the rooster that found the jewel-you look so

, but hot. Now, half-a-pint is refreshing, but you lawyers have no time-too many mortgages, conveyances, bills of sale to think about. I understan

jestic figure arrayed in purple and fine linen. She had the development of an Amazon and the fres

ord spoke he till the resplendent deity had finished speaking to two commercial travellers who

money, and the goddess withdrew to the society of the bagmen, wh

s are in the cheese, Boscoe. You'd think they'd a mon

me of his trade upon him, looked vacuously to h

't never run it." Here one of the gaudy bagmen stretched out his hand, and fingered the bar-maid's rings. The girl seemed nothing annoyed at this awkward attention, but when her admirer's

pocket he drew the dainty ring-case, and held it out to the girl, who took it eagerly. In a

bout to perform, glanced triumphantly round the bar-room, held the girl's hand gallantly in his, deliberately replaced the r

, with mock annoyance and a toss of her head, "but,

aid Tresco, unruffled.

and the girl had recognis

Tresco had vanished, and nothing but his lau

hem indignantly, and in scornful silence, which she