From Squire to Squatter: A Tale of the Old Land and the New
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find is a country of contrarieties, andthe only wonder to me is that the rivers don't all run up-hill insteadof running down; and mind, they are sometimes broader at their sourcesthan they are at their ends."
"There is plenty of gold there?" asked Archie.
"Oh, yes, any amount; but--"
"But what, sir?"
"The real difficulty--in fact, the only difficulty--is the finding ofit."
"But that, I suppose, can be got over."
"Come along with me up on deck, and we'll talk matters over. It is hotand stuffy down here; besides, they are going to lay the cloth."
Arrived at the quarterdeck, the stranger took hold of Archie's arm, asif he had known him all his life.
"Now," he said, "my name is Vesey, generally called Captain Vesey,because I never did anything that I know of to merit the title. I'vebeen in an army or two in different parts of the globe as a free lance,you know."
"How nice!"
"Oh, delightful!" said Captain Vesey, though from the tone of his voiceArchie was doubtful as to his meaning. "Well," he added, "I own ayacht, now waiting for me, I believe, at the Cape of Good Hope, if sheisn't sunk, or burned, or something. And your tally?"
"My what, sir?"
"Your tally, your name, and the rest of it?"
"Archie Broadbent, son of Squire Broadbent, of Burley Old Farm,Northumberland."
"What! you a son of Charlie Broadbent? Yankee Charlie, as we used tocall him at the club. Well, well, well, wonders will never cease; andit only shows how small the world is, after all."
"And you used to know my father, sir?"
"My dear boy, I promised myself the pleasure of calling on him atBurley. I've only been home for two months, however; and I heard--well,boy, I needn't mince matters--I heard your father had been unfortunate,and had left his place, and gone nobody could tell me whither."
"No," said Archie, laughing, "it isn't quite so bad as all that; and itis bound to come right in the end."
"You are talking very hopefully, lad. I could trace a resemblance inyour face to someone I knew the very moment I sat down. And there issomething like the same cheerful ring in your voice there used to be inhis. You really are a chip of the old block."
"So they say." And Archie laughed again, pleased by this time.
"But, you know, lad, you are very young to be going away to seek yourfortune."
"I'll get over that, sir."
"I hope so. Of course, you won't go pottering after gold!"
"I don't know. If I thought I would find lots, I would go like a shot."
"Well, take my advice, and don't. There, I do not want to discourageyou; but you better turn your mind to farming--to squatting."
"That wouldn't be very genteel, would it?"
"Genteel! Why, lad, if you're going to go in for genteelity, you'd besthave stayed at home."
"Well, but I have an excellent education. I can write likecopper-plate. I am a fair hand at figures, and well up in Latin andGreek; and--"
"Ha! ha! ha!" Captain Vesey laughed aloud. "Latin and Greek, eh? Youmust keep that to yourself, boy."
"And," continued Archie boldly, "I have a whole lot of capitalintroductions. I'm sure to get into a good office in Sydney; and in afew years--"
Archie stopped short, because by the light that streamed from theskylight he could see that Captain Vesey was looking at himhalf-wonderingly, but evidently amused.
"Go on," said the captain.
"Not a word more," said Archie doggedly.
"Finish your sentence, lad."
"I shan't. There!"
"Well, I'll do it for you. You'll get into a delightful office, withmahogany writing-desks and stained glass windows, Turkey carpet and aneasy-chair. Your employer will take you out in his buggy every Sundayto dine with him; and after a few years, as you say, he'll make you aco-partner; and you'll end by marrying his daughter, and live happy everafter."
"You're laughing at me, sir. I'll go down below."
"Yes, I'm laughing at you, because you're only a greenhorn; and it is aswell that I should squeeze a little of the lime-juice out of you asanyone else. No, don't go below. Mind, I was your father's friend."
"Yes," pouted poor Archie; "but you don't appear to be mine. You arethrowing cold water over my hopes; you are smashing my idols."
"A very pretty speech, Archie Broadbent. But mind you this--a hut onsolid ground is better far than a castle in the air. And it is betterthat I should storm and capsize your cloud-castle, than that an absolutestranger did so."
"Well, I suppose you are right. Forgive me for being cross."
"Spoken like his father's son," said Captain Vesey, grasping and shakingthe hand that Archie extended to him. "Now we know each other. Ding!ding! ding! there goes the dinner-bell. Sit next to me."
CHAPTER TWELVE.
"KEEP ON YOUR CAP. I WAS ONCE A POOR MAN MYSELF."
The voyage out was a long, even tedious one; but as it has but littlebearing on the story I forbear to describe it at length.
The ship had a passenger for Madeira, parcels for Ascension and SaintHelena, and she lay in at the Cape for a whole week.
Here Captain Vesey left the vessel, bidding Archie a kind farewell,after dining with him at the Fountain, and roaming with him all over thecharming Botanical Gardens.
"I've an idea we'll meet again," he said as he bade him adieu. "If Godspares me, I'll be sure to visit Sydney in a year or two, and I hope tofind you doing well. You'll know if my little yacht, the _Barracouta_,comes in, and I know you'll come off and see me. I hope to find youwith as good a coat on your back as you have now."
Then the _Dugong_ sailed away again; but the time now seemed longer toArchie than ever, for in Captain Vesey he really had lost a goodfriend--a friend who was all the more valuable because he spoke theplain, unvarnished truth; and if in doing so one or two of the youngman's cherished idols were brought tumbling down to the ground, it wasall the better for the young man. It showed those idols had feet ofclay, else a little cold water thrown over them would hardly have hadsuch an effect. I am sorry to say, however, that no sooner had thecaptain left the ship, than Archie set about carefully collecting thepieces of those said idols and patching them up again.
"After all," he thought to himself, "this Captain Vesey, jolly fellow ashe is, never had to struggle with fortune as I shall do; and I don'tthink he has the same pluck in him that my father has, and that peoplesay I have. We'll see, anyhow. Other fellows have been fortunate in afew years, why shouldn't I? `In a few years?' Yes, these are the verywords Captain Vesey laughed at me for. `In a few years?' To be sure.And why not? What _is_ the good of a fortune to a fellow after he getsold, and all worn down with gout and rheumatism? `Cheer, boys, cheer;'I'm going in to win."
How slow the ship sailed now, apparently; and when it did blow itusually blew the wrong way, and she would have to stand off and on, orgo tack and half-tack against it, like a man with one long leg and oneshort. But she was becalmed more than once, and this did seem dreadful.It put Archie in mind of a man going to sleep in the middle of hiswork, which is not at all the correct thing to do.
Well, there is nothing like a sailing ship after all for teaching onethe virtue of patience; and at last Archie settled down to his sea life.He was becoming quite a sailor--as hard as the wheel-spokes, as brownas the binnacle. He was quite a favourite with the captain andofficers, and with all hands fore and aft. Indeed he was very often inthe forecastle or galley of an evening listening to the men's yarns orsongs, and sometimes singing a verse or two himself.
He was just beginning to think the _Dugong_ was Vanderdecken's ship, andthat she never would make port at all, when one day at dinner he noticedthat the captain was unusually cheerful.
"In four or five days more, please God," said he, "we'll be safe inSydney."
Archie almost wished he had not known this, for these four or five dayswere the longest of any he had yet passed. He had commenced to worshiphis patc
hed-up idols again, and felt happier now, and more full of hopeand certainty of fortune than he had done during the whole voyage.
Sometimes they sighted land. Once or twice birds flew on board--suchbright, pretty birds too they looked. And birds also went wheeling andwhirring about the ship--gulls, the like of which he had never seenbefore. They were more elegant in shape and purer in colour than ours,and their voices were clear and ringing.
Dick Whittington construed words out of the sound of the chiming