CHAPTER FOUR.
PREPARATIONS.
It was like a new beginning of life to Nic Braydon, and he lived for thenext three weeks in a round of excitement. The principal way in whichhe spent his time was shopping with Lady O'Hara, who saw that he had aregular outfit of suitable articles of clothing, all of the most durableand useful make.
"You're not going to a land of filled shirts and dancing pumps,Dominic," said the lady; "you're going out to work as your father hasdone, and is doing now."
"I shall not mind work," said Nic sturdily.
"I know that, boy. But business. Now I think I've got through all theclothing--Sir John's, yours, and some that the doctor asked me to order.Now, what next?" she continued, turning to her tablets. "Oh, I see: alight gun that will carry shot or ball, a rifle for your father, andanother for my husband. Then there are knives, axes, and fishingtackle. Really any one would think I was a man to execute suchcommissions. But I'm an old traveller, Nic, and have helped my husbandover his wants for many, many years."
So that day was devoted to selecting guns, Lady O'Hara handling andtesting the various pieces in a way that made the gunmaker open his eyesand Nic stare.
"You have a gallery, I suppose, where I can try any piece I select?"
"Oh! yes, ma'am--I beg pardon--my lady," said the gunmaker.
"Then I'll try those two rifles, and those three shot guns--no, thosetwo. That other is only just long enough in the stock for me. It wouldnot suit a man. Stop; you shall try it, Dominic. Well," she continued,smiling; "so you think it very unladylike for a woman to handle a gun,eh?"
"I--I did think something of the sort," said Nic hesitatingly.
"Of course you would; but I have often had to handle a gun, Dominic. Awoman who goes out with her husband into all kinds of savage placesneeds to be able to use a piece."
"Then you have been in savage places?" said Nic.
"Often, my boy; and it is a dangerous place we are in now. And you'dlike to ask whether I ever shot any one, eh?" she said, smiling. "No, Inever did, and I hope I never shall. It was the power of being able touse a piece that has saved me from having to use it, Dominic. Wildpeople and ruffians don't care about attacking people who can defendthemselves."
The gunmaker was ready with the charged guns, and he had led them into along gallery with targets, where the lady astounded the man by herability and knowledge of what a gun ought to be.
Then Nic had his first trials, and made so poor a business of it thatLady O'Hara said to him laughingly:
"Sure it must be a bad gun, with a crooked barrel. Let me try."
The reloaded gun was handed to her, and she raised it, lowered it, andraised it again and again to try the balance and weight.
"It comes up very nicely," she said, balancing it in her hands.
"It is really one of our best make, my lady," said the gunmaker.
"But my young friend does not seem to find that it shoots straight. Nowthen."
She raised it quickly to her shoulder, glanced for a brief instant alongthe barrel, and the white mark at the end of the gallery was speckledlike a currant dumpling, while the gunmaker smiled with satisfaction.
"It was my fault," said Nic dolefully. "I suppose I can't seestraight."
"Perhaps not," said Lady O'Hara drily. "How many times have you firedbefore?"
"Never till to-day, only little brass cannons," said Nic.
"And they're poor things for educating the hand and eye," said the lady."Shooting looks easy, Dominic. You think you have only to pull thetrigger; but it's like other things, my boy, it wants learning."
They walked back into the shop, where the guns and rifles selected wereordered to be packed with an ample supply of the best flints andammunition in proper cases for the journey; and the gunmaker smiled histhanks, and wished for more masculine lady customers.
There were more peaceful purchases to be made, though. Cases of seedswere ordered, and the seedsman undertook to pack and send in the autumna couple of bundles of fruit trees for experimental purposes.
"For I want your father to try and make a good English garden out there,Dominic," said Lady O'Hara enthusiastically. "Australia must become thehome of many of our people; and though it is right on the other side ofthe world, we don't want it to remain foreign, but English."
Those four weeks went like magic, and when only two days remained thelist of purchases was pretty well complete, and included horses, cows,and sheep of select kinds, and a couple of retrievers, setters, andScotch collie dogs.
They had been twice to the East India Docks, from which the ship was tosail, and now another visit was to be paid to make sure that the variouspackages had been delivered on board, to see to the live stock, and tohave another look at the cabin.
"There, Dominic," said her ladyship at last, "I think I may say that Ihave--that we have--done all our work. Now two days to pay a fewvisits, and then we go on board for our long, long journey. How do youfeel--ready for the start?"
"Quite," said Dominic eagerly.
"That's right. We start with the knowledge that our home is ready madeout yonder. What must it have been for the brave folk who acted aspioneers, not knowing what they were going to find?"
That was mental food for the night; but Nic's busy days precluded hisbeing troubled with sleeplessness, and he lay down to dream of thefar-off home, and woke to say, in his intense eagerness:
"Only one more day, and then--off!"
First in the Field: A Story of New South Wales Page 4