by G. A. Henty
CHAPTER X.
THE GLADE.
When the party assembled at breakfast the next morning, Mr. Atherton'sfirst question was:
"Is there such a thing as a boat or a good-sized canoe to be had, Mr.Mitford? If you had an elephant here I might manage, but as I supposeyou do not keep such an animal in your stud I own that I should greatlyprefer going by water to running the risk of breaking a horse's back andmy own neck. If such a thing cannot be obtained I will get you, if youwill, to let me have a native as guide, and I will walk, taking with mesome small stock of provisions. I can sleep at this hut of Langston's,for I say frankly that I should not care about doing the distance thereand back in one day."
"I have a boat," Mr. Mitford said smiling, "and you shall have a coupleof natives to paddle you up. I will give orders for them to be readydirectly after breakfast. You will scarcely be there as soon as we are,but you will be there long before we leave. Of course we shall spendsome time in going over the ground, and we shall take a boy with us witha luncheon basket, so you will find refreshment awaiting you when youget there."
"That will suit me admirably." Mr. Atherton said. "A boating excursionup an unknown river is just the thing I like--that is, when the boat isa reasonable size. I was once fool enough on the Amazon to allow myselfto be persuaded that a canoe at most two feet wide would carry me, andthe tortures I suffered during that expedition, wedged in the bottom ofthat canoe, and holding on to the sides, I shall never forget. Therascally Indians made matters worse by occasionally giving sly lurchesto the boat, and being within an ace of capsizing her. I had two days ofthat work before I got to a village where I could obtain a craft ofreasonable size, and I should think I must have lost two stone in weightduring the time. You think that that was rather an advantage I can see,Miss Mitford," he broke off, seeing a smile upon the girl's face. "Well,yes, I could spare that and more, but I should prefer that it wasabstracted by other means than that of agony of mind; besides, theseimprovements are not permanent."
After a hearty breakfast the party prepared for their start. Mrs.Mitford had already said that she should not accompany them, thedistance being longer than she cared to ride; and four horses weretherefore brought round. Mr. Atherton was first seen fairly on his wayin a good-sized boat, paddled by two powerful Maoris. Mr. Mitford, hisdaughters, and Wilfrid then mounted; the lad had already been asked ifhe was accustomed to riding.
"Not lately," he replied, "but I used to have a pony and rode a gooddeal when I was a small boy, and I daresay I can stick on."
Wilfrid was delighted with his ride through the forest. In his othertrips ashore their way had led through an open country with low scrubbush, and this was his first experience of a New Zealand forest. Fernswere growing everywhere. The tree-ferns, coated with scales, rose fromthirty to forty feet in the air. Hymenophylla and polypodia, inextraordinary variety, covered the trunks of the forest trees withluxuriant growth. Smaller ferns grew between the branches and twigs, anda thick growth of ferns of many species extended everywhere over theground.
The trees were for the most part pines of different varieties, butdiffering so widely in appearance from those Wilfrid had seen inEngland, that had not Mr. Mitford assured him that they were reallypines he would never have guessed they belonged to that family. Mr.Mitford gave him the native names of many of them. The totara matai wereamong the largest and most beautiful. The rimu was distinguished by itshanging leaves and branches, the tanekaha by its parsley-shaped leaves.Among them towered up the poplar-shaped rewarewa and the hinau, whosefruit Mr. Mitford said was the favourite food of the parrots.
Among the great forest trees were several belonging to the families ofthe myrtles and laurels, especially the rata, whose trunk often measuredforty feet in circumference, and on whose crown were branches of scarletblossoms. But it was to the ferns, the orchids, and the innumerablecreepers, which covered the ground with a natural netting, coiled roundevery stem, and entwined themselves among the topmost branches, that theforest owed its peculiar features. Outside the narrow cleared trackalong which they were riding it would have been impossible for a man tomake his way unless with the assistance of knife and hatchet, especiallyas some of the climbers were completely covered with thorns.
And yet, although so very beautiful, the appearance of the forest wassombre and melancholy. A great proportion of the plants of New Zealandbear no flowers, and except high up among some of the tree-tops no gayblossoms or colour of any kind meet the eye to relieve the monotony ofthe verdure. A deep silence reigned. Wilfrid did not see a butterflyduring his ride, or hear the song or even the chirp of a single bird. Itwas a wilderness of tangled green, unrelieved by life or colour. Mr.Mitford could give him the names of only a few of the principal trees;and seeing the infinite variety of the foliage around him, Wilfrid nolonger wondered Mr. Atherton should have made so long a journey in orderto study the botany of the island, which is unique, for although many ofthe trees and shrubs can be found elsewhere, great numbers are entirelypeculiar to the island.
"Are there any snakes?" Wilfrid asked.
"No; you can wander about without fear. There is only one poisonouscreature in New Zealand, and that is found north of the port ofTauranga, forty or fifty miles from here. They say it exists only thereand round Potaki, near Cook's Strait. It is a small black spider, with ared stripe on its back. The natives all say that its bite is poisonous.It will not, they say, cause death to a healthy person, though it willmake him very ill; but there are instances of sickly persons beingkilled by it. Anyhow, the natives dread it very much. However, as thebeast is confined to two small localities, you need not trouble aboutit. The thorns are the only enemies you have to dread as you make yourway through the forest."
"That is a comfort, anyhow," Wilfrid said; "it would be a great nuisanceto have to be always on the watch against snakes."
The road they were traversing had been cleared of trees from onesettler's holding to another, and they stopped for a few minutes atthree or four of the farmhouses. Some of these showed signs of comfortand prosperity, while one or two were mere log cabins.
"I suppose the people here have lately arrived?" Wilfrid remarked asthey rode by one of these without stopping.
"They have been here upwards of two years," Mr. Mitford replied; "butthe place is not likely to improve were they to be here another ten.They are a thriftless lazy lot, content to raise just sufficient fortheir actual wants and to pay for whisky. These are the sort of peoplewho bring discredit on the colony by writing home declaring that thereis no getting on here, and that a settler's life is worse than a dog's.
"People who come out with an idea that a colony is an easy place to geta living in are completely mistaken. For a man to succeed he must workharder and live harder here than he would do at home. He is up with thesun, and works until it is too dark to work longer. If he employs men hemust himself set an example to them. Men will work here for a master whoworks himself, but one who thinks that he has only to pay his hands andcan spend his time in riding about the country making visits, or insitting quietly by his fire, will find that his hands will soon be aslazy as he is himself. Then the living here is rougher than it is athome for one in the same condition of life. The fare is necessarilymonotonous. In hot weather meat will not keep more than a day or two,and a settler cannot afford to kill a sheep every day; therefore he hasto depend either upon bacon or tinned meat, and I can tell you that acontinuance of such fare palls upon the appetite, and one's meals ceaseto be a pleasure. But the curse of the country, as of all our colonies,is whisky. I do think the monotony of the food has something to do withit, and that if men could but get greater variety in their fare theywould not have the same craving for drink. It is the ruin of thousands.A young fellow who lands here and determines to work hard and to abstainfrom liquors--I do not mean totally abstain, though if he has anyinclination at all towards drink the only safety is total abstinence--issure to get on and make his way, while the man who gives way to drink isequally certain
to remain at the bottom of the tree. Now we are justpassing the boundary of the holding you have come to see. You see thatpiece of bark slashed off the trunk of that tree? That is what we call ablaze, and marks the line of the boundary."
After riding a few minutes further the trees opened, and they foundthemselves in a glade sloping down to the river. A few acres of land hadbeen ploughed up and put under cultivation. Close by stood the hut, andbeyond a grassy sward, broken by a few large trees, stretched down tothe river.
"That's the place," Mr. Mitford said, "and a very pretty one it is. Pooryoung Langston chose his farm specially for that bit of scenery."
"It is pretty," Wilfrid agreed; "I am sure my father and mother will bedelighted with it. As you said, it is just like a piece of park land athome."
The hut was strongly built of logs. It was about thirty feet long bytwenty wide, and was divided into two rooms; the one furnished as akitchen and living-room, the other opening from it as a bed-room.
"There is not much furniture in it," Mr. Mitford said; "but what thereis is strong and serviceable, and is a good deal better than thegenerality of things you will find in a new settler's hut. He wasgetting the things in gradually as he could afford them, so as to haveit really comfortably furnished by the time she came out to join him. Ofcourse the place will not be large enough for your party, but you caneasily add to it; and at any rate it is vastly better coming to a shantylike this than arriving upon virgin ground and having everything to do."
"I think it is capital," Wilfrid said.
"Now we will take a ride over the ground, and I will show you what thatis like. Of course it will give you more trouble clearing away theforest than it would do if you settled upon land without trees upon it.But forest land is generally the best when it is cleared; and I thinkthat to people like your father and mother land like this is muchpreferable, as in making the clearings, clumps and belts of trees can beleft, giving a home-like appearance to the place. Of course upon bareland you can plant trees, but it is a long time before these grow to asufficient size to give a character to a homestead. Besides, as I toldyou, there are already several other natural clearings upon the ground,enough to afford grass for quite as many animals as you will probablystart with."
After an hour's ride over the holding and the lands adjoining it, whichMr. Mitford advised should be also taken up, they returned to the hut. Ashout greeted them as they arrived, and they saw Mr. Atherton walking upfrom the river towards the hut.
"A charming site for a mansion," he said as they rode up. "Mr. Mitford,I think I shall make you a bid for this on my own account, and so cutout my young friend Wilfrid."
"I am afraid you are too late," Mr. Mitford laughed. "I have alreadyagreed to give him the option of it, keeping it open until we canreceive a reply from his father."
"I call that too bad," Mr. Atherton grumbled. "However, I suppose I mustmove on farther. But really this seems a charming place, and I am sureMrs. Renshaw will be delighted with it. Why, there must be thirty acresof natural clearing here?"
"About that," Mr. Mitford replied; "and there are two or three otherpatches which amount to about as much more. The other hundred and fortyare bush and forest. The next lot has also some patches of open land, sothat altogether out of the four hundred acres there must be about ahundred clear of bush."
"And how about the next lot, Mr. Mitford?"
"I fancy that there is about the same proportion of open land. I haveonly once been up the river higher than this, but if I remember rightthere is a sort of low bluff rising forty or fifty feet above the riverwhich would form a capital site for a hut."
"I will set about the work of exploration this afternoon," Mr. Athertonsaid, "and if the next lot is anything like this I shall be very wellcontented to settle down upon it for a bit. I have always had a fancyfor a sort of Robinson Crusoe life, and I think I can get it here,tempered by the change of an occasional visit to our friends when I gettired of my own company."
The men had by this time brought up the basket of provisions, and thetwo girls were spreading a cloth on the grass in the shade of a tree ata short distance from the hut, for all agreed that they would rathertake their lunch there than in the abode so lately tenanted by youngLangston. After the meal was over the party mounted their horses androde back. One of the natives who had come up from the boat remainedwith Mr. Atherton, the others started back in the boat, as Mr. Athertondeclared himself to be perfectly capable of making the journey on footwhen he had finished his explorations. He returned two days later, andsaid he was quite satisfied with the proposed site for his hut and withthe ground and forest.
"I regard myself as only a temporary inhabitant," he said, "and shall bewell content if, when I am ready for another move, I can get as much forthe ground as I gave for it. In that way I shall have lived rent freeand shall have had my enjoyment for nothing, and, I have no doubt, apleasant time to look back upon."
"Do you never mean to settle down, Mr. Atherton?" Mrs. Mitford asked.
WILFRID AND THE GRIMSTONES FIND IT HARD WORK
_Page 197_]
"In the dim future I may do so," he replied. "I have been wandering eversince I left college, some fifteen years ago. I return to Londonperiodically, spend a few weeks and occasionally a few months there,enjoy the comforts of good living and club-life for a bit; then thewandering fit seizes me and I am off again. Nature altogether made amistake in my case. I ought to have been a thin wiry sort of man, and inthat case I have no doubt I should have distinguished myself as anAfrican explorer or something of that sort. Unfortunately she placed myrestless spirit in an almost immovable frame of flesh, and theconsequence is the circle of my wandering is to a certain extentlimited."
"You make yourself out to be much stouter than you are, Mr. Atherton. Ofcourse you are stout, but not altogether out of proportion to yourheight and width of shoulders. I think you put it on a good deal as anexcuse for laziness."
Mr. Atherton laughed. "Perhaps you are right, Mrs. Mitford, though myweight is really a great drawback to my carrying out my views in regardto travel. You see, I am practically debarred from travelling incountries where the only means of locomotion is riding on horses. Icould not find animals in any foreign country that would carry me forany distances. I might in England, I grant, find a weight-carrying cobcapable of conveying twenty stone along a good road, but I might searchall Asia in vain for such a horse, while as for Africa, it would take adozen natives to carry me in a hammock. No, I suppose I shall go onwandering pretty nearly to the end of the chapter, and shall then settledown in quiet lodgings somewhere in the region of Pall Mall."
Upon the day after his return from the inspection of the farm Wilfridwrote home to his father describing the location, and saying that hethought it was the very thing to suit them. It would be a fortnightbefore an answer could be received, and during that time he set to workat Mr. Mitford's place to acquire as much knowledge as possible of themethods of farming in the colony. The answer arrived in due course, andwith it came the two Grimstones. Wilfrid had suggested in his letterthat if his father decided to take the farm the two men should be sentup at once to assist in adding to the hut and in preparing for theircoming, and that they should follow a fortnight later. Mrs. Mitford alsowrote, offering them a warm invitation to stay for a time with her untiltheir own place should be ready for their occupation.
Mr. Mitford had an inventory of the furniture of the hut, and this wasalso sent, in order that such further furniture as was needed might bepurchased at Wellington. As soon as the letter was received, inclosing,as it did, a cheque for a hundred pounds, Wilfrid went over with the twoGrimstones and took possession. Mr. Mitford, who was the magistrate andland commissioner for the district, drew up the papers of applicationfor the plot of two hundred acres adjoining the farm, and sent it toWellington for Mr. Renshaw's signature, and said that in the meantimeWilfrid could consider the land as belonging to them, as it would betheirs as soon as the necessary formalities were completed and the mon
eypaid.
When Wilfrid started, two natives, whom Mr. Mitford had hired for him,accompanied him, and he also lent him the services of one of his ownmen, who was a handy carpenter. The Grimstones were delighted with thesite of their new home.
"Why, it is like a bit of England, Master Wilfrid! That might very wellbe the Thames there, and this some gentleman's place near Reading; onlythe trees are different. When we get up a nice house here, with a gardenround it, it will be like home again."
During the voyage the Renshaws had amused themselves by drawing a planof their proposed house, and although this had to be somewhat modifiedby the existence of the hut, Wilfrid determined to adhere to it as muchas possible. The present kitchen should be the kitchen of the new house,and the room leading from it should be allotted to the Grimstones.Adjoining the kitchen he marked out the plan of the house. It was toconsist of a sitting-room twenty feet square; beyond this was Mr. andMrs. Renshaw's bed-room; while behind it were two rooms, each ten feetsquare, for himself and Marion. The roof was to project four feet infront of the sitting-room, so as to form a verandah there.
A boat-load of supplies was sent up from Mr. Mitford's stores. Theseconsisted of flour, sugar, tea, molasses, and bacon, together with halfa sheep. It was arranged that while the building was going on Wilfridand the two Grimstones should occupy the bed-room, and that the nativesshould sleep in the kitchen. The Grimstones had brought with them thebedding and blankets with which they had provided themselves on boardship, while Wilfrid took possession of the bed formerly occupied by theyoung settler. Mr. Mitford himself came over next morning and gavegeneral instructions as to the best way of setting about the building ofthe house. He had already advised that it should be of the class knownas log-huts.
"They are much cooler," he said, "in the heat of summer than frame-huts,and have the advantage that in the very improbable event of troubleswith the natives they are much more defensible. If you like, afterwards,you can easily face them outside and in with match-board and make themas snug as you like; but, to begin with, I should certainly say buildwith logs. My boy will tell you which trees you had better cut down forthe work. It will take you a week to fell, lop, and roughly square them,and this day week I will send over a team of bullocks with a native todrag them up to the spot."
The work was begun at once. Half a dozen axes, some adzes, and othertools had been brought up with the supplies from the stores, and thework of felling commenced.
Wilfrid would not have any trees touched near the hut.
"There are just enough trees about here," he said, "and it would be anawful pity to cut them down merely to save a little labour in hauling.It will not make any great difference whether we have the team for aweek or a fortnight."
Wilfrid and the two young Englishmen found chopping very hard work atfirst, and were perfectly astounded at the rapidity with which theMaoris brought the trees down, each of them felling some eight or tenbefore the new hands had managed to bring one to the ground.
"I would not have believed it if I had not seen it," Bob, the elder ofthe two brothers, exclaimed as he stood breathless with the perspirationstreaming from his forehead, "that these black chaps could have beatenEnglishmen like that! Half a dozen strokes and down topples the tree,while I goes chop, chop, chop, and don't seem to get any nearer to it."
"It will come in time," Wilfrid said. "I suppose there is a knack in it,like everything else. It looks easy enough, but it is not easy if youdon't know how to do it. It is like rowing; it looks the easiest thingin the world until you try, and then you find that it is not easy atall."
When work was done for the day Wilfrid and the Grimstones could scarcelywalk back to the hut. Their backs felt as if they were broken, theirarms and shoulders ached intolerably, their hands smarted as if on fire;while the Maoris, who had each achieved ten times the result, were asbrisk and fresh as they were at starting. One of them had left work anhour before the others, and by the time they reached the hut the flatcakes of flour and water known as dampers had been cooked, and a largepiece of mutton was frizzling over the fire. Wilfrid and his companionswere almost too tired to eat, but they enjoyed the tea, although theymissed the milk to which they were accustomed. They were astonished atthe Maoris' appetite, the three natives devouring an amount of meatwhich would have lasted the others for a week.
"No wonder they work well when they can put away such a lot of food asthat," Bob Grimstone said, after watching them for some time in silentastonishment. "Bill and me was always considered as being pretty goodfeeders, but one of these chaps would eat twice as much as the two ofus. I should say, Mr. Wilfrid, that in future your best plan will be tolet these chaps board themselves. Why, it would be dear to have themwithout pay if you had to feed them!"
"Mutton is cheap out here," Wilfrid said. "You can get five or sixpounds for the price which one would cost you at home; but still, I donot suppose they give them as much meat as they can eat every day. Imust ask Mr. Mitford about it."
He afterwards learned that the natives received rations of flour andmolasses and tobacco, and that only occasionally salt pork or fresh meatwere issued to them. But Mr. Mitford advised that Wilfrid should, aslong as they were at this work, let them feed with the men.
"You will get a good deal more out of them if they are well fed and ingood humour. When your people arrive the natives will of course have ashanty of their own at some distance from your house, and then you willput things on regular footing and serve out their rations to themweekly. I will give you the scale usually adopted in the colony."
The second day Wilfrid and the Grimstones were so stiff that they couldat first scarcely raise their axes. This gradually wore off, and at theend of three or four days they found that they could get through a fargreater amount than at first with much less fatigue to themselves; buteven on the last day of the week they could do little more than a thirdof the amount performed by the natives. By this time an ample supply oftrees had been felled. The trunks had been cut into suitable lengths androughly squared. The bullocks arrived from Mr. Mitford's, and as soon asthe first logs were brought up to the house the work of building wascommenced. The Maori carpenter now took the lead, and under hisinstructions the walls of the house rose rapidly. The logs were mortisedinto each other at the corners; openings were left for the doors andwindows. These were obtained from Mr. Mitford's store, as they wereconstantly required by settlers.
At a distance of four feet in front of the house holes were dug andpoles erected, and to these the framework of the roof was extended. Thispoint was reached ten days after the commencement of the building, andthe same evening a native arrived from Mr. Mitford's with a message thatthe party from Wellington had arrived there and would come over the nextday. He also brought a letter to Wilfrid from the Allens, in answer toone he had written them soon after his arrival, saying that they were sopleased with his description of the district they should come down atonce, and, if it turned out as he described it, take up a tract of landin his neighbourhood.
While Wilfrid had been at work he had seen Mr. Atherton several times,as that gentleman had, upon the very day after his first trip up theriver, filled up the necessary papers, hired half a dozen natives, andstarted up the river in a boat freighted with stores to his newlocation. Wilfrid had not had time to go over to see him there, but hehad several times sauntered over from his place, which was half a miledistant, after the day's work was over. He had got up his hut beforeWilfrid fairly got to work.
It was, he said, a very modest shanty with but one room, which wouldserve for all purposes; his cooking being done by a native, for whom hehad erected a small shelter twenty yards away from his own.
"I have not quite shaken down yet," he said, "and do not press you tocome over to see me until I have got everything into order. I am sureyou feel thankful to me that I do not expect you to be tramping over tosee me after your long day's work here. By the time your people arrive Ishall have everything in order. I am expecting the things I have writtenfor
and my own heavy baggage in a few days from Wellington."
Glad as he was to hear that his father and mother had arrived, Wilfridwould have preferred that their coming should have been delayed untilthe house was finished and ready for them, and after his first greetingat the water side he said: "You must not be disappointed, mother, atwhat you will see. Now everything is in confusion, and the ground iscovered with logs and chips. It looked much prettier, I can assure you,when I first saw it, and it will do so again when we have finished andcleared up."
"We will make all allowances, Wilfrid," his mother replied as he helpedher from the boat; "but I do not see that any allowance is necessary.This is indeed a sweetly pretty spot, and looks as you said like a parkat home. If the trees had been planted with a special view to effectthey could not have been better placed."
"You have done excellently, Wilfrid," his father said, putting his handon his shoulder. "Mr. Mitford here has been telling me how energeticallyyou have been working, and I see that the house has made wonderfulprogress."
Marion had, after the first greeting, leapt lightly from the boat andrun up to the house, towards which the others proceeded at a moreleisurely pace, stopping often and looking round at the pleasantprospect. Marion was full of questions to Wilfrid when they arrived. Whywere the walls made so thick? How were they going to stop up thecrevices between the logs? Where were the windows and doors coming from?What was the roof going to be made of? Was there going to be a floor, orwas the ground inside going to be raised to the level of the door-sill?When did he expect to get it finished, and when would they be ready tocome in? Couldn't they get some creepers to run up and hide these uglylogs? Was it to be painted or to remain as it was?
Wilfrid answered all these questions as well as he was able. There wasto be a floor over all the new portion of the building; Mr. Mitford wasgetting up the requisite number of planks from a saw-mill at the nextsettlement. The crevices were to be stopped with moss. It would be fortheir father to decide whether the logs should be covered withmatch-boarding inside or out, or whether they should be left as theywere for the present. It would probably take another fortnight to finishthe roof, and at least a week beyond that before the place would be fitfor them to move in.
"You see, Marion, I have built it very much on the plan we decided uponon board the ship, only I was obliged to make a change in the positionof the kitchen and men's room. The two Grimstones are going to set towork to-morrow to dig up a portion of the ploughed land behind the houseand sow vegetable seeds. Things grow very fast here, and we shall soonget a kitchen-garden. As to flowers, we shall leave that to be decidedwhen you come here."
"I wish I could come over and live here at once and help," Marion said.
"There is nothing you can help in at present, Marion, and it will bemuch more useful for you to spend a month in learning things at Mr.Mitford's. You undertook to do the cooking; and I am sure that will bequite necessary, for father and mother could never eat the food ourMaori cook turns out. And then you have got to learn to make butter andcheese and to cure bacon. That is a most important point, for we mustcertainly keep pigs and cure our own as Mr. Mitford does, for the stuffthey have got at most of the places we touched at was almost uneatable.So, you see, there is plenty to occupy your time until you move in here,and our comfort will depend a vast deal upon the pains you take to learnto do things properly."
"What are you going to roof it with, Wilfrid?" Mr. Renshaw asked.
"We are going to use these poles, father. They will be split in two andnailed with the flat side down on the rafters, and the shingles aregoing to be nailed on them. That will give a good solid roof that willkeep out a good deal of heat. Afterwards if we like we can put beamsacross the room from wall to wall and plank them, and turn the spaceabove into a storeroom. Of course that will make the house cooler andthe rooms more comfortable, but as it was not absolutely necessary Ithought it might be left for a while."
"I think, Wilfrid, I should like to have the rooms done with boardsinside at once. The outside and the ceiling you speak of can very wellwait, but it will be impossible to get the rooms to look at all neat andtidy with these rough logs for walls."
"It certainly will be more comfortable," Wilfrid agreed. "Mr. Mitfordwill get the match-boards for you. I will measure up the walls thisevening and let you know how much will be required. And now shall wetake a walk round the place?" The whole party spent a couple of hours ingoing over the property, with which Mr. and Mrs. Renshaw were greatlypleased. Luncheon had been brought up in the boat, and by the time theyreturned from their walk Mrs. Mitford and her daughters, who had notaccompanied them, had lunch ready and spread out on the grass. The mealwas a merry one. Mr. Renshaw was in high spirits at finding things somuch more home-like and comfortable than he had expected. His wife wasnot only pleased for herself, but still more so at seeing that herhusband evinced a willingness to look at matters in the best light, andto enter upon the life before him without regret over the past.
"What are you going to call the place, Mr. Renshaw?" Mrs. Mitford asked."That is always an important point."
"I have not thought about it," Mr. Renshaw replied. "What do you think?"
"Oh, there are lots of suitable names," she replied, looking round. "Wemight call it Riverside or The Park or The Glade."
"I think The Glade would be very pretty," Marion said; "Riverside wouldsuit so many places."
"I like The Glade too," Mrs. Renshaw said. "Have you thought ofanything, Wilfrid?"
"No, mother, I have never given it a thought. I think The Glade will donicely." And so it was settled, and success to The Glade was thereuponformally drunk in cups of tea.
A month later the Renshaws took possession of their new abode. It lookedvery neat with its verandah in front of the central portion, and thecreepers which Wilfrid had planted against the walls on the day aftertheir visit, promised speedily to cover the logs of which the house wasbuilt. Inside the flooring had been planed, stained a deep brown andvarnished, while the match-boarding which covered the walls was staineda light colour and also varnished. The furniture, which had arrived theday before from Hawke's Bay was somewhat scanty, but Wilfrid and Marion,who had come over for the purpose, had made the most of it. A square ofcarpet and some rugs gave a cosy appearance to the floor, white curtainshung before the windows and a few favourite pictures and engravings,which they had brought with them from home, broke the bareness of thewalls. Altogether it was a very pretty and snug little abode of whichMr. and Mrs. Renshaw took possession.