 When Philip returned from his excursion down the Gully, he gave me a detailed report of the results, and said, Gold mining is remarkable for two things, one certain, the other uncertain. The certain thing is labour, the uncertain thing is gold. This information staggered me, so I replied, Those two things will have to wait till morning. Let us boil the billy. Our spirits were not very high when we began work next day. We slept under our small calico tent, and our cooking had to be done outside. Sometimes it rained, and then we had to kindle a fire with stringy bark under an umbrella. The umbrella was mine, the only one I ever saw on the diggings. Some men who thought they were witty made observations about it, but I stuck to it all the same. No man could ever laugh me out of a valuable property. We lived principally on beef steak, tea and damper. Philip cut his bread and beef with his bowie knife as long as it lasted. Every man passing by could see that we were formidable, and ready to defend our gold to the death, when we got it. But the bowie was soon useless, it got a kink in the middle and a curl at the point, and had no edge anywhere. It was good for nothing but trade. A number of our shipmates had put up tents in the neighbourhood, and at night we all gathered round the campfire to talk and smoke away our misery. One whose name I forget was a journalist, correspondent for the non-conformist. Scott was an artist, Harrison a mechanical engineer, Doreen a commercial traveller, Moran an ex-policeman, Beswick a tailor, Bernie a clogger. The first lucky digger we saw after picking any jack came among us one dark night. He came suddenly, head foremost, into our fire, and plunged his hands into the embers. We pulled him out and then two other men came up. They apologised for the abrupt entry of their mate. They said he was a lucky digger, and they were his friends and fellow countrymen. A lucky digger could find friends anywhere from any country without looking for them. Especially if he was drunk, as was his stranger. They said he had travelled from Melbourne with a pack horse, and near Mount Alexander he saw a woman picking up something or other on the side of a hill. She might be gathering flowers, but he could not see any. He stopped and watched her for a while and then went nearer. She did not take any notice of him, so he thought the poor thing had been lost in the bush, and had gone cranky. He pitted her and said, My good woman, have you lost anything? Could I help you look for it? I am not your good woman, and I have not lost anything, so I don't want anybody to help me look for it. He was now quite sure she was cranky. She stooped and picked up something, but he could not see what it was. He began to look on the ground, and presently he found a bright little nugget of gold. Then he knew what kind of flowers the woman was gathering. By the word he took his horse to the foot of the hill, hobbled it, and took off his swag. He went up the hill again, filled his pan with earth, and washed it off at the nearest water-hole. He had struck it rich. The hillside was sprinkled with gold, either on the surface or just below it. For two weeks there were only two parties at work on that hill, parties of one, but they did not form a partnership. The woman came every day, picking and scratching like an old hen, and went away at sundown. When the man went away he took with him more than a hundred weight of gold. He was worth looking at, so he put more wood on the fire, and made a good blaze. Yes, he was a lucky digger, and he was enjoying his luck. He was blazing drunk, was in the evening dress, or a black belt-topper, and killed gloves. The gloves had saved his hands from being burnt when he had thrust them into the fire. There could be no doubt that he was enjoying himself. He came suddenly out of the black night, and staggered away into it again with his two friends. One forenoon about ten o'clock while we were busy peacefully digging and puddling, we heard a sound like the rumbling of distant thunder from the direction of Bendigo Flat. The thunder grew louder till it became like the bellowing of ten thousand bulls. It was the welcome accorded by the diggers to our trusty and well-beloved government when it came forth on a digger hunt. It was swelled by the roars and cooies and curses of every man above ground and below, in the shafts and drives on the flats, and in the tunnels of the White Hills from Golden Gully and Sheep's Head to Jobs Gully and Eagle Hawk, till the warning that Joey's out had reached to the utmost bounds of the Goldfield. It was a strong feeling among the diggers that the license fee of thirty shillings a month was excessive, and this feeling was intensified by the report that it was the intention of the government to double the amount. As a matter of fact, by far the larger number of claims yielded no gold at all, or not enough to pay the fee. The hatred of the hunted diggers made it quite unsafe to send out a small number of police and soldiers, so they came forth at irregular intervals, a formidable body of horse and foot, armed with carbines, swords and pistols. This morning they marched rapidly along the track toward the White Hills, but well into the left up the bluff they suddenly appeared at the head of Pick and Innie Gully. Mountain men rode down each side of the Gully as fast as the nature of the ground would permit, but was then honeycombed with holes and encumbered with the trunks and stumps of trees, especially on the eastern side. They thus managed to hem us in like prisoners of war, and they also overtook some stragglers hurrying away to right and left. Some of these had licenses in their pockets and refused to stop or show them till they were actually arrested. It was a roost of war. They ran away as far as possible among the holes and logs, in order to draw off the cavalry, make them break their ranks, and thus to give a chance to the unlicensed to escape or hide themselves. The police on foot, armed with carbines and accompanied by officers, next came down the centre of the Gully, and every digger was asked to show his license. I showed that of William Matthews. It was not that the policy of William Patterson was tried and found wanting. He was at work on his claim a little below mine, and knowing he had no license I looked at him to see how he would behave in the face of the enemy. He had stopped working and was walking in the direction of his tent with head bowed down as if in search of something he had lost. He disappeared in his tent, which was a large one, and had near the opening a chimney built up with ironstone boulders and clay. But the police had seen him. He was followed, found hiding in the corner of his chimney, arrested, and placed among the prisoners who were then halted near my tongue. Immediately behind Patterson and carrying a carbine on his shoulder stood a well-known shipmate named Joint, whom poverty had compelled to join the enemy. He would willingly have allowed his friend and prisoner to escape, but no chance of doing so occurred. And long after dark Patterson approached our campfire, a free man, but hungry, tired, and full of bitterness. He had been forced to march along the whole day like a convicted felon, with an ever-increasing crowd of prisoners, had been taken to the camp at nightfall and made to pay six-pound-ten shillings. That is a fine of five pounds and one-pound-ten shillings for a licence. The feelings of William Patterson and of thousands of other diggers were outraged, and they burned for revenge. A roll-up was called, and three public meetings were held on three successive Saturday afternoons, on a slight eminence near the government camp. The speakers addressed the diggers from a wagon. Some advocated armed resistance. It was well known that many men, French, German, and even English, were on the diggings who had taken part in the revolutionary outbreak of 1948, and they were eager to have recourse to arms once more in the cause of liberty. But the majority advocated the trial of a policy of peace, at least to begin with. A final resolution was passed by acclamation that a fee of ten shillings a month should be offered, and if not accepted, no fee whatever was to be paid. It was argued that if the digger stood firm, it would be impossible for the few hundreds of soldiers and police to arrest and keep in custody nearly 20,000 men. If an attempt was made to take us all to jail, digger hunting would have to be suspended. The revenue would dwindle to nothing, and government would be starved out. It was in fact no government at all. It was a mere assemblage of armed men sent to robbers, not to protect us. Each digger had to do that for himself. Next day, Sunday, I walked through the diggings and observed the words, no license here, printed or pasted outside every tent. And during the next month only about 300 licenses were taken out, instead of the 14 or 15,000 previously issued. The digger hunting was stopped, and a license fee of 40 shillings for three months was substituted for that of 30 shillings per month. As no man who had a good claim would be willing to run the risk of losing it, the number of licenses taken out after the last meeting would probably represent the number of really lucky diggers then it worked on Bendigo, that is, 300 more or less. And of that 300, I don't think our gully could boast of one. All were finding a little gold, but even the most fortunate were not making more than tucker. By puddling eight tubs of washed dirt, I found that we could obtain about one pound's worth of gold each per day. But this was hardly enough to keep hope alive. The golden hours flew over us, but they did not send down any golden showers. I put the little that fell to my share into a wooden matchbox which I carried in my pocket. I knew it would hold 12 ounces, if I could get so much, and looked into it daily and shook the gold about to see if I were growing rich. It was impossible to feel jolly, and I could see that Philip was discontented. He had never been accustomed to manual labour. He did not like being exposed to the cold winds, to the frost or rain, with no shelter except that afforded by a small tent. While at work we were always dirty and often wet. And after we had passed a miserable night, daylight found us shivering till warmth came with hard work. One morning Philip lost his temper, his only hat was soaked with rain, and his trousers, shirt and boots were stiff with clay. He put a woolen comforter on his head in lieu of a hat. The comforter was of gaudy colours and soon attracted public attention. A man down the gully said, I observed yesterday we had young Arlen puddling up here, and I perceived this morning we have an Italian bandit or a sally roe over at work amongst us. Every digger looked at Philip, and he fell into a sudden fury. You might have heard him at the first white hill. Yesterday I heard a donkey braying down the gully, and this morning he was braying again. Oh, I see you, replied the donkey, we are in a bad temper this morning. Father Bacchus was often seen walking with long strides among the holes and hillocks on Bendigo flat, or up and down the gullies on a visit to some dying digger, for death would not wait till he had all made out pale. His messengers were going around all the time, decently, scurvy or fever, and the priests hurried after them. Sometimes he was too late. Death had entered the tent before him. He celebrated Mass every Sunday in a tent made of drug it and covered with a calico fly. His presbytery, sacristry, confessional and school were all of similar materials and of small dimensions. There was not room in the church for more than 30 or 40 persons. There were no pews, benches or chairs. Part of the congregation consisted of soldiers from the camp who had come up from Melbourne to shoot us if the occasion required. Six days as a week we hated them and called Joey after them. But on the seventh day we merely glared at them and let them pass in silence. They were sleek and lean, and we were gaunt as wolves with scarcely a clean shirt amongst us. The people in and around the church were not all Catholics. I saw a man nearly near me reading the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England. There was also a strict Presbyterian to whom I spoke after math. He said the priests did not preach with as much energy as the ministers in Scotland. And yet I thought that the priests were not all Catholics. They were not all Catholics. They were not all Catholics. They were not all Catholics. And yet I thought Father Bakus Sermon had that day been powerful as the Yankees would say. He preached from the top of a packing case in front of the tent. The audience was very numerous, standing in close order to the distance of twenty-five or thirty yards under a large country. The preacher spoke with a German accent, but his meaning was plain. He said, My dear brethren, Be at a stiller, keep past door and non are be it. Blessed is the man who has not gone after gold, or put his trust in many or treasures. You will never earn that blessing, my dear brethren. Why are you here? You have come from every corner of the world to look for gold. You think it is a blessing, but when you get it, it is often a curse. For what you call on the spree? You find a sly grog, you get drunk and are robbed of your gold. Sometimes you are murdered or you fall into a hole and are killed, and you go to hell dead drunk. Patrick Doyle was here at Mass last Sunday. He was then but a poor digger. Next day he found gold, struck at rich, as you say. Then he found the grog also and bought it to his tent. Yesterday he was found dead at the bottom of his golden shaft. And he was buried in the graveyard over there near the government camp. My conscience was quite easy when the sermon was finished. It would be time enough for me to take warning from the fate of Paddy Doyle when I had made my pile. Let the lucky diggers beware, I was not one of them. After we had been at work a few weeks, Father Bakus, before stepping down from the packing case, said, I want someone to teach in a school. If there is anyone here willing to do so, I should like to see him after Mass. I was looking round for Philip amongst the crowd when he came up eager and excited. I'm thinking of going in to speak to the priest about that school. He said, Would you have any objection? You know we are doing no good in the gully, but I won't leave it if you think I'd better not. Philip was honourable. He would not dissolve our short partnership and leave me alone, unless I were quite willing to let him go. Have you ever kept school before? No never, but I don't think teaching will give me much trouble. There can't be many children around here, and I can surely teach them ABC and the Catechism. Although I thought he had not given fortune a fair chance to bless us, he looked so wistful and anxious that I had not the heart to say no. Philip went into the tent, spoke to the priest, and became a schoolmaster. I was then a solitary hatter. Next day a man came into the gully with a sack on his back with something in it which he had found in a shaft. He thought the shaft had not been dug down to the bedrock and would bottom it. He bottomed on a corpse. The claim had been worked during the previous summer by two men. One morning there was only one man on it. He said his mate had gone to Melbourne, but he had in fact killed him during the night and dropped him down the hole. The police never hunted out the murderer. They were too busy hunting us. I was not long alone. A beggarly-looking young man came a few days later and said, I hear you have lost your mate Philip and my mates have all gone away and taken the tent with him. So I want to ask you to let me stay in your tent till I can look round a bit. The young man's name was David Bezwick, but he was known simply as Bez. He was a harmonious tailor from Manchester. He played the violin cello. Also the violin had a good tenor voice and a talent for the drama. He and a man named Saintly from Liverpool had taken leading parts in our plays and concerts on shipboard. Scott, the artist, admired Bez. He said he had the head, the features and the talents of a Shakespeare. He had a sketch of Bez in his portfolio which he was filling with crooked trees, common diggers and ugly black amores. I could see no Shakespeare in Bez. He was nothing but a dissipated tailor who had come out in the steerage while I had voyaged in the house on deck. I was therefore a superior person and looked down on the young man who was seated on a log near the farm. One leg crossed over the other and slowly stroking his Elizabethan beard. I said, Yes, Philip has left me, but I don't want any partner. I understood you were a tailor by trade and I don't think much of a tailor. Well, replied Bez, I don't think much of him myself, so I've dropped the business. I'm now a sailor. You know yourself I sailed from Liverpool to Melbourne. Anyhow, there's only the difference between a letter between a sailor and a tailor. There was a flaw somewhere in the argument, but I finally said, Valiat quantum valere protest. Bez looked solemn. A little Latin goes a long way with some people. He was an object of charity and I made him feel it. In the first place, this tent is teetotal. No goggles to come inside. There was to be no mining partnership. You can keep all the gold you get and I shall do the same. You must keep all trade secrets and never confess you are a tailor. I could never hold up my head among the diggers if they should discover that my mate was only the ninth part of a man. You must carry to the tent a quantity of clay and rocks sufficient to build a chimney of which I shall be the architect. You will also pay for your own tucker, chop wood, make the fire, fetch water and boil a billy. Bez promised solemnly to abide by these conditions and then I allowed him to deposit his swag in the tent. The chimney was built in three days and we could then defy the weather and dispense with the umbrella. Bez performed his part of the contract well. He adopted a rolling gate and the frown of a pirate. He swore naval oaths strong enough to steal a hurricane. Amongst his digging outfit was a huge pick. It was a two-man pick and he carried it on his shoulders to suggest his enormous strength. He threw a towel at him to the wind. When a rent appeared in his trousers he closed it with pins disdaining the use of a needle until he became so ragged that I ordered him in stock for repairs. End of section 12 Section 13 of the Book of the Bush. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Book of the Bush by George Dundadale Section 13 Among the Diggers in 1853 Part 3 One day in passing Philip's school I peeped in at the flap of the tent. He had already acquired the awe-inspiring look of the schoolmaster. He was teaching a class of little boys whose wandering eyes were soon fixed on my face. And then Philip saw me. He smiled and blushed and came outside. He said he was getting along capitally and did not want to try digging any more. He had obtained a small treatisee, incitled the twelve virtues of a good master and he was studying it daily in order to qualify himself for his new calling. He had undertaken to demonstrate one of Euclid's propositions last night by way of exercising his reasoning faculties. He was also making new acquaintances amongst men who were not Diggers doctors, storekeepers and the useful blacksmiths who pointed how pigs were still. He had also two or three friends at the Government Camp and I felt inclined to look upon him as a traitor to the Diggers' cause. But although he had been a member of the Party of Young Islanders he was the most innocent traitor I have ever heard of. He could keep nothing from me. If he had been a member of some secret society he would have burst up the secret or the secret would have burst him. He had some friends among the Diggers. The big gum tree in front of the church tent soon became a tyrant of Tristing Place on Sundays at which men could meet with older acquaintances and shipmates and convicts could find old pales. Amongst the crowd one Sunday were five men belonging to a party of six from Nileong. The sixth man was at home guarding the tent. Four of the six were Irish Catholics and they came regularly to Mass every Sunday. The other two were Englishmen both convicts of no particular religion, but they had married Catholic immigrants and sometimes went to church but more out of past time than Piety. One of these men known as John Barton he had another name in the Indents, stood under the gum tree but not praying. I don't think he ever thought of praying except the need of it was extreme. He was of medium height, had a bored face, snubbed nose, stood erect like a soldier and was strongly built. His small ferrity eyes were glancing quickly among the faces round him till they were arrested by another man at a short distance. The owner of the second pair of eyes nudged two other men standing by and then three pairs of eyes were fixed on Barton. He was not a coward but something in the expression of the three men cowed him completely. He turned his head and loaded and began to push his way among the crowd to hide himself. After Mass Philip found him in his tent and suspecting that he was a thief he put his hand on a medium-sized cold revolver which had exchanged for his dueling pistols and said, Well my friend, and what are you doing here? For God's sake speak low, whispered Barton. I came in here to hide. There are three men outside who want to kill me. Three men who want to kill you, aid. Do expect me to believe that anyone among the crowd there would murder you in broad daylight. The solution is, my friend, that you are a sneaking thief and that you come here to look for gold. I'll send a man to the police to come and fetch you and if you stir a step I'll shoot you. For the sake, man, keep quiet. I am not a burglar, not now at any rate. I'll tell you the truth. I was a government fragilator a flogger, you know, on the Sydney side and I flogged those three men. Couldn't help but it was my business to do it. I know they are looking for me and they will follow me and take the first chance to murder me. They are the most desperate characters. One of them was in subordinate when he was assigned servant to a squatter and the squatter who was on horseback gave him a cut with his stock whip. Then the man jumped at his master pulled him off the horse dragged him to the wood heap held his head on the block seized the axe and was just going to chop his master's head off when another man stopped him. That is what I had to flog him for and then he was sent back to Sydney so you can think what a man like that would do. When my time was up I went as a trooper to the Nileong district under Captain Foster the commissioner and after a while I settled down and married an immigrant woman from Tipperary a Catholic. That's the way I happened to be here at Mass with my mates were Catholics but I'll never do it again because my life is worth. I dare say there are lots of men about bendigo whom I flogged when I was in the business and every single man jack of them would kill me if he got a chance. And so for goodness sake let me stay here till dark I suppose you are an honest man you look like it anyway and you would not want to see me murdered now would you? Barton was as fact as great a liar and rogue as you would meet with anywhere but in his extreme traces he would tell the truth and the present case was an extreme one Philip was merciful he allowed Barton to remain in his tent all day and gave him his dinner when darkness came he escorted him to the tent of the men from Nileong and was introduced to them by his new friend their names were Gleason, Poison, Lyons and two brothers McCarthy one of these men was brother and lord of Barton and had been a fellow trooper with him under Captain Foster Barton had entered into family relations as an honest man he could give himself any character he chose so he was found out he was too frightened to stay another night on Bendigo and he began at once to bundle up his swag Gleason and Poison accompanied him for some distance beyond the pillar of white quartz on Spesman Hill and then he left the track and struck into the bush Fear winged his feet at Nileong and never went to another rush the other five men then stayed on Bendigo for several weeks longer and when they returned home their gold was sufficient for a dividend of £700 for each men four of them bought farms one kept the store and Barton rented some land Philip met them again when he was promoted to the school at Nileong and they were his firm friends as long as he lived there I went to various rushes to improve my circumstances once I was nearly shot a bullet whizzed past my head and lodged in the trunk of a stringy bark a little further on that was the only time in my life I was under fire and I got from under it as quickly as possible once I went to a rush of Marys near Jobs Gully and Scott came along with his portfolio a small pick, pan and shovel he did not dig any but got the ugliest Maori who could find to sit on a pile of dirt while he took his portrait and sketched the tattoos that's bought the rush every man black and white crowded around Scott while he was at work with his pencil and then every single savage shook hands with him and made signs they had his tattoos taken they were so proud of their ugliness they were all naked to the waist near the sheep's head Gully Jack Moore and I found the cap of a quartz reef with visible gold in it we broke up some of it but could not make it pay having no quartz crushing machinery golden gully was already nearly worked out but I got a little gold in it which was flaky and sticking on the edge in the pipe clay bottom I found some gold also in sheep's head and a brush on the golden river next day we offered our spare mining plant for sale on the roadside opposite Spesman Hill placing the tubs, cradles, picks and spades all in a row Bez was the auctioneer he called out aloud and soon gathered a crowd which he fascinated by his eloquence the bidding was spirited and every article was sold even Bez's own two-man pick which would break the heart of a Sampson's when we left Bendigo Bez, Bernie, Dan, Scott and Moses were off the party and a one-horse cart carried our baggage when we came to a swamp we carried the baggage over it on our backs and then helped the horse to draw the empty cart along our party increased the number along the way especially after we met with a dre carrying kegs of rum before reaching the new rush and as we were anger we prospected some country about 20 miles from the golden river here Scott left us before starting he called me aside and told me he was going to the Melbourne hospital to undergo an operation he had a tumour on one leg above the knee for which he had been treated in Dublin and had been advised to come to Australia in the hope that a change of climate and occupation might be of benefit but he had already walked once from Bendigo to Melbourne and now he was obliged to go again he did not like to start without letting someone know his reason for leaving us I felt full of pity for Scott for I felt he was going to his death alone in the bush and I asked if he felt sure he could find his way he showed me his pocket compass and a map and said he could make a straight course for Melbourne he had always lived and worked alone but whenever we moved he accompanied us not wishing to be quite lost among strangers he arrived at the hospital but he never came out of it alive Dan gave me his money to take care of while he and Bez were living on the run from the drain and I gave out as little cash as possible in order to promote peace and sobriety one night Dan set fire to my tent in order to rouse his banker then I dragged Bez outside the tent and extinguished the fire there was blood shed afterwards from Dan's nose and his account was closed after a while some policemen in plain clothes came along and examined the drain they found 14 kgs of rum in it which they seized together with four horses in the drain I worked for 7 months in various parts of the ovens district till I had acquired the value in gold of my vanished $20 pieces that was all my luck during this time some of us paid the £2 license fee for 3 months we were not hunted by the military 4 or 5 troopers and officials rode slowly around the diggings and the cry of Joey was never raised while a single ununconstable on footman amongst the claims to inspect licenses he stayed with us a while talking about digging matters he said the police were not allowed to go to the power lines now because a digger had been accidentally shot he was a very civil fellow and his price if I remember rightly was half a crown yet the digger hunting was continued at Ballarat and it ended in the massacre of December 3 1854 at that time I was at Colac and while Dr Ignatius was absent I had charge of his household which consisted of one old convict knowing as specs who acted in the capacity of generally useless received orders most respectfully but forgot them as much as possible he was a man of education who had gone Australia and London and had fallen on evil days in Queensland and Sydney while alone in the kitchen he consoled himself with curses I could hear his voice from the other side of the slabs he cursed me, he cursed the doctor he cursed the horses, the cat, the dog and the whole world and everything in it it was impossible to feel anything but pity for the man for his life was ruined and he had ruined it himself I had also under my care a vegetable garden a paddock of cope barley two horses, some guinea fowls and a potato patch one night the potatoes had been bandicooted to all the early settlers in the bush the bandicoot is well known it is a marsupial quadruped which lives on bulbs and ravages potato patches it is about 18 inches in length from the origin of its tail to the point of its nose it has the habits of a pickpocket it inserts its delicate forepaws under the stalks of the potato and pulls out the tubers that morning I had endeavoured to dig some potatoes the stalks were there but the potatoes were gone I stopped to think and examined the ground I soon discovered traces of the bandicoot but they had taken a shape of a small human foot we had no small human feet about our premises but at the other side of the fence there was a bark hut full of them I turned towards the hut suspiciously and saw the bandicoot sitting on a top rail watching me and dangling her feet toe and fro she wore tasseled red hair and a short print frock and a look of defiance I went nearer to inspect her bandicoot feet then she openly defied me and said you need not look so fierce mister I have as much right to sit on this rail as you have Lilias I said you won't sit there long you bandicooted my potatoes last night and you left the marks with your dirty feet in the ground the police are coming to measure your feet and then they will take you to the locker I gazed across the barley paddock for the police and Lilias looked as well there was a strange man approaching rapidly and the bandicoot's courage collapsed she slid from the fence took the flight and disappeared among the tusks near the creek the stranger did not go to the garden gate but stood looking over the fence he said is Dr. Ignatius at home? no he's somewhere about Farry Creek and I don't think he'll return till Saturday the stranger hung down his head and was silent he was a young man of small frame well dressed for those days but he had no luggage he looked so miserable that I pitied him he was like a hunted animal I said are you a friend of Dr. Ignatius? yes he knows me well my name is Kaa I have come from Ballarat I knew various men had left Ballarat one had arrived in Geelong on December the 4th and consulted Dr. Walsh about a bullet between his knuckles another was hiding at a house at Chewell Peter Layla he had lost one arm and the government were offering four hundred pounds for him so he took outdoor exercise only by night disguised in an Inverness cape there was a chance for me to hear exciting news from the lips of a warrior fresh from the field of the battle so I said if you would like to stay here till the doctor returns you will be welcome he was my guest for four days he said that he went out with the military on the morning of December the 3rd and was the first surgeon who entered the Eureka Stockade after the fight was over he found twelve men dead and twelve more mortally wounded this was about all the information he vouched safe to give me I was anxious for the particulars I wanted to know at arms that he carried to the fray whether he touched up his sword on the blind stone before selling forth how many men or women he had called upon to stand in the name of her gracious Majesty Queen Victoria how many skulls he had cloven how many diggers he had slewed and how many peaceful prisoners he had brought back to the government camp on all these points he was silent and during his stay with me he spoke as little as possible neither reading, writing or walking about but there was something to be learned from the papers he had been a witness at the Creston Scobie killed by Bentley and two others and simply on his envisage Bentley was discharged but afterwards re-arrested and condemned to three years imprisonment Dr Carr was regarded as a colluding associate with Bentley and Dewes the magistrate and the official convocation of Dewes confirmed the popular denunciation of them at a dinner given to Mr Tarleton the American consul Dr Ottway the chairman said while I and my fellow colonists are thoroughly loyal to our sovereign Lady the Queen we do not and will not respect her men's servants her maid's servants, her oxen or her asses a commission was coming to Ballarat to report on wrongdoings there and they were looking for witnesses on Friday December the 8th the camp surgeon and Dr Carr had had a narrow escape from being shot while the former gentleman was entering the hospital he was fired at by one of the sent teeth the ball passed close to the shoulder of Dr Carr who was reading inside went through the lid of the open medicine chest and some splinters struck him on the side there were in the hospital at that time seven diggers seriously wounded and six soldiers including the drummer boy troubles were coming in crowds and the bullet the splinters and the commission put the little doc to the flight he left the seven diggers the five soldiers and the drummer boy in the hospital and made straight for Colac fear dogged his foot steps wherever he went and the mere sight of him had set the impudent Thief Lilius to hide behind the tussocks I always hate a man who won't talk to me and tell me things so silent and unsociable that by way of revenge I left him to the care and curses of old specs after four days he departed and he appeared again at Ballarat on January the 15th giving evidence that an inquest on one Hardy killed by a gunshot wound in the meantime a total change had taken place among the occupants of the government camp Commissioner Reed had retired Dr Williams the coroner and the district surgeons had received notice to quit in 24 hours and they left behind them 24 patients in and around the camp hospital Dr Carr left the colony and the next report about him was from Manchester where he made a wild and coherent speech to the crowd at the exchange his last public appearance was in a police court on the charge of lunacy he was taken away by his friends and what became of him afterwards is not recorded doctors where there is a dearth of patients sometimes take to war and thus succeed in creating a practice Occasionally they meet with disaster of which we can easily call to mind instances both ancient and modern End of section 13 section 14 of the book of the bush this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the book of the bush by George Dunderdale section 14 among the diggers in 1853 part 4 diggers do not often turn their eyes heavenwards their treasure does not lie in that direction but one night I saw bez stargazing do you know the names of any of the stars in this part of the roof I asked I can't make out many of the Manchester stars he replied I knew a few when I was a boy but there was a good deal of fog and smoke and later I have not looked up that way much but I can spot a few of them yet I think bez was a rather prosy poet and his eye was not in a fine frenzy rolling let me see he said there's the north Charles Wayne and the North Pole ought to be there but they have gone down somewhere there are the seven stars I could never make them seven if there ever were that number one of them has dropped out and there's Orion he has somehow slipped up to the north and is standing on his head heels uppermost there are the two stars in his heels two on his shoulders, three in his belt and three in his sword there is the Southern Cross we could never see that in our part of England nor those two silvery clouds nor two black holes they look curious don't they I suppose the two clouds are the gates of heaven and the two black spots those gates of hell, the doors of eternity which way shall we go that's the question the old adage is still quite true when a young gentleman in England takes the wildness and grog and disgraces his family he is provided with a passage to Australia in order that he may become a reform prodigal but the change of climate does not affect the reform it requires something else Dan in Glasgow and Bess in Manchester had both been given to drink too much they came to Victoria to acquire the virtue of temperance and they were sober enough when they had no money Dan told me that when he first awoke after his first week at sea he sat every day on the top gallant folksal thinking over his past wickedness watching the foam go by and continually attempted to plunge into it after the rum, the dray and the four horses were seized by the police Dan and Bess grew sober and went to Reed's Creek passing me at work on Spring Creek they came back as separate items Dan called at my tent and gave him a meal of damper tea and jam he ate the whole of the jam which cost me two and six per pound he then humped his swag and started for Melbourne on his way through the township since known Beechworth he took a drink of liquor which disabled him and he lay down by the roadside using an anthill for a pillow he awoke at daylight covered with ants which were stinging and eating him alive some days later Bess came along passed my tent for a mile and then came back he said he was ashamed of himself I gave him also a feed of damper tea and jam limited Dan had made me cautious in the matter of lavish hospitality the Earl of Lonsdale lately spent 50,000 pounds in entertaining the Emperor of Germany but it was money thrown away the next time the Kaiser comes to Westmoreland he will have to pay for his board and buy his preserves Bess made a start for Melbourne met an old convict and with him took a job at foot rotting sheep on a station owned by a widow lady here he passed as an engraver in reduced circumstances he told Lye so well that the convict was filled with admiration and said I'm sure mate you're a flash cove what's done his time in the island the two chums footrotted to lay adorned 30 shillings each then they went away and got drunk at a roadside shanty at least Bess did and when the convict picked his pockets he kindly put back three shillings and sixpence saying that will give him another start on the wallaby track Bess at last arrived at Flagstaff Hill which was then bare with a sand hole on one side of it he had had nothing to eat for 24 hours and had only one shilling and sixpence in his pocket which he was loathed to spend for few of arriving in Melbourne a complete beggar he lay down famishing and weary on top of a hill near Flagstaff and surveyed the city, the bay and the shipping he had hoped by this time to have been ready to take passage in one of those ships to Liverpool and to return home a lucky digger so he said I'm afraid Bess you will never see Manchester again there was at that time a small frame building at the west end of Flinders street with a hill behind it on which goats were browsing the railway viaduct now runs over the exact spot many parties of hopeful diggers from England and California had slept there on the floor the night before they started for Ballarat, Mount Alexander or Bendigo we called it a house of refuge and Bess now looked for refuge in it there he met Dan and Moran who had both found employment in the city and they fed the hungry Bess Dan was labouring at his trade in the building business and he set Bess to work roofing houses with corrugated iron they soon earned more money than they had ever earned by digging for gold but on Saturday nights and Sundays they took their pleasure in the old style so they went to the dogs I don't know how Dan's life ended his real name was Donald Fraser but Bess died suddenly at the bar of a public house and he was honoured with an inquest and a short paragraph in the papers Moran had saved a hundred pounds by digging in Piccadine and Gully and he was soon afterwards admitted to serve Her Majesty again in the police department on the Sunday after Price was murdered by the convicts at Williamstown I met Moran after Mass in the middle of Lonsdale Street I reproached him for his baseness and deserted him to the enemy Her Majesty no less and in self defence he nearly argued my head off at last I threatened to denounce him as a joey he was in plain clothes and having killed by the crowd in the street nothing but death could silence Moran the rest of his history is engraved on a monument at the Melbourne Cemetery he, his wife and all his children died many years ago rest in peace he was really a good man with only one defect most of us have many he was always trying to divide a head to its west and southwest side I met saintly after 30 years sitting on a bench in front of the travellers rest at Alberton in Gippsland he had a wrinkled old face and did not recognise my beautiful countenance until he heard my name he had half a dozen little boys and girls around him his grandchildren I believe and was as happy as a king teaching them to sing hymns I don't think saintly has grown rich but he always carried a fortune about with him wherever he went there's a kind heart and a cheerful disposition nobody could ever think of quarrelling with saintly any more than with George Coben or with that benevolent bandmaster, Hea Plock he told me that he was now related to the highest family in the world his daughter having married the Chinese giant whose brothers and sisters were all of the race of amic my mate Philip was so successful with his little school in the tent that he was promoted to another at the rocky waterholes and then he went to the township at late Nileong Philip had never travelled as far as Lake Nileong but Piccan and Ejak told him that he had once been there and that it was a beautiful country he tried to find it at another time but got pushed on the wrong side of the lake now he believed there was a regular track that way if Philip could only find it the settlers and other inhabitants ought to be well off if not it was their own fault for they had the best land in the whole of Australia Philip felt sure he would find at least one friend at Nileong there's Mr Barton whom he had harboured in his tent at Bendigo and had sheltered from the pursuit of the three blood thirsty convicts some people might be too proud to look forward to the friendship of a flagellator but in those days we could not pick and choose our chums Barton might not be clubbable but he might be useful and the social ladder requires a first step thanks to such men as Dan and Bess in Melbourne and to other entropising builders in various places habitat dwellings of wood brick and bluestone began to be used instead of the handy but uncomfortable tent and at the rocky waterholes Philip had for some time been lodging in a weatherboard house with respectable Mrs Barton before going to look for Nileong he introduced his successor to her and also to the scholars her name was Miss Edgeworth the first virtue of a good master is gravity and Philip had begun at the beginning he was now greater even than usual while he briefly addressed his youthful auditors my dear children he said, I am going away and have to leave you in the care of this young lady Miss Edgeworth I am sure you will find her to be a better teacher than myself because she has been trained in the schools of the great city of Dublin and I unfortunately had no training at all she is highly educated and will be I doubt not a perfect blessing to the rising generation of the rocky waterholes I hope you will be diligent, obedient and respectful to her goodbye and God bless you all these words were spoken in the tone of a judge passing sins of death on a criminal and Miss Edgeworth was in doubt whether it would be coming under the circumstances to laugh or to cry so she made no speech in reply she said afterwards to Mrs. Martin Mr. Philip must have been a most severe master I can see sternness on his brow moreover she was secretly aware that she did not deserve his compliments and that her learning was limited especially in arithmetic she had often to blame the figures for not adding up correctly for this reason she had a horror of examinations and every time the inspector came round she was in a state of mortal fear his name was Bonwick he was a little man but he was so learned that the teachers looked forward to his visits with all a happy idea came into Miss Edgeworth's mind she was it was true not very learned nor was she perfect in the practice of the twelve virtues but she had some instinctive knowledge of the weakness of the male man Mr. Bonwick was an author a learned author who had written books among others a school treasurer on geography Miss Edgeworth bought two copies of this work and took care to place them on her table in the school every morning with the name of the author in full view on his next visit Mr. Bonwick's searching eyes soon detected the presence of his little treasurer and he took it up with a pleased smile this was Miss Edgeworth's opportunity she said in her opinion the work was a most excellent one extremely well adapted for the use in schools the inspector was more than satisfied a young lady of so much judgement and discrimination was a perilous teacher and Miss Edgeworth's work was henceforth beyond all question there were no coaches running to Nileong and as Phillip's poverty did not permit him to purchase a horse and he had scruples about stealing one he packed up his swag and set off on foot it may be mentioned as bearing on nothing in particular that after Phillip had taken leave of Miss Edgeworth she stood at a window flattened her little nose against one of the panes and watched him trudging away as long as he was in sight then she said to Mrs. Martin he said a pity that so respectable a young man should be tramping through the bush like a peddler with a pack no indeed miss, not a bit of it replied Mrs. Martin nearly every man in the country has had to travel with his swag one time or other we're all used to it in the taint, no use you looking after him that way for most likely you'll never see him again but she did about two miles from the waterholes Phillip overtook another swagman a man of middle age who was going to Nileong to look for work he had tried the diggings and left them for want of luck and Phillip having himself been an unlucky digger had a fellow feeling for the stranger he was an old soldier named Summers I am 350 years old he said and I listed when I was 20 I was in all the wars in India for 19 years and never was hit but once and that was on the top of my head look here, he took off his hat and pointed to a ridge mark made by the track of a bullet if I had been an inch taller I shouldn't be here now and maybe it all have been better I've been too long at the fighting to learn another trade now when I listed I was told that my pay would be a shilling a day and everything found a shilling a day is seven shillings a week and I thought I should live like a fighting cock plenty to eat and a shilling a day for drink or sport but I found out the difference when it was too late I kept the stricter count against every man it was full of what they called deductions and we had to pay for so many things out of that shilling that sometimes for months together I hadn't the price of a pint of thropony with a drop of porta throit what was the biggest battle you ever were in? well I had some co-slaves but the worst was when we took a stockade from the Bermons my regiment was the 47th 65 rank and file and two companies from the other regiments were ordered to attack it our officers were all shot down before we reached the stockade but we got in and went at the Bermons with the bayonet but such a crowd came at us from the rear of the stockade that we had to go out again and we ran down the hill our ranks were broken and we had no time to rally before a lot of horsemen were amongst us my bayonet was broken and I had nothing but my empty musket to fight with I warded off the sabre-guts with it right and left so dodging among the horses and I was not once wounded I was all over in a hot minute or two but when the supports came up and we were afterwards mustered only five men of our company answered the roll call course I was one of them and the barrel of my musket was notched like a saw by all the strokes I had parried with it Philip saw summers, he was hammering blue stone by the roadside a pomp and circumstance of glorious war had left him in his old age a little better than a beggar Philip found nigh along without much trouble and renewed the acquaintance began at Bendigo with Mr Barton and the other diggers to all appearance his promotion was not worth much he might as well have stayed at the waterhole Mr McCarthy acted as school director and honorary office there showed Philip the school he said it is not of much account I must acknowledge we were short of funds and had to put it up cheap most of the wall you see is only half a brick thick and during the sun gusts that come across the lake the north side bulges inward a good deal so when you hear the wind coming up you had better send the children outside till the gale is over that is what Mr Foy the last teacher did and I must tell you also this school has gone to the dogs there are some very bad boys here the boils and the blakes when they saw Mr Foy was going to use his cane one of them would dart out of the school the master after them then there was a regular steeple chase across the paddocks and every boy and girl came outside to watch it screaming and yellow it was great fun but it was not school teaching I'm afraid you will never manage the boils and the blakes Mr McCluggan the minister once found six of them sitting at the foot of a gun tree drinking a bottle of rum he spoke to them told them they were young reprobates and were going straight to hell you boiled held out the bottle and said here Mr McCluggan wouldn't you like a nip yourself the minister was on horseback and always carried a whip with a heavy lash it was a beautiful sight the way he laid the lash on those boils and blakes I really think you had better turn them out of the school Mr Phillip or else they will turn you out Mr Phillips lips closed with a snap he said it is my duty to educate them turning them out of school is not education we will see what can be done as everyone knows the twelve virtues of a good master are gravity, silence, humility, prudence, wisdom, patience discretion, meekness, zeal, vigilance, piety and generosity I don't suppose any teacher was ever quite perfect in the practice of them but a sincere endeavor is also useful on reflection Phillip thought it best to add two other virtues to the catalogue Viz, firmness and a strap of sole leather it was a full attendance of scholars the first morning and when all the names had been entered on the roll Phillip observed that the boils and the blakes were all there they were expecting some new kind of fun with the new master in order that the fun might be inside the school and not all over the paddocks Phillip placed his chair near the door and locked it then the education began the scholars were all repeating their lessons talking to one another aloud and quarreling please sir, just blakes are pinching me please sir, here boilers are scrooging please sir, Nancy Toomey is making faces at me it was a pandemonium of little devils to be changed if possible into little angels the master rose from his chair, put up one hand and said silence every eye was on him, every tongue was silent and every ear was listening Joseph Blake and Hugh Boyle come this way they did so no one here is to shout or talk or read in a loud voice if any of you want to speak to me you must hold up your hand so when I nod you can come to me if you don't do everything I tell you you will be slapped on the hand or somewhere else with this strap he held it up to view it was 18 inches long, 3 inches broad, heavy and pliant the sight of it made Tommy Trattles and many other little boys and girls good all at once but Joseph and Hugh went back to their seats grinning at one another Mr Foy had often talked that way but it always came to nothing Hugh was the hero of the school, or rather the leading villain in about two minutes he called her please sir, just blakes are shoving me with his elbow Hugh Boyle come this way, he came now you, I told you that there must be no speaking or reading a loud of course you forgot what I said you should have put up your hand in the course of the day Hugh received two slaps then three then four he began to fear the strap as well as feel it that was the beginning of wisdom Nancy Toomey was naughty and was set into a corner she was sulk and rebellious when told to return to her seat she said in the hearing of Tommy Trattles the master is a carroty red crawler it is well to remark that Phillips here was red a man with red hair is apt to be of a hasty temper and as a matter of fact I had seen Phillips first fly out rapidly on several occasions before he began to practice the twelve virtues Tommy put up his hand and at a nod went up to the master well Tommy what is the matter please sir Nancy Toomey has been calling you a carroty head crawler Tommy's eyes brows were raised his eyes and mouth wide open Phillip looked over his head at Nancy whose face was on fire he slowly repeated Nancy Toomey has been calling me a carroty head crawler has she yes sir that's what she called you I heard it well Tommy go to your seat like a good boy Nancy won't call names anymore in a little more than a week perfect discipline and good order prevailed at the school end of section 14 section 15 of the book of the bush this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Richard Kilmer the book of the bush by George Dunderdale section 15 a bush hermit it is not good for man to be alone but Phillip became a hermit half a mile from the school and the main road there was an empty slab hut roofed with shingles it was on the top of a long sloping hill which afforded a beautiful view over the lake and the distant hills half an acre of garden ground was fenced in with the hut and it was part of the farm of a man from Hampshire, England who lived with his wife near the main road a man from Hampshire is an Englishman and should speak English but when Phillip tried to make a bargain about the hut he could not understand the Hampshire language and the farmer's wife had to interpret and that farmer lived to the age of 80 years and never learned to speak English he was not a fool by any means knew all about farming worked 12 or 14 hours a day all year round having never heard of the eight hours system but he talked and prayed and swore all his life in the Hampshire dialect whenever he spoke to the neighbors a look of pain and misery came over them sometimes he went to meetings and made a speech but he was told to go and fetch a Chinaman to interpret Phillip entered into possession of the hut it had two rooms and the furniture did not cost much at Adam's store he bought a camp oven an earthenware stew pot a milk pan, a billy two panikins, two spoons, a whittle and a fork the extra panikin and spoon were for the use of visitors for Phillip's idea was that a hermit, if not holy should at least be hospitable with an axe and saw he made his own furniture these two hardwood stools one of which would seat two men for a table he sawed off the butt end of a messmate rolled it inside the hut and nailed on the top of it a piece of pine packing case his bedstead was a frame of saplings with strong canvas nailed over it and his mattress was a sheet of stringy bark which soon curled up at the sides and fitted him like a coffin his pillow was a linen bag filled with spare shirts and socks and under it he placed his revolver in case he might want it for unwelcome visitors Patrick Dugan's wife did the laundry work and refused to take payment in cash but she made a curious bargain about it a priest visited Naya Long only once a month he lived fifty miles away when Mrs. Dugan was in her last sickness he might be unable to administer to her the rights of the church so her bargain was that in case the priest should be absent the schoolmaster as next best man was to read prayers over her grave Philip thought there was something strange perhaps Simone Ackle about the bargain twice Mrs. Dugan, thinking she was on the point of death sent a messenger to him to remind him of his duty and when at last she did die he was present at the funeral and read the prayers for the dead over her grave Averus is a vice-o-base that I never heard of any man who would confess that he had ever been guilty of it Philip was my best friend and I was always loath to think unkindly of him but at this time I really think he began to be rather penurious not avaricious, certainly not but he was not a hermit of the holiest kind he began to save money and acquire stock he had not been long on the hill before he owned a horse two dogs a cat a native bear a magpie and a parrot and he paid nothing for any of them except the horse one day he met Mr. McCarthy talking to Bob Atkins, the station hand who had a horse to sell a filly, rising three McCarthy was a good judge of horses and after inspecting the filly he said she will just suit you Mr. Philip you ought to buy her so the bargain was made the price was ten pounds Bob giving in the saddle bridle a pair of hobbles and a tether rope he was proud of his deal two years afterwards when Philip was riding through the bush Bob rode up alongside and after a while said well Mr. how do you like that filly I sold you very well indeed she is a capital roaster and stock horse does she ever throw you never what makes you ask well that's queer the fact is I sold her to you because I could not ride her every time I mounted she slung me a buster I see Bob you met well didn't you but she never yet slung me a buster she is quieter than a lamb and she will come to me whenever I whistle and follow me like a dog Philip's first dog was named Sam he was half collie and half bulldog and was therefore both brave and full of sagacity he guarded the hut and the other domestics during school hours and when he saw Philip coming up the hill he ran to meet him smiling and wagging his tail and reported all well the other dog was only a small pup a sky terrier like a bunch of toe from Tommy Trattles pup's early days were made very miserable by Maggie the magpie that wicked bird used to strut around Philip while he was digging in the garden and after filling her crop with worms and grubs she flapped away on one wing and went round the hut looking for amusement she jumped on pup's back scratched him with her claws pecked at his skull and pulled locks of wool out of it the poor innocent all the while yelping and howling for mercy Sam never helped pup or drove Maggie away he was actually afraid of her and he believed she was a dangerous witch sometimes she pecked at his tail and he dared not say a word but sneaked away looking sideways at her hanging down his ears and afraid to say his tail was his own Joey the parrot watched all that was going on from his cage which was hung on a hook outside the hut door Philip tried to teach Joey to whistle a tune there's not luck to boot the house there's not luck at all but the parrot had so many things to attend to that he never had time to finish the tune he was indeed very vain and flighty siding along his perch and saying sweet pretty Joey who are you who are you ha ha ha wanting everybody to take notice and admire him when Maggie first attacked poor pup scratched his back pecked at his head and tore locks of wool out of him and pup screamed pitifully to all the world for help Joey poked his head between the wires of his cage turned one eye downwards listened to the language and watched the new performance with silent ecstasy he had never heard or seen anything like it in the whole course of his life Philip used to drive Maggie away take up poor pup and stroke him while Maggie the villain hopped around flapping her wings and giving the greatest impudence it really gave Philip a great deal of trouble to keep order among his domestics one day while hoeing in the garden he heard the pup screaming miserably he said there's that villain Maggie at him again and he ran up to the hut to drive her away but when he reached it there was neither pup nor Maggie to be seen only Joey in his cage and he was bobbing his head up and down yelping exactly like pup and then he began laughing at Philip's ready to burst ha ha ha who are you who are you there's no luck about the hoose there's no luck at all the native bear resided in a packing case nailed on the top of a stump nearly opposite the hut door he had a strap round his waist and was fastened to the stump by a piece of clothesline the boys called him a monkey bear but though his face was like that of a bear he was neither a monkey nor a bear he was in fact a sloth his legs were not made for walking but for climbing and although he had strong claws and a muscular forearm he was always slow in his movements he was very silent and unsociable never joined in the amusement of the other domestics and when Philip brought him a bunch of tender young gumtree shoots for his breakfast in the morning he did not even say thanks or smile or show the least gratitude he never spoke except at dead of night when he was exchanging compliments with some other bear up a gumtree in the 40 acre paddock and such compliments their voices were frightful something between a roar and a groan and although Philip was a great linguist he was never quite sure what they were saying but the bear was always scheming to get away he was like the boars and could not abide British rule Philip would not have kept him at all but as he had taken him into the family circle when a cub he did not like to be cruel he would turn him out alone in a heartless world twice Bruin managed to untie the clothesline and start it for the 40 acre he crawled along very slowly and when he saw Philip coming after him he stopped, looked behind him and said, who? showing his disgust then Philip took hold of the end of the clothesline and brought him back scolding all the time you miserable Bruin you don't know what's good for you you can't tell a light wood from a gum tree and you'll die of starvation or else the boys will find you and they will kill you thinking you are a wild bush bear for you don't show any signs of good education after all the trouble I have taken to teach you manners I'm afraid you will come to a bad end and so he did the third time Bruin loosed the clothesline he had a six hours start before he was missed and sure enough he hid himself in a light wood for want of sense and that very night the boys saw him by the light of the moon and Hugh Boyle climbed up the tree and knocked him down with a waddy Pussy, Philip's sixth domestic had attained her majority she had never gone after snakes in her youth and had always avoided bad company she did her duty in the house as a good mouser and when my screws scarce she had a hole under the eaves near the chimney through which she could enter the hut at any time of the night or day while Philip was musing after tea on the pond's asinorum by the light of a tallow candle Pussy was out poaching for quail and as soon as she caught one she brought it home dropped it on the floor rubbed her side against Philip's boot and said I have brought a little game for breakfast and a little game for dinner along the back after which she lay down before the fire tucked in her paws and fell asleep with a good conscience but many bush cats come to an unhappy and untimely end by giving way to the vice of curiosity when Dinah, the vain kitten takes her first walk abroad in springtime she observes something smooth and shiny gliding gently along she pricks up her ears at the interesting stranger then she goes a little nearer softly lifting first one paw and then another the stranger is more intelligent than Dinah he says to himself I know her sort well, the silly thing saw her ages ago in the garden she wants mice and frogs and such things takes the bread out of my mouth native industry must be protected so the stranger brings his head round under the grass and waits for Dinah who is watching his tail the tail moves a little and then a little more Dinah says it will be gone if I don't mind and she jumps for it at that instant the snake strikes her on the nose with his fangs Dinah's fur rises on end with sudden fright she shakes her head and the snake drops off she turns away and says this is frightful it's a world life is not worth living her head feels queer and being sleepy she lies down and is soon a dead cat that summer was very hot at Nileong 110 degrees in the shade Philip began to find his bed of stringy bark very hard and as it grew older it curled together so much that he could scarcely turn in it from one side to the other to the other and he found it much softer than the stringy bark but after a while the mattress grew flat and the stuffing lumpy sometimes on hot days he took out his bed and after shaking it he laid it down on the grass his blankets he hung on the fence for many reasons which he wanted to get rid of the water and the 40 acre to the south was all dried up an old black snake with a streak of orange along its ribs grew thirsty his last meal was a mouse and he said that was a dry mouthful and wants something to wash it down he knew his way to the water hole at the end of the garden but he had to pass the hut which when he traveled that way the summer before was unoccupied after creeping under the bottom rail of the fence he raised his head a little and looked round he said I see there's another tenet here Bruin was then alive and was sitting on the top of his stump eating gum leaves I never saw that fellow so low down in the world before I wonder what he is doing here being lagged I suppose for something or other he is a stupid anyway and won't take any notice even if he sees me Sam and Puss were both blinking their eyes in the shade of the lightwood and whisking the flies from their ears Maggie was walking about with beak open showing her parched tongue the heat made her low spirited the snake had crept as far as Philip's mattress which was lying on the grass when Maggie saw him she instantly gave the alarm a snake a snake for she knew he was a bad character Sam and Puss jumped up and began to bark Joey said Bruin was too stupid to say anything the snake said here is a terrible row all at once I must make for a hole he had a keen eye for a hole and he soon saw one it was a small one in Philip's mattress almost hidden by the seam and had been made most likely by a splinter or a nail the snake put its head in it same and he poured in a storm then drew in his whole length and settled himself comfortably among the straw beasts and birds have instincts and a certain amount of will and understanding but no memory worth mentioning for that reason the domestics never told Philip about the snake in his mattress they had forgotten all about it if Sam had buried a bone he would have remembered it a week afterwards if he was hungry but as for snakes it was out of sight out of mind Philip took in his mattress and blanket before sundown and made his bed the snake was still in the straw he had been badly scared and thought it would be best to keep quiet until he saw a chance to creep out and continue his journey down the garden but it was awfully dark inside the mattress and although he went round and round amongst the straw he could not find any way out of it so at last he said I must wait till morning when Philip went to bed the snake was disturbed and woke up there was so heavy a weight on him that he could scarcely move and he was almost suffocated he said this is dreadful I have been in many a tight place in my time but never in one so tight as this whatever am I to do I shall be squeezed to death if I don't get away from this horrid monster on top of me Philip fell asleep as usual and by and by the time the snake began to flatten his ribs and draw himself from under the load until at last he was clear of it then even a deep sigh of relief he lay quiet for a while to recover his breath he knew there was a hole somewhere if he could only find it and he kept poking his nose here and there against the mattress after sleeping an hour or two Philip turned on his other side and the snake had to move out of the way in a hurry for fear of being squeezed to death there was a noise as of something rustling in the straw and after listening a while Philip said I suppose it's a mouse and soon fell fast asleep again because he was not afraid of mice even when they ran across his nose in the morning he took his blankets out again and hung them on the fence shook up his mattress and pillow and then spread the sheets over them tucking them in all round and then he got ready for his breakfast the hole of that day was spent by the snake in trying to find a way out the sheets being tucked in he was still in the dark and he kept going round and round feeling for the hole with his nose until he went completely out of his mind just as a man does when he is lost in the bush so the day wore on night and bedtime came again and Philip lay down to rest once more for the imprisoned snake then the snake went raving mad lost all control of himself and rolled about recklessly Philip sat up in bed as a cold sweat began to trickle down his face and his hair stood on end he whispered to himself as if afraid the snake might hear him the Lord preserve us that's no mouse it's a snake right under me what shall I do the first thing to do was to strike a light the matches and candle were on a box at his bedside and he slowly put out his hand to reach them expecting every moment to feel the fangs in his wrist but he found the matchbox struck a light carefully examined the floor as far as he could see it jumped out of bed at one bound and took refuge in the other room there he looked in every corner and along every rafter for the other snake for he knew that at this season snakes are often found in pairs but he could not see the mate of the one he had left in bed there was no sleep for Philip that night and by the light of the candle he sat waiting for the coming day and planning dire vengeance at sunrise he examined closely every hole and crevice and corner and crack in both rooms floor and floor slabs, rafters and shingles he said at last I think there is only one snake that is in the bed then he went outside and cut a stick about five feet long one end of which he pointed with his knife returning to the bedroom he lifted up with the point of his stick the sheets, blankets and pillows took them outside and hung them on the fence next he turned over the mattress slowly but there was nothing to be seen under it he poked the mattress with the blunt end of his stick here and there he even saw that something was moving inside ah, he said there you are my friend the thought of having slept two nights on a live snake made him shudder a little but he was bent on vengeance he took hold of one end of the mattress with one hand and holding the stick and the other he carried it outside and laid it on the grass looking carefully at every side of the mattress he discovered the hole through which the snake had entered and he saw that he could scarcely believe that a snake had gone through it but no other hole was anywhere visible Philip said if the beast comes out it shall be through fire so he picked up a few pieces of bark which he placed over the hole and set on fire the straw inside was soon in a blaze and the snake was lively his situation was desperate and his movements could be traced by the rising and falling of the ticking Philip said my friend you were looking for a hole but when you find it it will be a hot one the snake at last made a dash for life through the fire and actually came out into the open air but he was dazed and blinded and his skin was wet and shining with oil or perspiration or something Philip gave him a finishing stroke with his stick and tossed him back into the fire of course a new mattress was necessary with a keen eye for snakes ever afterwards the teaching in the school went on with regularity and success there was however an occasional interruption once a furious squall came over the lake and shook the frail building so much that Philip threw open the door and sent out all the children the little ones and girls first and then the boys remaining himself to the last like the captain of a sinking ship pulled to stay inside and brave destruction he went out to a safe distance until the squall was over sometimes a visitor interfered with the work of the school and Philip for that reason hated visitors but it was his duty to be civil and patient two inspectors called on two different occasions to examine the scholars one of them was scarcely sober and he behaved in a matter so eccentric that the master had a strong temptation to kick him out however he at last succeeded in seeing the inspector outside the door peaceably and soon afterwards the department dispensed with that gentleman's services he had obtained his office by favor of a minister at home for services rendered at an election his salary was 900 pounds for annum the next inspector received the same salary he was brother or brother-in-law to a bishop and had many ancestors and relatives of high degree Philip foolishly showed him a few nuggets which he had picked up in picking any gully and the inspector showed Philip the letter by which he had obtained his appointment and 900 pounds a year it was only a couple of lines written and signed by a certain lord in London but it was equivalent to an order for a billet on the government of Victoria then the inspector said he would feel extremely obliged to Philip if he would give him one of his little nuggets that he might send it to my lord as a present and Philip at once handed over his biggest nugget little amenities of this kind make life so pleasant my lord would be pleased to receive the nugget the inspector was pleased to send it and Philip said it cannot be bribery and corruption but this inspector, being a gentleman will be friendly when he mentions me in his school and his report he cannot possibly forget the nugget Barney the boozer one day visited the school he opened the door and stood on the threshold his eyes seemed close together and there was a long red scar on his bare neck where he had on a former occasion cut his throat all the scholars were afraid of Barney and the girls climbed up on the benches and began to scream Philip went up to the boozer and said what do you want here the devil knows replied Barney very likely but he is not here he has gone down the road then taking Barney by the arm he turned him round and guided him to the road Barney went about twenty yards until he came to a pool of water he stepped onto the fence and sat on the top rail gazing into the pool at last he threw his hat into it then his boots his coat, shirt and trousers when he was quite naked he stamped on his clothes until they were thoroughly soaked and buried in mud Barney then resumed his search for the devil swinging his arms to and fro in a free and defiant manner the school was also visited by a bishop a priest, a squatter and a judge the dress and demeanor of the judge were very impressive at so great a distance from any center of civilization he wore a tall beaver hat a suit of black broadcloth and a white necktie Philip received him with reverence thinking he could not be anything less than a lord spiritual such as the power of broadcloth and fine linen nosy the shepherd was then living at Nileong having murdered the other shepherd Baldi about six months before and this judge sent nosy to the gallows seventeen years afterwards but neither nosy nor the judge knew what was to happen after seventeen years this is the story of nosy and Baldi end of section 15 recording by Richard Kilmer Rio Medina, Texas section 16 of the book of the bush this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Richard Kilmer the book of the bush by George Dunderdale section 16 the two shepherds part one by the men on the run they were known as nosy and Baldi but in a former stage of their existence in the days of the emperor Augustus Caesar they were known as lasso and bulbous they were then rivals in love and song and accused each other of doing things that were mean and now after undergoing for their sins various trans migrations into the forms of inferior animals during two thousand years as soon as shepherds are required in Australia Felix they appear once more following their flocks and herds they are entirely forgetful of all Greek and Roman civilization their morals have not improved and their quarrels are more bitter than ever in the old times they toodled on the tuneful reed and sang in purist Latin the sweetest ditties ever heard in praise of Galatea and Amnitus Delilah and Ayola but they never toodle now and never sing when they speak their tongue is that of the unmusical barbarians in their pagan days they stained their rustic altars with the blood of a kid a sacrifice to Jupiter and poured out libations of generous wine but they offer up neither prayer nor sacrifice now and they pour libations of gin down their throats the Italian rustic is yet musical and the Roman citizen has not lost a genius of his race he is still unrivaled in sculptor and architecture in painting and poetry and philosophy and in every handicraft his fingers are as deft as ever but empire has slipped from his grasp an empire once lost like time never returns who can rebuild Neowa or Babylon put new life into the mummies of the heroes and re-crown them raise armies from the dust of the warriors of Sestorus and send them forth once more to victory and slaughter Julian the Apostate tried to rebuild the holy city and temple of Israel to make prophecy void apparently a small enterprise for a Roman emperor but all his labors were in vain modern julians have been trying and to found for her a new empire and have only made Italy another Ireland with a starving people and a bankrupt government Nos Patria Finis Nos Dossia Le Guinis Arva the Italians are immigrating year after year to avoid starvation in the garden of Europe in every city of the great empire on which the sun never sets they wander through the streets of all of green the toga long since discarded and forgotten making sweet music from the harp and violin their melancholy eyes wandering after the passing crowd hoping for the pitiful penny that is so seldom given the two shepherds were employed on a station north of Lake Nileong it is a country full of dead volcanoes whose craters have been turned in the salt lakes the gods of lava have been stiffened into barriers of black rocks where the ashes belched forth in fiery blasts from the deep furnaces of the burning world have covered the hills and plains with perennial fertility Baldi has been entrusted with a fattening flock and Nosy had in his care a lambing flock from time to time the sheep were counted and it was found that the fattening the squatter wanted to know what had become of this missing sheep but Baldi could give no account of them his suspicions however soon fell on Nosy the latter was his nearest neighbor and although he had only the same wages these thirty pounds a year and rations he seemed to be unaccountably prosperous and was the owner of a wife and two horses he had been transported for larceny fifteen years of age and at twenty-eight he was suspected of being still a thief girls of the same age were sent from Great Britain to Botany Bay and Van Dimon's land for stealing one bit of finery worth a shilling and became the consorts of criminals of the deepest dye you may read their names in the indents to this day together with their height age, complexion and particulars Baldi went over the nosies hut one evening when the blue smoke was curling over the chimney and the long shadows of the wombot hills were creeping over the stony rises Julia was boiling the billy for tea and her husband was chopping firewood outside good evening Julia said Baldi, fine evening same to you Baldi any news today? asked Julia well there is said Baldi and it's bad news for me there's ten more of my fatners missing nosies stopped chopping and listened and the master says I'll have to hump my swag if I can't find out what has become of them I say nosie you don't happen to have seen any dingos or blacks about here lately I ain't seen air one neither dingo nor black fellow but you know if they were after mischief we'd take care not to make a show there might be stacks of them about and we'd never to see one of them nosie was proud of his cunning well said Baldi I can hear of nobody having seen any strangers about the rises nor dingos nor black fellows and the dingos anyhow would have left some of the carcasses behind but the thieves whoever they are have not left me as much as a lock of sheep I have been talking about him with old sharp he is the longest here of any shepherd in the country and knows all the blacks and he says it's his opinion that the man who took the sheep is not far away from the flock now what do you think about it nosie what the should I know about your sheep said nosie do you mean to insinivate that I took him I'll tell you what it is Baldi to keep your blasted tongue quiet about your sheep for if I hear any more about him I'll see you for it do you hear oh yes I hear all right nosie we'll see about it said Baldi there would have been a fight perhaps but Baldi was a smaller man than the other and was growing old while nosie was in the prime of life Baldi went to Nihilong next day his rations did not include gin and he wanted some badly the more so because he was in trouble about his lost sheep gin, known then as Old Tom was his favorite remedy for all ailments both of mind and body if he could not find out what had become of his sheep his master might dismiss him without a character there was not much good character running to waste on the stations but still no squatter would like to entrust a flock to a shepherd who was suspected of having sin and sold his last master's sheep Baldi walked to Nihilong along the banks of the lake the country was then all open, unfenced except for the paddocks at the home stations the boundary between the two of the runs was merely marked by a plowed furrow not very straight which started near the lake and went eastward along the plains in the rises no plow could make a line through the rocks the boundaries there were imaginary stray cattle were roaming over the country eating the grass and the main resource of the squatters was the Pounds Act hay was then sold at 80 pounds per ton at Bendigo a draft of fat bullocks was worth a mine of gold at Ballarat and therefore grass was everywhere precious no wonder if the hardy bullock driver became a cattle lifter after his team had been impounded by the station's stockman when found only 400 yards from the bush-track money in the shape of fat stock was running loose as it were on every run and why should not the sagacious nosy do little business when Baldi's fat sheep were tempting him and a market for mutton could be found no farther away than the Nihilong Butcher's shop Baldi left the township happier than usual carrying under his arms two bottles of old tom he was seen by a man who knew him entering the Rises and going away in the direction of nosy's hut and then for 15 years he was a lost shepherd in course of time it was ascertained that he had called at nosy's hut on his way home he had the lost sheep on his mind and he could not resist the impulse to have another word or two with nosy about them he put down the two bottles of gin outside the door of the hut near an axe whose handle leaned against the wall nosy and his wife Julia were inside and he bade them good evening then he took a piece of tobacco out of his pocket and began cutting it with his knife he always carried his knife tied to his belt by a string which went through a hole bored in the handle it was a generally useful knife he foot-wrought it sheep stirred the tea in his billy and cut beef and damper sticks and tobacco I have been an eye long he said and I hear in something about my sheep they went to the township all right straight away you know followed one another's tales and never came back the okay bullocks go just the same way curious isn't it nosy listened with keen interest well Baldy he said and what did you hear did you find out who took him oh yes said Baldy I know pretty well about him now both sheep and bullocks old sharp was right about the sheep anyway the thief is not far from the flock and it's not me Baldy was brewing mischief for himself but he did not know how much did you tell the police about him asked nosy oh no not today answered Baldy time enough yet I ain't in no hurry to be an informer nosy eyed him with unusual savagery and said now didn't I tell you to say no more about your blasted sheep or I'd see you for it and here you are again and you can't leave him alone you're no better than a fool maybe I am a fool nosy just wait till I get a light and I'll leave your hut and trouble you no more he was standing in the middle of the floor cutting his tobacco and rubbing it between the palms of his hands shaking his head and eyeing the floor with the look of great sagacity nosy went outside and began walking to and fro thinking and whispering to himself it was a habit he had acquired while slowly sauntering after his sheep he seemed to have another self an invisible companion with whom he'd discussed whatever was uppermost in his mind if he had then consulted his other self Julia he might have saved himself a world of trouble but he did not think of her he said to himself now nosy if you don't mind you are going to be in a hole that old fool inside has found out something or other about the sheep and the peelers will have you if you don't look out and they'll give you another seven years and maybe ten time once nosy and how would you like to do it again why couldn't you leave the cursed sheep alone and keep out of mischief just when you were settling down in life comfortable and might have a chance to do better Baldi will be telling the peelers tomorrow all he knows about the sheep you stole and then they'll fetch you sure there's only one thing to stop that old fool's jaw and you're not game to do it nosy you've never done a man yet and you are not game to do it now and you'll be damned if you do it and the devil will have you and you'll be hanged first maybe and if you don't do him you'll be lagged again for the sheep and in my opinion nosy you are not game yes by the powers you are nosy damned if you ain't who's a feared and you'll do it quick now or never is your time while talking thus to himself nosy was pacing to and fro and he glanced at the axe every time he passed the door the weapon was ready to his hand and seemed to be inviting him to use it Baldi is going to light his pipe and while he is stooping to get a fire stick I'll do him with the axe when Baldi turned towards the fire nosy grasped the axe and held it behind him he waited a moment and then entered the hut Baldi either heard his step or had some suspicion of danger for he looked around before taking up a fire stick at that instant the blow intended for the back of his head struck him on the jaw and he fell forward among the embers for one brief moment of horror he must have realized that he was being murdered and then another blow behind the head left him senseless nosy dragged the body out of the fireplace into the middle of the floor intending while he was doing a man to do them well he raised the axe to finish his work with a third blow but Julia gave a scream so piercing that his attention was diverted to her oh nosy she said what are you doing to poor Baldi you are murdering him nosy turned to his wife with upraised axe hold your jaw woman and keep quiet or I'll do as much for you she said no more she was tall and stout had small sharp roving eyes and nosy was a thick set man with a thin prominent nose sunken eyes and overhanging brows he never had a prepossessing appearance and now his look and attitude were so ugly and fierce that the big woman was completely cowed the pair stood still for some time watching the last convulsive movements of the murdered Baldi nosy could now pride himself on having been game to do his man but he could not feel much glory in his work just yet he had done it without sufficient forethought and his mind was soon full of trouble murder was worse than sheep stealing and the consequences of his new venture in crime began the crowd on his mind with frightful rapidity he had not even thought of any plan for hiding away the corpse he had no grave ready and could not dig one anywhere in the neighborhood the whole of the country round as hot was rocky little hills of bare blue stone boulders and grassy hollows covered with only a few inches of soil rocks everywhere above ground and below he could burn the body but it would take a long time to do it well somebody might come while he was at work and even the ashes might betray his secret there were shallow lakes and swamps but he could not put the corpse into any of them with safety search would be made wherever there was water on the supposition that Baldi had been drowned after drinking too freely from the gin he had brought from Nileong and if the body was found the appearance of the skull would show that death had been caused not by drowning not by the blows of that cursed axe nosy began to lay all the blame on the axe and said if it had not stood up so handy near the door I wouldn't have killed the man it was the axe that attempted him excuses of that sort are of a very ancient date luckily nosy owned two horses one of which was old and quiet he told Julie to fasten the door and to open it on no account whatever while he went for the horse which was feeding in the rises hobbled and with a bell tied round his neck when he returned he saddled the animal and Julie held the bridle while he went into the hut for the body he observed Baldi's pipe on the floor near the fireplace and he replaced it in the pocket in which it had been usually kept as it might not be safe to leave anything in the hut belonging to the murdered man there was little blood on the floor but he would scrape that off by daylight and he would also then look at the axe and put away the two bottles of gin somewhere he could do all that the next morning before Baldi was missed but the corpse must be taken away at once for he felt that every minute of delay might endanger his neck he dragged the body outside and with Julia's help lifted it up and placed it across the saddle then he tried to steady his load with his right hand and to guide the horse by the bridle with his left but he soon found that a dead man was a bad rider Baldi kept slipping towards the near side or the offside with every stride of the horse and soon fell to the ground Nosy was in a furious hurry he was anxious to get away he cursed Baldi for giving him so much trouble to get him over again for being so awkward and stubborn and he begun to feel that the old shepherd was more dangerous dead than alive at last he mounted his horse and called the Julia to come and help him here Julia lift him up till I catch hold of his collar and I'll pull him up in front of me on the saddle and hold him that way Julia with many stifled moans raised the body from the ground and grasped the shirt collar and thus the two managed to place the swag across the saddle then Nosy made a second start carefully balancing the body and keeping it from falling with his right hand while he held the bridle with his left the funeral possessions slowly wound its way in a westerly direction among the black rocks over the softest and smoothest ground to avoid making any noise there was no telling what Stockman or cattle-stealer the devil might send at any moment to meet the murderer among the lowly rises and even in the darkness his horrible burden would betray him Nosy was disturbed by the very echo of his horse's steps it seemed as if somebody was following him at a little distance perhaps Julia full of woman's curiosity and he kept peering round and looking back into the darkness in this way he traveled about a mile and a half and then dismounting lowered the body to the ground and began to look for some suitable hiding place he chose one among a confused heap of rocks and by lifting some of them aside he made a shallow grave to which he dragged the body and covered it by piling boulders over and around it he struck several matches to enable him to examine his work carefully and closed up every crevice through which his buried treasure might be visible the next morning Nosy was a stirrer early he had an important part to act and he was anxious to do it well he first examined the axe and cleaned it well carefully burning a few of Baldi's gray hairs which he found on it then he searched the floor for drops of blood which he carefully scraped with a knife and washed until no red spot was visible then he walked to Baldi's and pretended to himself that he was surprised to find it empty what had happened the previous night was only a dream an ugly dream he met an acquaintance and told him that Baldi was neither in his hut nor with his sheep the two men called it old sharps hut to make enquiries the latter said I seen Baldi's sheep yesterday going about in mobs and nobody to look after them then the three men went to the deserted hut everything in it seemed undisturbed the dog was watching at the door and they told him to seek Baldi he pricked up his ears wagged his tail and looked wistfully in the direction of nosy's hut evidently expecting his master to come in sight that way the men went to the nearest magistrate and informed him that the shepherd was missing a messenger went to the head station enquiries were made at the township and it was found that Baldi had been the nylon the previous day and had left in the evening carrying two bottles of gin this circumstance seemed to account for his absence he had taken too much of the liquor and was lying asleep somewhere and would reappear in the course of the day men both on foot and on horseback roamed through the rises examining the hollows and the flats the margins of the shallow lakes and peering into every wall bot hole as they passed they never thought of turning over any of the boulders a drunken man would never make his bed in blankets of rocks he would be found lying on the top if he had stumbled amongst them one by one as night approached the searchers returned to the hut they had discovered nothing and the only conclusion they could come to was that Baldi was taking a very long sleep somewhere which was true enough and the next day the men went in and they left end of section 16