"Well, when they all got out, Harry would
have it that wife and child must go with him and
me to Bendigo. I wished them to be left in
some respectable lodging-house, but Harry was
obstinate.

"'It's no use talking, Tom,' says he; 'I will
not leave them in this rowdy place. Things
are bad, indeed, as you say, at Eagle Hawk, but
I'll have a first-rate marquee for them, and I'll
pitch it always near where we work; so they'll
be all right.'

"We went up to Bendigo in a spring waggon,
well roofed, and arrived in safety. The marquee
was pitched quite close to our 'claims,' and in
a short time Peggy was as happy as possible.
Her life not laborious, as you may guess, sir ;
for we even got washing done for her, which
is much to say in the case of a digger's wife.

"I really do think that the happiest days I
ever spent in my life were the days I spent
there, working hard with Harry for a few
hours, and spending most of my evenings with
Peggy, the little girl, and Harry. My God!
what a queer power some children have over a
man! I'll give you an instance.

"One evening little Lizzy was sitting on my
knee very silent; all at once she says:

"'Do oo ever say oor prayers?'

"Now this took me quite aback, for I had
promised my mother, many years before, never
to neglect this. I didn't know well what to
answer, so I said:

"' Why do you ask me that, Liz?' And her
answer was stranger:

"'Because I like oo, Tom, and because I
want God to like oo. God won't like oo if oo
don't say oor prayers.'

"And then the little thing slid down from
my knee, knelt on the ground, and said:

"'Pray God make Tom good; pray God
like Tom; pray God make Tom say his prayers.'"

There was a tremendous pause after this.
My Orderly seemed to have swallowed one of
those confounded mosquitoes, and was trying
hard for a long time to get it up. I made a
remark to encourage him, and he went on.

"We had to shift our quarters, at last, from
want of water, so we went to another gully at
some distance, where there was much deep sinking.
We sunk several holes, and did pretty
well for some time.

"When here, I met a man that I felt at once
a deadly hatred to. It's not my nature, and
it was a very strange thing. I met him at
a grog-shop; for I wasn't a saint, and used to
take my glass now and then. This fellow was
a tall, lanky, black-browed fellow, with a scowl
——well, when he tried to laugh, why, of the
two, I preferred the scowl.

"He seemed to dislike every human being
except little Lizzie, but he really acted as
though he liked her. Every time he passed
our camp and saw her, he would try to make
her take a small nugget, or a few raisins, or
currants, or walnuts. The child always refused
his gifts. She shuddered when he spoke to her,
and used to run up to Harry or me for protection.

''Harry shared with me this feeling of hatred,
for it was nothing else; and when persons have
such feelings as these it does not take much to
make a quarrel; so a quarrel did take place
between Harry and this man Cornish, and Harry
gave him an awful hammering. As Cornish was
leaving the place, he held up his finger in a
threatening way to Harry, and gave him such a
devilish look out of his battered eyes as I shall
never forget to my dying day. Harry only
laughed at him,and asked him if he wanted
any more? But I well remembered a similar
gesture that I read of in Sir Walter Scott's
tale of the 'Two Drovers,' and I felt very
uneasy.

"At length the gully began to thin. Men
left their claims, and no others came in their
place. Our hole was cleared out, and there
was nothing for it but to go 'prospecting.'

"Harry and I started one morning, intending
to be back by nightfall. Little Lizzy
clung to me and besought me 'not to tay long.'
But on our way back we got bewildered in a
dense scrub, and it was far in the night before
we got clear of it.

"Don't believe them, sir, that laugh at
forebodings of evil. I was as sure there was
something wrong as I was of my existence. Yes,
and there was something wrong. When we got
back, Peggy was surrounded by the few women
of the place, quite insensible. Harry turned sick,
and was going to fall. He could only say to
me as I held him up, 'Ask, ask.'

"'What is all this, Mrs. Murphy?' I asked.

"'Och, Tom dear, poor little Lizzy. The
Lord be good to me;' and she sobbed in genuine
sorrow.

"I was trembling all over, and felt very
giddy, but I managed to gasp out:

"'Will no one here, in God's name, tell us
what has happened?'

"'She's lost, Tom. Every one's hunting for
her everywhere. She's lost since sundown.'

"Harry rose up as cool as man could be,
assisted the women to restore his wife to her
senses, and then, after fearful explosions of
grief, we learned that Peggy had gone down to
the creek for water, leaving Lizzie asleep in the
marquee. The creek was some distance off,
and as she did not feel well, she sat down
many times to rest. When she got back, Lizzy
was gone."

Here My Orderly (No. 1) appeared to have
swallowed about a dozen mosquitoes, and somehow
my Other Orderlies began to complain what
an infernal nuisance "them beasts of horse
mosquitoes were."

"'Cheer up, my girl,' says Harry; 'all's not
lost that's in danger. Tom and I must go and
see about this?'

"We went outside, and, before we mounted
our horses, Tom came up to me and said:

"'Let me feel your hand, Tom. Right, you
are all there, I see. I want to say one word to
you, Tom. I am a very wicked man.'

"'Are you a lunatic. Harry?' says I. 'Has
this turned your brain after all?'