you the letter when we get home) 'he put
two balls through my hat; but I fetched him
down with one of my snap shots, without
putting the gun to my shoulder, as he looked
round a tree. You mind, Moggy, how I
used to knock the rabbits that way, holding
the gun across my knees; but there's no
rabbits here, nor game worth speaking of,
which is a great pity; but perhaps it is all
for the best.' Then he went to tell how he'd
got a fifty-acre grant and a small lot of cattle,
and had made money by his wages and by
attending to the great Mr. L——'s herd of
breeders, and had bought grants of land from
drinking fellows; and what a good country it
was for all kinds of live stock; and what a
profit wheat paid, the government wanting
such a quantity of meal for the prisoners; and
how land could be had on grant by a farmer
with some money; and how drunken many of
the people were, and how well sober people got
on; 'for,' says he, 'I've given up drink, Moggy,
ever since I got my liberty!' Then he asked
after his old friends, and even the
gamekeeper, hoping he had got over that clout;
and after his old master, that was me, and
wished Master Bowsted, a wild young
gentleman that used to go poaching with Tom,
might think of coming out; and then he
gave a list of prices of cattle and sheep, and
wages; and ended by saying he had sent £50.,
to be paid through the Durham bank, to
Mister Gabriel, that's me, for the passage
of his wife and family; and if he did not hear
this time, he should not write no more, but
give it up for a bad job. And, sure enough,
three days after came a notice that the money
had come.

"Well, we spelled it over again and again;
the two lads wept, and so did my wife;
and I could scarcely help weeping myself, to
think what a comfort it would have been to
poor Moggy Birkenshaw if she had lived, and
to think, too, what a help and warning this
letter seemed. Well, I got on my nag, and
took a turn round the farm, just to give me
time to consider what or whether I should say
any thing about emigrating to my wife. The
time was come for me to make up my mind.
Tom Birkenshaw's letter had turned the scale
with me; but when I looked round, and saw in
the distance the spires of the cathedral that
had so often been a glad sign of home near,
after a long absence, my heart almost failed me.
The thought of a farewell for ever to the
country and the county and the parish where
I was born; of seeing no more the fields in
which I had laboured and sported for nearly
forty years, seemed indeed a draught too
bitter. Then, again, I recalled my present
position, sliding surely, in spite of my
struggles, in spite of my clingings to every twig of
stay—down, down to ruin; and my heart was
hardened for any change that offered fair
hopes of an honest living.

"At length, my mind was made up. I
would speak to my wife that very evening,
and find whether she would cross the seas, or
fight it out with poverty at home. With
this resolution I rode back, firmer in my
saddle than I had been for many a day. It
was dusk, and supper laid out: they were
waiting for me for prayers; it was my second
son Barnard's turn to read a chapter. My
wife (it was not her custom) went herself,
fetched the Bible, a lighted candle, and,
putting her finger on a place, said to Barnard,
in a voice that sounded as if she was
swallowing her tears, 'There, read there,' and the
boy read:—

"'Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get
thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred,
and from thy father's house, unto a land that
I will shew thee.'

"Then I looked at her and with a sad and
serious smile, her eyes answered me, and I
knew we were agreed.

"The next day we began to prepare for
our long journey. Weary work it was and
painful, deciding what to take and what to
sell. Many a treasure was sacrificed; old
oak presses, chairs, and bedsteads, that had
belonged to our family for centuries, had
to go under the auctioneer's hammer. But
we went at the work with a will, and
cleared away wholesale. We, who were old
and the full-grown, were sad; but the
children played and enjoyed the confusion,
which made us still sadder.

"Having chosen what furniture would be
useful, as well as what would take up little
room and sell for nothing, and made a careful
muster of tools and agricultural implements,
half of which turned out useless, I selected
three of my finest yearling bulls, and made a
barter of other stock for a cart and a blood
stallion.

"The sorest trial was the day of sale, and
the remarks of my friends and neighbours.
No criminal was ever considered more a
doomed man; and on looking back, I often
wonder how I had courage to persevere. I
got rid of my farms at a great sacrifice; but
having made up my mind to go, I thought the
sooner I was gone the better.

"The only parties who would join me in
emigrating were two young men, small
farmers, Granby's father and Will
Blackwood, who was killed by the Blacks near
where we stand; he's buried by the chapel,
but you can see the mounds where we covered
over the savages. Budge and Grundy followed
us two years afterwards. It was only those
very hard up that would think of crossing
the sea.

"As for the Squires they were very angry;
they did not like the example set to tenants,
and abused me as if I had been a deserter
or a traitor. Emigration was not in fashion
as it is now.

"Of friends of my own standing, one did
not like the sea, another thought times would
mend, another was getting ready when his
wife stopped him, and so they stayed. Out