Jack the Englishman

Cover art

H. LOUISA BEDFORD
AUTHOR OF HER ONLY SON, ISAAC MRS. MERRIMAN'S GODCHILD, ETC.
ILLUSTRATED BY WAL PAGET
LONDON SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE NEW YORK AND TORONTO: THE MACMILLAN CO.
Printed in Great Britain by Wyman & Sons Ltd., London, Reading and Fakenham.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER

JACK, THE ENGLISHMAN
It was a beautiful spring afternoon in the northern hill districts of Tasmania. The sky was of a bird's egg blue, which even Italy cannot rival, and the bold outline of hills which bounded the horizon, bush clad to the top, showed a still deeper azure blue in an atmosphere which, clear as the heaven above, had never a suggestion of hardness. Removed some half-mile from the little township of Wallaroo lay a farm homestead nestling against the side of the hill, protected behind by a belt of trees from the keen, strong mountain winds, and surrounded by a rough wood paling; but the broad verandah in the front lay open to the sunshine, and even in winter could often be used as the family dining-room. The garden below it was a mass of flowers for at least six months in the year, and there was scarcely a month when there was a total absence of them.