After the relation of the above tale of woe the elder Sawyer and his son resumed their work, and the conversation took a general turn; while William, who found he could not be of any service to the settlers, caught his horse and took his leave.
When he returned to his own place he found that, during his absence, the expected dray had arrived from town with their furniture, which lay strewn on the ground, in front of the cottage, where it had been discharged. And he at once became busy in unpacking and sorting the things; while his brother superintended the refreighting of the vehicle with what return loading they had for it. The man and wife who had been hired for them, and who had accompanied the dray, busied themselves in arranging the things in the cottage.
The proposed visit to the blacks, by this opportune arrival, was necessarily postponed; and it was determined that William should, that very afternoon, ride over to Strawberry Hill; inform Kate of the orders of things; and desire her to join them as soon as possible. John impressed upon his brother the necessity of urging Kate to lose no time, as the place would be quite ready for her by the following day; and he did not think, under the existing circumstances, it was consistent for her to remain longer with the Rainsfields than was absolutely necessary. "Of course," he said, "Kate would be perfectly ignorant of the rupture between myself and Mr. Rainsfield, and might therefore battle against so speedy and abrupt a termination to her visit." But he left the matter, he told William, to himself to manage, without entering into any explanations to their sister, which would necessarily be painful to all parties; besides which, he had no doubt, when Mrs. Rainsfield perceived it was his desire to have Kate home with them, she would offer no objection to her departure, as she would understand his motive for desiring it.
William was accordingly dispatched on the errand; and returning in the evening, in company with Tom Rainsfield, gave an account of his diplomacy. As was anticipated by the brothers, Kate could with difficulty be persuaded to break off her engagement with the Rainsfields; but that when she saw that both her brothers desired it, and that she was not pressed to prolong her visit, she reluctantly acceded to her brother's request; and promised to be ready to come over to Fern Vale on the following morning. So William had engaged to return for her the next day.
"It is lucky for you, my fine friend," said Tom, "that I was not at home, when you persuaded your sister to such an ungracious determination; for I, most assuredly, would have annihilated you, and kept her in captivity. It is really cruel just to leave her with us sufficiently long to cause us all to adore her; and then snatch her away from us in such an unceremonious manner. What on earth can you mean by carrying her off in this way?"
"Why," said John, "we are afraid of losing sight of you altogether, Tom; you would have forgotten us entirely while you retained possession of our Kate; and besides we want to make some use of our idle little sister. But tell us now, if you were not at home when William was at your house, pray, where did you spring from?"
"I have been over to the black's camp, to try and conciliate the rascals," replied Tom, "but I am sorry to find they are death on my brother for his treatment of them."
"You seem to have agitated them by your visit," said John, "for they have made a fearful disturbance all the afternoon."
"They were holding some discussion when I arrived there," said Tom, "but they were quieted upon my presenting myself."
"They appear then only to have been 'called to order' by you," said John, "and maintained it simply during your stay; for did you ever hear such a Babel of voices as are screaming now; it is enough to deafen us even at this distance."