Chapter Fifteen.
Bob’s Story: Wild Life at the Diggings.
“Well, it all came about like this, Archie: ‘England,’ I said to myself, says I, ‘ain’t no place for a poor man.’ Your gentry people, most o’ them anyhow, are just like dogs in the manger. The dog couldn’t eat the straw, but he wouldn’t let the poor hungry cow have a bite. Your landed proprietors are just the same; they got their land as the dog got his manger. They took it, and though they can’t live on it all, they won’t let anybody else do it.”
“You’re rather hard on the gentry, Bob.”
“Well, maybe, Archie; but they ain’t many o’ them like Squire Broadbent. Never mind, there didn’t seem to be room for me in England, and I couldn’t help noticing that all the best people, and the freest, and kindest, were men like your Uncle Ramsay, who had been away abroad, and had gotten all their dirty little meannesses squeezed out of them. So when I left you, after cutting that bit o’ stick, I made tracks for London. I hadn’t much money, so I tramped all the way to York, and then took train. When I got to London, why I felt worse off than ever. Not a soul to speak to; not a face I knew; even the bobbies looking sour when I asked them a civil question; and starvation staring me in the face.”
“Starvation, Bob?”
“Ay, Archie, and money in my pocket. Plenty o’ shilling dinners; but, lo! what was one London shilling dinner to the like o’ me? Why, I could have bolted three! Then I thought of Harry here, and made tracks for whitechapel. I found the youngster—I’d known him at Burley—and he was glad to see me again. His granny was dead, or somebody; anyhow, he was all alone in the world. But he made me welcome—downright happy and welcome. I’ll tell you what it is, Archie lad, Harry is a little gentleman, Cockney here or Cockney there; and deep down below that white, thin face o’ his, which three years and over of Australian sunshine hasn’t made much browner, Harry carries a heart, look, see! that wouldn’t disgrace an English Squire.”
“Bravo, Bob! I like to hear you speak in that way about our friend.”