"Well," said Archie, "when you put it in that light, I can see matters clearly. I wouldn't offend my good old Uncle Ramsay's friend for all the world. I'm sorry I ever appeared bluff with him. So you can let him do as he pleases."
And so Winslow did to a great extent.
Nor do I blame Bob and Harry for accepting his friendly assistance. Better far to be beholden to a private individual, who is both earnest and sincere, than to a money-lending company, who will charge double interest, and make you feel that your soul is not your own.
Better still, I grant you, to wait and work and plod; but this life is almost too short for much waiting, and after all, one half of the world hangs on to the skirts of the other half, and that other half is all the more evenly balanced in consequence.
I would not, however, have my young readers misunderstand me. What I maintain is this, that although a poor man cannot leave this country in the expectation that anybody or any company will be found to advance the needful to set him up in the business of a squatter, still, when he has worked hard for a time, beginning at the lowermost ring of the ladder, and saved enough to get a selection, and a few cattle and sheep, then, if he needs assistance to heave a-head a bit, he will—if everything is right and square—have no difficulty in finding it.
So things went cheerily on at Burley New Farm. And at last Winslow and Etheldene took their departure, promising to come again.
"So far, lads," said Winslow, as he mounted his horse, "there hasn't been a hitch nowheres. But mind keep two hands at the wheel."
Mr. Winslow's grammar was not of the best, and his sentences generally had a smack of the briny about them, which, however, did not detract from their graphicness.
"Tip us your flippers, boys," he added, "and let us be off. But I'm just as happy as if I were a father to the lot of you."
Gentleman Craig shook hands with Mr. Winslow. He had already helped Etheldene into her saddle.