"We will take your proposition into consideration. But there is one thing that you have forgotten. What offices are my two friends here to get?"
"O, we'll make 'em senators, or somethin' of that sort. They shall be cared for in some way or other."
I could only bow my thanks to the kind gentleman, but before I could reply, the inspector joined us.
"Ah, Ben, you and Charley here," he said, in a careless way. "How does the indignation meetings and the petitions get along?"
"Wall, we have another meetin' to-night, and I think that it will be a rouser. We shall make ourselves heard yet, Mr. Brown."
"I have no doubt that you will, but it will be in a different manner from what you anticipate. Let me advise moderation, or there may be trouble."
"There kin be a muss if we is disregarded, and made to pay for what we don't have," answered Ben, sullenly; and with that shot the Americans left the tent.
"Of all the unreasonable brutes that I ever encountered, the miners of Ballarat appear to be the worst," ejaculated Mr. Brown. "That fellow, Charley, has not worked ten weeks in the mines, and yet he talks as glibly of the evils of taxation as though the government was wringing the last shilling from his possession. He is a pot house wrangler, as we call them in England, and is a positive nuisance at Ballarat"
Mr. Brown appeared to be disgusted with our countryman, for he displayed more temper than we had seen since we had made his acquaintance.
"But the miners have some reason for complaint," I said. "Taxation without representation is wrong, and has occasioned much ill feeling and bloodshed."