Then Came A Sudden Change Of Fortune, And In Two Weeks More He
Was Comparatively Rich.
He hastened immediately to Melbourne, and for a
whole week had sought his family in vain.
At length, on the preceding
evening, he found them only in time to witness the last moments of his
wife.
Sad as this history may appear, it is not so sad as many, many others;
for often, instead of returning with gold, the digger is never heard of
more.
In England many imagine that the principal labour at the diggings
consists in stooping to pick up the lumps of gold which lie upon the
ground at their feet, only waiting for some one to take possession of
them. These people, when told of holes being dug in depths of from
seven to forty feet before arriving at the desired metal, look upon
such statements as so many myths, or fancy they are fabricated by the
lucky gold-finders to deter too many others from coming to take
a share of the precious spoil. There was a passenger on board the
vessel which took me to Australia, who held some such opinions as
these, and, although in other respects a sensible man, he used
seriously to believe that every day that we were delayed by contrary
winds he could have been picking up fifty or a hundred pounds worth of
gold had he but been at the diggings. He went to Bendigo the third day
after we landed, stayed there a fortnight, left it in disgust, and
returned to England immediately - poorer than he had started.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 197 of 201
Words from 52686 to 52952
of 53870
