Their call for us to remain
stationary came too late to save me from slipping into one of their
pits, thereby spraining my ankle and otherwise hurting myself, besides
being buried to my forehead in mud and water. The pit was not quite
five feet deep, but, unfortunately for myself in this instance, I
belong to the pocket edition of the feminine sex. They soon extricated
me from this perilous situation, and carried me to their tents, where,
by the assistance of my new friend, I was divested of the mud that
still clung to me, and placed into bed.
Before morning the storm, which we all thought had passed over, burst
forth with redoubled fury; the flashes of lightning were succeeded by
loud peals of thunder, and the rain came splashing down. Their tents
were situated on a slight rise, or they would have run great risk of
being washed away; every hole was filled with water, and the shea-oak,
of whose friendly shelter we had availed ourselves the evening before,
was struck by lightning, shivered into a thousand pieces. After a while
the storm abated, and the warm sun and a drying wind were quickly
removing all traces of it.
Frank and my brother, after an early breakfast, had set out for Eagle
Hawk Gully under the guidance of my fair friend's husband, who knew the
road thither very well; it was only three miles distant. He was to
bring back with him a change of clothing for me, as his wife had
persuaded my brother to leave me in her charge until I had quite
recovered from the effects of the accident, "which he more readily
promised," she observed, "as we are not quite strangers, having met
once before."
This awakened my curiosity, and I would not rest satisfied till fully
acquainted with the how, when, and where. Subsequently she related to
me some portion of the history of her life, which it will be no breach
of confidence to repeat here.
Short as it is, however, it is deserving of another chapter.
Chapter IX.
HARRIETTE WALTERS
Harriette Walters had been a wife but twelve months, when the sudden
failure of the house in which her husband was a junior partner involved
them in irretrievable ruin, and threw them almost penniless upon the
world. At this time the commercial advantages of Australia, the opening
it afforded for all classes of men, and above all, its immense mineral
wealth, were the subject of universal attention. Mr. Walters' friends
advised him to emigrate, and the small sum saved from the wreck of
their fortune served to defray the expenses of the journey. Harriette,
sorely against her wishes, remained behind with an old maiden
aunt, until her husband could obtain a home for her in the colonies.
The day of parting arrived; the ship which bore him away disappeared
from her sight, and almost heart-broken she returned to the humble
residence of her sole remaining relative.
Ere she had recovered from the shock occasioned by her husband's
departure, her aged relation died from a sudden attack of illness, and
Harriette was left alone to struggle with her poverty and her grief.
The whole of her aunt's income had been derived from an annuity, which
of course died with her; and her personal property, when sold, realized
not much more than sufficient to pay a few debts and the funeral
expenses; so that when these last sad duties were performed, Harriette
found herself with a few pounds in her pocket, homeless, friendless,
and alone.
Her thoughts turned to the distant land, her husband's home, and every
hope was centred in the one intense desire to join him there. The means
were wanting, she had none from whom she could solicit assistance, but
her determination did not fail. She advertized for a situation
as companion to an invalid, or nurse to young children, during the
voyage to Port Philip, provided her passage-money was paid by her
employer. This she soon obtained. The ship was a fast sailer, the winds
were favourable, and by a strange chance she arrived in Melbourne three
weeks before her husband. This time was a great trial to her. Alone and
unprotected in that strange, rough city, without money, without
friends, she felt truly wretched. It was not a place for a female to be
without a protector, and she knew it, yet protector she had none; even
the family with whom she had come out, had gone many miles up the
country. She possessed little money, lodgings and food were at an awful
price, and employment for a female, except of a rough sort, was not
easily procured.
In this dilemma she took the singular notion into her head of
disguising her sex, and thereby avoiding much of the insult and
annoyance to which an unprotected female would have been liable. Being
of a slight figure, and taking the usual colonial costume - loose
trowsers, a full, blue serge shirt, fastened round the waist by
a leather belt, and a wide-awake - Harriette passed very well for what
she assumed to be - a young lad just arrived from England. She
immediately obtained a light situation near the wharf, where for about
three weeks she worked hard enough at a salary of a pound a week,
board, and permission to sleep in an old tumbledown shed beside the
store.
At last the long looked-for vessel arrived. That must have been a
moment of intense happiness which restored her to her husband's
arms - for him not unmingled with surprise; he could not at first
recognize her in her new garb. She would hear of no further separation,
and when she learnt he had joined a party for the Bendigo diggings, she
positively refused to remain in Melbourne, and she retained her boyish
dress until their arrival at Bendigo.
