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. The party her husband belonged to
had two tents, one of which they readily gave up to the married couple,
as they were only too glad to have the company and in-door assistance
of a sensible, active woman during their spell at the diggings.
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