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To rot in a poorhouse or to sweep a crossing would have been my lot, or there might have been a worse alternative. I had enough left to pay my passage out here. It was a wise move the only wise thing I ever did in my life. My expectations on landing were foolish, and before I could realise them I had the chance of going to gaol or becoming a hut-keeper."
"You appear to be fond of reading," said Arthur, glancing at the Horace, which had been placed on a shelf among a few other books. "Ah! a friend of my early days. He serves to beguile many a weary hour," answered the hut-keeper, with a sigh. Arthur did not like to ask questions. "We brought a few books with us into the bush; I shall be glad to lend them to you," he said.
James was at first inclined to laugh at it. "The scoundrels dare not injure us!" he exclaimed. Then he remembered Basham's revengeful looks, and the surly manner of several of the hands, and finally agreed with his brother that it would be wiser to go armed, and keep together. They had removed the hut-keeper to another post, and placed Green in charge of their abode.
No, they don't live in hovels. Those who go home but once a week are housed in good wooden sheds, or corrugated iron buildings, with good beds and bedclothes. There are about forty of them in a hut, with a hut-keeper to look after them and to keep order. For this excellent lodging they are charged sixpence a week, and all their prog is supplied at wholesale prices.
But thy master's money may bide in a's pouch. Get thy saddles off, lad, and come in; 'tis a smittle night for rheumatics." I helped Dick to take off the saddles, and, having hobbled our horses with stirrup-leathers, we went in. Our little old friend was the hut-keeper, as I saw at a glance.
The last remarks were made as he stood holding the rein of Arthur's horse. Arthur rode round the run, inspected the flock, and had to pass near the hut again on his return homeward. The hut-keeper, Charles Craven he called himself, was on the watch for him. "I must have a word with you, Mr Gilpin," he said.
They camped about twenty miles on the line we were going, at a place where there was good feed and water, but well out of the way and on a lonely road. There had been an old sheep station there and a hut, but the old man had been murdered by the hut-keeper for some money he had saved, and a story got up that it was haunted by his ghost.
"I can enter into your feelings," said Arthur kindly. "The life you lead must indeed be dull." "Ah! it might be far worse, though," answered the hut-keeper; "poverty out here can scarcely be said to pinch. I often ask myself what might it have been, or what certainly would it have been, had I remained in London till my last shilling was gone.
The yellow-haired young man looked round to see if he could get the others to join him in a laugh. The hut-keeper said, "Oh, h !" and attended once more to the cooking; but the neat-looking man rose up, and gave Frank courteously "good day." "I am a clergyman," said Frank, "come to pay you a visit, if you will allow me."
They and Larry shouted loudly to the hut-keeper to call the animals off, but no one appeared, and, the dogs contenting themselves with barking, they proceeded on to the hut, from the window of which the light gleamed out.
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