Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1898-09-08

reach of his means, and he could only
remain in camp by taking Il berth as
ovcrsocr or something of that sort,
which, Of course, would offer no pros
poet Of that sudden rise to wealth
which in common with every other dig
ger on the fields he had so confidently
anticipated, and which alone could
realize the hopes that he cherished on a
certain subject which lay very near to
his heart
Now there is we'll known fact
which writers of fiction have very nat
urally plagiarized TO a considerable OK
tent. 1t is, generally and moro espe-
cially i'll such CANDLES with destiny as
! diamond hunting and gold digging,
that mans fortunes change for tho
better, if they are going to do so at ALL
just when he seems to have the best
reasons for accusing the fates of using
loaded dice to his disadvantage. 1t is
also truo that under such circumstances
the capricious fatcs delight to bring
about the change through some appar-
entity inadequate and often disreputable
agency
1t was just this way with Tom Bur
rows Shortly after he had begun on his
claim he had, to all intcnts ard pur-
poses, bought bushman from white
digger whom he one day found i'll using
him little worse than a Shoreditch
savage is accustomed to use his wife.
He had oXpostulated with the digger,
who told him in terms of almost sui
phurous eloqucnce to mind his own
business For the next l., minutes by
tho clock the bushman had rest, and
his master, when he had decided that
he had really been in fight and not an
:. earthquake, was not in position to go
on with his licking.
The next proceeding was an adjourn
ment to the nearest bar, where Tom
stood the digger drink, paid the value
of the trihc which he had accused the
bushman Of stealing and so secured his
consent to the immediate transfer of his
services. That was the kind of man
Tom was.
Now, this bushman, who was known
on the fields as Shirty from the fact
that he was the only one of his kind
who possessed a shirt, or even frag-
ment of one Worn i'll the fashion of the
! white man, was dirty, drunken, dis
, reputable little savage. Like the rest OF
his species, he had received but few ad.
vantages from nature, and even these
he had not turned to any account.
a diSpassionatc estimate would have
placed him considerably lower in the
scale of responsibility than n dcccntly
brought up dog, but in one respect al
least ho would not have suffered by
comparison with dog. Though he only
dimly grasped what it meant, he hat
,, never forgotten the one kindness thai
=. had been done him during the course o.
his sordid and degraded existence, ant
80 it happened in the weird arrange
mcnt of human things be was able It
) repay it with magnificent interest.
OF course he knew OF tho sale of tn,
claim. His new master had treated hin
firmly, but still with no approach I,
> brutality, and he had no taste to chang
his service for that of Macadam o
. Grunstcin. Tho first thing he did on re
= coiving his dismissal and the last of hi
" wages was to go and have drink o
y Cape Smoke, and it seemed as though
III
!, some occult virtue in that commonl,
= fatal fluid kindled somewhere within
- the recesses of his halS developed littl
y brain a ray of real, independent intclli
. gence.
- He didn't take q second drink, and
- still moro wonderful, he seemed t
3 know that if he had done so he woul
- have gone on as long as his money last
" ed or he could see to get the stuff int
his mouth He went right away, as
!, dog who hears his masters whist
would have done, to Tom S shanty. Tor
was there in the middle of his brow
- study, and no greeted his late retaine
- somewhat gruflly. But Shirty did nc
:. mind this; he was accustomed to it.
~ Humbly but insistently he took hir
" by the edge of his coat and drew hil
:, to the door and out into the open ali
y. ~ 1t was a clear, magnificent starry nigh,
l. and when they got out Shirty bega
- pointing at the stars and muttering
~ his queer cultural voice, with man
:. clicks and grunts, and in an almoi
+. hopeless mixture of English, Dutch an
is his own language about some plaC
~ where there were us many Of the "sheel
10 ey klippics" which people found in Il
TO mines as there were stars in the SIX
ra Moreover those same stars would sho
or him, Shirty, how to guido the goc
G. white baas to the place where the
IN We're.
n. Tom did not get at the meaning
I'd this all at once, but when he did and
fl. had satisfied himself first, that Shirt
to was not drunk, and, secondly that
I'd was very much in earnest he took hi
back into the hut and put him throue
is n stiff and lengthy cross examination
~ the result of which was that Shirt
N after coming to the end of his vocab1
in larry, went down on his hands and knc
of on the mud floor and with an old kni
# and certain bits of stick drew lines al
To made dots and stuck tho bits of site
10. upright at equal distances from eaC
os other until there were 80 Of them in
II line reaching half way across the foo
NO Tom got the key to the hicroglyphi
ho by recognizing that the dots were il
M tended to show the positions of the bi
We ger and brighter stars which Shirty h,
= pointed ont to him during his prelim
nary discourse outside, and ultiniatol
ma after considerable study and much ia
&c in mixed languages, he arrived at Il