The San Francisco call., 1899-05-14

z UsTRALIA again! Well, what
~ does it matter how many years
" had rassed?
- Sandy Magee Cthe coach driver1,
I L q bit grayer, a little more fur
rowed round the eyes, petted and
hustled and swore and drove four
horse team along the deep-rutted bush
track between Grafton and Solferino. We
were alone. ! on the box seat beside him
Sandy and coached that track once be-
fore alone together but we were going
the other way then and I was pretty well
broken I'D. and showed the raw red Of
healing scars I shall always carry with
ne. We crossed the old ford on the Clar-
C-ce again, with the green island few
Yards from the bank, and the broad, nat
Shelf of rock in the middle with a deep
-sp into a dozen feet Of water a few
inches or the near wheels, into which my
mate and I went neutrality-suspicious.
end alI-the first time we ever attempted
e. BY the way, we built the first punt
that ever carried a dray across 1t in HOOD
t.ue-s good punt; 1t floats to-day-and
we were driving quietly through old pad
docks on the Yuglbar-Og1lv1e'S the very
gum trees Of which were familiar. We
riur-rarked many an acre of those same
paddocEs. my mate and 1, at a price
which was never paid US; but that doesn'
matter now Presently we came TO a dip
where the track led through heavy tim
her down q gorge at the foot OF the
ranges in which the Solferino dtggtngs
lay.
YOU remember Dago?'' said Sandy,
pointing with his whip to a little grass
crown heap Of mullock about dozen
Yards from the track on our right
DO ] remember Dago?" Yes, I remem-
rered Dago we'll. Ny hand went involun-
tirily to q heavy scar on my chin That 8
Ia-o sandy" said I, pointing to it
''Weu-thats Dago-over there" nodded
Sandy. with his head.
7 looked round at the mullock heap, and
as turned my companion fiicked at
hlovvfv on the of leaders rump, who,
suddenly jumping forward, jerked the old
rattletrap Of a coach half across the
track
whoa, marei Whoa, Yes" (as we
swung into line again at a gaIlop), that's
Dago. Whoa, can't yer?'
But they'd all four got the fidgets, and
7c fieW along the next few hundred yards
O s If the devil was after US.
So that was Dago! It set me thinking
wandering back to New South Wales
when I was a lad-a lad on the tramp for
gold. Gold 7 couldn't win IN coined SOW
ereigns at home. but with hope in my
heart and the dreams Of youth I set out
from my ship TO dig from the hard earth
of q strange land.
And Sandy told me his memories as we
drove through the silent bush told
Sandy mine IN return; and some Of the
terrible minutes Of our lives came back
20 rs both out Of the past, and we lived
them over again.
I have had other memorable minutes,
but I don't remember so much being
c-ammed into one of them as into that
one which flashed back through our minds
when Sandy said, You remember Dago|'
Yes. I remember the city of Grafton,
which now revels in bishop, a cathedral
snd other appliances Of civilization, when
q was only a struggling bush settlement
consisting Of one accommodation house,
perhaps a dozen Weatherboard shanties,
4 forge and a few tents dotted about at
Irregular distances from one another on
either side of one long. straight, grass
crown street.
But Grafton was looked upon even In
hose days as quite a 'place"-for 1t
toasted an annual race meeting and a
wharf on the river bank where once a
fortnight the steamer from Sydney used
10 call-an occurrence Of the greatest i'm
Tartance to the entire population, who
gathered regularly at the waterside to
witness it.
Grafton was the receiving place on the
4 'larence River for the produce coming
= IF the stations to the north; and it sud
denly sprang into Importance through be-
ing the nearest point Of debarkation for
the new gold rush that broke out at Sol
ferino, a point in the Yugilbar ranges.
seventy-ive miles away.
1t was a scorching hot day in the seven
ties that I and my mate, young Scotch
man who had passed for the army, and
VINO while waiting for his commission had
come out 10 Australia in the same ship
with myself first set eyes in the place.
We landed, and the same evening left
for the digRings by the one long strag-
Cling street which gradually dwindled
away into a track, and soon lost itself in
the depths OF the primeval forest.
We steered northward by the compass.
Besides ourselves there were our dog, q
shambling, long-legged yellow kangaroo
hound we called Jack and one pack
'R0sinante."
Somehow or other we soon lost the
blaze-tree line-the only indication Of a
way to the gold fields; but after many
ratdships and nishaps we recovered the
track, made Solferino at last pitched
camp, and then settled down TO the life
of he diggings among some hundreds Of
others attracted there by the more or less
ageerated reports of the rich finds"
cu the reefs. / still possess my miners
T.Eht, which 1 treasure as a relic of past
days.
There was little or no alluvial gold at
Solferino. however, the work being nearly
all reefing, and we at once started out to
Prospect soon stumbling on a blow-up
~ gold-bearing quartz. and following it
down TO a reef which we duly registered
as the Don Juan" There were six of US
in it; my mate. the army officer; Sam
bevere, an Irishman and a barrister; Abb
hott. a smart young fellow who had been
IN the police; Harry Allen, a Royal
AcalanH Of M11eic -raara from I1nndnn rhn