Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1907-10-24
you fear. Peggy! I'm not such a TOOL
as all that, and I'll give them no rea.

as all that, and I'll give them no rea.
Son. you may depend"
They may be afther maxim one.
Tom. dear. Faith an they'd have n
ready made If they cot ye here! There's
the second bell. For Gods sake be OF
an reminder Peggy's words"
"I'll go when I'm ready, Peggy, not
until: and don't shut down that win
dow or you'll take of my fingers.
Your hand again! It's to you shall
owe my whole skin"
he gave her his hand. She took it be-
tween both Of hers and pressed it with
a tervor that should have given him
another warning or the spot. But her
kind voice only put him in mind Of
Claire SO far away; nor did he hear 1t
again for some few days. Now and
then she would wave to him from the
kitchen window. but it was always to
wave him back. More often he waved
to her from the stable door, but she
Invariably shook her black head at him
with the greatest vigor.
Meanwhile her words came true.
Mr.. Nat had conceived a palpable
spite against the new groom, and from
things the latter heard in the convicts'
hut, where he went for his meals, he
might have understood the reason,
these same things making him the less
eager to see very much more Of Peggy
the cook. Still, he gave her q wave
whenever he espied her in the distance,
for he owed the girl much already. He
was daily profiting by her good advice,
since no day passed without its meas
ure of willful %provocation from the
rufianly Nat. But Tom was not to be
provoked by sheer or taunt or oath.
Moreover, he made an excellent groom
and, being seen no more about the
house, gave nc further occasion to the
enemy, who dropped his overt perse-
cutions, but detested Tom the more
for his unexceptionable conduct.
This feeling was intensified by the
effect of that conduct in a certain
quarter. Tom became quite a %favorite
with the despotic old army surgeon,
~ NAAs ANoI WCAI i NOaS ~ olSoa
Of his 'sunstrokes'' in Sydney and on
the road coming to his fathers ears.
1t was this dread that decided him to
let Tom alone and to bide his own
time for revenge, for, besides being
privy to the sons Irregularities and
dangerously established in the fathers
favor, the new groom had indeed done
Mr.. Nat an injury Of which he himself
was all unconscious. Days grew into
weeks meanwhile, the old year burnt
into the new, and one week day was
still much like another on this print
tive Australian farm. When the third
bell rang at sunrise, every hut dis
gorged it's surcharge Of %convicts, and
Ginger called them " like SO many
schoolboys in front of the palisade.
Then the shepherds to the pastures,
the plowmen to the arabic land, the
bullock drivers to their teams, and
Tom to his stables for the livelong
day. Such as could come were sum-
moned to breakfast at 8 and to dinner
at 1 by the great bell changing in its
eu%calyptian belfry, and all hands were
recalled by 1T between s and 8 at night.
! Sunday was a nominal day Of rest
which included two long compulsory
services in the courtyard beneath a
savage SUI. DR.. Sullivan read the
prayers with the voice of an execu-
toner, his bamboo cane on the desk
in front of him for use as a baton
or as an instrument Of correction for
the nan who dared to smile or to
whisper within his reach. The terrible
old man would also take this weekly
opportunity Of animadverting on the
lost souls and abandoned character Of
his convicts in general, with particular
illusions to those whose enormities had
earned them the lash during the pre-
ceding week. He never failed to as
sure future offenders that they would
be punished without mercy in their
turn and would slash the desk with
his cane to emphasize his words. So
religion and ferocity ran hand in hand
at Castle Sullivan, o wa hypocrisy
very far behind. Mr.. Nat led the
hymns in a devout, sustained, stem
torian below. while d maiden sister,
the only lady Of the establishment,
whose voice the convicts never heard
and whose face they seldom saw but
on these occasions, supplied a per.
functory accompaniment Oh the piano.
forte.
Amid the branches Of the red gums
without docks Of parrots would chat
ter mockingly. their vivid reds and
yellows lighting up the somber hues
Of those perennial leaves that whis-
pered none the less enticingly Of cool
siestas in the shade. Yet Sunday after
Sunday these tyrannicaT observances
were maintained and enforced, and
the evangelical doctor loved to boast
of the device whereby lie had enforced
them in the beginning. On the first
Sunday nine-tenths' Of IFS men had
announced themselves Roman Cath
olics. So he had drawn up these gentry
in line outside the palisade' and there
kept them standing out of earshot, but
in the full glare Of the sun; during the
entire service. And on the Sunday fol
lowing there was not a Roman, Cath,
ole among them.