And now I hear they're going to war wi' Russia, and--
England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales--I hope they'll all get
blooming well licked. It don't mend a man much to transport him, nor
a woman either for that matter: they all grow worse than ever. When
I got my ticket I sometimes went working in th' bush, sometimes
whaling and sealing, and sometimes stripping bark at Western Port and
Portland Bay, before there was such a place as Melbourne. I was in a
whaler for two years about Wilson's Promontory, until the whales were
all killed or driven away. I never saved any money until nine years
back; we always went on th' spree and spent every penny directly we
were paid off. At that time I went with a man from Port Albert to
the Seal Islands in a boat. I knew of a place where there was a
cave, a big hollow under the rocks, where th' seals used to go to
sleep, and a blow hole coming out of it to th' top of the island. We
hired a boat and went there, and made a kind of a door which we could
drop down with a rope to shut up the mouth of th' cave and catch the
seals inside. We killed so many that we couldn't take th' skins away
all at once in the boat to Port Albert; we had to come back again. I
thowt to myself I'd be richer than ever I was in my life; th' skins
were worth hundreds of pounds. I had agreed to go halves with th'
Port Albert man, but, you see, he'd ha' never gotten a penny but for
me, because he knew nothing whatever about sealing.
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