He might not have got hold of it, you
know, anyhow. He went down again among th' white water, and I never
saw him no more--only when I am dreaming. I always dream about
him. I can see his face come up above the boiling water, and when he
screams I wake up. I can never get clear of him out of my head; and
yet, mind you, I didn't drown him; he fell in of his self, and I just
missed throwing him th' rope, that's all; and I wasn't bound to do
it, was I?
"As for the money I got for the seal skins, I could have lived
comfortably on it all my life, but it never did me no good. I
started drinking, trying to forget that Port Albert man, but it was
no use. Every shilling was soon gone, and eversince I've been doing
odd jobs and loafing about the publics. I've never done no good and
never shall. Let's have just another nobbler afore we turn in."
A HAPPY CONVICT.
"Thrice did I receive forty stripes, save one."
It was court day at Palmerston, and there was an unusual amount of
business that morning. A constable brought in a prisoner, and
charged him with being a vagrant--having no lawful visible means of
support. I entered the charge in the cause list, "Police v. John
Smithers, vagrancy," and then looked at the vagrant. He was growing
aged, was dressed in old clothes, faded, dirty, and ill-fitting; he
had not been measured for them.
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