"It's a great comfort, Mr. Arthur," said he, as his three young friends stood near him in his new workshop. "It's a great comfort to have a good chest of tools again, and that thief, Peter, no longer here to make off with them; and to be working at good jobs that we shall not have to run away and leave behind us, as we had to do when those ugly black fellows were always hanging at our heels."
"But, Jack," answered Hugh, "do you know that Mr. Deverell has a number of those black fellows employed on his estate, who not only wear clothes and live in huts, but speak English, behave quietly and honestly, and attend prayers regularly with the other work-people. Baldabella is very glad to meet with the native women, who are not jins here, but wives; she certainly holds herself a little above them, but she condescends to teach them decorum and the manners of society. We are all to be employed in the schools immediately, and then you will see what wonders papa and Arthur and Margaret will effect among these poor natives."
"Well, Master Hugh," answered Jack, with a certain air of incredulity, "I hope, by God's help, it may turn out as you say; but you'll not get Wilkins to believe such a thing. He hates blacks like toads, and always did. There's Susan, however, she is a quiet, good lass; but she has a good spirit, and maybe she may win her good man to think better of them. But, Mr. Arthur, now you are at your proper work among books, and Master Hugh and Master Gerald, they'll be riding about on the land, I shall not see much of you; there's no need for any of you to take up a hammer now."
"Your workshop will always be a favorite resort, depend on it, Jack," said Arthur; "but I am going to read hard for the next year, to make up for lost time. Then papa intends me to go to England, to be entered at one of the universities."
"And to return to us the Reverend Arthur Mayburn," said Gerald, "ready to help papa, and, I should say, to marry little Emma."
"But I shall always come and help you, Jack, when I have time," said Hugh; "we should all be mechanics here, in case of vicissitudes. My particular pursuit will be to study medicine with Charles Deverell, to be fitted for the second doctor when our colony shall be so much increased that two are required. Gerald is to be farmer, and hunter, and game-keeper, and ornithological assistant to papa; and then, I think, Jack, we shall form such a pleasant, cosy family circle, that we shall none of us feel any inclination 'to take to the bush.'"
"Farewell to the cowardly bush-rangers," said Gerald. "They never dare face such a band of heroes. I shall be head ranger myself; and on grand occasions I shall call you all around me for a field-day, to beat the bushes, and keep up our character of successful Kangaroo Hunters."