They rested, not from exhaustion, but to quiet the excessive trembling of their limbs.

The young ladies had many "oh's," and "O dear's!" While sometimes, notwithstanding restraining effort, tears would burst forth as a fresh shock came to the nervous system or a severer strain upon muscle. One or two young men were heard to mutter something between their teeth, as they made a false step or kicked a corn against something harder than itself.

"What did you say?" asked a lassie of one.
"O, Nazareth!" was his rather sulky reply.

But they got down in safety to the Springs, where their arrival had been awaited by papas and mammas, not to mention the boiling Billy, and the bread and butter.

They did not remain lingering long over the pannicans, for twilight was approaching, and much of the way was deeply shaded by the forest. But the triumphs of their progress were secured. The boys had huge branches of flowering shrubs. Horace had vegetable as well as mineral specimens, and all the ladies must have both rice plant and waratah.

The journey from the Springs was nothing like so lively as that going up to them. There was no hurrying. Those who walked were so tired, and those who rode tarried for company. The ladies had another motive for delay. How could they be seen by daylight! And then they glanced, half in mirth and half

⚫ in real concern, at their draggle-tails. They had clearly

F

been in the wars, and had come off with more wounds than glories.

Bedtime followed closely upon arrival at the respective homesteads. The sleep was long, but attended with many starts; for dreams were busy on the brain, and precipices were yawning for the sleeper.

And the morrow! O the subdued movement! What tender solicitude was shown for joints and skin! How the party moaned and groaned, while laughing and chaffing! Yet no one would have missed the trip, and all declared that there was nothing like the ascent of Mount Wellington.

CHAPTER X.

A COLONIAL LAD.

TOM TURNER was not a bad specimen of a Colonial lad, more commonly called in Sydney a Currency lad. He proudly boasted of being a Tasmanian. There was at one time some confusion in the title, as the Aborigines were properly Tasmanians. But, alas! that difficulty has been removed by the destruction of all the men of all the tribes. The native-born of the white intruders have now the sole distinction of Tasmanians.

The Colonial boy is not a stupid fellow. He does not stare like an English clod-hopper, and scratch his

head to find an answer to a question. He is more likely to propose a query himself. He is not clownish in appearance, nor awkward in gait. His hair does not grow down his forehead, nor do his legs come after him at an unwilling and clumsy drag. But he has not generally so grand a display of teeth as the grinning chaw-bacon, nor the same massing of muscle about the loins. He is taller and slighter in frame. It must not be supposed, however, that he is deficient in strength and stamina. His capacity for the endurance of fatigue is marvellous; and this, with his activity and nerve, gained compliments from the visiting English cricketers. He does not indulge in the slow and heavy pull of the British lad, but goes at the work with vigour, as if he wanted to get over it The first is better at the steady collar, the other is apt to fret and plunge if the thing don't go off quickly. His higher nervous organization gives him, nevertheless, a capacity for accomplishing feats of strength and agility beyond what mere muscle might be supposed to do. Great on horseback, where he sits with grace as well as firmness, the Tasmanian is mighty on foot, walking up hills at a rate that would surprise the English field-boy.

soon.

Tom was a Colonial lad in zeal at cricket, a race, a row, a swim, a ride, a clamber, or a day's tramp. It would take a great deal to make him tired, while a short rest would fit him for fresh conflict. But, like other Currency boys, he had no fancy for boxing or

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wrestling. Quick at temper he might be, but rapidly cooling, and not given to enforce his will by blows. A fight between boys at school in the Colonies is as rare, as it is common with the same class in Great Britain.

That smartness of movement, that restlessness under restraint, that impatience for action, all indicative of a nervous type, indispose the Colonial lads for a steady, uniform round of duties. They want change of employment, and weary of monotonous toil. They could never brook a long apprenticeship to a trade. Plenty work at carpentering, bricklaying, stonemasonry, &c., but have served no time. They picked up the thing. Sharp at imitation, with a natural facility for using tools, they readily take up with a variety of trades, and move from one to another as circum stances require. This, in a region of unsettlement affairs, and great vicissitudes of fortune, is a decidea good, if not a necessity. Every year the occasion lessens, as the Colonies are dropping down to the everyday condition of British life.

Tom's father had been in the service of Government, but had of late retired to a small farm near Hobart Town. He wanted the lad to take up a trade or profession, and stick to it. Some inducements were offered. Having been formerly somewhat connected with the law, and still possessing interests in that direction, he recommended the profession. Tom easily assented, with the lightheartedness of his tribe. He had sagacity enough to reason this way :

As Tasmania is not going ahead, there may not be much scope for me here. But I know lots of our fellows who have done first-rate in Melbourne, which always must go ahead; and so, when I have passed here, I can take a trip over the Straits, or go to one of the rising New Zealand townships. A Tasmanian lad, like a cat, will always fall on the feet.'

He was articled to a respectable Hobart Town solicitor, and showed the Colonial readiness in mastering details.

As to mental characteristics, there was less of the Baconian and more of the practical philosopher about him. He had no delight in the abstract, and seldom puzzled his brains about general principles. The matter of fact things brought professionally before him suited him, and he took pleasure in tracing out a case. He was not fond of reading for its own sake, and did not see any advantage in studying English literature outside of law-books, excepting Dickens and the newspapers. Dickens is pre-eminently adapted to the Colonial mind. His wit, his hearty mirth, his droll characters, his tender pathos, have all especial charms. An attempt was made to introduce to Australia low, trashy, flashy, dirty, and sensational stories from New York. But the introduction was a failure. There was too much common sense, too just an appreciation of morals, too healthy a passion, too much reverence for mothers and love for sisters, to incline young fellows to read them. A bad class of literature