A HAPPY COUPLE.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 69, 16 March 1877, Page 3

A HAPPY COUPLE.

Among the many visitors from the country to Melbourne, who took advantage of the recent holiday excursion train (relates the Argus), there was an old woman, aged seventy-five, who came from Kilmore to bring home her husband, aged seventyeight, who had spent the last three months in the Melbourne gaol as a vagrant. The old lady had herself during the same period, or a greater portion of it, been an inmate of Kilmore Hospital. She was misinformed as to the termination of her old man's sentence, and had looked forward to Monday as the day when he would be set at liberty. Her disappointment was therefore great when, on reaching the gaol, she found her arrival a day too soon. The poor old body had managed with the aid of crutches to present herself at the prison, and was in a great way when she heard that her husband must remain another night in custody. She stated the contents of her purse to be but Is 6d, and was about crawling away to find some place of shelter, when the governor of the gaol had her asked if she would like to stay in the prison, and wait for her husband's discharge on the morrow. Granny jumped at the offer, and was conducted by the matron to the female hospital, where there was good and ample accommodation. To prevent accidents, the matron desired her to give up anything valuable about her, so that it might be kept in safety. To this, however, the old lady for some time demurred, but at length complied, when, instead of Is 6d, there were found to be 14s in her purse. She had several times stated that she was possessed of property, and sure enough she earned with her a deed of some eighteen acres of land near Kilmore, which had been purchased from the Government for a sum of a little under £150, All went well with the old body until bedtime arrived, when she retired rather disgusted because there was no " punch." She declared that if she had known there was none, she would rather have stayed at a public house. The aged couple were placed in a cab, and accompanied by a warder, Kwere forwarded to the Spencerstreet Railway Station, where they at once became objects of interest to all about the place.