LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1889, 13 March 1880, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE FINDING OF MY MOTHER. A Colonial Story. From " Temple Bar." I was a mere lad, and I had been in Melbourne more than three months, looking, as they say in the colonies, for a billet, and none had offered; consequently I was terribly disheartened, and surveyed the bustling streets, the busy shopH, and evershifting crowds of the oity with feelings of envy and disappointment; it was hard, after all I had imagined, to be tramping the streets of Melbourne, in the broad daylight, in a suit of wofolly rusty black, with an empty stomach, and no friend near ; I cursed the luck, though not the object, that had brought me so many thousands of miles for nothing, that had tempted me to leave my fifteen shillings a week and the office i»tool in Orutched Kriars ; such were my thoughts as, listless and tired, I stopped opposite the Government railway station ; before me was the depot, behind me the great city ; 1 oould go no farther; what more could Ido —I was fairly Drought to a standstill ; how long I stood I know not; my heart was so burdened I took no note of time ; at last a thought struck me —I would go to the sea ; there would be some sympathy for me there; at leatt I felt so, so I turned to the ocean far comfort.

Not that Hotson's Bay, with its wharves and ships and houses, was the best place at which to feel the solace of the sea, but I did not think of that then; it was the place where I had first landed ; I had a solitary coin in my pocket, I crossed the road, and paid my fare; it was extravagance lu one who had had no dinner to do so ; but I was desperate, and did not enro ; in a couple of minutes I was rattling along the narrow little railway line; nobody came into the carriage, snd I was again left to my thoughts; T reviewed my past [life under a vaguely defined impression that I had had enongh of it; my father I did not remember, my mother had left England long ago ; as f *r back as I could recillect I had lived in tho house of an auut; her husband was a bank porter ; my father had been a warehouseman employed at the London Docks F*nm my aunt I had learned that my father had left his home one day and had never returned; she said my mother was the cause of it; her troublesome tongue had been too much for her husband. Certainly, as long _ as my mother lived with my uncle and his wife, the two women quarrelled incessantly ;lmy

uncle was a stout good-natured man, who had grown fat through standing at the bank door ; he always deprecated these quarrels, and endeavored by [peaoeful argument to mend matters; but one day he got irritated, all his good nature seemed to vanish at once; he burst out, and my mother got the full benefit of his abuse ; he applied very plain language to her; the resolved to leave his house ; she would seek her husband. ' Ho was wise to leave you,' observed my uncle.

' Ho was a better man than ever you'll be,' returned my mother. T his settled the question. My uncle's wife, who had been silenced, broke in again, and my mother walked out of the house. It v. as arranged that I should stop with my uncle, and that my wages should be her perquisite. My mother did not know exactly where my father had gone, as she had never heard from him since his departure ; but there was a rumor that he had taken ship for Australia ; some of his mates reported that they had seen him on board a 'Blaok Ball' liner. This slender thread of evidence my mother prepared to follow, though, as she remarked, it did not very much matter whether she found her man or not; she had been a servant, and servants were wanted in Australia ; she waß a tall, strong, and handsome woman, with dark hair and darker eyes, and she could make her own way; I would be in her way, and so she bad resolved to leave me behind. Accordingly, one misty morning I found myself saying goodbye to her on the wet and sloppy deck of an emigrant vessel; I had never loved my mother muoh; she was of too imperious and fiery nature to be greatly loved ; but ties of association are not broken easily, and bo I was glad in my sorrow to hear her say that she would send for me as soon as she culd, and that she would write to me. From that day to this I have never heard from her ; nevertheless, I cherished the recollection of my mother, and when I grew older I resolved to go to Australia too ; I sailed one day, an orphan, to find my parents; the result—l had found neither, nor conld I obtain a living; whir—whir; the train stopped; I got out and walked down tho Williamstocrn Pier ; at the end of the jetty lay the very vessel that had brought me out from home. I thought her like myself—neglected. I looked over the side of the pier, The water was dark and dirty. Slimy seaweed and greasy scum of offal from the ships floated on its surface. Is did not look the same element as the great, strong, sparkling waves far out at sea. At the thought I raised my head and looked across the bay, beyond the shipping, and into the distance, where the blue sea and sky met. I wished I was there. ' Hie 1 hey ! where are you looking to !' and a)hand-truck rattled past on the iron rails beside me. I jumped clear of it.

' Keep a better look out, youngster,' said the man who was pushing it. I walked up the pier and again off it. and along the beach to a quiet place. I lay down upon the sand, and by-and-by I fell aaleep. 1 slept some hours, for when I awoke the sun was low and the wind cold. It was time to go; but where P All places were alike to me. Mechanically I returned to the railway station. A train had just gone There was not another for an hour. I saw a wooden bench beaide the station wall; I went towards it, and in doing so I passed the little refreshment-room of the station.

How bright and comfortable it looked. 1 had eaten nothing that day, and I saw sandwiches on the counter. They were too dear for me, but perhaps I could buy a biscuit. I had still the balance of my last coin in my pocket, and I walked into the room. A long, lcosely-mado man, with a face tanned to a rusty-red color by the sun, and so roughened and furrowed by exposure that the skin hung loosely on his cheeks, stood behind the bar. A huge beard covered his ohin, and a tremendous moustaoho, twisted and curled aud stiff at the ends, swept beneath his nose, which was honeycombed like a piece of old sandstone, and which much resembled a chunk of that material roughly carved into shape. A slouch hat surmounted his visage, and beneath its brim twinkled a pair of gray eyes, which surveyed the outside world with a steady and nonchalant air. He had no coat on, only a shirt, and I remember the vast expanse of the bosom of that shirt struck me with awe. It loomed aloft like a sail. The sleeves of it, however, were furled, and showed a pair of long, sinewy forearms, covered with hair, and brown as mahogany. He looked so big and so rough as to be quite out of place behind a counter.

The room too was small, and it seemed almost impossible for him to move without coming again something, or smashing the fragile ware with whioh he was surrounded. He was, however, carefully cleaning some glasses when I entered, and did not break them; on the contrary, he dried them tenderly in his great rough hands, and set them gingerly in a corner. He eyed me curiously for a few seconds, and then said, ' Shake you for a drink ?' ' Shake you for a drink ?' he repeated, louder. What did he mean ? ' Eb V I ejaculated. ' Shake you for a drink ?' he roared. «What's that ?' I asked.

He stared at me in evident astonishment at my ignorance, but said nothing, and reaching behind him took down from a shelf a dice-box.

Boiling the dice on to the counter, he cried 'Best.'

' Oh, whether you or I pay ?' I exclaimed, enlightened as to the shaking. • So,' he replied laconically, and returned the dice to the box. * What'U you take ?' 'I—I don't want anything to drink,' I answered.

•Then what the devil do you want here ?' he asked.

* A biscuit,' said I, taking my money out of my pocket. Be looked astonished, as if he had never contemplated selling blecnits, but he was contradicted by their presence on the counter. Slowly, as if 1 was quite a new experience in customers, he moved towards them. Up to this point I had watched him steadily, as he had rather frightened me, but now a f aintness seized me, something seemed to give way within me, I clutched vainly at the edge of the counter, and fell on the floor of the roim. I heard a great shout, and then all was darkneßß ; my senses had left me. When I came to I felt that I was still lying on the floor, bat that my shoulders were supported by a kindly arm, whilst a kindly hand was wiping water off my face. Gradually I saw the contenance of the giant. He was looking earnestly at me, with an expression of the greatest anxiety and concern. When he perceived that I had opened my eyes he smiled, and said aloud, but quite gently, ' There I thought you were coming round,' then softly to himself. ' Blest if 1 didn't think the youngster's deal was over Here, take this,'and he put a wine-glass to his lips. I swallowed the liquid, and gasped, and choked, and gasped again. 'Aha,' laughed the giant, 'you've some life in you yet.' * I will go, * I said, struggling to rise. He supported me, and I got on to my feet. But it was of no use; my head swam, and I j would have fallen had he not held me.

' Poor beggar,' he muttered ; and then, perceiving that my eyes were closing again, he eaid, ' Why, d n it, I believe the boy has had nothing to eat.' With that he laid me upon the floor again, with my baok to the c-unter, and, leaving me for a moment, brought me a plate of sandwiches, and put them before me. Didn't I eat them! They, stale aud hard as they were, put new life into me. Never had anything tasted so sweat as those stone colored, strongly-mustarded, aud slightly tainted sandwiches. I swallowed the whole plateful, the giaut watching me with great satisfaction.

'Boy, how do you feel now?'he asked, when I had finished

' Oh, think you, sir, better, much better,' I replied. 'What made you go over like that?' «I—I don't know,' I answered ; ' I was tired.'

* Like to go to sleep ?' I suppose the bandy I had swallowed must have had an effect on me, for I looked round the place in a confesed sort of way. Seeing this, the giant shouted ' Come along,' and led me into a back room behind the bar, where he laid a horse rug on the floor, kicked an empty brandy-case to it for a pillow, and when I had lain down threw over me a couple of empty sacks. Telling me to be sure and go to sleep, he left me, as some customers came to the bar. (To be continued.')