AN AUSTRALIAN NOVEL.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Issue 8, 24 November 1877, Page 4

AN AUSTRALIAN NOVEL.

(From the " Literal \ W.uld Ol'R colonies, even the voungest, an in a fair way of having a literature of th.-ii own. The development of their mate- ] rial resources has brought wealth, and it the track of wealth, under the human's ing influences of to-day, follow, as a rule refinement, culture, leisure—the conditions of successful literary work. Universities are springing up, and we doubt not their colleges and halls will not prove less kindly nurseries of original thought than tkose of Oxford and Cambridge. The classes, too, which naturally, take to authorship —the professional classes—are ■increasing in numbers with settled institutions and sixiial progress. And the natural energy and fertility of the Anglo-Saxon mind, instead of Buffering ' loss by transplanation, are stimulated by all the new surroundings of nature and human life, and by all the new enterprises for which a young country can alone offer a suitable field. A freshness and a colouring are thus imparted to early colonial literature which, if wanting the : elevating dignity and exquisite graces of writings produced under the same con ditions as the classics of the mother country, and in full view of them a.-, models, yet possess a vigour and vivacity . altogether pleasing and refreshing. These latter qualities may be claimed ' in a considerable measure for " Frank ' Carey." It is a novel all the secenes of which are laid in Australia, and which ■throughout affords evidence of the author's intimate knowledge of our great ' colony. We are taken equally into remote settlements of the squatters, who are pushing on into the bush as the advanced guard of the army of civilisation, and into the cities on the coast, where ideas which have lieen current in an old world are being subjected to the testing strain of practical work in a new world. We are hospitably entertained by colonists who invest Australian homes with the charms and graces of English ones, whilst inspired by all the ardour and enthusiasm of explorers not only of new countries but of new social ' conditions. Rough gold-diggers, enterprising Chinamen, ticket-of'-leave men, pass also before us, with whom we feel that we have become more or less really acquainted by the time we reach the end of the third volume. It is for this vivid and clearly truthful representation of Australian life that " Frank Carey " will be chiefly read. Of plot there is little, and the characters, which are perhaps ' rather too crowded to admit of sufficient ■ definition, are not marked by any power- i ful originality of conception. Nevertheless a genuine interest is created in the fortunes of the hero ami the group of personages of which he forms the centre, and the story is told in a style at once striking, lucid, and pleasing. Frank Carey is a lad of thirteen when he first comes before us. His father, who has had a Cambridge education in England, and is of a good family, inherited a valuable sheep run from his uncle, and, to grace his prosperity, married an Australian belle. But, in consequence of extravagance on the part of Mrs. Carey and imprudent speculations on the part of Mr. Carey, we find Frank's parents in by no means the flourishing circumstances in which they began their married life, the father given to solacing himself with his pipe and the whiskybottle, and the mother to peevishly lamenting her diminished comforts and pleasures. At this time gold was found near Mr. Carey's station, but, alas' on land which he had been obliged some time before to sell. In this connection the author gives a graphic picture of aoLD-DIGOING IX AUSTRALIA. " It was only a few days after their visit to the wool-shed that Mr. Carey and Frank rode up to Stony Creek. At that time the discovery was scarce a week old ; yet five hundred diggers were already on the ground. It was a curious sight: a long narrow glade in the forest, hastily denuded of trees; along this a row of holes, sunk almost in a straight line towards a cleared, enclosed paddock ; thick forest undulating upwards on all sides, closed in on the west by a line of high rounded hills; on the south the country sloped down to the creek, whose opposite bank rose again in graduated ridges towards a chain of conical mountains, bounding the horizon with their turveted summits. Edging the cleared strip were tents, shanties, and inia-mias, affording shelter to the diggers. Sinking was going on at various depths. The lead, an ancient river-bed or gutter, between mud banks, was about three feet wide, showing gold freely ; it ran in a straight line about three hundred yards, dipping in that distance from five to fifty feet Just outside Peggy's paddock the lead was lost, and holes had been sunk in different directions to find which way it went Within the paddock the ground was marked off into a number of claims, by which men stood, each shepherding lus own claim.

Peggy had been a servant of Mrs. Carey a; unmarried and very independent, having saved money, she retired from service and took up this ground, living on it alono, and keeping cows, goats, pigs, and poultry. Being on the outskirts of the forest she had plenty of free commonage. It was amusing now to seo this lady's importance : umbrella in hand, she inarched about her property, followed by a train of diggers, apportioning their claims and receiving the fees chargunhtc thereon; those ranged from ten to thirty

* Frank Caroy; a Story of Victorian Lifo. By too Author of " Skotehos of Australian Lifo and Sconory." Throo Volumes. London : Samp-ion Low, Marston, tsoarlo, and Hiving!■ >u

ihUUag* lea being Um mi" tm "w f»r unbroken ground, thirty for one claim when broken. Bargains wen bring driven with gi c.u animation as Mr. Carey md Frank rod* up; a large portion of the paddock W*l marked out but not yet broken, it being expected that the lead ■vould come that way; but as the holes idjacent were not yet bottomed, insiders waited till the result of that process should lie known. Meantime, each man and his mate) shephered his claim, pick in hand, temping the surface during one hour of every day, a form necessary for the maintenance of possession. The hour before noon was usually chosen. It was twelve o'clock when Mr. Carey arrived ; the shepherds were crowding out from the paddock, having done duty by their claims for that day. Some resided in the neighbourhood and were going home to dinner; others, who had come from a distance, patronised the shanties. On the open grounds whyms and pulleys were already in use for the deeper holes ; from many of these workers might be seen emerging to the surface, ready for the noonday meal. Parties of acquaintances group together to discuss their prospects while refreshing themselves: felled trees, pieces of timber, bonglis loosely thrown on heapedup earth, serve as seats ; they share the loaf and piece of meat, drinking from a common billy. Others gather round the counter of an eating-house, extemporised from old cases, and, more exclusive, take their meat on tin dishes, indulging in the luxury of cups or glasses. Here are men of all ages, from the lad of twelve years to the old man of three-score : some of the faces are excited and eager, others stolid and quiet; some lazy and sensual, others keen and watchful. The vagabond, the drunk ird, the industrious, are here represente 1; the mixture of indolence and independence which is characteristic of the regular digger was very apparent. Sounds of revelry or of quarrel issued promiscuously from behind the calico divisions of grog-tents." Frank is a boy of energy and determination, of good principle, and, though so young, can dimly see that things are going to the bad with his father. He is anxious to make his own way through the world brighter and better than his father's has been, and is therefore eager to go to a public school in Melbourne. A gleam of prosperity in his father's affair's allows of his wish being granted, and visions of matriculating at the university shape themselves to the boy's anient ambition. Mrs. Carey, however, wishes him to return home and be instructed with his two sisters by a tutor. This plan is stubbornly and successfully opposed by Frank, who continues his studies at Melbourne until, in the midst of his second term at the university, he

opposed by Frank, who continues his studies at Melbourne until, in the midst of his second term at the university, he is summoned home, to learn that his father has expired a few minutes before

his arrival. Frank finds it neccss\ry to seek at once the means of supporting himself and helping his mother and sisters. Through the good offices of an old friend of his father's, a Mr. Mayne, the manager of one of the principal Australian banks, he is admitted as clerk. By dint of perseverance, and the faithful discharge of his duties he rises to become the manager of the Lakeville branch, when we next see him residing with his mother and sisters. Here he forms an eventful friendship with Dr. and Mrs. South, and the very bewitching ami strong-minded sister of the Doctor, Miss Helen South. With the ladies of I the Doctor's family Frank became acquainted in this wise. A PLEASANT RIDE. " The next day was one of those soft heralds of spring often coming to us about the end of August, before the boisterous September breezes merge into the hot winds of summer. Not a breath rippled the lake, lying motionless in the sun like a sea of glass. The great ocean, lulled to rest, lazily upbore a Targe white ship, whose white sails and delicate s>pars stood out distinct as the vessel hugged the land, tacking to catch the feint puff coming up fitfully from the south. In the offing a couple of steamers were dimly discernible; thin curls of smoke guiding the eye to the dark outline, whose steady movement on the verge of the horizon rather enhanced than marred the charmed stillness of the scene.

Au irregular line of towering sand hummocks, radiating the sun's rays, appeared like red, serrated cliffs. Soft, grassy paddocks below stretched close to their border of encroaching sand. Above, higher enclosures of potato patches, prepared but not yet sown, showed in warm brown and loamy black. The island lay in shadow, looming darkly above the sunny lake. It was the sort of day that indicates more wind tomorrow, a gale on the next day, then rain.

Frank joined the riders at the doctor's house.

' I've persuaded my wife and sister to ride with us,' said Dr. South, advancing to the outer gate to meet him. Dismounting, Frank entered the yard as the ladies' horses came from the stable.

' Take our horses round; Mr. Carey and I will mount the ladies,' said the doctor, taking the bridles from the groom, and passing by a side gate to the front, followed by Frank. It was his first introduction to Mrs. and Miss South, who stouu waiting on the verandah. ' You know Mrs. Carey, so you are supposed to know Mr. Carey," said the doctor, unceremoniously ; ' here ho is. -Mount my sister, Carey, will you ? Mv wife's timid ; 1 always mount her myself.' Helen's foot scarcely rested on his hand ; light as a bird, sho was seated in a moment, and the party rode forward. Mrs. South, carefully settled by her,

husband, ilii-w uji to Frank, and cimtiiii'iiinl ii conversation »s they rode out on the hill, turning along the northern l«mk of thu lake, where the enter apjM-ai-s to have fallen in. the side sloping abruptly to the water's edge. The further side of the island—not ofteu penetrated— was toward them. It is fm-cipitous and strong having n ridge of ava rock crowned with funereal trees, whole nodding plumea an- reflected in a narrow bay immediately lieneath.

' The olil lake-spirit is iwnwilng himself to-day,' cried Helen, its she and her brother came cantering up. ' Is there a lake-spirit in addition to the other wonders of this enchanted land I' asked Frank. ' When the sun's rays light up the lake, leaving the island dark, we have an idea of a grim lake-spirit wrapping it in its mighty shadow,' said Mrs. South. ' One could fancy that peak the outline of a giant figure,' said Frank. ' Can y< >u ' fancy ?' What a comfort ! So few people can,' remarked Mrs. South, lightly. Frank laughed. 'Oh, I can fancy; rather too much sometimes. Bankers, you know, should be prosaic' " Helen South, who is really a graceful, queenly, and noble-hearted girl, if somewhat opinionative ami disposed to conceive herself sent upon a generally enlightening mission, rejects in turn the otter of the hand of a young wealthy settler, and of an English Professor visiting the colonies, for whose learning, however, she has the most rapturous, young ladylike admiration. The truth is that mischief has been mutually wrought in the hearts of Frank and Hellen, but family and financial circumstances do not favor a declaration on the young gentleman's part. Helen's special work, and a good work it is, is amongst the young women of Lakeville, whom she meets once a week in a class, endeavouring both to amuse and instruct them, but carefully avoiding patronising them, which Australians would soon kick up at. How Frank and Helen are helping one another to understand and sympathise with each other will be best seen from the following pretty picture of A CHRISTMAS DAY IN' AUSTRALIA. " There is often a hot-wind on Christ-mas-day; clouds of dust blow along the empty streets. Melbourne is deserted from early morning until sunset, when the avenues to the station will be thronged by returning passengers, manv of whom have been compelled to stand in the railway-carriage or travel on the engine. Excursion-trains run in all directions : country people hastening to town, and townspeople recreating iu the country.

At this season the summer heats will not have dried up the grass or browned the foilage. Agricultural districts wear their loveliest, aspect; the open forest is luxuriant. The smaller townships take advantage of the holidays to hold 'al fresco' entertainment in aid of hospitals or other local institutions. Friendly societies meet, and rival clubs contend for mastery in games and sports. One wonders whence the crowds come : every nook and corner seems alive with people; only the houses are forsaken.

Naturally, Christmas in young Australian ears will gather round it very different memories to those which hang about it tenderly in the hearts of their English ancestry. Frank Carey had few associations, either of pleasure or interest, with it. At Kibee it was the period when hands went " on the burst," a large portion of them " knockiug down " then the earnings of the year. School, with him, had been too desultory for the season to connect itself very fixedly with plsasant anticipations of holidays.

In fact, it was still clouded for Frank with the shadow of that last Christmas of his father's life, when he had absented himself from home, and with the memory of the troubles which quickly followed. He met Helen returning from the church, whither she had been to assist Mrs. Veal, in decorating for the festival, the day before Christmas, and felt with her when she said: ' It is a time of tender memories with us; we like to still the rush of the present, and think of the past. Margaret and I always remember it was on Christmas evening when our mother first spoke to us of the coming separation.' 'ls it long since ?' asked Frank, with real sympathy. ' Nearly eleven years. She did not leave us till six months after; but it was on Christmas-day that the dread of losing her first came to us.'

' How hard it is to realise I' snM Frank. ' How strange it seems when the great gap we have seen swallowing one and another outside our heart's circle opens at our very feet!' ' You know that sense of the unnatural, the unreal ?' she said. ' Yes ; I too have a shadow.' And he told Helen of his father's death, and of the self reproach with which he looked back on thatC'hristmas,bitterly regretting the lost companionship that ' might' have been. ' I recollect,' said Frank, ' the night after the funeral, awaking from a dream—imagining that I fell back from a wall, which seemed to close around me, and which I was vainly endeavouring to climb in ordur to follow my father, who had passed beyond.' ' I wonder whethor one ever feels a second sorrow so keenly ?' said Helen. ' I fancy the first experience exhausts the strangeness,' Frank replied. ' The Christmas after we rame to Lakeville ws« marked by a sad event,' she continued. ' Mr. Carr—Jessie's father—died within the mouth. The

restenbaranca ot the doting iweaaaol his life freshens with u> ;it this wmoil'

• I think people who have many anniversaries moat rind thev point forward as much as backward,' Prank remarked.

' Ves; to that beyond of which yon dreamt How one's interact in it grows, when those we loved have passed thither!'

They walked on in silence for awhile. Frank"was looking back on the last few years, during which the ■ beyond' of which Helen spoke had come to count as an element of strength in his inner life. Talking of religion was not in his way; be had plenty of 'thoughts,' but not many ' words,' on the subject." The extravagant tastes of Mrs. Carey, which she had been accustomed to indulge so freely in former years, began again to display themselves. But Frank's income was limited, and his mother, who preferred duplicity to selfdenial, scrupled not to secretly incur debts, which were destined to have serious consequences. Meanwhile, Frank's days, which had not been rendered too happy by his mother and sisters, passed now pleasantly enough in the discharge of his important duties, in enjoying the society of the Souths, and in forming a warm friendship with a brother-in-law of the Doctor's. Mrs. Carey and her daughters, in virtue of their fashionable bearing, have become intimate with the Hays, the wealthy family to which one of Helen Souths rejected suitors belongs. This unfortunate individual, however, consoles himself by proposing to Fanny Carey, and is duly accepted. And as old Mr. Hay announces his intention to settle some twenty thousand pounds upon his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Carey is elated with the prospect of obtaining release from those pecuniary difficulties of which poor Frank is in happy ignorance. But we must turn aside from pursuing the private fortunes of our colonial heroes and heroines to take a glance at

PUBLIC LIFE IN LAKKVII.I.K. " During this exciting season of public gaiety and private crisis in Melbourne, life at Lakeville flowed evenly. Not but what that pleasant township had its periods of general liveliness and domestic interest, though of a more limited, and for that reason, perhaps, of a more intensified character.

In respect to the former, I may allude to elections for a country member; also for a new School Board. Mild excitements, these, in comparison with that looming in the distance, when the township, having achieved independence as a borough, should elect a mayor and town council of its own.

Public attention was already fixed on various suitable citizens. A deputation had waited on Dr. South, requesting that he would allow himself to be nominated as first Mayor of Lakeville. Von should have seen the doctor's look of horror when he comprehended the object of his interviewing friends. 'A mayor?' said he, addressing the spokesman, a grocer of repute. 'My good fellow, don't you know that I think Lakeville can't be improved ? The first thing that I should do would be to propose our re-union with Bulla, and a return to our native peace, which has been sadly marred of late by local ambition. Indeed, since this separation was mooted, we've had more turmoils and squabbles than I ever knew here before. My advice to you is, abandon your honours, and recover your tranquility.' ' Now, doctor, you are in one of your sarcastic moods,' said Mr. Adams, who affected long words, and was altogether a public-spirited townsman. ' Ambition is the mainspring of progress. You would not have the town of which you are chief physician behind the rest of i he colony, surely ?'

' I'm quite satisfied to be doctor at Lakeville; if you get a mayor, you'll be wanting a high-flying new doctor next, with an alphabet after his name.' ' No fear, doctor ; we know when we are well off. Now, there's Mr. Elton, he's away half the year; Mr. Hay, he's in the Upper House. Besides, we "should like a gentleman like you, who would hold his own among the other mayors, and be a credit to the place. That's the moral of it, doctor. Ye understand ?'

' I understand that you won't have me, and that you're better without any one.' ' Nay, sir; we must go ahead. 'Who else are we to got ? that's what I asks.' The worthy orator grew slightly ungrammatical as lie wanned to his object. ' There's the young banker ; he's oniy 'a banker—a stranger, and not clever, as I hear. The parson and the praste, they are out of the question. Lawyer Rouse, he's a crusty old bachelor, and dead in favour of annexation to Bulla.' ' So am I.' 'We can't believe it of you, sir—an eddicated, enligtened colonist.' •' If you must have a mayor, Adams, you'd better go in for it yourself. Some of your shire councillors are the men, decidedly. I'm quite serious when I say that I don't approve of breaking up the district into theso petty municipalities ; it Cramps means, and wastes time.' After somo further parleying, the deputation withdrew, disgusted at the doctor's want of local ambition. But the general liveliness in anticipation of tlio civic election smouldered and burst forth alternately during the autumn and winter of that year—memorable as being the last of Lakevillo's inglorious subsorvienco to Bulla. !

Meantiino the fine weather encouraged out-door sports; und Lakeville youth upheld the honor of their town in a cricket-match with a picked team from

i Balk. Un, »' ■ i agricultural ibow, in the yard* <>f the latter town, Utkevilk exhibit* held the tub again*! all comera, ai behoved animals rattening on the richest pastoral land in the colony, in April came the celebrated Bulla race*, at which, I regret to record, I«ikeville horses failed in their duty, and allowed showy Btrangera to win in must of the stakes. Plainly this favorable township was not without its share of agreeable excitement."