Australian Tales - Setis

manners, in wanting to send her pig and her boxes on shore again. Soon
the steamer was under weigh once more, and anon we called at another
wharf, when the captain had an altercation with a miller, who finally
succeeded, by sheer clamour, in shipping the cylinder of his steamengine,
and sundry other heavy pieces of machinery, which he said he
was taking to Sydney for repairs, as his mill was standing still, and it was
full of grist from bottom to top. We scraped over the flats without
sticking, and in due course arrived alongside the old wharf at Newcastle,
when the usual scene of bustle ensued, and all the idlers in the City were
active, for a season.
“I can't take any cargo this morning,” said the captain to the agent's
clerk, who was making entries in his manifest.
“You will take my luggage, I suppose?” said a snappish-looking old
gentleman, with a barrow full of boxes behind him, and who was
evidently determined to have his luggage taken on board, or “know the
reason why not.”
“Well, I suppose I must take that; shove it on board,” said the captain;
then he shouted to a fisherman with a sugee-bag on his back, “Hey,
Mister Squidd, I can't take any oysters this trip.”
“They'll stow anywhere, captain; put 'em on the sponson; there are only
five bags,” said Mr. Squidd, appealingly.
“I'll heave 'em overboard if you put them on my deck, so I give you
notice; can't you see that I am loaded down to the port-holes? Confound
it all! do you want to sink me at my moorings?”
“The captain ought to be ashamed of himself,” said an old grumbler,
who was usually to be seen on the wharf when the steamer was
alongside, “it's scandalous to take a ship to sea in that trim. Why, she is
nearly a foot below her loadline. If anything happens to that steamer, I'll
kick up a row about it; mark my words.”
“I should like to know what right the captain has to load his ship in that
disgraceful way, and risk valuable lives?” said another bystander, who,
like his friend beside him, gloried in grumbling, but very rarely helped to
reform evils which he was so quick at discerning. Meanwhile, a
consequential-looking gentleman was severely scolding the agent's clerk
for promising to keep room for his horse, and failing to do so.
“Where am I to put your horse, sir?” asked the captain, who had been
appealed to. “Just look at my decks, fore and aft; there isn't standing
room for a monkey.”
“He won't take up more room than a bale of hay, captain,” said the
gentleman. “You can tie him to the fore rigging, if you like; he is as quiet
as a cat; passengers may rub against his legs, and I'll warrant he won't
kick. You will much oblige me, captain, if you will take him — in fact I
have right to — — ”
“Shove it on board,” said the captain, who looked thoroughly