Australian Tales - Setis

the pleasure of your society, and to hear more of your interesting
accounts of foreign travels.”
“Never mind your work when you are going to play,” said the hearty
skipper. “Heave all your curiosities into the locker, and forget them for a
time; you may find some funny specimens to study on board my ship.
Come, rouse up, my friend! Let me take you in tow, and I'll engage you
shall return to Sydney in a few days, with your nerves braced up as tawt
as weather backstays. Now then, get your monkey-jacket, and come
away with me at once.”
A few days afterwards, Mr. Moans might have been seen walking the
deck of a fine rakish-looking bark, which was lying at anchor, in a busy
port not far from Sydney; and as he gazed up at the tapering masts, and
down again at the graceful hull of the vessel, his old roving desires
awoke, and he wished he could take a voyage in her; but his work at
home rose before his mental vision, and checked his longings. Just then
Captain Gimble came alongside in his boat, and after nimbly stepping on
board, he said, “What do you say to a trip to Melbourne, Mr. Moans?”
“Melbourne, Captain! — hem — I thought you were bound for Hong-
Kong!”
“Well, you see, sir, we are far too deep for a long voyage. While I have
been away in Sydney, some of those folks on shore there have loaded my
ship down to the scupper-holes; and I cannot take any coal out of her,
without trimming the whole cargo fore-and-aft, which would be
expensive, as I am short-handed, so I intend to go to Melbourne with this
lot; then to return here and load for China.”
“But I imagine, captain, if the ship is too deep to go to Hong-Kong, she
is not light enough to go to Melbourne, or elsewhere,” said Mr. Moans,
with a look of concern for the safety of his friend, and his smart ship.
“That's true enough,” replied the captain; then, after a minute's
reflection, he added — “It is only a short run to Melbourne, and it's the
fine-weather season, so ‘I'll chance it,’ as the colonial boys say, and as
lots of collier-skippers are obliged to do all the year round, poor fellows!
Let me persuade you to go with me. The trip will rouse up your digestive
organs, and make your brains as bright as my anchor buttons.”
I need not trouble the reader with all Mr. Moan's arguments, or his kind
friend's characteristic replies. He longed for the trip, but all his
specimens seemed to speak up together and urge that if he wished to
complete them in time, he must work as long hours as a druggist, or
journeyman tailor. On the other hand the charms of a cruise in such a
smart clipper, with such agreeable captain and officers, presented
themselves with irresistible force. He glanced at the cosy little cabin on
deck, he thought of the benefit his brain might derive from the rest and
relaxation, he thought too of the probability of meeting with some rare
specimens in his travels, and finally he resolved to go; at which decision