Australian Tales - Setis

stay to examine.
Turning round a rugged corner into Nobbley Nook, my nose suggested
that horses had recently slept in that neighbourhood; and presently my
eyes assured me that my nose was quite right, for I beheld stabling for
fourteen beasts, with the name of each written in chalk, on his appointed
stall. Many ill-kept horses above ground, might envy Tommy and Jerry,
and the rest of the sleek coated stud, their snug lodgings below. Onward
we went again, and by and by the manager turned up Smut Court, to
examine a newly discovered dip in the seam: meanwhile I sat on a lump
of coal and chatted with some men, who were eating their dinner with an
enviable zest, which even “Lea and Perrin” could not create. A little
farther on, I saw a man on a very moist seat, and in Adamic simplicity of
attire, picking with all his might beneath a block of coal, which I thought
was dangerously liable to fall on his head. As I noticed the rapid
movements of his powerful muscles, I reflected how hard some men
work for their bread, compared with others, and how richly they deserve
the compensating advantages of real enjoyment of their humble diet and
sound sleep. I further speculated, on the probable social influence on
some of those creatures of the “Dundreary” class (who would almost
shudder to touch a knob of coal with a pair of tongs) if they could be
persuaded to spend half a day, now and then, in a coal mine. If the bare
idea of such a task did not shock them to death, I am sure the reality
would in some degree help to make men of them.
On we went again, in another direction, up a grimy alley, half a mile in
length, which I was informed was an old worked out passage, leading to
the ventilating shaft; and I began to fear that I should be worked out too
before I got to the end of it. Masses of rock had, in several places, fallen
from the roof, and as I hastened past those suspicious parts, I sincerely
hoped that no more rock would fall for the present. The sides of the
passage and the rotting props were thickly covered with a strange variety
of fungi, while long filmy festoons of the same hung waving from the
roof, as though a thousand fairies had been having a grand washing day,
in the gaseous pool which I had just passed, and had hung up their “cutty
sarks” to dry in that draughty alley. In vain did I hint to my foremost
guide that I had seen enough; that my scepticism on the subject of the
coal supply was perfectly cured, and that I wanted my dinner. He
evidently had but little consideration for diners at that hour of the day,
and was desirous of showing me the admirable arrangements for
ventilating the pit. I was obliged to submit, for to be left in that mouldy
locality would have been, to say the least, very unsatisfactory, especially
if my lamp had gone out; and it is extremely doubtful if I could have
groped my way back to the shaft, in thorough darkness.
Presently I fancied I smelt day-light dashed with soot; and on looking
up an old chimney, or shaft, I saw a patch of blue sky a little larger than