Australian Tales - Setis

they often afford more ease than a volume of dry philosophy would do.
That is my opinion, sir, and I have seen something of human nature in
seventy years or more. I gently embraced my poor weeping parent, and
whispered ‘Mother, dear! I will leave you for an hour or two, I must go
over to see Nanny. You are a Christian; and when you have calmed down
a bit, I know you will consider whether this is not an essential discipline
that you have to pass through, and you will seek for comfort and
direction from the source of all blessings.’ After kissing her again and
again, I left the cottage, and as I crossed some newly mown meadows to
Nanny's house, the fragrance of the new hay seemed to revive such a
gush of recollections of happy school days, that I threw myself upon a
haycock, and actually groaned off some of the pent up emotions in my
heart.
“Old Mr. Roseley was violently opposed to my going abroad; and after
insinuating many ungenerous things, he told me in plain terms that if I
went I must give up Nanny altogether, for he would never consent to her
going to Botany Bay, as this colony was called. Australia was then but
imperfectly known in England, and was associated in the minds of most
persons with convicts and kangaroos; and a voyage here in those days
was thought as stupendous an undertaking — especially by inland
villagers — as an exploring expedition to the Arctic regions would be
now-a-days. I had anticipated some opposition from Mr. Roseley, but I
did not expect to see him so rough and unreasonable, and you may be
sure, sir, I did not feel very happy; still my resolution was unshaken,
because — as I said before — I felt sure I was in the highway of duty. I
kept calm, and used all the arguments I could to convince Mr. Roseley
that it was my interest to accept the offer, and that it would probably lead
to my advancing higher in the social scale than I ever should in England,
when he dashed his pipe on to the hearthstone and said, ‘He did not care
a flip for social scales or weights either; he was not going to sell his girl
like a sack of malt or barley-meal.’ And after working, himself into a
rage, he finally declared ‘that if Nan ever went to Botany Bay, she would
go at the King's expense, with iron bracelets on, as many bright girls had
gone; but she should never go with his consent, or at his cost, even
though I were made governor of the land.’
“Nanny was sitting by when her father uttered that cruel ultimatum,
and her poor pale face might have moved a savage to pity. She did not
speak a word, but as she rose and left the room she turned her swimming
eyes upon me, and there was something more than mortal love in her
look, sir, it seemed to lift my heart like a powerful lever. I soon followed
her into the hall, where she silently put on her hat and tippet at my
request, and accompanied me for a ramble across the fields, and beside
the rippling brook where we had first met. I need not tell you all that
passed in the long twilight of that summer evening. As we stood on the