Page 301 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

CHAPTER II. SARAH

PURFOY’S REQUEST.

he evening passed as it had passed a hundred times be-
Tfore; and having smoked a pipe at the barracks, Captain
Frere returned home. His home was a cottage on the New
Town Road—a cottage which he had occupied since his ap-
pointment as Assistant Police Magistrate, an appointment
given to him as a reward for his exertions in connection
with the Osprey mutiny. Captain Maurice Frere had risen
in life. Quartered in Hobart Town, he had assumed a po-
sition in society, and had held several of those excellent
appointments which in the year 1834 were bestowed upon
officers of garrison. He had been Superintendent of Works
at Bridgewater, and when he got his captaincy, Assistant Po-
lice Magistrate at Bothwell. The affair of the Osprey made
a noise; and it was tacitly resolved that the first ‘good thing’
that fell vacant should be given to the gallant preserver of
Major Vickers’s child.
Major Vickers also prospered. He had always been a
careful man, and having saved some money, had purchased
land on favourable terms. The ‘assignment system’ enabled
him to cultivate portions of it at a small expense, and, fol-
lowing the usual custom, he stocked his run with cattle and
sheep. He had sold his commission, and was now a com-

00 For the Term of His Natural Life