Page 34 - In A New World

"How would Clinton get along here?" suggested Harry. "I can imagine the
poor fellow’s despair."

"His trousers would suffer some," said Jack. "I think it would break his

heart. The sea is much nicer. If we could only go by water," and the young
sailor looked down at his mud-bedraggled clothes, and his shoes caked
thickly over with the tenacious mud.

"Yes, the sea would be cleaner at any rate. I agree with you there, Jack."

Arrived on the other side of the bog, they were obliged to give the tired
cattle a rest. Indeed, they needed rest themselves.

At the end of the day they made an encampment. As well as they could

judge, they were about eight miles from Melbourne.

"Eight miles; and how far is the whole distance?" asked Harry.

"About a hundred miles," answered Fletcher.

"At this rate, we can go through in twelve or thirteen days, then."

"You mustn’t expect this rate of speed," said Fletcher. "We shan’t average
over five miles."

"Well, I hope we’ll get paid for it," said Obed. "If we don’t I’d better have
stayed in Californy. We haven’t any such mines as this in that country."

"You’d better have stayed there," said Fletcher dryly, and he evidently

wished that his companion had done so.

"’Variety’s the spice of life,’ as my old schoolmaster used to say," responded

Obed. "I kinder want to see what Australy is like. All the same I don’t want
to stump through to the other side of the globe."