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The Young Berringtons: The Boy Explorers, a novel by William H. G. Kingston |
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Chapter 9. A Black Help For Biddy Obtained... |
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_ CHAPTER NINE. A BLACK HELP FOR BIDDY OBTAINED--BENDIGO, HER HUSBAND--PRODUCTS OF THE ESTATE--SHOOTING EXCURSIONS--HECTOR AND THE LEECHES--THE BOYS AWAKENED BY A LAUGHING JACKASS--A FLOOD IN THE RIVER Things went on quietly enough at the farm, until one day Biddy struck-- not for wages, but for help. She could not bear to see the young ladies do the work they were compelled to do, and yet it was more than she could do herself. The captain inquired whether she would object to a black help. "Sure not, yer honour, if she kapes a dacent tongue in her mouth," answered Biddy. So the captain rode out to obtain the assistance Biddy asked for. A short distance away, a small tribe of friendly blacks were encamped; among them was one called Bendigo. He had frequently visited the station, and was ready to make himself generally useful by chopping wood or occasionally assisting the shepherds. He had a wife named Betty, who, if she was not pretty to European notions, was thought to be so by Bendigo, and she was a young, good-natured, merry little woman. The captain invited the couple to come and take up their abode on the farm. They were to have a hut to themselves. Betty was to help Biddy, and Bendigo was to do any work required of him. The offer was accepted, and Betty was forthwith installed as Biddy's help. Her costume when she made her appearance was not altogether suited to her new style of life, as it consisted of a man's old shirt and a piece of grass matting as a petticoat. The young ladies immediately manufactured for her a robe of blue serge trimmed with red braiding, while Biddy initiated her into the use of soap and water, to which she had hitherto been a stranger. She carefully brushed her hair and combed it out with a horse-comb, none of those in ordinary use being strong enough for the purpose. Betty was immensely proud of her new costume, and hurried away to exhibit herself to her husband and the other black fellows on the station. Had not Bendigo stopped her she would have gone off to the camp; but he, not without reason, feared that she might have been deprived of her new dress by some of her beloved relatives. Every morning she appeared at daybreak, and if Biddy overslept herself she was sure to awaken her by loudly knocking at the door of the kitchen in which Biddy slept. They were very good friends, though neither could understand a word the other said. But Betty quickly learned, after a certain sort, Biddy's language, and, as may be supposed, a very curious lingo was the result. Harry declared that any day Betty might be taken for a black Irish girl. "Sure we have no naguers in the ould country, Master Harry!" answered Biddy. Betty soon learned to perform any work she was shown how to do; but she preferred tending the children, and if she saw them running down to the river, or wandering too far from the house, she was after them like a shot, always bringing them back in her arms, sitting down and lecturing them after her own fashion--telling them of a fearful monster which had its abode beneath the water, or of wild men who lay concealed in the scrub ready to carry them off and eat them. Poor Betty had no notion of right or wrong, and, although she did not steal or tell falsehoods, it was from the belief that the white people, who knew everything, would to a certainty find her out. As soon as she had obtained some knowledge of English, Mary and Janet endeavoured to instil into her dark mind some religious ideas. It was long, however, before they were satisfied that she had comprehended the simplest truths. The family were now anxiously waiting Paul's return. All the flour in the store-room had been exhausted, but they were not so badly off as they might have been in some regions. The captain had an acre or more planted with the sweet potato--a species of yam, each root weighing from three to four pounds, and sometimes even more. Biddy had learned to cook them properly, when they appeared dry and floury. Though the cousins at first declared that they were too sweet to eat, they acknowledged, however, when dressed under the roast meat, that they were very nice. Then they had bananas, a pleasant, nutritious fruit. The captain, on first coming to the farm, had formed a plantation of these trees, and as they had been well protected they had escaped destruction from the hurricane. The trees were raised from suckers, which grew around the bottom of the parent tree. Within eighteen months from the time the plants had been set out the trees began to bear fruit. This comes out from the centre of the plant, and hangs down in a large bunch, five or six in a bunch. One great advantage was that there were ripe bananas all the year round, though they were most plentiful in the summer. The trees were upwards of twenty feet in height, with broad green leaves four to six feet in length. There was an avenue composed of them running from one side of the garden to the other, which afforded at all times a delightful shade. The stems contain a quantity of fibrous matter, which makes excellent rope. "We shall not starve while we have these to subsist on," observed the captain to his brother. "The people in the south call us 'Banana-men'; and not a bad name either, for with their aid we could manage to subsist on beef and mutton, even had we no other vegetable productions to depend upon." Mary and Janet had nearly two hundred hens in their poultry yard, and by attending carefully to them and not allowing them to stray, they were able to obtain several dozen eggs daily. Hector and the younger boys frequently went out fishing, but Harry and Reggy preferred shooting. On one occasion Hector volunteered to accompany them. The boys were feeling somewhat fatigued from their walk, when they reached a large water-hole, which they had not before visited. "The water looks very refreshing; I intend to have a bath," said Hector, beginning to undress. Just then Harry caught sight of a flight of parrots, which had pitched in some trees near at hand. Reginald and he crept near. Firing together they brought down nearly a dozen. They were picking up the birds when they heard Hector cry out. Running back to the water-hole, they saw him almost in the middle. "Help me! help me!" he shouted. "Why, if you've got thus far, why can't you wade back again?" asked Harry. "There are some horrid creatures sticking to me, and I don't know what they will do," cried Hector. Harry and Reggy, caring nothing for the wetting, plunged in, and soon helped Hector back on to dry ground. He had not cried out without reason, for what was their dismay to see twenty or thirty leeches sticking to his body, and several had fixed themselves to their own arms even during the short time they had been in the water. They pulled them off as fast as they could, but found it no easy matter to stop the blood which flowed from some of the spots to which the creatures had fixed themselves. "I shall bleed to death! I shall bleed to death!" sighed poor Hector. "I don't think things will be so bad as that," said Harry. The leeches were very small at first, looking somewhat like thick bits of hair, but they rapidly began to swell, and two which stuck on Reggy's wrist, which he did not observe while assisting his brother, had grown to the size of his little finger. Fortunately the leeches were wiped off poor Hector's body before they had time to extract much of his blood. Although he declared that he felt very faint he soon recovered, and being attended to by Reggy and Harry, put on his clothes, vowing that it should be the last time he would ever bathe in that detestable country. "All water-holes have not got leeches in them," observed Harry. "There are none in those near Stratton, and I would advise you to break that resolution." Hector, however, declaring that he felt very ill, insisted on returning home. "Any news of Paul yet?" asked Harry, as they arrived at home. "Not a word," said his father; "if he does not appear to-morrow I intend to ride out and try to discover him." Hector, meanwhile, was bitterly complaining to his mother of the sufferings he had endured. "I wish that you'd let me go back to England, or try and get me some gentlemanly post in Sydney or Melbourne," he said. "I will ask your father," was the answer. The captain, to whom Mr Berrington communicated his son's request, laughed heartily. "I am sorry for the poor boy. He would find that he had dropped out of the frying-pan into the fire. If he cannot find occupation in the bush, depend upon it he will not in the city. People there do not want fine young gentlemen any more than they do here. Do not let him go, as you will only be throwing your money away, but have patience with him, and by degrees he will get accustomed to our ways, and prove useful at last." Mr Berrington told his son "that he would think about the matter," and Hector used to talk to his cousins of the Government appointment he expected soon to obtain. The heat had been very great. Not a cloud was in the sky, and not a breath of wind fanned the topmost boughs of the tallest trees. Captain Berrington had determined on starting to discover what had become of Paul. Rob and Edgar were awake before daylight. The whole family intended to be up to see the captain off. The window was left open on account of the heat. Presently, from the wood close at hand, there came forth a wild shriek of merry laughter, which made Hector start up. "Where in the world did that come from?" he exclaimed. Rob pointed to the wood. "What can it be?" asked Hector. Rob did not answer, amused at his cousin's astonishment. Again, another jovial peal of laughter, followed by a self-satisfied chuckle, came from the wood. "What is it? What is it?" asked the others. "You would have heard it before, many a time, if you had been awake at this hour," answered Rob. "That is the settler's alarum--the laughing jackass." "Laughing jackass!" exclaimed Hector. "I never heard that a jackass laughed, and I don't see one there," for in his eagerness he had jumped up, and gone to the window. The dawn, it should have been said, had just broken. "Wait until we have more light," said Rob; "perhaps you will then see our friend. I can just make him out. He is not down on the ground, where you are looking for him--he is up in yonder tree." "Up in a tree?" exclaimed his cousins, in chorus. "Yes; he generally lives up there, but he does not indulge in such uproarious laughter until early in the morning. I suppose he laughs at the folly of people lying in bed, and so tries to wake them up." Hector and Edgar were more mystified than ever. At last they caught sight of a large brown bird with a big beak, sitting on a bough and nodding its head, and then laughing away with all its might. They could now no longer have any doubt whence the sound proceeded. Just then Harry, arriving from the hut, came into the room. "Come along, Harry," cried Reggy, "you said there would be time for a bathe before breakfast." "I'm your man," said Harry. "Come, be quick, Hector, or we shall be back before you have put the finishing touch to your toilet." The two lads hurried down to the river. Except in the water-holes which were joined by a trickling rivulet the whole bed was dry, but the ponds were of sufficient depth to afford a pleasant bath. The boys were on the point of throwing off their clothes to plunge in, when Harry exclaimed, "Hark! what's that sound?" "It is like distant thunder," answered Reggy. "It can't be thunder, there's not a cloud in the sky," replied Harry. "It seems to me to be coming right down the river. I don't like it; I heard just such a sound some years ago, when a great flood came down and rose nearly up to the house. We won't bathe, but run back and tell father; he'll judge what it is and what's best to be done." The boys hurried back; but before they had got up to the top of the bank the roaring sound had greatly increased, and Harry was more convinced than before that a heavy flood was approaching. _ |
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