Page:Australian Emigrant 1854.djvu/208

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184
THE AUSTRALIAN EMIGRANT.

watch, reported that he could smell icebergs. 'Smell a rope's end!' cried the captain when he was informed of it, 'we are getting into warm latitudes' Just then the man on the look out reported icebergs in sight.

"'There must be some mistake' cried the captain with an oath; 'come here, mate, let us examine my calculations.'

"When the skipper again staggered on deck he was laughing uproariously as he shouted, ' What a rum mistake to make! I've been adding figures where I should have been subtracting them! 'My yarn is ended. Good night all: only before I go, let me give you a bit of advice, be very careful in the additions you may make. Good night. Remember Captain Jock."

A few days after the events just recorded, the usual requisites for forming a station in the bush were gathered together under the practical superintendence of Dodge, who, now he was relieved from the incubus of his difficulties, lent his energies to the new scheme with all the ardour of a boy.

In consequence of Hugh's recent letters bearing intelligence of the gradually declining state of his father's health, he made the necessary arrangements with his partner, and determined to lose no time in visiting England. Impelled by a sense of duty, not perhaps altogether unalloyed by other inducements, which we may well leave to the reader's imagination, he took advantage of the sailing of the first wool ship, and bade Slinger and his newly acquired friend a hopeful farewell.

They lost no time in stowing their provisions, tools, and other things in a capacious dray, and with a team of eight working bullocks journeyed westward, with many regrets at the absence of their late comrade. After surmounting the every-day difficulties and tediousness of a bush journey, and passing over the scene of the late fire (the country seemed to be throwing off its