"Only a fortnight in Adelaide, but we were in Melbourne for more than a month."
"And your papa was going to be tutor at the Hammonds'?"
"Yes, when he is better he must go here, for Mr. Hammond says that I may stay there too, and I promised mamma, that I never would leave dear "Is your mamma in England?" asked Allan.
"No, no! mamma is in heaven But I cannot spare papa to her yet. Mamma must wait a little longer. There are saints and angels in heaven, and my little brothers are there; but if I lose papa, I have nobody—nobody."
"Have you any shipmates that you liked?" said Allan, thinking of that only friendless strangers in the colonies.
"Our shipmates are all in Melbourne, for we came over in a steamer to Adelaide; but we did not care much about our fellow-passengers. The captain was very unkind, and the people on board were not like papa. Papa is Gerald Staunton, you know."
Allan did not know anything about Gerald Staunton, but he had a reverence for learning and he had envied the young Hammonds the succession of private tutors they had had, and had wondered why they did not profit more by
