the first three days we got on swimmingly. On the fourth, just after passing Bogalong, a station about sixty-seven miles from Young, we met a party who told us that the celebrated bushranger called Gardiner was "sticking up a-head of us. You may be sure this put us on the alert. And after we had gone on a little way, Wilfred, who was driving the first dray, called back to me: "You had better plant the purse, Godfrey." "Plant the purse!" What does that mean, uncle?' said Lydia. 'Well, Lydia, older and wiser people than you have asked that question ere now; but, you see, it is a local phrase for putting the purse in some place of safety, where the bushranger will not easily find it. Now, we never carried much money with us, as there were banks at most of the towns; but this time I had two or three pounds and a seal with our crest. So, when Wilfred called out, I thought, where shall I put it? At last I fixed on the most conspicuous place in the whole dray, viz. an empty box without a lid. 'Oh, uncle, they would be sure to find it there!' said all the three children. 'Stop a bit,' said their uncle, and you will see whether I was right or not. That night we camped about a hundred yards off the road in a pine scrub with grass up to the horse knees. In the morning we had breakfast; and when I was packing up, Wilfred went to look for the horses; but in half an hour returned, as he could not hear their bells anywhere. I then went in another direction; but had not been gone many minutes, when Wilfred heard horses coming along the road; so he ran out and saw four men all mounted on fine horses. Thinking for the moment they were diggers," he said, "Good day! Did you see any horses in hobbles ?" when out came their revolvers. "It isn't horses we want," said the leader (a tall, handsome man, called Guinness); "it is your money we want, and quick about it, as the boys," meaning the police,. are after us, and we have no time to lose!" "Well," 66 said Wilfred, "that's just the thing I have none of about me, barring one shilling." "Be off to your dray, then, and we'll see if we can't find it there," said he. So they marched him there, a revolver at each temple. 'Oh, uncle, how dreadful! Did they kill him?' said Lydia, with tears in her eyes. 'Why, no. How could they, Lydia, when you know Uncle Wilfred is alive and well now, and coming to see us all very soon ?' said her brothers. 'No; Wilfred was not killed,' returned Uncle Godfrey. 'Everything in the dray was ransacked, even to mattresses and pillows. All the bags containing the oats were turned over and carefully examined, but nothing could they find. The only place they did not search was the box I had put the purse into. In overhauling our things, they found the parcel of calico and all our clothes. One man took possession of the calico, the other two divided our clothes betwixt them, and also took a new blanket I had got to make a saddle-cloth. The leader, in the meantime, ran his hand down Wilfred's clothes, and feeling something, said, "Is that the shilling? The very identical gintleman! What's this?" he suddenly asked, as he put his hand on Wilfred's watch. "Is it gold?" "Oh, yes," said Wilfred; "but it is very old. You'll not take that, surely." "An old family watch, I see. Give me £10, and you shall have it." "I cannot give you that," replied Wilfred ; "but I will send it to you, if you tell me how." "A very likely thing, and I won't chance it." So saying, Mr. Guinness put it into his pocket, and Wilfred never saw it again, which he regretted very much, it being an old family relic which had been given to him by his father. They also found our Bible, which an Irishman threw as far as he could into the Bush, calling out that we were Orangemen, and no mistake. You may believe what we felt when we saw the word of God treated in that way. No wonder that such men should desire to cast far from them that book which condemns the action of evil-doers! They also took away every bit of our tobacco. I, who at that time smoked, was very indignant at their so doing; and would rather have done without my breakfast than my pipe, whereas now I would not smoke on any account. They then threatened to burn the dray, and actually lighted the fire, when Wilfred said, "Burn these, and it is not police alone you will have after you; but every digger within a hundred miles will turn out, if you destroy property like that." On hearing that, Mr. Guinness said, "Put out the fire, boys; he's not far wrong in what he says ;" and so saying they rode off, declaring they knew we had money somewhere, but they had no time for further search. few minutes had elapsed, when Mr. Guinness again cantered up, calling out, "I say, mate, my mates have rifled your toggery, and they found this" (handing Wilfred a carte); "and as I thought it might be a picture of your missus, have fetched it back!"'. A 'Oh, uncle, how impudent!' 'Well, it was certainly cool enough. We heard afterwards that these same men stuck up twenty men that morning, and robbed them all. From one man they took £2, which was sewn in his braces, and a ring in his necktie.' 'Did you ever find the horses?' asked Lewis. 'Yes, we did. It turned out they were lying asleep within 200 yards of us all the time. But we were to hear more of the bushrangers. Shortly after our arrival at the Lachlan, Mr. Guinness went one evening into a store there. The owner knew him, and sent for us. Wilfred and a detective immediately got on his track, and ran him to a large shanty tent, in which, through a hole, they saw upwards of twenty thieves and vagabonds, all of whom the police wanted to lay hold of; but as there were only three of the force in town, they could do nothing, so all the party escaped. But some time afterwards we heard that the bushranger Guinness was found shot in the Bush, killed, it was thought, by the head of the gang, Gardiner, for deserting a comrade, named Davis, when he was taken away by the police. Thus, we see, are the "wicked cut off," snared in the work of their own hand.' The children thanked Uncle Godfrey for his story, and obtained from him the promise of another on a future occasion, as interesting as that of 'How we were stuck up by the Bushrangers.' H. S. 'SHE IS NOT DEAD, BUT SLEEPETH.' No! but the light is darkened in our dwelling; O faithless hearts, O selfish, earthly sorrow! And thou wilt rise; we shall again behold thee Sleep, then, my darling, angels watching round thee, J. W. H. THE LORD'S KINGDOM. T was Sunday evening, and the tide, which was just at the full, lay within and without the breakwater as smooth and as bright as some inland lake, with scarcely a ripple creeping across its untroubled surface, until the shadows of the houses seemed to rest upon the waves without motion. In the sky, a multitude of little clouds, pure white, except for a slight flush of rosy white shining through them, floated softly across the peaceful blue towards the mountain-top, behind which the sun was setting. The larks, which had built their nests upon the sweet grassy sward of the downs leading off to Langness, had just finished their evening song, and were twittering among the golden gorse bushes. But besides that, there was scarcely a sound to be heard, until the strong voice of a man, accompanied by a boy's shrill and clear note, suddenly broke the silence by singing these words: 'We'll stem the storm, it won't be long, We'll stem the storm, it won't be long, They were sitting upon the shore at a little distance from the hamlet, their faces turned towards the sea. The man was a tall and strong-looking fisherman, with a sunburnt and weather-beaten face; and the boy by his side was a sturdy, thick-set lad, with short, rough curls of hair clustering over his bare head, and keen dark eyes, from which nothing on land or sea could escape. 'There's not much sign of storms, Ned,' said the boy, glancing from sky to sea, and away to the sun, setting behind the burnished outlines of the mountain. 'It looks as much at peace as if the "Lord's kingdom" |