he
could promise to put me in the way of earning my own living. He agreed
to that, and I left the old country, little thinking I should ever see
it again. I didn't see Joseph before I went. All I knew of him was,
that he lived in Clerkenwell Close, married; and that was all I had to
guide me when I tried to find him a few years after. I was bitter
against him, and went without trying to say good-bye.

'My son's fortune seems to have been made chiefly out of horse-dealing
and what they call "land-grabbing"--buying sheep-runs over the heads of
squatters, to be bought out again at a high profit. Well, you know what
my opinion is of trading at the best, and as far as I could understand
it, it was trading at about its worst that had filled Michael's
pockets. He'd had a partner for a time, and very ugly stories were told
me about the man. However, Michael gave me as kind a welcome as his
letter promised; prosperity had done him good, and he seemed only
anxious to make up for the years of unkindness that had gone by. Had I
been willing, I might have lived under his roof at my ease; but I held
him to his bargain, and worked like any other man who goes there
without money. It's a comfort to me to think of those few years spent
in quiet and goodwill with my eldest boy. His own lad would have given
trouble, I'm afraid, if he'd lived; Michael used to talk to me uneasily
about him, poor fellow! But they both came to their end before the
world had parted them.

'If I'd been a young man, I dare say I should have felt different when
they told me how rich I was; it gave me no pleasure at first, and when
I'd had time to think about it I only grew worried. I even thought once
or twice of getting rid of the burden by giving all the money to a
hospital in Sydney or Melbourne. But then I remembered that the poor in
the old country had more claim on me, and when I'd got used to the idea
of being a wealthy man, I found myself recalling all sorts of fancies
and wishes that used to come into my head when I was working hard for a
poor living. It took some time to get all the lawyer's business
finished, and by when it was done I began to see a way before me. First
of all I must find my son in England, and see if he needed help. I
hadn't made any change in my way of living, and I came back from
Australia as a steerage passenger, wearing the same clothes that I'd
worked in. The lawyer laughed at me, but I'm sure I should have laughed
at myself if