ry open until the account was paid. He also said the
schooner 'Agenoria' had been wrecked on the day that Davy left Port
Albert, and requested him to return to duty as soon as possible, lest
other vessels might be wrecked for want of a pilot. "The sweet
little cherub that sits up aloft" could not be depended on to pilot
vessels over the bar.

Davy took his paper to the Public Works office in Queen Street. Here
he found another officer bursting with dignity, who said: "There is
already one signature too many on this account."

"Can't you scratch it out, then?" said Davy.

"We don't keep hens to scratch in this office," replied the dignified
one, who took a ruler, and having drawn a line through the
superfluous name, signed his own. When Davy went again to the
Treasury with his account, Captain Lonsdale said he had not cash on
hand to pay it, and deducted twenty pounds, which he sent to Port
Albert afterwards, when the Government had recovered its solvency.
His Honour the Superintendent might have assumed the classical motto,
"Custos sum pauperis horti."

Davy put the money in his pocket, went to the Queen's Head, and, as
it was already dark, he hired a man for ten shillings to show him the
road through the wet wilderness of Caulfield and round No-good-damper
Swamp. It was half-past eleven when he arrived at Hook's Hotel, and,
as his pony was still too lame to travel, he bought the horse he had
hired, and set out with the Sale mailman. At the Moe he found Angus
McMillan, William Montgomery, and their stockmen, afraid to cross the
creek on account of the flood, and they had eaten all their
provisions. Before dark a black gin came over in a canoe from the
accommodation hut on the other side of the creek, having heard the
travellers cooeying. They told her they wanted something to eat, but
it was too dangerous for her to cross the water again that night. A
good fire was kept burning but it was a wretched time. It rained
heavily, a gale of wind was blowing, and trees kept falling down in
all directions. Scott, the hut-keeper, sent the gin over in the
canoe next morning with a big damper, tea, sugar, and meat, which
made a very welcome breakfast for the hungry travellers.

They stayed there two days and two nights, and as the flood was still
rising, they resolved to try to cross the creek at all risks,
preferring to face the danger of death by drowning rather than to die
slowly of starvation. Each man took o