y, and who made you one visit with his load of goods
while I was at Ballarat. He did honor to the firm, for the fellow
got one of the best looking (and I will say at the same time, one
of the most vicious, if I am any judge of faces) on board, out of
a cargo of one hundred and ninety-eight.

I asked your man what he intended to do with a wife in his
circumstances.

"Marry her," he replied, "and take her to Ballarat, and go into
the mining business."

So look out for an addition to the population in a short time.

A day was required to get all the girls married off; for those who
were left till the last stage were not of an enticing character;
and there was a slight prospect of a row between the snub-nosed
women, each of whom thought she was superior in point of beauty to
the others; and not until I sent on shore and got three Victoria
miners, not over scrupulous in taste, were they disposed to be
silent.

You should have been in Melbourne on the first night of the
arrival. Of course, where so many marriages took place, some
little latitude was allowed to the happy couples; and more
carousing I have not seen since whiskey was only a pound per
gallon. The beauty of the arrangement was that the men got drunk,
and one half of them could not tell the next morning whom they had
married, or whether they had married at all.

The wives were in the same state of blissful ignorance, for they
had not known their husbands long enough to get familiar with
their features; and you will admit that where all men wear their
beards in full, there is some resemblance between us bipeds.

Our police office was besieged from morning until night, by
anxious husbands and inconsolable wives. Six different times was
your friend seized upon and claimed as the lawful spouse of six
different women, two of whom were the snub-noses spoken of above.

I hope you will admire the taste of your employee in the selection
of a wife, and that you will continue to conduct yourself in a
decorous manner after her arrival. Fair play, and don't take
advantage--(the balance of the line was illegible.)

I must close my letter by once more recommending you to keep a
bright lookout for Steel Spring, and to write me information if he
does not come up to your expectations. Let me hear from you as
soon as pr