owing to the
doctoring, I know, glory to God; and it's a few friends of mine I've
brought wid me, whom I hope yer honors will look at for my sake, and
long life to yer honors' ginerosity."

"Well, this is cool, certainly," I said, in a low whisper to Fred. "What
are we to do? We can't afford to devote all our nights and mornings to
practising on the philanthropic style."

"We must make the best of our bargain, at present If we should turn them
away, people would say that we possessed no feeling, and as likely as
not we should get insulted in some manner or other during the first
drunken fray that occurred near our new place of business. As we have
begun, so must we finish."

I concluded that Fred's advice was far the best, and without another
complaint, I assisted him to go through with our new patients. As usual,
they left, profuse in their thanks, but no substantial token of their
appreciation was deposited with us.

There was one thing that we found we were running short of, and that was
salve; and we saw, perhaps with some tokens of satisfaction, that when
that was ended, our career of doctoring would also terminate.

After breakfast, Smith yoked up his team, and moved our tent and worldly
goods to the new house which we had purchased the day before. The man
from whom we had bought it was all packed up and ready to start for
Melbourne that very day, and when he found that Smith was going on the
same journey, he engaged a passage, and expressed, in heartfelt thanks,
his joy at the prospect of his soon leaving Ballarat forever.

"I 'ope," he said, in cockney dialect, "that I never shall be obliged to
earn my living in a country vare the spiders are as big as a 'at, and as
savage as a bull dog--vare snakes crawl into bed vith yer, and drive yer
out--and vare the inhabitants had rather tell a lie than the truth. I'm
going 'ome to Hingland, and those vot vant gold may come 'ere and dig it
if they please, for all I care."

Our parting with the honest fellow who had been our companion for so
many days, and who had shared with us so many adventures, was of a
sorrowful nature, and it seemed as though all that we held dear on the
island was lost to us. Even Smith tried hard to conceal his grief, and I
saw moisture in his eyes as he turned towards his rattle, after
receiving our instructions for the last time, and started on his long
journey.

The team was just disappearing from view, when his passenger, who, owing
t