made of then!

It was in the brave old days of Ballarat and Bendigo, when ship
after ship went out black with passengers and deep with stores, to
bounce home with a bale or two of wool, and hardly hands enough to
reef topsails in a gale. Nor was this the worst; for not the crew
only, but, in many cases, captain and officers as well, would join
in the stampede to the diggings; and we found Hobson's Bay the
congested asylum of all manner of masterless and deserted vessels.
I have a lively recollection of our skipper's indignation when
the pilot informed him of this disgraceful fact. Within a fortnight,
however, I met the good man face to face upon the diggings. It is
but fair to add that the Lady Jermyn lost every officer and man in
the same way, and that the captain did obey tradition to the extent
of being the last to quit his ship. Nevertheless, of all who sailed
by her in January, I alone was ready to return at the beginning of
the following July.

I had been to Ballarat. I had given the thing a trial. For the
most odious weeks I had been a licensed digger on Black Hill Flats;
and I had actually failed to make running expenses. That, however,
will surprise you the less when I pause to declare that I have paid
as much as four shillings and sixpence for half a loaf of execrable
bread; that my mate and I, between us, seldom took more than a few
pennyweights of gold-dust in any one day; and never once struck pick
into nugget, big or little, though we had the mortification of
inspecting the "mammoth masses" of which we found the papers full
on landing, and which had brought the gold-fever to its height during
our very voyage. With me, however, as with many a young fellow who
had turned his back on better things, the malady was short-lived. We