on _Creswick_--and they would use the definite article before the
names, as: "on The Turon; The Lachlan; The Home Rule; The Canadian
Lead." Then again they'd yarn of old mates, such as Tom Brook, Jack
Henright, and poor Martin Ratcliffe--who was killed in his golden
hole--and of other men whom they didn't seem to have known much
about, and who went by the names of "Adelaide Adolphus," "Corney
George," and other names which might have been more or less
applicable.

And sometimes they'd get talking, low and mysterious like, about "Th'
Eureka Stockade;" and if we didn't understand and asked questions,
"what was the Eureka Stockade?" or "what did they do it for?"
father'd say: "Now, run away, sonny, and don't bother; me and Mr
So-and-so want to talk." Father had the mark of a hole on his leg,
which he said he got through a gun accident when a boy, and a scar on
his side, that we saw when he was in swimming with us; he said he got
that in an accident in a quartz-crushing machine. Mr So-and-so had a
big scar on the side of his forehead that was caused by a pick
accidentally slipping out of a loop in the rope, and falling down a
shaft where he was working. But how was it they talked low, and their
eyes brightened up, and they didn't look at each other, but away over
sunset, and had to get up and walk about, and take a stroll in the
cool of the evening when they talked about Eureka?

And, again they'd talk lower and more mysterious like, and perhaps
mother would be passing the wood-heap and catch a word, and asked:

"Who was she, Tom?"

And Tom--father--would say: