t all, for if ever the folk there are
in great want of anything, there seems to be abundance of it before it
can be sent out; so I could not get the offer of more than thirteen
pounds, and I mourned over the distance, and the five months lost on
the passage, with such small advantage at the end of it. I said I
wanted a hard place. I had no objections to go to the bush--I dreaded
neither natives, nor snakes, nor bushrangers, but I behoved to make
good wages. I was explaining this at the Agency Labour Office, when a
gentleman came in--an Englishman I knew him to be by his tongue--and he
said----

"'Like all new comers, this young woman is greedy of filthy lucre.'

"'I have come here to better my condition,' said I.

"'And so you will, in time,' said the gentleman, 'but you must not
expect a fortune all at once.'

"'Are you in want of a servant, sir?' said I.

"'Very much; but I don't know that you will suit me.'

"'I'm thinking,' said I, 'that if the mistress were to see me she would
be of a different opinion, sir.'

"'Very likely she would. I dare say Mrs. Brandon would highly approve
of you. Perhaps, after all, you will do. What are you?'

"'Plain cook, laundress, and dairymaid,' said I.

"'Age? Mrs. Brandon would like to know.'

"'Twenty-five. I have got five years' character from one place, and
three from another, and a testimonial from the minister. I may look
rough, with just being off the sea, sir, but I think the mistress will
find out that I am fit for any kind of work. I am not afraid of work or
distance, or solitude, or anything.'

"'You are a trump,' said he, 'a regular brick; but confess that you are
greedy. If I say thirty pounds a year, you will go more than a hundred
miles up the country?' That was a great distance from town in those
days, Miss Jean, though they think nothing of it now. All my
fellow-passengers objected to such distances, but I had no objection.

"'Yes, sir,' said I, cheerfully, 'I will go, and be much beholden to
you for the offer.'

"'And start to-morrow, wages to commence then?' said he.

"'The sooner the better,' said I. 'Only, if I want to send siller to my
friends I may not be able to do it from such a wild place.'

"'I will manage all that for you,' said the gentleman. 'I am accustomed
to do it for one of my shepherds. But recollect you will have to do a
great deal of work for your high wages. The cows are wild, and must be
bailed up and foot-roped. You may get an