stirring noise, Palmer Billy, as a musician, maintained,
was miles ahead of a mere ordinary tune.

The second verse afforded the opportunity, in Palmer Billy's mind, for
the exercise of expressive pathos; and when the chorus after the first
verse was given with a will, and the audience thus testified its
capacity for appreciation, he was as generous with his expression as he
was with his force. Two portentous sniffs and a whine were blended with
the word he considered the most appropriate for pathetic accentuation,
the word following being bawled in full vigour with a prolonged quiver
in the voice by way of contrast. Thus with alternate sniffs, whines, and
bawls, he sang--

"Kick at troubles when they come, boys,
The motto be for all;
And if you've missed the ladder
In climbing Fortune's wall,
Depend upon it, boys,
You'll recover from the fall,
In the Golden Gullies of the Palmer."

The chorus was again taken up with an energy amounting to enthusiasm,
and at the third verse, delivered with a declamatory power that carried
moral conviction in every syllable, Palmer Billy introduced his special
accomplishment by reversing the order in which he played the
accompaniment of the five automatic chords. The declamation and the
accompaniment always made the third verse a triumph.

"Then work with willing hands, boys,
Be steady, and be wise;
For no one need despair there,
If honestly he tries,
Perhaps to make a fortune,
At all events a rise,
In the Golden Gullies of the Palmer."

The chorus was so lustily given that the soloist called for the audience
to join him in the last verse, a most unusual compliment, and so well
did they respond that the sound of their voices travelled far through
the silent bush, farther than they intended, farther than they knew, as
they yelled--

"Then sound the chorus once again
And give it with a roar,
And let its echoes ring, boys,
Upon the sea and shore,
Until it reach the mountains,
Where gold is in galore,
In the Golden Gullies of the Palmer."

"Hurrah! Hurrah! We'll sound the jubilee.
Hurrah! Hurrah! And we will merry be,
When we reach the diggings, boys,
There the nuggets see,
In the Golden Gullies of the Palmer."

CHAPTER V.

THE SWAY OF GOLD.

The sounds of the eighteen voices, joined in the Palmer song, travelled
through the silent bush, ba