t of New South Wales, and picture to yourself the
few slow sailing-ships upon their voyages from Sydney, five times as
distant. To go and come on such a journey was little else to the
stay-at-home in those days, than that he should venture beyond the grave
and return.

No!--the wonder to my mind is not that the two sisters should have been
parted so utterly, and each been so completely duped about the other's
death, but that Maisie should have returned less than five-and-twenty
years later, and that, so returning, she should not have come to the
knowledge that her sister was still living.

CHAPTER VIII

MICHAEL RAGSTROAR'S SLIDE, AND THE MILK. CONCERNING DAVE'S RETURN
TO SAPPS COURT, WHICH HAD SHRUNK IN HIS ABSENCE. OF THE PHYSICAL
IMPOSSIBILITY OF A WIDOW'S GRANDMOTHER. DAVE'S TALE OF THE
WATER-MILL. SISTER NORA'S EXACTING FATHER. HOW DAVE WENT TO SCHOOL,
AND UNCLE MO SOUGHT CONSOLATION IN SOCIETY, WHILE DOLLY TOOK
STRUVVEL PETER TO VISIT MRS. PRICHARD. HOW THAT OLD LADY KNITTED A
COMFORTER, AND TOLD AUNT M'RIAR OF HER CONVICT LOVER'S DEPARTURE

The heart of the ancient prizefighter in Sapps Court swelled with joy
when the day of Dave's return was officially announced. He was, said
Aunt M'riar, in and out all the afternoon, fidgeting-like, when it
actually came. And the frost was that hard that ashes out of the dustbin
had to be strewed over the paving to prevent your slipping. It might not
have been any so bad though, only for that young Michael Ragstroar's
having risen from his couch at an early hour, and with diabolical
foresight made a slide right down the middle of the Court. He had chosen
this hour so early, that he was actually before the Milk, which was
always agreeable to serve the Court when the tenantry could do--taken
collectively--with eightpennyworth. It often mounted up to thrice that
amount, as a matter of fact. On this occasion it sat down abruptly, the
Milk did, and gave a piece of its mind to Michael's family later,
pointing out that it was no mere question of physical pain or
ill-convenience to itself, but that its principal constituent might
easily have been spilled, and would have had to be charged for all the
same. The incident led to a collision between Michael and his father,
the coster; who, however, remitted one-half of his son's deserts and let
him off easy on condition of his reinstating the footway. Michael would
have left all intact, he said,