sy hand and cried:
"Arrah, an' is it yerrself, Purrdy, me bhoy? Shure an' it's bussin' ye
I'd be afther--if me legs would carry me!" And Purdy laughed, and
relished the honey, and had an answer pat for everybody especially the
women. His companion on the other hand was greeted with a glibness that
had something perfunctory in it, and no touch of familiarity.

The big canvas tent on Bakery Hill, where the meeting was to be held,
was already lighted; and at the tinkle of a bell the diggers, who till
then had stood cracking and hobnobbing outside, began to push for the
entrance. The bulk of them belonged to the race that is quickest to
resent injustice--were Irish. After them in number came the Germans,
swaggering and voluble; and the inflammable French, English, Scotch and
Americans formed a smaller and cooler, but very dogged group.

At the end of the tent a rough platform had been erected, on which
stood a row of cane seats. In the body of the hall, the benches were
formed of boards, laid from one upturned keg or tub to another. The
chair was taken by a local auctioneer, a cadaverous-looking man, with
never a twinkle in his eye, who, in a lengthy discourse and with the
single monotonous gesture of beating the palm of one hand with the back
of the other, strove to bring home to his audience the degradation of
their present political status. The diggers chewed and spat, and
listened to his periods with sang-froid: the shame of their state did
not greatly move them. They followed, too, with composure, the
rehearsal of their general grievances. As they were aware, said the
speaker, the Legislative Council of Victoria was made up largely of
Crown nominees; in the election of members the gold-seeking population
had no voice whatsoever. This was a scandalous thing; for the digging
constituent outnumbered all the rest of the population put together,
thus forming what he would call the backbone and mainstay of the
colony. The labour of THEIR hands had raised the colony to its present
pitch of prosperity. And yet these same bold and hardy pioneers were
held incapable of deciding jot or tittle in the public affairs of their
adopted home. Still unmoved, the diggers listened to this recital of
their virtues. But when one man, growing weary of the speaker's
unctuous wordiness, discharged a fierce: "Why the hell don't yer git on
to the bloody licence-tax?" the audience was fire and flame in an
instant. A riotous noise ensued; rough t