mention that we made a lot
o' the strongest mutton broth you ever tasted; we slung a hammock of red
blankets in the dray, and we got the poor fellow down by evening to a
gentleman's station. There they made us kindly welcome, did all they
could for him, and transhipped the hammock into a pair-horse dray, which
went quicker and was easier. We got on as fast as we could every step of
the way, and by midnight that poor fellow was tucked into a clean bed
in the hospital at Christchurch, with both his legs neatly cut off just
above the knee, for there wasn't a minute to lose."

I was almost afraid to inquire how the sufferer fared, for Ned's eyes
were fairly swimming with unshed tears; but he smiled brightly,
and said, "The ladies and gentlemen in the town, they set up a
_subscribetion_, and bought the poor chap a first-rate pair o' wooden
legs, and he could even manage to ride about after a bit; and instead
o' wandering about looking for country, or gold, or what not, he settled
down as a carrier, and throve and did well. And I was thinking, ma'am,
as how I'd like to return thanks for that poor fellow's wonderful
recovery, for I've never had a chance of going to Church since, and its
nigh upon two years ago that it happened."

"So you shall, Ned: so you shall!" we said with one voice. And so at our
first Church gathering at our dear little antipodean home, F----, who
acted as our minister, paused in the beautiful Thanksgiving Service,
after he had read solemnly and slowly the simple words, "Especially for
Thy late mercies vouchsafed to ----," and Ned Palmer chimed in with an
"Amen,"--misplaced, indeed, but none the less hearty, and delightful to
hear.

Chapter X: Swaggers.

Dr. Johnson did not know the somewhat vulgar word which heads this
paper. At least he did not know it as a noun, but gives "swagger: v.n.,
to bluster, bully, brag;" but the Slang Dictionary admits it as a word,
springing indeed from the thieves' vocabulary: "one who carries a swag."
Neither of these books however give the least idea of the true meaning
of the expression, which is as fully recognised as an honest word in
both Australia and New Zealand as any other combination of letters
in the English language. A swagger is the very antithesis then of a
swaggerer, for, whereas, the one is full of pretension and abounds
in unjust claims on our notice, the swagger is humility and civility
itself. He knows, poor weary tramp, that on the favourable