Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Catherine Carmichael; On, Three Years Running.
CATHERINE CARMICHAEL ; on , THREE YEARS RUNNING .
BY ANTHONY TROLLOPE .
CHAPTEE I .
CHRISTMAS DAY . NO . 1 . jTlATIIERINE CARMICHAEL , whose name is prefixed to this story , was very early ^ in her life made acquainted with trouble . That name became hers when she was married , but the reader must first know her as Catherine Baird . Her father was a Scotchman of good birth , and had once been possessed of fair means . But the world had against himand he had taken his family out to New Zealand when Catherine
gone , was as yet but ten years old . Of Mr . Baird aud his misfortunes little need be said , except that for nearly a dozen years he followed the precarious and demoralizing trade of a gold-digger at Hokitika . Sometimes there was money in plenty , sometimes there was none . Food there was , always plenty , though food of the roughest . Drink there was , generally , mueh more than plenty . Everything around the young Bairds was h . Frequently changing then - residence from one shanty to anotherthe last shant
roug , y inhabited by them would always be tho roughest . As for the common decencies of life , they seemed to become ever scarcer and more scarce with them , although the females among them had a taste for decency , and although they lived in a region which then seemed to be running over with gold . The mother was ever decent in language ,
in manners , and iu morals , and strove gallantly for her children . That they could read and write , and had some taste for such pursuits , was due to her ; for the father , as years passed over hiin , and as he became more aud more hardened to the rough usages of a digger ' s life , fell gradually into the habits of a mere miner . A year before his death no one would have thought he had been the son of Fergus Baird , Esq ., of Killaeh ,: and that when he had married the daughter of a neighbouring laird , things had
smiled , pleasantly on him and his young wife . Then his wife died , and he followed her within one year . Of the horrors of that twelve months it is useless now to tell . A man ' s passion for drink , if he be not wholly bad , may be moderated by a wife , and then pass all bounds when she is no longer there to restrain him . So it was with him ; and for a while there was danger that it should be so with his boys also . Catherine was the eldest daughterand was then twenty-two .
, There was a brother older , then four younger , ancl after them three other girls . That year to Catherine was very hard , —too hard , almost , for endurance . But there came among them at the diggings , where they were still dwelling , a young man whose name . was John Carmichael , whoso presence there gave something of grace to her clays . He , too , had come for gold and had joined himself to the Bairds in consequence of some distant family friendship .
Within twelve months the father of the zamily had followed the mother , and the eight children were left without protection and without anything iu the world worthy of the name of property . The sons could fight for themselves , and were left to do so . The three younger chddren were carried back to Scotland , a sister of their mother ' s having undertaken to maintain them ¦ but Catherine was left . When the time came in which the three younger sisters were sent , it was found that a home presented itself for Catheriuoand as the burden of providinfor even the hans was very
; g younger orp great ) it was thought proper that Catherine should avail herself of the home which was offered her . John Carmichael , when he came among the diggers at Hokitika , —on the western coast of the southern of the two New Zealand islands , —had done so chiefly because he had quarrelled with his cousin , Peter Carmichael , a squatter settled across tho mountains in the Canterbury Province , with whom he had been living for the last three or four
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Catherine Carmichael; On, Three Years Running.
CATHERINE CARMICHAEL ; on , THREE YEARS RUNNING .
BY ANTHONY TROLLOPE .
CHAPTEE I .
CHRISTMAS DAY . NO . 1 . jTlATIIERINE CARMICHAEL , whose name is prefixed to this story , was very early ^ in her life made acquainted with trouble . That name became hers when she was married , but the reader must first know her as Catherine Baird . Her father was a Scotchman of good birth , and had once been possessed of fair means . But the world had against himand he had taken his family out to New Zealand when Catherine
gone , was as yet but ten years old . Of Mr . Baird aud his misfortunes little need be said , except that for nearly a dozen years he followed the precarious and demoralizing trade of a gold-digger at Hokitika . Sometimes there was money in plenty , sometimes there was none . Food there was , always plenty , though food of the roughest . Drink there was , generally , mueh more than plenty . Everything around the young Bairds was h . Frequently changing then - residence from one shanty to anotherthe last shant
roug , y inhabited by them would always be tho roughest . As for the common decencies of life , they seemed to become ever scarcer and more scarce with them , although the females among them had a taste for decency , and although they lived in a region which then seemed to be running over with gold . The mother was ever decent in language ,
in manners , and iu morals , and strove gallantly for her children . That they could read and write , and had some taste for such pursuits , was due to her ; for the father , as years passed over hiin , and as he became more aud more hardened to the rough usages of a digger ' s life , fell gradually into the habits of a mere miner . A year before his death no one would have thought he had been the son of Fergus Baird , Esq ., of Killaeh ,: and that when he had married the daughter of a neighbouring laird , things had
smiled , pleasantly on him and his young wife . Then his wife died , and he followed her within one year . Of the horrors of that twelve months it is useless now to tell . A man ' s passion for drink , if he be not wholly bad , may be moderated by a wife , and then pass all bounds when she is no longer there to restrain him . So it was with him ; and for a while there was danger that it should be so with his boys also . Catherine was the eldest daughterand was then twenty-two .
, There was a brother older , then four younger , ancl after them three other girls . That year to Catherine was very hard , —too hard , almost , for endurance . But there came among them at the diggings , where they were still dwelling , a young man whose name . was John Carmichael , whoso presence there gave something of grace to her clays . He , too , had come for gold and had joined himself to the Bairds in consequence of some distant family friendship .
Within twelve months the father of the zamily had followed the mother , and the eight children were left without protection and without anything iu the world worthy of the name of property . The sons could fight for themselves , and were left to do so . The three younger chddren were carried back to Scotland , a sister of their mother ' s having undertaken to maintain them ¦ but Catherine was left . When the time came in which the three younger sisters were sent , it was found that a home presented itself for Catheriuoand as the burden of providinfor even the hans was very
; g younger orp great ) it was thought proper that Catherine should avail herself of the home which was offered her . John Carmichael , when he came among the diggers at Hokitika , —on the western coast of the southern of the two New Zealand islands , —had done so chiefly because he had quarrelled with his cousin , Peter Carmichael , a squatter settled across tho mountains in the Canterbury Province , with whom he had been living for the last three or four