The Runaway Settlers Read Online Free PDF Page B

domain which he ruled with all the dignity of an Indian prince.
    As it happened, before she could seek him out, ‘The Nabob’ came looking for her. He was very angry, for his overseer had been thrown from his horse and had put the blame on Jim shouting around the stable-yard causing the animal to shy.
    ‘You must keep your children under better control, Mrs Phipps!’ he stormed.
    She seized her opportunity.
    ‘I do my best, sir, but this is no place for children.’
    ‘What would you have? A nursery?’ he said loftily.
    ‘No! I would have work and quarters more suited to my training, where I could look after them properly.’
    ‘I don’t need any more cooks or house servants. My Indians do very well.’
    ‘I’m an expert with a garden, sir; flowers, fruit and vegetables, and poultry. I don’t wish to break my contract. I only wish to be more useful and to give my children a respectable home.’
    ‘A garden?’ he said.
    Mr Cracroft Wilson was thinking: this woman isn’t of much use, it’s the boys I need; the children are better out of it. He looked over towards the hills.
    ‘There’s a place over the saddle there, I believe, that belongs to me. Sixty-eight acres of land and nearly all of it rough. Two of my men put up a cob cottage and planted some potatoes—and then cleared out to the Australian diggings. I can’t spare any more men, so if one room and a chimney will do you, you’re welcome to try.’
    One room and a chimney! Well, that was enough to begin with, thought Mrs Phipps; she could make a home out of that.
    ‘Is it near the harbour?’ she asked.
    ‘Yes, Governors Bay: some seven miles, I believe. It’s hardly worth my looking at—you must take my overseer’s word for it.’
    ‘And may I take the children?’
    ‘The children, Mrs Phipps. The two grown boys, Bill and Jack, will remain here to fulfil their contract.’
    She saw that she must move carefully now. ‘I must talk to them,’ she said. ‘If they’re agreeable, your offer suits me very well, sir.’
    ‘You must talk to them!’ Mr Cracroft Wilson exploded. ‘I must remind you, there’s a contract that they work for me! That was the condition for your boarding the Armenian!’
    ‘We don’t break our word. But, sir, you must see that a contract has two sides, and I’ll be too far away myself to see to their needs. I ask for your word that they’ll be well fed, and clothed, and housed.’
    The Nabob’s eyes flashed. No employee ever told him what he must do; but he had his own dignity to keep.
    ‘They are already fed and housed,’ he said.
    ‘They’ll need warm work clothes, with the winter coming,’ said Mrs Phipps calmly.
    ‘I offer you a house and you try to exact fresh conditions!’
    ‘I’m grateful for your offer, sir, please believe me. But I’m a widow woman and I must leave behind the best hands in my family. I must leave my boys here without protection except from you. You’re a man of honour, I know it; give me that promise, and never fear, you won’t regret the bargain! Your wilderness will be made to blossom for you.’
    Angry as he was, the Nabob knew that this was good sense.
    ‘Very well,’ he said. ‘Your boys shall have what is needful. When the six months have expired, we’ll look into the position again. You can take that place over there as your cottage. But don’t forget—it’s my property!’

6. Over the Hills
    On a May morning, when the sting of frost was in the air, the Phipps family set out over the hills to Governors Bay.
    There was an old track, the Cashmere shepherds told them, where the men who built the cottage used to come to and fro. They were to go up the valley through the flax, then strike up on to the spur to their left and continue on to the saddle, from which there was a steep descent to the Bay.
    With a great many things to be carried, Bill and Jack were allowed two days off to see their mother safely settled. Each of them had a roll of blankets to sling across