Page:Banking Under Difficulties- Or Life On The Goldfields Of Victoria, New South Wales And New Zealand (1888).pdf/32

Rh Mormonism, and concluded by stating that he was off to the Salt Lakes. The chapel is gone, and now there is no trace of the existence of either. About this time many worthy and pious people who had been seeking to serve God in a little tent at Campbell’s Creek located themselves at Castlemaine, and with a few others holding congregational principles, hired a large store near Froome’s corner, which was occasionally used by D. Blair and others, and ultimately by the Rev. Edwin Day, to whose zeal and perseverance the Congregationalists are indebted for a large place of worship, and the minister himself for a comfortable residence. The Baptists’ too, have a place of worship. All seemed bent on doing God’s work in their own way.

The minister of was a worthy man, and would rather see a man doing mischief than standing idle. His man David was as industrious as most of his class, but thought that his master wished him to do more than his share of work, and was determined to give him a hint whenever opportunity offered. David slept in a small room in an outhouse, and the minister thinking that his man was rather late in bed one morning said so. David excused himself by saying that he had been dreaming, and thought that he had been in hell. The minister remarked that it was a bad place to be in, and walked away. However, David was a bit of a philosopher, and waited for his opportunity. One morning the minister met David, who was up earlier than usual, and was quite chatty. “Well, David; no dreams this morning? you’re up too soon.” David was far from being lazy, and hated to be thought so; and believing that the minister minded other folk’s work more than his own, said: “Oh! aye, sir; I had a dream; I’ve been in Heaven this time!” “In Heaven, d’ye say, David? I think it would have been as well to have remained there in case you never get back; but what did you see there, David?” “Well, sir, I saw the angels, and a lot of braw folks; I saw ane better buskit than a’ the rest; and as she saw that I was a stranger she came up to me and spak as couthie as if she had kenned me a’ my days; I could’na help making a bow, and taking off my bonnet; she made a curtsey, and said, ‘And whar d’ye come from, my man?’ I said, ‘I’m the minister’s man.’ ‘The minister,’ quoth she, and she turned to a braw young lass stannin next her, saying, ‘I say, turn up the books, for I dinna think we’ve had a single soul from that parish for the last twenty years.’” “Tut! tut! David,” for the minister did not relish the rebuke, “dreams, ye ken, aye gae by contraries; I’ve little faith in dreams.”

I had often seen a tent almost always shut, but as there was a brass plate on one side and a card or two fixed on the other, I thought it no intrusion to take a look at the inscription on either, and found out that the owner was a surgeon, and it was only at the interval of two years that I found him a patient but unlucky