Page:Letters from New Zealand (Harper).djvu/82

64 service he told me that two of the men there had only just arrived, having run away from a ship in Lyttelton, and, at first, on his inviting them to come to the service, hesitated, because they had seen me ride up to the house and thought I was a "beak." Sailors often leave their vessels, tempted by the high rate of wages ashore, and are sometimes caught and sent back to their work, and their mistake may have arisen from my appearance, in riding dress, breeches and boots. Next morning, as I was saddling my horse, the men came up to talk, and owned to being deserters. "Me and my mate here, sir, want to know whether you really believe all that 'ere which you told us last night about Jacob?" "Yes," said I, "every bit of it, and you may be quite certain that if you do wrong, the same sort of punishment will come upon you,—what the Bible says, 'Be sure your sin will find you out.' Jacob's sin dogged him to the end of his days; God pardoned him, but he had to suffer for it all his life." Then they told me they were going up to the hills to get work, and as I turned to mount my horse, one said, "You won't peach, sir?" "No," I said, "not I, but you had better make off as soon as possible"; whereupon the other man pulled out of his pocket a little bottle of rum. "Have a drop, sir, before you start." "Well," I said, "I'm not a teetotaller, but if you take my advice, you'll smash that bottle and keep clear of drink." Down went the bottle on the stones, and we parted good friends.

As to the question of drink, so far as I have seen, people here are temperate, but there is a curious custom amongst many of the station hands; for many months they stick to work, never