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 Rh left England, unchanged, excepting his theory about the masses of gold, and the explorations he hoped to make. He had found in Melbourne all things so modified by the exceptional exigencies of the time, that his plans had to be changed, or were overthrown. He had been compelled to walk with a straggling party the whole way through the bush, sleeping how he could, and as others did. He had suffered from hunger, and was nearly destitute of everything which he brought with him from England, but he was full of sturdy determination. Nothing, however, had depressed and disappointed him more than the dreariness of the bush. His fancied picture of luxuriance and shade, made brilliant here and there by the rich yellow blooms of the wattle trees, was lamentably overthrown when he came upon the thin and peculiar maze, which seemed to extend interminably on every side of his way. The tall gum trees seemed to yield no corresponding shade, and the absence of the leafy undergrowth which is found in English woods left the naked trunks more exposed in their bewildering sameness. The ground, strewn everywhere with dry sticks and little evidences of dearth and ruin, seemed, under the hot sun, always the same weary, pathless way, without landmarks of progress. Where some great tree had fallen athwart its fellows, it seemed to him a mere evidence of present ruin; where all were growing luxuriantly in the hot sun, it seemed to him that they grew rankly on a bed of former ruin. He had privations to endure, and hardly anything but hope to meet them with; but he was strong enough in that, and on the 2nd of November he reached the Bendigo Diggings in safety.

When Philip came to understand that he was approaching Bendigo, his depressed spirits underwent a sudden change, and he began to day-dream again. He felt like reaching home at last. He thought of being welcomed, as from the old country, by the free-handed, rough adventurers who had congregated there, and by his own friends. There would be a peculiar romance for him in the fact of men standing bravely on their own resources; and where education and refinement, which in long-settled communities raise their possessors above the classes who do the rough labours of the strong hand and arm, might be found face to face with labour and duty in their simplest forms. When, however, he came upon the little community of diggers he soon found that the reality only left him the very dregs of his dream. Tents and shanties were scattered about in careless confusion. Heaps of dirt, and holes, and mud; men in all kinds of costume, and some with little enough, and all sufficiently dirty, were working, some side by side with jealous and absorbing earnestness, some apart, equally intent, but all with the same one only purpose. Here and there he got only an oath, almost always a sneer, and a momentary reply to his inquiry for the party he was about to join. When at last he found Gordon and his friends, he was soon able to settle amongst them, and to grapple with the realities of his new life, quite freed from home fancies. Still, however, he cherished his theory about the masses of gold, and thought he found it strengthen with the observations he made.

Nothing of any great importance occurred to him during the first two months of his sojourn. He had become a regular gold-hunter, like all around him, with the same continual work, and the same ceaseless avidity for work. He had been moderately fortunate, but much more fortunate than his companions, and when he told them of his character for good luck at school, they nick-named him "Lucky Phil." He had found the only nugget larger than ordinary which had fallen to their lot, a few days after his arrival. On the evening when they took stock of and divided the gold, Philip was in better spirits than either of them. James Burlow, however, was discontented with the gains, and, as he was the captain of the party, proposed a decided move. He said that, although they had succeeded in getting a good quantity of gold, it was not to be forgotten that they consumed most of it in the expenses of their living, and that the apparent gains were not commensurate with the hard work they had. He wanted to know what they thought, therefore, of making a very decided move. Some one had been out prospecting further east, and he had heard that the best accounts, as to gold, had been received from Queensleigh. He thought it would be wise to make a move. What did they think of the prospects, and did they feel inclined to chance it?

In the conversation which ensued William Burlow sided with his brother, but Gordon laughingly said he wanted to hear what "lucky" suggestion Philip could make, for they had tried long enough what hard work could wring from Fortune; he was for tempting her still more, and he would join willingly in trying to "prospect" for themselves instead of following where others had been.

The time had now clearly come for Philip to propound his plan, and he did so. He had thought of it so long, and treasured it so much, correcting it and confirming it by his daily observations, that when he found himself actually appealed to on the very subject, and that unexpectedly, he spoke with an enthusiasm visible in