hardship, and this isolation from society?' Horace demanded, when they returned to the house.

'Do you think, youngster, that, because fathers are fools enough to wear themselves out to make a fortune for their sons to make worse fools of themselves with, a man can't fell a tree, and clear a rod of ground, for the fun of it?'

'Yes, but you used to be so fond of society.'

'That may be, for it's all well in its place. But I am fond of myself too, and mean now to give myself a treat.'

'There's a nut to crack,' said Tom.

Mr Roberts here opened the door of a cupboard, which revealed a very fair library. Horace at once undertook a survey. · He then exclaimed, with

astonishment,

'Why, Mr Roberts, half your books are mathematical.'

'They are, lad. Here, I'll let you into a secret. When I was a youngster I was fond of figures. I had to go to work to help a widowed mother, and not indulge in fancies of my own.. After some years I entered the Indian Civil Service, and so had the happiness of forming a friendship with your father. Health broke down, and I came to Tasmania. Not able to be idle, I took Government service here. I regained health, and enjoyed years of social pleasure. Then I resolved to carry out my fad. I have come to this outlandish place because I can have work I

like, and because I can study mathematics without let or hindrance.'

But pardon me, sir,' said Horace, at your time of life you cannot mean to enter a profession.'

'There you are again. All for filthy lucre, and honour, and glory. No, I study my Euclid, my algebra, my trigonometry, for the same reason that you fellows go courting-because I like it. A man courts an angel, and marries a slattern, a fool, or worse. Now figures are honest fellows, and the three angles of every triangle are always equal to two right angles. That sort of truthfulness pleases me beyond everything, and I can find nothing of it in other studies, nor in society.'

'Yet you can't always be satisfied with tree-felling and mathematics.'

'Do you intend, Horace, to give up that girl after you have been married a few years?'

Certainly not, sir; we shall be more closely bound together the longer we live.'

'Pretty sentiment, my lad. Give me credit, therefore, for sticking to my pursuits for the same reason. I don't think I can tire of geometry so soon as most men tire of their wives. I shall never be jealous of that mistress, never complain of extravagant expenditure, and never get a curtain lecture. The odds are in my favour.'

The visit, though brief, was heartily enjoyed. But both the young fellows believed their lot would be happier than the old bachelor's, in the forest. He

nevertheless, was perfectly content.

He had his

hobby, and what can a man want for more?

When the ramblers returned, and had told their tale, Captain Douglas joked his wife about her prophecy of his friend's misery.

'And pray, John, is not the poor fellow a real object of sympathy? There he is buried in the Bush. He is not only without a wife to solace his solitude, but is so lost to a real conception of happiness as to believe himself comfortable in that miserable condition. I pity him the more, poor fellow.'

'Roberts is

'So do I, my dear,' said her spouse. just the fellow to make a woman happy, as I have always said. The sad thing is, that he won't consent to be a martyr to fulfil that destiny.'

'Why, John, I am quite ashamed of you!' exclaimed the wife. 'You really don't deserve a good wife yourself.'

'But I have got one, though,' was his complacent reply.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE DOUBLE MARRIAGE.

THE young men continued to pay their visits to the same cottage, and the young ladies continued to take pleasure in such visits.

The next step was a visit across between the respective friends. The mother of Horace was decidedly

pleased with the mother of the Tasmanian Lily, and cordially adopted Annie as her daughter prospective. The parents of the young man had some private conversation about the future.

'But you know, my dear,' said the captain, 'That Horace is only a little over two and twenty, and I was a dozen years older when I married you.'

'And better, perhaps, if you had been married a dozen years before,' was the lady's reply.

'Then in that case you would not have been the unfortunate victim, as eight is too young even in India. But I suppose the lad must do as he likes. He has no service to forbid the banns, as I had.'

'You forget, also, my dear John, that Horace has positively no ambition, and this country is so cheap to live in. He will never want, you know; and if he should have a family, and need do more, he will not have the difficulty here in increasing his store. He has given proof that he is not an idler even now, when there is no occasion for his labour, by his plan drawing engagements half the week in Hobart Town.'

'You are right there, my dear; a young man who finds himself occupation suitable to his talents, when there is no absolute need for it, is not likely to be wanting when urgency pleads.'

'Then you have no objection to his early marriage?' 'I should object in England or in India, but not here. Public feeling is in favour of the thing in the colonies, as bread and butter are easier procured, and

young folks are not supposed to set up a palace at starting.'

'And a great deal better for all parties. There would be more happiness as well as virtue if the same system were adopted at home.'

But that cannot be, my dear, as Mrs Grundy lives there. I suppose your boy and you have had all this matter over between you.'

'He asked my opinion about an early marriage, but supposed you would laugh at the thing. The young lady's mother and I have talked together, and we have but one wish, that of seeing our children happy.'

'Yet there's another pair; how are matters there?' 'O, Mr Tom Turner and Julia first started the idea. The young man declared he never meant courting on an indefinite period to please other people. In his own jocular style he said that, having hooked a fish, it was absurd to keep it dangling in the water till somebody else had hooked one, or till it was thought proper to land it in the boat.'

'Just like Tom. He is an independent fellow, doing well, and having no occasion to tremble before Mrs Grundy. Then that fellow has got our Horace over to his way of thinking I suppose.'

'Very likely; though, when I spoke to Annie upon the subject, I saw her mind had been made up.'

'Ha, ha! like Tom, she saw no necessity to keep the flatfish she had caught dangling on the hook, but preferred having it in her own keeping.'