the busy scene. The royal toast of Britons having been duly honoured, it became the duty of the president to propose the health of this honoured guest. Bumpers were insisted on, and drained with the utmost enthusiasm. The gift for presentation had all this while laid incased in front of the chairman, who now arose, and in a dignified and courteous speech deprecated his inability to do justice to the occasion, but desired this highly-honoured individual to accept this ‘small’ token of esteem as a slight proof of the value at which they rated his flight of genius. Unopened he received the proffered gift, with sundry protestations of gratitude for the unexpected tribute to his humble abilities, and declared he would preserve it as a ‘memorial’ of the kindness and support he had so abundantly received. Retiring to his chair, he proposed the health of the present company, when a few satirical remarks and sounds of suppressed laughter caused him to open the splendid jewel case, and, to his great horror and surprise, he discovered the trick played upon him—that the gift was a child’s toy, a mere gilt bauble. If the astonishment was great to the disappointed recipient, it was also great to the majority of the company. A few only knew of the intended treachery, and those few kept their own counsel. Explanations were demanded, but not given, and the ‘wandering minstrel’ put his toy in his pocket, remarking it would please his little child, as well as himself. Discontent soon became manifest, and the hilarity of the evening having become suddenly suspended, the company broke up much dissatisfied with the abrupt termination of the evening’s amusement; but the hoax was attributed, and it is thought justly (though not then present), to our friend the knight of the hammer.”
Bank clerks stationed on a goldfield do not, as a rule, save money; their salaries will not allow them to do so. In the first place, on a rush, everything is very rough; they are compelled through the force of circumstances, to live at an hotel (so-called). The billiard-room is the only place of resort; a game of billiards is indulged in, first for the love of the thing, then for drinks for the good of the house; by-and-by he is induced to try his hand at “pool”; one thing leads to another, until he finds that his small salary is insufficient for his wants; getting into arrears, he borrows money at a high rate of interest, and gradually sinking deeper into debt, till in order to pay his debts of honour, he borrows some of the bank’s money, no doubt intending to return it, when some day he is pounced upon unexpectedly by his manager, or inspector; his cash is found short; he is dismissed from the service, or taken up on the charge of embezzlement and sentenced to a term of imprisonment. But there is an exception to this, as to every other rule. On the West Coast there lived a bank clerk who arrived at a time when things were very rough, and when fully half his income would have gone in
