Three diggers;

Three diggers; a tale of the Australian 'fifties

INTRODUCTIONS.

YEAR of grace, 1854. Month, June. Place, Ballarat,
Australia. Let me carry you, my reader critical or
indulgent back more than thirty years in the world's
history, and introduce you to three men grouped in
easy attitudes around the bloodshot eyes of a brush-
wood fire burning in front of a canvas tent, which is
pitched, with thousands of others, among the plains
and thickets of Ballarat. The night is clear, and the
air sharp ; each of the unnumbered, shadowy tents at
some distance from this camp stands out either illuminated
by, or silhouetted against the glare of its own
or a neighbour's fire, for the hour is past sundown,
and the diggers having " knocked off" for the day, are
enjoying their frugal supper of damper and mutton,
washed down necessarily with copious draughts of
a hot, inky liquid, which for the want of a better
goes here by the name of tea. In the clear air
come sounds of distant revelry the " rational " enjoyment
of some successful digger and his comrades.

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