“You will not be fit for a day’s work in the mines for a month yet,” returned Fred.

“I can’t remain idle for that length of time,” Mr. Critchet said; “I have already trespassed on your hospitality, and am laboring under a debt for kind attention, that I shall have hard work to repay.  I am not rich, but if the few thousand pounds which I have accumulated, and which are on deposit at the government office, can recompense you, they are yours.”

“I suppose,” said Fred, re-filling his pipe, lighting it, and then puffing away vigorously, “that you imagine that it is best to surrender all your property in the most gracious manner possible.  If that is your opinion, you misjudge us.”

“My dear young friend!” cried Mr. Critchet, “I certainly did not entertain any such opinion.  I have been treated as kindly and carefully as though you were my own sons; and through your exertions and attentions my life has been saved.  I feel as though I cannot repay you with empty thanks, for I have caused an expenditure of much time and money.  Let me feel as though I had endeavored to requite your kindness.”

“So you can,” returned Fred, composedly.

Mr. Critchet brightened up.  I looked at my friend anxiously, and feared that he had forgotten our agreement on the subject under discussion.

“The fact is,” said Fred, knocking the ashes from his pipe, “if you wish to deserve our friendship, never speak again in reference to the subject of a recompense.”

“But—­” exclaimed the old man.

“No buts about it.  You sought our house as a refuge for safety, and if you found it, none can be more satisfied than ourselves.  The first night I saw your gray hairs I thought of my dead father, and I determined to do all that I could for the honor of his name.  God bless his memory—­he was a good man, and I am certain that if his spirit is allowed to visit this earth, it would approve of my conduct.”

“Then all recompense is refused?” demanded our guest, after a moment’s silence.

“Decidedly so.”

“Then let me make a proposition to this effect:  My claim is lying idle, and is probably half full of water.  I feel that I am not strong enough to work it, and will tend the store until well, and one or both of you can take my mine and carry it on, and, if you choose, divide the profits between us three.  By such a process you will be spared from being under pecuniary obligations to me, and I shall feel as though I was in some measure, however slight, repaying the expense of my board and lodging.”

How carefully the old gentleman concealed the fact, that the mine which he owned, and had partially worked, was one of the most valuable, in Ballarat, and that it we consented to the arrangement we should, in all probability, make two or three thousand pounds with but a trifling amount of labor!

“If you will do as I wish,” Mr. Critchet continued, “I shall feel as though I was not intruding upon your privacy, or upon your generosity.  If my offer is not accepted, then to-morrow I return to my tent, and trouble you no more.”