She seemed perfectly cool and unconcerned, and I was not surprised to hear her say that she had passed many months so disguised while mining with her husband at Bendigo, Tarres Creek, and Ballarat, during the early history of the mines, when it was neither safe nor agreeable to have a woman in camp.  Tired as we were, she related a few incidents connected with her life that were listened to with much interest, and we found that if Nancy was rough, she possessed a true heart and a Christian spirit, and was never backward in extending aid to the sick, or giving good advice to the profane.

“Smoke your pipes, gentlemen,” she said, “and don’t be afraid that I shall be sick, or that the smoke will injure my complexion.  My old man has used a pipe these twenty-five years, and I hope that he will live twenty-five more, and as much longer as the Lord is willing.  I don’t think that using a pipe will shorten his days or his nights.  When I see him, after a hard day’s work, sucking a yard of clay, I thank Heaven that it ain’t a whiskey bottle.  It’s but little comfort the poor fellow gets in this country, and if he’s contented I’m happy.”

“I wish that I could find a wife with your sentiments,” Mr. Wright remarked.

“So you can,” Nancy replied; “but you’ve got to search for ’em.  They ain’t found out here on the sand plains, or in the mines, but beneath the shelter of a parent’s protection in the large cities, where education and virtue are taught.”

“If you speak of Melbourne,” Mr. Brown said, with an incredulous shrug of his shoulders, “I shall be inclined to doubt you, for in the city no such word as virtue is known.”

“Spoken like a man of the world, and without a thought of how much that is good and true is placed upon a level with the vile and unworthy.  For shame, gentlemen, and brave men as I know you are, to utter such slanders concerning the weaker sex.  Remember that your mothers were women, and if aught was spoken against them, would not your blood tingle?”

Mr. Brown did not jest again that night, and I think that the reply made us all reflect upon our obligations to our Maker, for we pushed back our chairs from the table, and declared that sleeping was better than drinking, and that we would finish the punch some other time.

Jackson led the way to our room, while our host did the honors for his lady guests.  We bade all good night, and after Mr. Brown and myself had exchanged a few words relative to the incidents of the day, we threw ourselves upon the mattresses spread upon the floor, and just as daylight began to glimmer in the east we fell asleep, and our slumbers were undisturbed for many hours; but at length we were awakened by Mr. Wright, who sat in the only chair the room afforded, smoking his pipe with great apparent relish, and looking as though he had been awake since sunrise.

“Come, rouse up,” he said, “or you will have no appetite for supper.  You are the soundest sleepers that ever saw, for I made some noise in hopes of awakening you, but I found that was an impossibility, so I thought I would try tobacco smoke.”