Through South Westland : A journey to the Haast and Mount Aspiring New Zealand . and little currantssticking in them. Cliarlie was bent on beinghospitable. Next came out bundles of lettersand piles of unopened newpapers from London—for though he has wandered in the wildernesshere and in Australia this fifty years, his peoplehave not forgotten him. He was indeed a tj^ical Hatter. Said Charlie: If youll marry meand come up here, Ill make a fine place of it. Illcut down the bush, and Ill get a cow. I assuredhim—however alluring this prospect for my futuresettlement in life might be—it was quite i
Through South Westland : A journey to the Haast and Mount Aspiring New Zealand . and little currantssticking in them. Cliarlie was bent on beinghospitable. Next came out bundles of lettersand piles of unopened newpapers from London—for though he has wandered in the wildernesshere and in Australia this fifty years, his peoplehave not forgotten him. He was indeed a tj^ical Hatter. Said Charlie: If youll marry meand come up here, Ill make a fine place of it. Illcut down the bush, and Ill get a cow. I assuredhim—however alluring this prospect for my futuresettlement in life might be—it was quite impossible,and I rose to go. But I had only gone a few yardson the path when he came flying after me, with anewspaper wrapper mth his name and last I saw of my Hatter, he was wavingfarewells and shouting after me : Youll think ofit, wont you ?—and Ill get the cow, and make agrand place of it. My heart was always sorryfor these lonely old men we found. They who,in the days of their youth and strength, oftenhandled their hundreds —now^ only old THE WAIHO GORGE. 47 waiting out their few years, clinging to the scenesthey know—nowhere else for them in the wideworld. The companies get all the gold nowadays ;the Hatters are the last of their race. I crossed the gorge by a bridge suspended liighin air, just two planl^s with wires on both sides—a slip, and there would have been no more wander-ing ! Far beneath, the Waiho churned and boiledin yellow foam, and the bridge swayed the other side was a bit of road leadmg past atrim cottage with green doors and windows, anda garden gay with flowers. The forest shut it in,and the grim walls of the Waiho gorge rosebehind, and in the pleasant living-room I sat andchatted long; heard tales of the five stalwartsons, and of the grandchildren, of the diggersin t] gorge, and the Hatters among tlie mountains and the forest and the greatglacier are, to the old lady who lives there undersha
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidthroughsouth, bookyear1900
