In the land of the harp and feathers Author:Alfred Thomas Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: XIV GOMER ON THE "BETTER LAND"; AND A LETTER FROM LONDON r 1 HE little ruse I practised upon Gomer and -- Gwenny when I went to live with them, so as to e... more »nable me to pay for my lodgings in peace, was wonderfully helped by quite a little series of events which seemed to lend colour to my tale about the friend in Australia. The very first night I lodged with them, Gomer had referred to his friendship with Richard Roberts, possibly for the purpose of drawing me on to give him any information I might have learnt from books concerning the colony in which the enterprising Richard had settled down as a sheep farmer. Both Gomer and Richard were but indifferent correspondents, and from what I could gather, even what little communication did pass between them, was conducted in a most curious manner.That Richard was alive, Gomer occasionally received indisputable evidence, and in this wise. Captain John Gwynne, a worthy old-fashioned master mariner who traded from Caerllyn to Sydney, was the recognised medium entrusted with all their communications. Captain Gwynne was the embodiment of the rough-looking, blunt, adventurous old salt, of the kind one used to delight to read of—surreptitiously —when at school; an additional relish being added to the daring act if the prohibited book could be perused during class hours, beneath the master's very nose. What a number of sober, middle-aged gentlemen would be astonished, on casting a look backward to-day, to discover what brave and bold buccaneers, and all the rest of it, they imagined themselves cut out to be, at the mature age of twelve. Time, however, alters many plans, not the least notable among them being the daydreams of school days long since departed. Captain Gwynne was a skipper of few words, and less writing. He considered...« less