{"product_id":"2940013677937","title":"The Miner's Right","description":"I AM in Australia at last--actually in Botany Bay, as we called the\u003cbr\u003ecolony of New South Wales when Joe Bulder and I first thought of\u003cbr\u003eleaving that dear quiet old Dibblestowe Leys in Mid-Kent. More than\u003cbr\u003ethat, I am a real gold digger--very real, indeed--and the holder of a\u003cbr\u003eMiner's Right, a wonderful document, printed and written on parchment,\u003cbr\u003eprecisely as follows. I ought to know it by heart, good reason have I\u003cbr\u003etherefor, I and mine. Here it is, life size, in full. Shall I ever\u003cbr\u003etake it out and look at it by stealth in happy days to come, I wonder?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYes, I am here now, at Yatala, safe enough; as I said before, with\u003cbr\u003emy mates--Cyrus Yorke, Joe Bulder, and the Major. But I certainly\u003cbr\u003ethought I should never get away from England. One would have imagined\u003cbr\u003ethat a younger son of a decayed family had never quitted Britain\u003cbr\u003ebefore to find fortune or be otherwise provided for. Also, that\u003cbr\u003eAustralia was Central Africa, whence ingenuous youth had little more\u003cbr\u003echance of returning than dear old Livingstone.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs for me, Hereward Pole, as I had but little occupation and less\u003cbr\u003emoney, I was surely the precise kind of emigrant which the old land\u003cbr\u003ecan so gracefully spare to the new. Gently nurtured, well intentioned,\u003cbr\u003eutterly useless, not but what I was fitting myself according to my\u003cbr\u003elights for a colonial career--save the mark!--for I had been nearly a\u003cbr\u003eyear on a farm in Mid-Kent, for which high privilege I paid, or rather\u003cbr\u003emy uncle did, £100 sterling.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo, I had learned to plough indifferently, and could be trusted to\u003cbr\u003eharrow, a few side strokes not mattering in that feat of agriculture.\u003cbr\u003eI could pronounce confidently on the various samples of seed wheat\u003cbr\u003esubmitted to me, and I had completely learned the art of colouring a\u003cbr\u003emeerschaum by smoking daily and hourly what I then took to be the\u003cbr\u003estrongest tobacco manufactured.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt wasn't bad fun. Jane Mangold, the old farmer's daughter, who was\u003cbr\u003ecoaching me, was a pretty girl, with rosy cheeks, a saucy nose, and no\u003cbr\u003eend of soft, fluffy, fair hair. We were capital friends, and she stood\u003cbr\u003eby me when I got into disgrace by over-driving the steam-engine one\u003cbr\u003eday, and nearly blowing up the flower of the village population of\u003cbr\u003eDibblestowe Leys. Now and then I had a little shooting, and a by-day\u003cbr\u003ewith the Tickham hounds. Life passed on so peacefully and pleasantly\u003cbr\u003ethat I was half inclined to think of taking a farm near the Leys at\u003cbr\u003ethe end of my term, and asking Jane to help with the dairy, poultry,\u003cbr\u003ecider, and housekeeping department. Then a little incident happened\u003cbr\u003ewhich changed the current of ideas generally, and my life in\u003cbr\u003eparticular.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070188077296,"sku":"2940013677937","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013677937_p0.jpg?v=1763584160","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013677937","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}