The Colonist in Australia, Or the Adventures of Godfrey Arabin (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Colonist in Australia, or the Adventures of Godfrey Arabin

Godfrefarabin was the third son of a respectable trader in a county-town in England. At the early age of eight he was sent to the care of a relative in the south of Scotland, and went to a school of repute in the neighbourhood of his relation's dwelling. He attended the school regularly his relation was a batchelor, and he was allowed to follow the bent of his wild fancy. H 9 mixed with the country-people, and acquired much information - for, as a people, the Scotch stand pre-eminent for intellectual ability, and manv of the lower orders are passionately attached to the literature of their country. The country-people are rather fond of ficti tious and speculative literature, and the schoolboy would often spend the winter evenings with some one who would talk over the adventures of Ivanhoe. When he did not meet with agreeable company, he used to wander among the mountains, thinking on the warriors and people of the Iong-forgotten past, until he would inspire the dull land scape with imaginary beings. He stood in fancy at the head of an array of warriors, while on the opposite side was the enemy's camp. He unsheathed his sword, gave his war-cry, and led to the attack, - the opposing forces are scattered as chaff before the wind. He remembered, when with his mother he went to view one of England's old cathedrals, and gazing with astonishment upon the tombs of the Crusaders, his impression of that strange order was vague and mazy, something like that we might derive from the description of Coeur de Lion, Ivanhoe, and Conrad of Monserrat, in the novel of Ivanhoe. He would bro at over the battles and seiges of the Crusades until his man throbbed and his cheek flushed. He was often overp; owed by an intense melancholy, which he however kept cog' mia, yet at times the most trifling incidents would chill V He commonly took refuge in pious exercises.

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