Chapter XXV.



Epistolam Hanc Misi, Tunc Bene, Nunc Valde Ad Opus.


Prepaid.
To W. H. ARCHER, Esq.
Acting Registrar General,
Melbourne.
Ballaarat Gold-fields,
Eureka, November 30, 1854.


My dear Mr. Archer,

I was in some anxiety about you; not receiving any answer to my letter
of the 17th October, and especially to that of the 22nd ditto. I was
at Creswick's Creek, when I was informed that Father Smyth had a letter for me,
and last Monday I returned to Ballaarat, where I received, through
Messrs. Muir Brothers, your letter of the 20th October. I am heartily glad
to learn that you are well, and now I suppose a few lines from me are
as welcome to you as ever.

Somehow or other, verging towards the fortieth year of my age, having
witnessed strange scenes in this strange world, very, very different from
my dream of youth, I feel now more disposed to the sober reality of the things