it was a beautiful spring afternoon in the northern hill districts of tasmania. the sky was of a bird's egg blue, which even italy cannot rival, and the bold outline of hills which bounded the horizon, bush clad to the top, showed a still deeper azure blue in an atmosphere which, clear as the heaven above, had never a suggestion of hardness. removed some half-mile from the little township of wallaroo lay a farm homestead nestling against the side of the hill, protected behind by a belt of trees from the keen, strong mountain winds, and surrounded by a rough wood paling; but the broad verandah in the front lay open to the sunshine, and even in winter could often be used as the family dining-room. the garden below it was a mass of flowers for at least six months in the year, and there was scarcely a month when there was a total absence of them.
the house, one-storied and built of wood like all the houses in the country districts, was in the middle of the home paddock; the drive up to it little more than a cart track across the field, which was divided from the farm road which skirted it by a fence of tree trunks, rough hewn and laid one on the top of the other. a strong gate guarded the entrance, and on it sat jack, the englishman, his bare, brown feet clinging to one of the lower bars, his firmly set head thrown back a little on his broad shoulders as he rolled out "rule britannia" from his lusty lungs. many and various were the games he had played in the paddock this afternoon, but pretending things by yourself palls after a time, and jack had sought his favourite perch upon the gate and employed the spare interval in practising the song which father had taught him on the occasion of his last visit. he must have it quite perfect by the time father came again. it was that father, an english naval captain, from whom jack claimed his title of "jack, the englishman," by which he was universally known in the little township, and yet the little boy, in his seven years of life, had known no other home than his grandfather's pretty homestead.
"but o' course, if father's english, i must be english too. you can't be different from your father," jack had said so often that the neighbours first laughed, and then accepted him at his own valuation, and gave him the nickname of which he was so proud.
about the mother who had died when he was born, jack never troubled his little head; two figures loomed large upon his childish horizon, aunt betty and father. aunts and mothers stood about on a level in jack's mind; it never suggested itself to him to be envious of the boys who had mothers instead of aunts, for aunt betty wrapped him round with a love so tender and wholesome, that the want of a mother had never made itself felt, but father stood first of all in his childish affection.
it was more than eight years since lieutenant stephens had come out from england in the man-o'-war which was to represent the english navy in australian waters, and at adelaide he had met mary treherne, a pretty tasmanian girl, still in her teens, who was visiting relations there. it was a case of love at first sight with the young couple, who were married after a very short engagement. then, whilst her husband's ship was sent cruising to northern seas, mary came back to her parents, and there had given birth to her little son, dying, poor child, before her devoted husband could get back to her. since then lieutenant stephens had received his promotion to captain, and had occupied some naval post in the australian commonwealth, but his boy, at betty treherne's urgent request, had been left at the farm, where he led as happy and healthful an existence as a child could have. the eras in his life were his father's visits, which were often long months apart, and as each arrival was a living joy, so each departure was grief so sore that it took all little jack's manhood not to cry his heart out.
"some day—some day," he had said wistfully on the last occasion, "when i'm a big boy you'll take me with you," and his father had nodded acquiescence.
"it's not quite impossible that when i'm called back to england, i may take you over with me and put you to school there, but that is in the far future."
"how far?" jack asked eagerly.
"that's more than i can tell; years hence very likely."
but even that distant hope relieved the tension of the big knot in jack's throat, and made him smile bravely as father climbed to the top of the crazy coach that was to carry him to the station some eight miles away.
from that time forward, jack insisted that aunt betty should measure him every month to see if he had grown a little.
"why are you in such a hurry to grow up?" she asked, smiling at him one day. "you won't seem like my little boy any more when you get into trousers."
"but i shall be father's big boy," was the quick rejoinder, "and he'll take me with him to england when he goes. did he tell you?"
aunt betty drew a hard breath, and paled a little.
"that can't be for years and years," she said decidedly.
"he said when i'm big, so i want to grow big in a hurry," went on jack, all unconscious how his frank outspokenness cut his aunt like a knife. then he turned and saw tears in her pretty eyes, and flew to kiss them away.
"but why are you crying, aunt betty? i've not been a naughty boy," he said, reminiscent that on the occasion of his one and only lie, the enormity of his sin had been brought home to him by the fact that aunt betty had cried.
she stooped and kissed him now with a little smile.
"i shan't like the day when you go away with father."
"but o' course you'll come along with us," he said, as a kind of happy afterthought, and there they both left it.
and now aunt betty's clear voice came calling down the paddock.
"jack, jack, it's time you came in to get tidy for tea," but jack's head was bent a little forward, his eyes were intently fixed upon a man's figure that came walking swiftly and strongly up the green lane from the township, and with a shrill whoop of triumph he sprang from his perch, and went bounding towards the newcomer.
"aunt betty, aunt betty," he flung back over his shoulder, "it's father, father come to see me," and the next minute he was folded close to the captain's breast, and lifted on to his shoulder, a little boy all grubby with his play, but as happy and joyful as any child in the island.
and across the paddock came aunt betty, fresh as the spring day in her blue print gown, and advancing more slowly behind came mr. and mrs. treherne.
"a surprise visit, father jack, but none the less a welcome one," said mr. treherne. he was a typical tasmanian farmer with his rough clothes and slouch hat, but a kindly contentment shone out of his true blue eyes, and he had an almost patriarchal simplicity of manner. he bore a high name in all the country-side for uprightness of character, and was any neighbour in trouble treherne was the man to turn to for counsel and help. and his wife was a help-meet indeed, a bustling active little woman, who made light of reverses and much of every joy. the loss of her eldest daughter had been the sharpest of her sorrows, and the gradual drifting of her four sons to different parts of the colony where competition was keener and money made faster than in "sleepy hollow," as tasmania is nicknamed by the bustling australians. there was only one left now to help father with the farm, ted and betty out of a family of seven!
but still mrs. treherne asserted confidently that the joys of life far outweighed its sorrows. perfectly happy in her own married life, her heart had gone out in tenderest pity to the young lieutenant so early left a widower, and a deep bond of affection existed between the two. she took one of his hands between her own, and beamed welcome upon him.
"it's good luck that brings you again so soon."
"it's a matter of business that i've come to talk over with you all, but it can wait until after supper. i'm as hungry as a hunter. i came straight on from burnie without waiting to get a meal."
"if you had wired, you should have had a clean son to welcome you," said betty. "climb down, jack, and come with me and be scrubbed. don't wait for us, mother. the tea is all ready to come in."
jack chattered away in wildest excitement whilst aunt betty scrubbed and combed, but betty's heart was thumping painfully, and she answered the boy at random, wondering greatly if the business father jack talked about implied a visit to england, and whether he would want to take his little son with him.
"he has the right! of course he has the right," she thought. "aunts are only useful to fill up gaps," and her arms closed round little jack with a yearning hug.
"there! now you're a son to be proud of, such a nice clean little boy smelling of starch and soap," she said merrily, with a final adjustment of the tie of his white sailor suit, and they went down to tea hand in hand, to tea laid in the verandah, with a glimpse in the west of the sun sinking towards its setting in a sky barred with green and purple and gold.
little jack sat by his father, listening to every word he said, and directly tea was ended climbed again on to his knee and imperatively demanded a story. it was the regular routine when father jack paid a visit.
"and what is it to be?" asked the captain
"why, jack, the giant killer, or jack and the beanstalk. i love the stories about jacks best of all, because aunt betty says the jacks are the people who do things, and she says you and all the brave sailors are called jack tars, and that i'm to grow up big and brave like you, father."
the captain's arm tightened round his son.
"it's very kind of aunt betty to say such good things about the jacks of the world. we must try and deserve them, you and i. well, now, i'm going to tell you a sort of new version of jack, the giant killer."
"what's a new version?" asked jack, distrustfully.
"the same sort of story told in a different way, and mine is a true story."
"is it written down in a book? has it got pictures?"
"not yet; i expect it will get written down some day when it's finished."
"it isn't finished," cried jack in real disappointment.
"wait and listen—there was once a man——"
"oh, it's all wrong," said jack impatiently. "it's a boy in the real story."
"didn't i tell you mine was a new version? now listen and don't interrupt——"
mr. treherne leant back in his chair, listening with a smile to the argument between father and son as he smoked his pipe; mrs. treherne had gone off into the house, whilst betty, after setting the table afresh for ted who would be late that evening as he was bringing home a mob of cattle, seated herself in the shadow, where she could watch the captain and jack without interruption.
"there was once a man," began the captain over again, "who looked round the world, and noticed what a lot of giants had been conquered, and wondered within himself what was left for him to do."
"no giants he could kill?" asked jack excitedly, "were those others all deaded?"
"not deaded; they were caught and held in bondage, made to serve their masters, which was ever so much better than killing them."
"what were their names?"
"water was the name of one of them."
jack stirred uneasily. "now you're greening me, father"—the term was uncle ted's.
the captain laughed. "didn't i tell you this was a true story? water was so big a giant that for years and years men looked at it, and did not try to do much with it. the great big seas——"
"i know them," cried jack. "aunt betty shows them to me on the map, and we go long voyages in the puff-puff steamers nearly every day!"
"ah! i was just coming to that. at first men hollowed out boats out of tree trunks, and rowed about in them, timidly keeping close to the shore, and then, as the years rolled on, they grew braver, and said: 'there's another giant that will help us in our fight with water. let us try and catch the wind.' so they built bigger boats, with sails to them which caught the wind and moved the ships along without any rowing, and for many, many years men were very proud of their two great captive giants, water and wind, and they discovered many new countries with their wind-driven ships, and were happy. but very often the wind failed them, grew sulky, and would not blow, and then the ship lay quiet in the midst of the ocean; or the wind was angry, and blew too strong—giants are dangerous when they lose their temper—and many a stately ship was upset by the fury of the wind, and sent to the bottom. then men began to think very seriously what giant they could conquer that would help them to make the wind more obedient to their will, so they called in fire to their aid. fire, properly applied, turned water into steam, and men found that not only ships, but nearly everything in the world could be worked through the help of steam."
jack was getting wildly interested in the new version. "oh, but i know," he said, clapping his hands. "there's trains, and there's steam rollers; i love it when they come up here, and there's an engine comes along and goes from farm to farm for the threshing, and that's jolly fun for the threshers all come to dinner, and——"
"yes, i see you know a lot about these captive giants after all," said the captain, bringing him back to the point.
"go on, please; it's just like a game," said jack. "perhaps i'll find out some more."
"i can't go on much longer. it would take me all night to tell you of all the giants we keep hard at work. three are enough to think of at a time. tell me their names again for fear you should forget."
"water—one. wind—two, and fire, that makes steam—three," said jack, counting them off, as he rehearsed them on his father's fingers. "just one more, daddy dear," a phrase he reserved for very big requests.
"one more then, and away you go to bed, for i see aunt betty looking at her watch. the last giant that the man of the story very much wishes to conquer, and has not done it yet, is air. he wants to travel in the air faster than any train or steamship will take you by land or water."
"like my new toy, the one grandmother sent for on my birthday seven. she sent for it all the way to melbourne, an 'airyplane' she calls it, but it only goes just across the room, and then comes flop."
"that's just it; at present flying in the air too often ends in flop, and this man i'm talking of wants to help to discover something that will make flying in the air safer and surer. there are lots of men all over the world trying to do the same thing. all the giants i have told you of are too big and strong for one man to grapple with by himself, but many men joined together will do it, and the man of the story has been working at it by himself for years, and at last—at last he thinks he has discovered something that will be of service to airmen and to his country, and he's going over to england to test it—to see if his discovery is really as good as he believes it to be."
little jack sat grave and very quiet, pondering deeply.
"what's the man's name, father? the man you're telling about."
"jack, a jack who will be well content if he can help to do something big in conquering the giant air. it's your father who is the man of the story. i promised it should be a true one."
jack's answer seemed a little irrelevant. he slipped from his father's knee and took his hand, trying with all his might to pull him up from his chair. "come, father, come quick and see how big i've grown. aunt betty measures me every month, and says i'm quite a big boy for my age."
wondering at the sudden change of subject, the captain humoured his little son, and allowed himself to be dragged to the hall where, against the doorpost of one of the rooms, jack's height was duly marked with a red pencil.
"aunt betty's right. you're quite a big boy for only seven years old."
"i knewed it," cried jack, in rapturous exultation, "so you'll take me along with you, dear, and we'll hit at that old giant air together. oh, i'm so glad, so glad to be big."
"not so fast, sonny," said the captain, gently gathering him again into his arms. "you're a big boy for seven years old, but you're altogether too young for me to take you to england yet."
jack's face went white as the sailor suit he wore, and his great round eyes filled to the brim with tears, but by vigorous blinking he prevented them from falling down his cheeks.
"you said—perhaps when i was big you'd take me with you."
"and that will be some years hence when i'll come back to fetch you, please god."
"me and aunt betty, too," said jack, with a little catch in his throat, "'cause she'll cry if i leave her."
"jack, it's bedtime, and you will never go to sleep if you get so excited," said aunt betty decidedly, feeling all future plans swamped into nothingness by the greatness of the news father jack had come to tell.
"look here, i'll carry you pig-a-back," said the captain, dropping on to all fours. "climb up and hold fast, for the pig feels frisky to-night, and i can't quite tell what may happen." so jack went off to his cot in aunt betty's room in triumph and screams of laughter, but the laughter gave way to tears when bathed and night-gowned he knelt by aunt betty's side to say his prayers. the list of people god was asked to bless was quite a long one, including various friends of jack's in the township, but last of all to-night came his father's name.
"god bless father jack, and make little jack a good boy and very big, please, dear god, so as he'll soon have father to fetch him home."
and then, with choking sobs, jack sprang to his feet and into bed.
"tuck me in tight, aunt betty, and don't kiss me, please. i'll tuck my head under the clothes, and don't tell father i'm crying. it's only little boys who cry, he says, and i want to be big, ever so big. i'll grow now, shan't i? now i've asked god about it."
aunt betty's only answer was a reassuring pat on his back as she tucked the bedclothes round him. truth to tell she was crying a little too.
