AustLit

A little girl is kind to an old beggar-woman and another is rude. Both are suitably rewarded.(PB).

A steamer sinks betwen Southampton and New York, and 70 of the 500 aboard are saved. This is the narrative of one passenger's adventures; floating in turn on a settee and a raft of doors, being picked up by a slaver from which he escapes with a captive girl and an old man - father and daughter - and drifts for another five days before they are picked up. Colourful if improbable. (PB).

A bachelor from Woodend about to marry recounts an encounter with a bushranger soon after his arrival in Victoria in 1855, the discovery of his brother in the bushranger and his vow to reform ... A little laboured. (PB).

A genteel widow takes a position as housemaid in a poor but cultured house after trying several other occupations. She makes life smooth for the household, training her mistress in housekeeping and the piano - and marries her master's brother. Probably Australian setting but unspecified. Pleasantly written. (PB).

Account of a brother and sister attending a shilling school in Victoria in the 1860s, and the sister's courage in saving her brother from a fight over marbles. Interest more in subject than style; ring of authenticity, reminiscence. (PB).

Light romance of four lovers allied to the wrong partners, and the amateur theatricals which precipitate their rupture and eventual happiness. Some promise reduced by sentimental cliche. (PB).

A Melbourne bachelor recounts his unhappy experiences with a horse and buggy on holiday with a friend the previous year - and his determination not to repeat it. Basic narrative of a carriage accident and a country romance. (PB).

Brief romance centring on a girl's realisation that what she thought was friendship was truly love; told through the leaves of two daises counted a year apart. Slight charm. (PB).

At an Australian country station, an educated doctor witnesses an English emigrant's will and becomes involved in the wealthy family's estrangement. A wife's cold revenge, a niece's loyalty, and a convict son's return are all involved. (PB)

The narrator and her mother are forced to keep a shop when her grandfather unexpectedly leaves his money to her cousin. They become involved in the lives of a neighbouring widower and his children, helping to run the household from over the road .. sweet, wry romance, slight. (PB).

The third mate on an Australian clipper ship discovers the skeleton of a stowaway in the hold when he tries to catch sailors raiding the hold at night. Well written, reminiscence style. (PB).

Tale of the circus ring. A drunken rider is reprimanded and forbidden to appear, but his anger is appeased when the ringmaster risks his life to save the rider's child from a wild horse. Interesting, lively and sentimental. (PB).

An English farmer adopts a little foundling discovered under a springtime hedge. On her wedding day she discovers her true mother - the squire's daughter. Unexceptional. (PB).

Bluntness is often rudeness and outspoken persons disagreeable - and often women. Passing reference to W. W.'s Mark Sinclair, the detective in the latter's 'Detective Album'. (PB)