TOM: HIS WIVES HIS BATTLES 295 



Nelly borne ? Her grief has been so sore that she has torn 

 her hair out by the roots in frenzy and stamped upon it ; 

 but Tom, surly and impassive Tom, is her lord as well as 

 her most exacting master, and in their own way they are 

 devoted to one another. 



The roughest cross Nelly was called upon to bear was 

 the presence of Tom's third wife "Little Jinny" the 

 manner of whose wooing and home-coming is to be told. 



News came from Lucinda Point to Clump Point 

 passed from one to another that Tom's half-brother (a 

 purely fictional relationship) had died, leaving a young 

 widow. According to Tom's rendering of the matrimonial 

 laws, he was the rightful heir. The widow was all that his 

 half-brother had left that was of the slightest consequence. 



Tom, telling the circumstances, asked for a holiday that 

 he might personally lay claim to his inheritance. Reminded 

 that he had one wife, he frankly declared in Nelly's presence, 

 and she seemed to acquiesce, that she was no good ; but 

 that the other one was a " good fella " in every respect, 

 even to washing plates and scrubbing floors. 



His holiday was granted. He went away with money 

 in his pockets, blankets, several changes of raiment among 

 them Nelly's best dress and hat, dilly-bags brightly 

 coloured, and weapons boomerang, two black palm spears, 

 a great wooden sword, a shield decorated with a compli- 

 cated pattern in red and white earth, and a flashing new 

 tomahawk. 



So he departed, with Nelly's best wishes, and full of 

 hope and expectation, promising to return in two weeks. 



Two months slipped past, and one evening a forlorn, 

 ragged, lean scarecrow of a black boy without a hat, 

 unshaven, without a blanket, and even destitute of a pipe, 

 clambered over the side of the steamer, and dropped into 

 the boat without a word. It was Tom ! 



In shreds and patches the history of his experience 

 was related. He had arrived at Lucinda, had charmed 

 " Little Jinny" with his manly presence and spruceness and 

 the amount of his personal property, supplemented by the 



