"Having told you a good deal of my past, I should like to be able to add something of my future; but cannot. Some men are very ingenious in inventing food for hope: I am not. I don't know for what I am living: for every good and earnest motive seems to have been stifled within me. Hope, love, despair, revenge, and all the other mental powers that move man to action, are dead within my heart. I having nothing more to tell you of myself; and probably never shall have." So ended the sad story of the convict. Volume Three, Chapter VII. RAFFLING AWAY A WIFE. Our claim on the Avoca "lead" turned out to be worth working; and we had five or six weeks of hard toil before us. My mate continued temperate and industrious; and we got along together without any misunderstanding. One day we were informed by a man passing our tent, that a very interesting affair was to come off that evening--at a certain grog-shop not far from where we lived. My partner was strongly advised to be there: as there would be a spectacle worth witnessing. "Shall you go?" I asked, after the man had gone. "No--not alone," replied he, "the place has a bad name; and I know that one of the parties concerned in what is to take place is a bad bird. You go along with me, and you'll see some amusement." "Have you any idea what it's to be?" I inquired. "Yes. I think they are going to have a raffle." "A raffle! There's nothing very interesting about that!" "That depends," significantly rejoined my partner. "Supposing it is a woman that's to be raffled for?" "A woman to be raffled for!" "So I believe. There is a Hobart Town man here, who has a young wife, with whom he has been quarrelling for the last month. He has found out that it is impossible to live with her any longer; and is going to put her up to be raffled for." I had seen a negro slave disposed of in this fashion in the city of New Orleans; but had never heard of a man raffling away his wife; and the oddness of the thing determined me to go. Having signified my intention to my mate, he promised to take me to the place, and also take care of me while there. The reader may think his promised protection unnecessary--after my having managed for so many years to take care of myself. But I knew that amongst "old hands," the protection or friendship, of one of their own "kidney" was worth having; and I certainly would not have gone, without some one to introduce, and look after me--one such as my mining partner, who knew their ways, and would give them to understand, that I was not to be molested.