Read "Chinkie's Flat" by Louis Becke online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"Magnetic Villa" was one of the "best" houses in the rising city of Townsville. It stood on the red, rocky, and treeless side of Melton Hill, overlooked the waters of Cleveland Bay, and faced the rather picturesque-looking island from whence it derived its name.
About ten months after the resurrection of the "Ever Victorious" and the concomitant reawakening to life of Chinkie's Flat, three ladies arrived by steamer from Sydney to take possession of the villa -- then untenanted. In a few hours it was generally known that the newcomers were Mrs. Trappeme, Miss Trappeme, and Miss Lilla Trappeme. There was also a Master Trappeme, a lanky, ill-looking, spotted-faced youth of fourteen, in exceedingly new and badly-fitting clothes much too large for him. By his mother and sisters he was addressed as "Mordaunt," though until a year or so previously his name had been Jimmy.