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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Station Amusements, by Lady Barker
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Station Amusements
+
+Author: Lady Barker
+
+Release Date: June, 2004 [EBook #5992]
+Posting Date: June 4, 2009
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STATION AMUSEMENTS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by P. J. Riddick
+
+
+
+
+
+STATION AMUSEMENTS IN NEW ZEALAND
+
+
+By Lady Barker
+
+
+
+
+Preface.
+
+
+The interest shown by the public in the simple and true account of
+every-day life in New Zealand, published by the author three years
+ago, has encouraged her to enlarge upon the theme. This volume is but a
+continuation of "Station Life," with this difference: that whereas
+that little book dwelt somewhat upon practical matters, these pages
+are entirely devoted to reminiscences of the idler hours of a settler's
+life.
+
+Many readers have friends and relations out in those beautiful distant
+islands, and though her book should possess no wider interest, the
+author hopes that these at least will care to know exactly what sort of
+life their absent dear ones are leading. One thing is certain: that few
+books can ever have afforded so much pleasure to their authors, or can
+have appeared more completely to write themselves, than "Station Life,"
+and this, its sequel.
+
+M. A. B.
+
+
+
+Chapter I: A Bush picnic.
+
+
+Since my return to England, two years ago, I have been frequently asked
+by my friends and acquaintances, "How did you amuse yourself up at the
+station?" I am generally tempted to reply, "We were all too busy to
+need amusement;" but when I come to think the matter over calmly and
+dispassionately, I find that a great many of our occupations may be
+classed under the head of play rather than work. But that would hardly
+give a fair idea of our lives there, either. It would be more correct to
+say perhaps, that most of our simple pleasures were composed of a solid
+layer of usefulness underneath the froth of fun and frolic. I purpose
+therefore in these sketches to describe some of the pursuits which
+afforded us a keen enjoyment at the time,--an enjoyment arising from
+perfect health, simple tastes, and an exquisite climate.
+
+It will be as well to begin with the description of one of the picnics,
+which were favourite amusements in our home, nestled in a valley of
+the Malvern Hills of Canterbury. These hills are of a very respectable
+height, and constitute in fact the lowest slopes of the great Southern
+Alps, which rise to snow-clad peaks behind them. Our little wooden
+homestead stood at the head of a sunny, sheltered valley, and around it
+we could see the hills gradually rolling into downs, which in their turn
+were smoothed out, some ten or twelve miles off, into the dead level of
+the plains. The only drawback to the picturesque beauty of these lower
+ranges is the absence of forest, or as it is called there, bush. Behind
+the Malvern Hills, where they begin to rise into steeper ascents, lies
+many and many a mile of bush-clad mountain, making deep blue shadows
+when the setting sun brings the grand Alpine range into sharp white
+outline against the background of dazzling Italian sky. But just here,
+where my beloved antipodean home stood, we had no trees whatever, except
+those which we had planted ourselves, and whose growth we watched with
+eager interest. I dwell a little upon this point, to try to convey
+to any one who may glance at these pages, how we all,--dwellers among
+tree-less hills as we were,--longed and pined for the sights and sounds
+of a "bush."
+
+Quite out of view from the house or garden, and about seven miles away,
+lay a mountain pass, or saddle, over a range, which was densely wooded,
+and from whose highest peak we could see a wide extent of timbered
+country. Often in our evening rides we have gone round by that saddle,
+in spite of a break-neck track and quicksands and bogs, just to satisfy
+our constant longing for green leaves, waving branches, and the twitter
+of birds. Whenever any wood was wanted for building a stockyard, or
+slabbing a well, or making a post-and-rail fence around a new paddock,
+we were obliged to take out a Government license to cut wood in this
+splendid bush. Armed with the necessary document the next step was to
+engage "bushmen," or woodcutters by profession, who felled and cut the
+timber into the proper lengths, and stacked it neatly in a clearing,
+where it could get dry and seasoned. These stacks were often placed in
+such inaccessible and rocky parts of the steep mountain side, that they
+had to be brought down to the flat in rude little sledges, drawn by
+a bullock, who required to be trained to the work, and to possess so
+steady and equable a disposition as to be indifferent to the annoyance
+of great logs of heavy wood dangling and bumping against his heels as
+the sledge pursued its uneven way down the bed of a mountain torrent, in
+default of a better road.
+
+Imagine, then, a beautiful day in our early New Zealand autumn. For
+a week past, a furious north-westerly gale had been blowing down the
+gorges of the Rakaia and the Selwyn, as if it had come out of a funnel,
+and sweeping across the great shelterless plains with irresistible
+force. We had been close prisoners to the house all those days, dreading
+to open a door to go out for wood or water, lest a terrific blast should
+rush in and whip the light shingle roof off. Not an animal could be seen
+out of doors; they had all taken shelter on the lee-side of the gorse
+hedges, which are always planted round a garden to give the vegetables
+a chance of coming up. On the sky-line of the hills could be perceived
+towards evening, mobs of sheep feeding with their heads _up_-wind,
+and travelling to the high camping-grounds which they always select in
+preference to a valley. The yellow tussocks were bending all one way,
+perfectly flat to the ground, and the shingle on the gravel walk outside
+rattled like hail against the low latticed windows. The uproar from the
+gale was indescribable, and the little fragile house swayed and shook as
+the furious gusts hurled themselves against it. Inside its shelter, the
+pictures were blowing out from the walls, until I expected them to be
+shaken off their hooks even in those rooms which had plank walls lined
+with papered canvas; whilst in the kitchen, store-room, etc., whose
+sides were made of cob, the dust blew in fine clouds from the pulverized
+walls, penetrating even to the dairy, and settling half an inch thick
+on my precious cream. At last, when our skin felt like tightly drawn
+parchment, and our ears and eyes had long been filled with powdered
+earth, the wind dropped at sunset as suddenly as it had risen five days
+before. We ventured out to breathe the dust-laden atmosphere, and
+to look if the swollen creeks (swollen because snow-fed) had done or
+threatened to do any mischief, and saw on the south-west horizon great
+fleecy masses of cloud driving rapidly up before a chill icy breeze.
+Hurrah, here comes a sou'-wester! The parched-up earth, the shrivelled
+leaves, the dusty grass, all needed the blessed damp air. In an hour it
+was upon us. We had barely time to house the cows and horses, to feed
+the fowls, and secure them in their own shed, and to light a roaring
+coal (or rather lignite, for it is not true coal) fire in the
+drawing-room, when, with a few warning splashes, the deluge of cold rain
+came steadily down, and we went to sleep to the welcome sound of its
+refreshing patter.
+
+All that I have been describing was the weather of the past week.
+Disagreeable as it might have been, it was needed in both its hot and
+cold, dry and wet extremes, to make a true New Zealand day. The furious
+nor'-wester had blown every fleck of cloud below the horizon, and dried
+the air until it was as light as ether. The "s'utherly buster," on the
+other hand, had cooled and refreshed everything in the most delicious
+way, and a perfect day had come at last. What words can describe the
+pleasure it is to inhale such an atmosphere? One feels as if old age
+or sickness or even sorrow, could hardly exist beneath such a spotless
+vault of blue as stretched out above our happy heads. I have often
+been told that this feeling of intense pleasure on a fine day, which is
+peculiar to New Zealand, is really a very low form of animal enjoyment.
+It may be so, but I only know that I never stood in the verandah early
+in the morning of such a day as I am trying to sketch in pen and ink
+now, without feeling the highest spiritual joy, the deepest thankfulness
+to the loving Father who had made His beautiful world so fair, and who
+would fain lead us through its paths of pleasantness to a still more
+glorious, home, which will be free from the shadows brooding from
+beneath sin's out-stretched wings over this one. As I stood in the
+porch I have often fancied I could seethe animals and even the poultry
+expressing in dumb brute fashion, their joy and gratitude to the God
+from whom all blessings flow.
+
+But to return to the verandah, although we have never left it. Presently
+F---- came out, and I said with a sigh, born of deep content and
+happiness, "What a day!" "Yes," answered F----: "a heavenly day indeed:
+well worth waiting for. I want to go and see how the men are getting on
+in the bush. Will you like to come too?" "Of course I will. What can be
+more enchanting than the prospect of spending such sunny hours in that
+glorious bush?" So after breakfast I give my few simple orders to the
+cook, and prepare, to pack a "Maori kit," or flat basket made of flax,
+which could be fastened to my side-saddle, with the preparations for our
+luncheon. First some mutton chops had to be trimmed and prepared, all
+ready to be cooked when we got there. These were neatly folded up in
+clean paper; and a little packet of tea, a few lumps of white sugar,
+a tiny wooden contrivance for holding salt and pepper, and a couple of
+knives and forks, were added to the parcel.
+
+So much for the contents of the basket. They needed to be carefully
+packed so as not to rattle in any way, or Helen, my pretty bay mare,
+would soon have got rid of the luncheon--and me. I wrapped up three or
+four large raw potatoes in separate bits of paper, and slipped them into
+F----'s pockets when he was looking another way, and then began the real
+difficulty of my picnic: how was the little tin tea-pot and an odd
+delf cup to be carried? F---- objected to put them also in his pocket,
+assuring me that I could make very good tea by putting my packet of the
+fragrant leaves into the bushmen's kettle, and drinking it afterwards
+out of one of their pannikins. He tried to bribe me to this latter piece
+of simplicity by promising to wash the tin pannikin out for me first.
+Now I was not dainty or over particular; I could not have enjoyed my New
+Zealand life so thoroughly if I had been either; but I did not like the
+idea of using the bushmen's tea equipage. In the first place, the tea
+never tastes the same when made in their way, and allowed to boil for a
+moment or two after the leaves have been thrown in, before the kettle is
+taken off the fire; and in the next place, it is very difficult to
+drink tea out of a pannikin; for it becomes so hot directly we put
+the scalding liquid into it, that long after the tea is cool enough
+to drink, the pannikin still continues too hot to touch. But I said so
+pathetically, "You know how wretched I am without my tea," that F----'s
+heart relented, and he managed to stow away the little teapot and
+the cup. That cup bore a charmed life. It accompanied me on all my
+excursions, escaping unbroken; and is, I believe, in existence now,
+spending its honoured old age in the recesses of a cupboard.
+
+After the luncheon, the next question to be decided is, which of the
+dogs are to join the expedition. Hector, of course; he is the master's
+colley, and would no more look at a sheep, except in the way of
+business, than he would fly. Rose, a little short-haired terrier, was
+the most fascinating of dog companions, and I pleaded hard for her, as
+she was an especial pet; though there were too many lambs belonging to
+a summer lambing (in New Zealand the winter is the usual lambing season)
+in the sheltered paddocks beneath the bush, to make it quite safe for
+her to be one of the party. She would not kill or hurt a lamb on
+any account, but she always appeared anxious to play with the little
+creatures; and as her own spotless coat was as white as theirs, she
+often managed to get quite close to a flock of sheep before they
+perceived that she belonged to the dreaded race of dogs. When the timid
+animals found out their mistake, a regular stampede used to ensue; and
+it was not supposed to be good for the health of the old or young sheep
+to hurry up the hill-sides in such wild fashion as that in which they
+rushed away from Rose's attempts to intrude on their society. Nettle may
+come, for he is but a tiny terrier, and so fond of his mistress that he
+never strays a yard away from her horse's heels. Brisk, my beautiful,
+stupid water-spaniel, is also allowed an outing. He is perfect to look
+at, but not having had any educational advantages in his youth, is an
+utter fool; amiable, indeed, but not the less a fool. Garibaldi, another
+colley, is suffering a long penal sentence of being tied up to his
+barrel, on account of divers unlawful chases after sheep which were
+not wanted; and dear old Jip, though she pretends to be very anxious
+to accompany us; is far too fat and too rheumatic to keep pace with our
+long stretching gallop up the valley.
+
+At last we were fairly off about eleven o'clock, and an hour's easy
+canter, intersected by many "flat-jumps," or rather "water-jumps,"
+across the numerous creeks, brought unto the foot of the bush-clad
+mountain. After that our pace became a very sober one, as the track
+resembled a broken rocky staircase more than a bridle-path. But such as
+it was, our sure-footed horses carried us safely up and down its
+rugged steeps, without making a single false step. No mule can be more
+sure-footed than a New Zealand horse. He will carry his rider anywhere,
+if only that rider trusts entirely to him, nor attempts to guide him in
+any way. During the last half-hour of our slow and cat-like climb,
+we could hear the ring of the bushmen's axes, and the warning shouts
+preceding the crashing fall of a Black Birch. Fallen logs and deep ruts
+made by the sledges in their descent, added to the difficulties of the
+track; and I was so faint-hearted as to entreat piteously, on more
+than one occasion, when Helen paused and shook her head preparatory to
+climbing over a barricade, to be "taken off." But F---- had been used to
+these dreadful roads for too many years to regard them in the same light
+as I did, and would answer carelessly, "Nonsense: you're as safe as if
+you were sitting in an arm-chair." All I can say is, it might have been
+so, but I did not feel at all like it.
+
+However, the event proved him to have been right, and we reached the
+clearing in safety. Here we dismounted, and led the horses to a place
+where they could nibble some grass, and rest in the cool shade. The
+saddles and bridles were soon removed, and halters improvised out of the
+New Zealand flax, which can be turned to so many uses. Having provided
+for the comfort of our faithful animals, our next step was to look for
+the bushmen. The spot which we had reached was their temporary home in
+the heart of the forest, but their work was being carried on elsewhere.
+I could not have told from which side the regular ringing axe-strokes
+proceeded, so confusing were the echoes from the cliffs around us;
+but after a moment's silent pause F---- said, "If we follow that track
+(pointing to a slightly cleared passage among the trees) we shall
+come upon them." So I kilted up my linsey skirt, and hung up my little
+jacket, necessary for protection against the evening air, on a bough out
+of the wekas' reach, whilst I followed F---- through tangled creepers,
+"over brake, over brier," towards the place from whence the noise of
+falling trees proceeded. By the time we reached it, our scratched hands
+and faces bore traces of the thorny undergrowth which had barred our
+way; but all minor discomforts were forgotten in the picturesque beauty
+of the spot. Around us lay the forest-kings, majestic still in their
+overthrow, whilst substantial stacks of cut-up and split timber
+witnessed to the skill and industry of the stalwart figures before us,
+who reddened through their sunburn with surprise and shyness at seeing
+a lady. They need not have been afraid of me, for I had long ago made
+friends with them, and during the preceeding winter had established a
+sort of night-school in my dining-room, for all the hands employed on
+the station, and these two men had been amongst my most constant pupils.
+One of them, a big Yorkshire-man, was very backward in his "larning,"
+and though he plodded on diligently, never got beyond the simplest words
+in the largest type. Small print puzzled him at once, and he had a habit
+of standing or sitting with his back to me whilst repeating his lessons.
+Nothing would induce him to face me. The moment it became his turn to
+go on with the chapter out of the Bible, with which we commenced our
+studies, that instant he turned his broad shoulders towards me, and I
+could only, hear the faintest murmurs issuing from the depths of a great
+beard. Remonstrance would have scared my shy pupil away, so I was fain
+to put up with his own method of instruction.
+
+But this is a digression, and I want to make you see with my eyes the
+beautiful glimpses of distant country lying around the bold wooded
+cliff on which we were standing. The ground fell away from our feet so
+completely in some places, that we could see over the tops of the high
+trees around us, whilst in others the landscape appeared framed in an
+arch of quivering foliage. A noisy little creek chattered and babbled as
+it hurried along to join its big brother down below, and kept a fringe
+of exquisite ferns, which grew along its banks, brightly green by its
+moisture. Each tree, if taken by itself, was more like an umbrella than
+anything else to English eyes, for in these primitive forests, where
+no kind pruning hand has ever touched them, they shoot up, straight and
+branchless, into the free air above, where they spread a leafy crown out
+to the sunbeams. Beneath the dense shade of these matted branches grew
+a luxuriant shrubbery, whose every leaf was a marvel of delicate beauty,
+and ferns found here a home such as they might seek elsewhere in vain.
+Flowers were very rare, and I did not observe many berries, but these
+conditions vary in different parts of the beautiful middle island.
+
+That was a fair and fertile land stretching out before us, intersected
+by the deep banks of the Rakaia, with here and there a tiny patch of
+emerald green and a white dot, representing the house and English grass
+paddock of a new settler. In the background the bush-covered mountains
+rose ever higher and higher in bolder outline, till they shook off
+their leafy clothing, and stood out in steep cliffs and scaurs from the
+snow-clad glacier region of the mountain range running from north to
+south, and forming the back bone of the island. I may perhaps make you
+see the yellow, river-furrowed plains, and the great confusion of
+rising ground behind them, but cannot make you see, still less feel, the
+atmosphere around, quivering in a summer haze in the valley beneath, and
+stirred to the faintest summer wind-sighs as it moved among the pines
+and birches overhead. Its lightness was its most striking peculiarity.
+You felt as if your lungs could never weary of inhaling deep breaths of
+such an air. Warm without oppression, cool without a chill. I can find
+nothing but paradoxes to describe it. As for fatigue, one's muscles
+might get tired, and need rest, but the usual depression and weariness
+attending over-exertion could not exist in such an atmosphere. One felt
+like a happy child; pleased at nothing, content to exist where existence
+was a pleasure.
+
+You could not find more favourable specimens of New Zealand colonists
+than the two men, Trew and Domville, who stood before us in their
+working dress of red flannel shirts and moleskin trousers, "Cookham"
+boots and digger's plush hats. Three years before this day they had
+landed at Port Lyttleton, with no other capital than their strong,
+willing arms, and their sober, sensible heads. Very different is their
+appearance to-day from what it was on their arrival; and the change in
+their position and circumstances is as great. Their bodily frames have
+filled out and developed under the influence of the healthy climate
+and abundance of mutton, until they look ten years younger and twice as
+strong, and each man owns a cottage and twenty acres of freehold land,
+at which he works in spare time, as well as having more pounds than he
+ever possessed pence in the old country, put safely away in the bank.
+There can be no doubt about the future of any working man or woman
+in our New Zealand colonies. It rests in their own hands, under God's
+blessing, and the history of the whole human race shows us that He
+always has blessed honest labour and rightly directed efforts to do our
+duty in this world. Sobriety and industry are the first essentials to
+success. Possessing these moral qualifications, and a pair of hands,
+a man may rear up his children in those beautiful distant lands in
+ignorance of what hunger; or thirst, or grinding poverty means. Hitherto
+the want of places of worship, and schools for the children, have been
+a sad drawback to the material advantages of colonization at the
+Antipodes; but these blessings are increasing every day, and the need of
+them creates the supply.
+
+The great mistake made in England, next to that of sending out worthless
+idle paupers, who have never done a hand's turn for themselves here, and
+are still less likely to do it elsewhere, is for parents and guardians
+to ship off to New Zealand young men who have received the up-bringing
+and education of gentlemen, without a shilling in their pockets, under
+the vague idea that something will turn up for them in a new place.
+There is nothing which can turn up, for the machinery of civilization is
+reduced to the most primitive scale in these countries; and I have known
+500 pounds per annum regarded as a monstrous salary to be drawn by a
+hard-worked official of some twenty years standing and great experience
+in the colony. From this we may judge of the chances of remunerative
+employment for a raw unfledged youth, with a smattering of classical
+learning. At first they simply "loaf" (as it is called there) on their
+acquaintances and friends. At the end of six months their clothes are
+beginning to look shabby; they feel they _ought_ to do something, and
+they make day by day the terrible discovery that there is nothing for
+them to do in their own rank of life. Many a poor clergyman's son,
+sooner than return to the home which has been so pinched to furnish
+forth his passage money and outfit, takes a shepherd's billet, though he
+generally makes a very bad shepherd for the first year or two; or drives
+bullocks, or perhaps wanders vaguely over the country, looking for work,
+and getting food and lodging indeed, for inhospitality is unknown, but
+no pay. Sometimes they go to the diggings, only to find that money is as
+necessary there as anywhere, and that they are not fitted to dig in wet
+holes for eight or ten hours a day. Often these poor young men go home
+again, and it is the best thing they can do, for at least they have
+gained some knowledge of life, on its dark as well as its brighter side.
+But still oftener, alas, they go hopelessly to the bad, degenerating
+into billiard markers, piano players at dancing saloons, cattle drivers,
+and their friends probably lose sight of them.
+
+Once I was riding with my husband up a lovely gulley, when we heard
+the crack of a stockwhip, sounding strangely through the deep eternal
+silence of a New Zealand valley, and a turn of the track showed us a
+heavy, timber-laden bullock-waggon labouring slowly along. At the head
+of the long team sauntered the driver, in the usual rough-and-ready
+costume, with his soft plush hat pulled low over his face, and pulling
+vigorously at a clay pipe. In spite of all the outer surroundings,
+something in the man's walk and dejected attitude struck my imagination,
+and I made some remark to my companion. The sound of my voice reached
+the bullock-driver's ears; he looked up, and on seeing a lady, took his
+pipe out of his mouth, his hat off his head, and forcing his beasts a
+little aside, stood at their head to let us pass. I smiled and nodded,
+receiving in return a perfect and profound bow, and the most melancholy
+glance I have ever seen in human eyes. "Good gracious, F----," I cried,
+when we had passed, "who is that man?" "That is Sir So-and-So's third
+son," he replied: "they sent him out here without a shilling, five years
+ago, and that is what he has come to: a working man, living with working
+men. He looks heart-broken, poor fellow, doesn't he?" I, acting upon
+impulse, as any woman would have done, turning back and rode up to him,
+finding it very difficult to frame my pity and sympathy in coherent
+words. "No thank you, ma'am," was all the answer I could get, in the
+most refined, gentlemanly tone of voice: "I'm very well as I am. I
+should only have the struggle all over again if I made any change now.
+It is the truest kindness to leave me alone." He would not even shake
+hands with me; so I rode back; discomfited, to hear from F---- that he
+had made many attempts to befriend him, but without success. "In fact,"
+concluded F----, with some embarrassment, "he drinks dreadfully, poor
+fellow. Of course that is the secret of all his wretchedness, but I
+believe despair drove him to it in the first instance."
+
+I have also known an ex-dragoon officer working as a clerk in an
+attorney's office at fifteen shillings a week, who lived like a
+mechanic, and yet spake and stepped like his old self; one listened
+involuntarily for the clink of the sabre and spur whenever he moved
+across the room.
+
+This has been a terrible digression, almost a social essay in fact; but
+I have it so much at heart to dissuade fathers and mothers from sending
+their sons so far away without any certainty of employment. Capitalists,
+even small ones, do well in New Zealand: the labouring classes still
+better; but there is no place yet for the educated gentleman without
+money, and with hands unused to and unfit for manual labour and the
+downward path is just as smooth and pleasant at first there, as anywhere
+else.
+
+Trew and Domville soon got over their momentary shyness, and answered my
+inquiries about their families. Then I had a short talk with them, but
+on the principle that it is "ill speaking to a fasting man," we agreed
+to adjourn to the clearing, where they had built a rough log hut for
+temporary shelter, and have our dinner. They had provided themselves
+with some bacon; but were very glad to accept of F----'s offer of
+mutton, to be had for the trouble of fetching it. When we reached
+the little shanty, Trew produced some capital bread, he had baked the
+evening before in a camp-oven; F----'s pockets were emptied of their
+load of potatoes, which were put to roast in the wood embers; rashers of
+bacon and mutton chops spluttered and fizzed side-by-side on a monster
+gridiron with tall feet, so as to allow it to stand by itself over the
+clear fire, and we turned our chops from time to time by means of a fork
+extemporized out of a pronged stick.
+
+Over another fire, a little way to leeward, hung the bushmen's kettle on
+an iron tripod, and, so soon as it boiled, my little teapot was filled
+before Domville threw in his great fist-full of tea. I had brought a
+tiny phial of cream in the pocket of my saddle, but the men thought it
+spoiled the flavour of the tea, which they always drink "_neat_,"
+as they call it. The Temperance Society could draw many interesting
+statistics from the amount of hard work which is done in New Zealand on
+tea. Now, I am sorry to say, beer is creeping up to the stations, and is
+served out at shearing time and so on; but in the old days all the hard
+work used to be done on tea, and tea alone, the men always declaring
+they worked far better on it than on beer. "When we have as much good
+bread and mutton as we can eat," they would say, "we don't feel to miss
+the beer we used to drink in England;" and at the end of a year or
+two of tea and water-drinking, their bright eyes and splendid physical
+condition showed plainly enough which was the best kind of beverage to
+work, and work hard too, upon.
+
+So there we sat round the fire: F---- with the men, and I, a little way
+off, out of the smoke, with the dogs. Overhead, the sunlight streamed
+down on the grass which had sprung up, as it always does in a clearing;
+the rustle among the lofty tree tops made a delicious murmur high up in
+the air; a waft of cool breeze flitted past us laden with the scent
+of newly-cut wood (and who does not know that nice, _clean_ perfume?);
+innumerable paroquets almost brushed us with their emerald-green wings,
+whilst the tamer robin or the dingy but melodious bell-bird came near
+to watch the intruders. The sweet clear whistle of the tui or
+parson-bird--so called from his glossy black suit and white wattles
+curling exactly where a clergy-man's bands would be,--could be heard at
+a distance; whilst overhead the soft cooing of the wild pigeons, and
+the hoarse croak of the ka-ka or native parrot, made up the music of
+the birds' orchestra. Ah, how delicious it all was,--the Robinson Crusoe
+feel of the whole thing; the heavenly air, the fluttering leaves, the
+birds' chirrups and whistle, and the foreground of happy, healthy men!
+
+Rose and I had enough to do, even with Nettle's assistance, in acting as
+police to keep off those bold thieves, the wekas, who are as impudent as
+they are tame and fearless. In appearance they resemble exactly a stout
+hen pheasant, without its long tail; but they belong to the apterix
+family, and have no wings, only a tiny useless pinion at each shoulder,
+furnished with a claw like a small fish-hook: what is the use of this
+claw I was never able to discover. When startled or hunted, the weka
+glides, for it can scarcely be called running, with incredible swiftness
+and in perfect silence, to the nearest cover. A tussock, a clump of
+flax, a tuft of tall tohi grass, all serve as hiding-places; and,
+wingless as she is, the weka can hold her own very well against her
+enemies, the dogs. I really believe the great desire of Brisk's life was
+to catch a weka. He started many, but used to go sniffing and barking
+round the flax bush where it had taken refuge at first, long after
+the clever, cunning bird had glided from its shelter to another cover
+further off.
+
+After dinner was over and Domville had brought back the tin plates
+and pannikins from the creek where he had washed them up, pipes were
+lighted, and a few minutes smoking served to rest and refresh the men,
+who had been working since their six o'clock breakfast. The daylight
+hours were too precious however to be wasted in smoking. Trew and
+Domville would not have had that comfortable nest-egg standing in their
+name at the bank in Christchurch, if they had spent much time over their
+pipes; so after a very short "spell" they got up from the fallen log of
+wood which had served them for a bench, and suggested that F---- should
+accompany them back to where their work lay. "You don't mind being
+left?" asked F----. "Certainly not," replied I. "I have got the dogs
+for company, and a book in my pocket. I daresay I shall not read much,
+however, for it is so beautiful to sit here and watch the changing
+lights and shadows."
+
+And so it was, most beautiful and thoroughly delightful. I sat on the
+short sweet grass, which springs upon the rich loam of fallen leaves the
+moment sunlight is admitted into the heart of a bush. No one plants it;
+probably the birds carry the seeds; yet it grows freely after a clearing
+has been made. Nature lays down a green sward directly on the rich
+virgin mould, and sets to work besides to cover up the unsightly stems
+and holes of the fallen timber with luxuriant tufts of a species of
+hart's-tongue fern, which grows almost as freely as an orchid on decayed
+timber. I was so still and silent that innumerable forest birds came
+about me. A wood pigeon alighted on a branch close by, and sat preening
+her radiant plumage in a bath of golden sunlight. The profound stillness
+was stirred now and then by a soft sighing breeze which passed over the
+tree tops, and made the delicate foliage of the undergrowth around me
+quiver and rustle. I had purposely scattered the remains of our meal in
+a spot where the birds could see the crumbs, and it was not long before
+the clever little creatures availed themselves of the unexpected feast.
+So perfectly tame and friendly were they, that I felt as if I were
+the intruder, and bound by all the laws of aerial chivalry to keep the
+peace. But this was no easy matter where Rose and Nettle were concerned,
+for when an imprudent weka appeared on the sylvan scene, looking
+around-as if to say, "Who's afraid?" it was more than I could do to keep
+the little terriers from giving chase. Brisk, too, blundered after them,
+but I had no fear of his destroying the charm of the day by taking even
+a weka's life.
+
+Thus the delicious afternoon wore on, until it was time to boil the
+kettle once more, and make a cup of tea before setting out homewards.
+The lengthening shadows added fresh tenderness and beauty to the
+peaceful scene, and the sky began to paint itself in its exquisite
+sunset hues. It has been usual to praise the tints of tropic skies when
+the day is declining; but never, in any of my wanderings to East and
+West Indies, have I seen such gorgeous evening colours as those which
+glorify New Zealand skies.
+
+A loud coo-ee summoned F---- to tea, and directly afterwards the horses
+were re-saddled, the now empty flax basket filled with the obnoxious
+teapot and cup, wrapped in many layers of flax leaves, to prevent their
+rattling, and we bade good night to the tired bushmen. We left them at
+their tea, and I was much struck to observe that though they looked like
+men who had done a hard day's work, there was none of the exhaustion we
+often see in England depicted on the labouring man's face. Instead of
+a hot crowded room, these bushmen were going to sleep in their log hut,
+where the fresh pure air could circulate through every nook and cranny.
+They had each their pair of red blankets, one to spread over a heap of
+freshly cut tussocks, which formed a delicious elastic mattrass, and the
+other to serve as a coverlet. During the day these blankets were always
+hung outside on a tree, out of the reach of the most investigating weka.
+You may be sure I had not come empty-handed in the way of books and
+papers, and my last glance as I rode away rested on Trew opening a
+number of _Good Words_ [Note: _Evening Hours_ was not in existence at
+that time, or else its pages are just what those simple God-fearing men
+would have appreciated and enjoyed. _Good Words_ and the _Leisure Hour_
+used to be their favourite periodicals, and the kindness of English
+friends kept me also well supplied with copies of Miss Marsh's little
+books, which were read with the deepest and most eager interest.] with
+the pleased-expression of a child examining a packet of toys.
+
+And so we rode slowly home through the delicious gloaming, with the
+evening air cooled to freshness so soon as the sun had sunk below the
+great mountains to the west, from behind which he shot up glorious rays
+of gold and crimson against the blue ethereal sky, causing the snowy
+peaks to look more exquisitely pure from the background of gorgeous
+colour. During the flood of sunlight all day, we had not perceived a
+single fleck of cloud; but now lovely pink wreaths, floating in mid-air,
+betrayed that here and there a "nursling of the sky" lingered behind the
+cloud-masses which we thought had all been blown away yesterday.
+
+The short twilight hour was over, and the stars were filtering their
+soft radiance on our heads by the time we heard the welcoming barks
+of the homestead, and saw the glimmer of the lighted lamp in our
+sitting-room, shining out of the distant gloom. And so ended, in supper
+and a night of deep dreamless sleep, one of the many happy picnic days
+of my New Zealand life.
+
+
+
+Chapter II: Eel-fishing.
+
+
+One of the greatest drawbacks in an English gentleman's eyes to living
+in New Zealand is the want of sport. There is absolutely none. There
+used to be a few quails, but they are almost extinct now; and during
+four years' residence in very sequestered regions I only saw one. Wild
+ducks abound on some of the rivers, but they are becoming fewer and
+shyer every year. The beautiful Paradise duck is gradually retreating to
+those inland lakes lying at the foot of the Southern Alps, amid glaciers
+and boulders which serve as a barrier to keep back his ruthless foe.
+Even the heron, once so plentiful on the lowland rivers, is now seldom
+seen. As I write these lines a remorseful recollection comes back upon
+me of overhanging cliffs, and of a bend in a swirling river, on
+whose rapid current a beautiful wounded heron--its right wing
+shattered--drifts helplessly round and round with the eddying water,
+each circle bringing it nearer in-shore to our feet. I can see now its
+bright fearless eye, full of suffering, but yet unconquered: its slender
+neck proudly arched, and bearing up the small graceful head with its
+coronal or top-knot raised in defiance, as if to protest to the last
+against the cruel shot which had just been fired. I was but a spectator,
+having merely wandered that far to look at my eel-lines, yet I felt as
+guilty as though my hand had pulled the trigger. Just as the noble bird
+drifted to our feet,--for I could not help going down to the river's
+edge, where Pepper (our head shepherd) stood, looking very contrite,--it
+reared itself half out of the water, with a hissing noise and
+threatening bill, resolved to sell its liberty as dearly as it could;
+but the effort only spread a brighter shade of crimson on the waters
+surface for a brief moment, and then, with glazing eye and drooping
+crest, the dying creature turned over on its side and was borne helpless
+to our feet. By the time Pepper extended his arm and drew it in, with
+the quaint apology, "I'm sorry I shot yer, old feller! I, am, indeed,"
+the heron was dead; and that happened to be the only one I ever came
+across during my mountain life. Once I saw some beautiful red-shanks
+flying down the gorge of the Selwyn, and F---- nearly broke his neck in
+climbing the crag from whence one of them rose in alarm at the noise
+of our horses' feet on the shingle. There were three eggs in the
+inaccessible cliff-nest, and he brought me one, which I tried in vain to
+hatch under a sitting duck. Betty would not admit the intruder among her
+own eggs, but resolutely pushed it out of her nest twenty times a day,
+until at last I was obliged to blow it and send it home to figure in a
+little boy's collection far away in Kent.
+
+I have seen very good blue duck shooting on the Waimakiriri river, but
+50 per cent. of the birds were lost for want of a retriever bold enough
+to face that formidable river. Wide as was the beautiful reach, on whose
+shore the sportsmen stood, and calmly as the deep stream seemed to glide
+beneath its high banks, the wounded birds, flying low on the water,
+had hardly dropped when they disappeared, sucked beneath by the strong
+current, and whirled past us in less time than it takes one to write a
+line. We had retrievers with us who would face the waves of an inland
+lake during a nor'-wester,--which is giving a dog very high praise
+indeed; but there was no canine Bayard at hand to brave those
+treacherous depths, and bring out our game, so the sport soon ceased;
+for what was the good of shooting the beautiful, harmless creatures when
+we could not make use of them as food?
+
+I often accompanied F---- on his eel-fishing expeditions, but more for
+the sake of companionship than from any amusement I found in the sport.
+I may here confess frankly that I cannot understand anyone being an
+inveterate eel-fisher, for of all monotonous pursuits, it is the most
+self-repeating in its forms. Even the first time I went out I found it
+delightful only in anticipation; and this is the one midnight excursion
+which I shall attempt to re-produce for you.
+
+It had been a broiling midsummer day, too hot to sit in the verandah,
+too hot to stroll about the garden, or go for a ride, or do anything
+in fact, except bask like a lizard in the warm air. New Zealand summer
+weather, however high the thermometer, is quite different from either
+tropical or English heat. It is intensely hot in the sun, but always
+cool in the shade. I never heard of an instance of sun-stroke from
+exposure to the mid-day sun, for there always was a light air--often
+scarcely perceptible until you were well out in the open,--to temper the
+fierce vertical rays. It sometimes happened that I found myself obliged,
+either for business or pleasure, to take a long ride in the middle of a
+summer's day, and my invariable reflection used to be, "It is not nearly
+so hot out of doors as one fancies it would be." Then there is none of
+the stuffiness so often an accompaniment to our brief summers, bringing
+lassitude and debility in its train. The only disadvantage of an
+unusually hot season with us was, that our already embrowned complexions
+took a deeper shade of bronze; but as we were all equally sun-burnt
+there was no one to throw critical stones.
+
+What surprised me most was the utter absence of damp or miasma. After a
+blazing day, instead of hurrying in out of reach of poisonous vapours as
+the tropic-dweller must needs do, we could linger bare-headed, lightly
+clad, out of doors, listening to the distant roar of a river, or
+watching the exquisite tints of the evening sky. I dwell on this to
+explain that in almost any other country there would have been risk in
+remaining out at night after such still, hot days.
+
+On this particular evening, during my first summer in the New Zealand
+Malvern Hills, after we had watered my pet flowers near the house, and
+speculated a good deal as to whether the mignonette seed had all been
+blown out of the ground by the last nor'-wester or not, F---- said, "I
+shall go eel-fishing to-night to the creek, down the flat. Why don't you
+come too? I am sure you would like it." Now, I am sorry to say that I am
+such a thorough gipsy in my tastes that any pursuit which serves as an
+excuse for spending hours in the open air, is full of attraction for
+me; consequently, I embraced the proposal with ardour, and set about
+gathering, under F----'s directions, what seemed to bid fair to rival
+the collection of an old rag-and-bottle merchant. First of all, there
+was a muster of every empty tin match-box in the little house; these
+were to hold the bait-bits of mutton and worms. Then I was desired
+to hunt up all the odds and ends of worsted which lurked in the
+scrap-basket. A forage next took place in search of string, but as no
+parcels were ever delivered in that sequestered valley, twine became
+a precious and rare treasure. In default of any large supply being
+obtainable, my lamp and candle-wick material was requisitioned by F----
+(who, by the way, is a perfect Uhlan for getting what he wants, when
+bent on a sporting expedition); and lastly, one or two empty flour-sacks
+were called for. You will see the use of this heterogeneous collection
+presently.
+
+It was of no use starting until the twilight had darkened into a cloudy,
+moonless night; so, after our seven o'clock supper, we adjourned into
+the verandah to watch F---- make a large round ball, such as children
+play with, out of the scraps of worsted with which I had furnished him.
+Instead of cutting the wool into lengths, however, it was left in loops;
+and I learned that this is done to afford a firm hold for the sharp
+needle-like teeth of an inquisitive eel, who might be tempted to find
+out if this strange round thing, floating near his hole, would be
+good to eat. I was impatient as a child,--remember it was my first
+eel-fishing expedition,--and I thought nine o'clock would never come,
+for I had been told to go and dress at that hour; that is to say, I was
+to change my usual station-costume, a pretty print gown, for a short
+linsey skirt, strong boots and kangaroo-skin gaiters. F----, and our
+cadet, Mr. U----, soon appeared, clad in shooting coats instead of their
+alpaca costumes, and their trousers stuffed into enormous boots, the
+upper leathers of which came beyond their knees.
+
+"Are we going into the water?" I timidly inquired.
+
+"Oh, no,--not at all: it is on account of the Spaniards."
+
+No doubt this sounds very unintelligible to an English reader; but every
+colonist who may chance to see my pages will shiver at the recollection
+of those vegetable defenders of an unexplored region in New Zealand.
+Imagine a gigantic artichoke with slender instead of broad leaves, set
+round in dense compact order. They vary, of course, in size, but in our
+part of the world four or six feet in circumference and a couple of feet
+high was the usual growth to which they attained, though at the back of
+the run they were much larger. Spaniards grow in clusters, or patches,
+among the tussocks on the plains, and constitute a most unpleasant
+feature of the vegetation of the country. Their leaves are as firm as
+bayonets, and taper at the point to the fineness of a needle, but are
+not nearly so easily broken as a needle would be. No horse will face
+them, preferring a jump at the cost of any exertion, to the risk of a
+stab from the cruel points. The least touch of this green bayonet draws
+blood, and a fall _into_ a Spaniard is a thing to be remembered all
+one's life. Interspersed with the Spaniards are generally clumps of
+"wild Irishman," a straggling sturdy bramble, ready to receive and
+scratch you well if you attempt to avoid the Spaniard's weapons.
+Especially detrimental to riding habits are wild Irishmen; and there are
+fragments of mine, of all sorts of materials and colours, fluttering now
+on their thorny branches in out-of-the-way places on our run. It is
+not surprising, therefore, that we guarded our legs as well as we could
+against these foes to flesh and blood.
+
+"We are rather early," said the gentlemen, as I appeared, ready and
+eager to start; "but perhaps it is all the better to enable you to see
+the track." They each flung an empty sack over their shoulders, felt in
+their pockets to ascertain whether the matches, hooks, boxes of bait,
+etc., were all there, and then we set forth.
+
+At first it appeared as if we had stepped from the brightness of the
+drawing-room into utter and pitchy blackness; but after we had
+groped for a few steps down the familiar garden path, our eyes became
+accustomed to the subdued light of the soft summer night. Although heavy
+banks of cloud,--the general precursors of wind,--were moving slowly
+between us and the heavens, the stars shone down through their rifts,
+and on the western horizon a faint yellowish tinge told us that daylight
+was in no hurry to leave our quiet valley. The mountain streams or
+creeks, which water so well the grassy plains among the Malvern Hills,
+are not affected to any considerable extent by dry summer weather. They
+are snow-fed from the high ranges, and each nor'-wester restores many a
+glacier or avalanche to its original form, and sends it flowing down the
+steep sides of yonder distant beautiful mountains to join the creeks,
+which, like a tangled skein of silver threads, ensure a good water
+supply to the New Zealand sheep-farmer. In the holes, under steep
+overhanging banks, the eels love to lurk, hiding from the sun's rays in
+cool depths, and coming out at night to feed. There are no fish whatever
+in the rivers, and I fear that the labours of the Acclimatization
+Society will be thrown away until they can persuade the streams
+themselves to remain in their beds like more civilised waters. At
+present not a month passes that one does not hear of some eccentric
+proceeding on the part of either rivers or creeks. Unless the fish are
+prepared to shift their liquid quarters at a moment's notice they will
+find themselves often left high and dry on the deserted shingle-bed. But
+eels are proverbially accustomed to adapt themselves to circumstances,
+and a fisherman may always count on getting some if he be patient.
+
+About a mile down the flat, between very high banks, our principal creek
+ran, and to a quiet spot among the flax-bushes we directed our steps.
+By the fast-fading light the gentlemen set their lines in very primitive
+fashion. On the crumbling, rotten earth the New Zealand flax, the
+_Phormium tenax_, loves to grow, and to its long, ribbon-like leaves the
+eel-fishers fastened their lines securely, baiting each alternate hook
+with mutton and worms. I declared this was too cockney a method of
+fishing, and selected a tall slender flax-stick, the stalk of last
+year's spike of red honey-filled blossoms, and to this extempore rod I
+fastened my line and bait. When one considers that the old whalers were
+accustomed to use ropes made in the rudest fashion, from the fibre of
+this very plant, in their deep-sea fishing for very big prey, it is
+not surprising that we found it sufficiently strong for our purpose. I
+picked out, therefore, a comfortable spot,--that is to say, well in the
+centre of a young flax-bush, whose satiny leaves made the most elastic
+cushions around me; with my flax-stick held out over what was supposed
+to be a favourite haunt of the eels, and with Nettle asleep at my feet
+and a warm shawl close to my hand, prepared for my vigil. "Don't speak
+or move," were the gentlemen's last words: "the eels are all eyes and
+ears at this hour; they can almost hear you breathe." Each man then took
+up his position a few hundred yards away from me, so that I felt, to all
+intents and purposes, absolutely alone. I am "free to confess," as our
+American cousins say, that it was a very eerie sensation. It was now
+past ten o'clock; the darkness was intense, and the silence as deep as
+the darkness.
+
+Hot as the day had been, the night air felt chill, and a heavy dew
+began to fall, showing me the wisdom of substituting woollen for cotton
+garments. I could see the dim outlines of the high hills, which shut in
+our happy valley on all sides, and the smell of the freshly-turned earth
+of a paddock near the house, which was in process of being broken up
+for English grass, came stealing towards me on the silent air. The
+melancholy cry of a bittern, or the shrill wail of the weka, startled
+me from time to time, but there was no other sound to break the eternal
+silence.
+
+As I waited and watched, I thought, as every one must surely think,
+with strange paradoxical feelings, of one's own utter insignificance in
+creation, mingled with the delightful consciousness of our individual
+importance in the eyes of the Maker and Father of all. An atom among
+worlds, as one feels, sitting there at such an hour and in such a spot,
+still we remember with love and pride, that not a hair of our head falls
+to the ground unnoticed by an Infinite Love and an Eternal Providence.
+The soul tries to fly into the boundless regions of space and eternity,
+and to gaze upon other worlds, and other beings equally the object of
+the Great Creator's care; but her mortal wing soon droops and tires,
+and she is fain to nestle home again to her Saviour's arms, with the
+thought, "I am my Beloved's, and He is mine." That is the only safe
+beginning and end of all speculation. It was very solemn and beautiful,
+that long dark night,--a pause amid the bustle of every day cares and
+duties,--hours in which one takes counsel with one's own heart, and is
+still.
+
+Midnight had come and gone, when the sputter and snap of striking
+a match, which sounded almost like a pistol shot amid the profound
+silence, told me that one of the sportsmen had been successful. I got
+up as softly as possible, wrapped my damp shawl round my still damper
+shoulders, and, fastening the flax-stick securely in the ground, stole
+along the bank of the creek towards the place where a blazing tussock,
+serving as a torch, showed the successful eel-fisher struggling with
+his prize. Through the gloom I saw another weird-looking figure running
+silently in the same direction; for the fact was, we were all so cramped
+and cold, and, weary of sitting waiting for bites which never came, that
+we hailed with delight a break in the monotony of our watch. It did
+not matter now how much noise we made (within moderate limits), for
+the peace of that portion of the creek was destroyed for the night.
+Half-a-dozen eels must have banded themselves together, and made a
+sudden and furious dash at the worsted ball, which Mr. U---- had been
+dangling in front of their mud hall-door for the last two hours. Just as
+he had intended, their long sharp teeth became entangled in the worsted
+loops, and although he declared some had broken away and escaped, three
+or four good-sized ones remained, struggling frantically.
+
+It would have been almost impossible for one man to lift such a weight
+straight out of the water by a string; and as we came up and saw Mr.
+U----'s agitated face in the fantastic flickering light of the
+blazing tussock, which he had set on fire as a signal of distress, I
+involuntarily thought of the old Joe Miller about the Tartar: "Why don't
+you let him go?" "Because he has caught _me._" It looked just like that.
+The furious splashing in the water below, and Mr. U---- grasping his
+line with desperate valour, but being gradually drawn nearer to the
+edge of the steep bank each instant. "Keep up a good light, but not too
+much," cried F---- to me, in a regular stage-whisper, as he rushed to
+the rescue. So I pulled up one tussock after another by its roots,--an
+exertion which resulted in upsetting me each time,--and lighted one as
+fast as its predecessor burned out. They were all rather damp, so they
+did not flare away too quickly. By the blaze of my grassy torches I saw
+F----first seize Mr. U---- round the waist and drag him further from
+the bank; but the latter called out, "It's my hands,--they have no skin
+left: do catch hold, there's a good fellow." So the "good fellow" did
+catch hold, but he was too experienced an eel-fisher to try to lift
+a couple of dozen pounds weight of eels out of the water by a
+perpendicular string; so he tied it to a flax-bush near, and, stooping
+down in order to get some leverage over the bank, very soon drew the
+ball, with its slimy, wriggling captives, out of the water. Just as
+he jerked it far on shore, one or two of the creatures broke loose and
+escaped, leaving quite enough to afford a most disgusting and horrible
+sight as they were shuffled and poked into the empty flour-sack.
+
+The sportsmen were delighted however, and departed to a fresh bend of
+the creek, leaving me to find my way back to my original post. This
+would have been difficult indeed, had not Nettle remained behind to
+guard my gloves, which I had left in his custody. As I passed, not
+knowing I was so near the spot, the little dog gave a low whimper of
+greeting, sufficient to attract my attention and guide me to where he
+was keeping his faithful watch and ward. I felt for my flax-stick and
+moved it ever so gently. A sudden jerk and splash startled me horribly,
+and warned me that I had disturbed an eel who was in the act of supping
+off my bait. In the momentary surprise I suppose I let go, for certain
+it is that the next instant my flax-stick was rapidly towed down the
+stream.
+
+Instead of feeling provoked or mortified, it was the greatest relief
+to know that my eel-fishing was over for the night, and that now I had
+nothing to do except "wait till called for." So I took Nettle on my
+lap and tried to abide patiently, but I had not been long enough in New
+Zealand to have any confidence in the climate, and as I felt how damp my
+clothes were, and recollected with horror my West Indian experiences of
+the consequences of exposure to night air and heavy dew, my mind _would_
+dwell gloomily on the prospect of a fever, at least. It seemed a long
+and weary while before I perceived a figure coming towards me; and I am
+afraid I was both cross and cold and sleepy by the time we set our faces
+homewards. "I have only caught three," said F----. "How many have you
+got?" "None, I am happy to say," I answered peevishly, "What could
+Nettle and I have done with the horrible things if we had caught any?"
+
+The walk, or rather the stumble home, proved to be the worst part of the
+expedition. Not a ray of starlight had we to guide us,--nothing but
+inky blackness around and over us. We tried to make Nettle go first,
+intending to follow his lead, and trusting to his keeping the track; but
+Nettle's place was at my heels, and neither coaxing nor scolding would
+induce him to forego it. A forlorn hope was nothing to the dangers of
+each footstep. First one and then the other volunteered to lead the way,
+declaring they could find the track. All this time we were trying to
+strike the indistinct road among the tussocks, made by occasional wheels
+to our house, but the marks, never very distinct in daylight, became
+perfect will-o'-the-wisps at night. If we crossed a sheep-track we
+joyfully announced that we had found the way, but only to be undeceived
+the next moment by discovering that we were returning to the creek.
+
+From time to time we fell into and over Spaniards, and what was left of
+our clothes and our flesh the wild Irishmen devoured. We must have
+got home somehow, or I should not be writing an account of it, at this
+moment, but really I hardly know how we reached the house. I recollect
+that the next day there was a great demand for gold-beater's skin, and
+court-plaster, and that whenever F---- and Mr. U---- had a spare moment
+during the ensuing week, they devoted themselves to performing surgical
+operations on each other with a needle; and that I felt very subdued and
+tired for a day or two. But there was no question of fever or cold, and
+I was stared at when I inquired whether it was not dangerous to be out
+all night in heavy dew after a broiling day.
+
+We had the eels made into a pie by our shepherd, who assured me that if
+I entrusted them to my cook she would send me up such an oily dish that
+I should never be able to endure an eel again. He declared that the
+Maoris, who seem to have rather a horror of grease, had taught him how
+to cook both eels and wekas in such a way as to eliminate every particle
+of fat from both. I had no experience of the latter dish, but he
+certainly kept his word about the eels, for they were excellent.
+
+
+
+Chapter III: Pig-stalking.
+
+
+It was much too hot in summer to go after wild pigs. That was our
+winter's amusement, and very good sport it afforded us, besides the
+pleasure of knowing that we were really doing good service to the
+pastoral interest, by ridding the hills around us of almost the only
+enemies which the sheep have. If the squatter goes to look after his mob
+of ewes and lambs in the sheltered slopes at the back of his run, he is
+pretty nearly certain to find them attended by an old sow with a dozen
+babies at her heels. She will follow the sheep patiently from one
+camping ground to another, watching for a new-born and weakly lamb to
+linger behind the rest, and then she will seize and devour it. Besides
+this danger, the presence of pigs on the run keeps the sheep in an
+excited state. They have an uneasy consciousness that their foes are
+looking after them, and they move restlessly up and down the hills, not
+stopping to feed sufficiently to get fat. If a sheep-farmer thinks his
+sheep are not in good condition, one of the first questions he asks
+his shepherd is, "Are there any pigs about?" Our run had a good many of
+these troublesome visitors on it, especially in the winter, when they
+would travel down from the back country to grub up acres on acres of
+splendid sheep pasture in search of roots. The only good they do is to
+dig up the Spaniards for the sake of their delicious white fibres, and
+the fact of their being able to do this will give a better idea of the
+toughness of a wild pig's snout than anything else I can say.
+
+It may be strange to English ears to hear a woman of tolerably peaceful
+disposition, and as the advertisements in the _Times_ so often state,
+"thoroughly domesticated," aver that she found great pleasure in going
+after wild pigs; but the circumstances of the ease must be taken into
+consideration before I am condemned. First of all, it seemed terribly
+lonely at home if F---- was out with his rifle all day. Next, there was
+the temptation to spend those delicious hours of a New Zealand winter's
+day, between ten and four, out of doors, wandering over hills and
+exploring new gullies. And lastly, I had a firm idea that I was taking
+care of F----. And so I was in a certain sense, for if his rifle had
+burst, or any accident had happened to him, and he had been unable to
+reach the homestead, we should never have known where to find him, and
+days would probably have passed before every nook and corner of a run
+extending over many thousand acres could have been thoroughly searched.
+
+I had heard terrible stories of shepherds slipping down and injuring
+themselves so that they could not move, and of their dead bodies being
+only found after weeks of careful seeking. F---- himself delighted to
+terrify me by descriptions of narrow escapes; and, as the pigs had to
+be killed, I resolved to follow in the hunter's train. The sport is
+conducted exactly like deer stalking, only it is much harder work, and a
+huge boar is not so picturesque an object as a stag of many tines, when
+you do catch sight of him. There is just the same accurate knowledge
+needed of the animal's habits and customs, and the same untiring
+patience. It is quite as necessary to be a good shot, for a grey pig
+standing under the lee of a boulder of exactly his own colour is a much
+more difficult object to hit from the opposite side of a ravine than a
+stag; and a wild boar is every whit as keen of scent and sharp of eye
+and ear as any antlered "Monarch of the Glen."
+
+Imagine then a beautiful winter's morning without wind or rain. There
+has been perhaps a sharp frost over-night, but after a couple of hours
+of sunshine the air is as warm and bright as midsummer. We used to be
+glad enough of a wood fire at breakfast; but after that meal had been
+eaten we went into the verandah, open to the north-east (our warm
+quarter), which made a delicious winter parlour, and basked in the
+blazing sunshine. I used often to bring out a chair and a table, and
+work and read there all the morning, without either hat or jacket. But
+it sometimes happened that once or twice a week, on just such a lovely
+morning, F---- would proclaim his intention of going out to look for
+pigs, and, sooner than be left behind, I nearly always begged to be
+allowed to come too. There was no fear of my getting tired or lagging
+behind; and as I was willing to make myself generally useful, by
+carrying the telescope, a revolver for close quarters, and eke a few
+sandwiches, the offer of my company used to be graciously accepted. We
+could seldom procure the loan of a good pig-dog, and after one excursion
+with a certain dog of the name of "Pincher," I preferred going out by
+ourselves.
+
+ On that occasion F---- did not take his rifle, as there was no
+chance of getting a long shot at our game; for the dog would surely
+bring the pig to bay, and then the hunter must trust to a revolver or
+the colonial boar-spear, half a pair of shears (I suppose it should be
+called _a shear_) bound firmly on a flax stick by green flax-leaves. We
+had heard of pigs having been seen by our out-station shepherd at the
+back of the run, and as we were not encumbered by the heavy rifle, we
+mounted our horses and rode as far as we could towards the range where
+the pigs had been grubbing up the hill sides in unmolested security for
+some time past. Five miles from home the ground became so rough that
+our horses could go no further; we therefore jumped off, tied them to
+a flax-bush, taking off the saddles in case they broke loose, and
+proceeded on foot over the jungly, over-grown saddle. On the other side
+we came upon a beautiful gully, with a creek running through it, whose
+banks were so densely fringed with scrub that we could not get through
+to the stream, which we heard rippling amid the tangled shrubs. If we
+could only have reached the water our best plan would have been to get
+into it and follow its windings up the ravine; but even Pincher could
+hardly squeeze and burrow through the impenetrable fence of matapo and
+goi, which were woven together by fibres of a thorny creeper called "a
+lawyer" by the shepherds.
+
+
+It was very tantalising, for in less than five minutes we heard trusty
+Pincher "speaking" to a boar, and knew that he had baled it up against a
+tree, and was calling to us to come and help him. F----ran about like a
+lunatic, calling out; "Coming Pincher: round him up, good dog!" and so
+forth; but they were all vain promises, for he could not get in. I did
+my best in searching for an opening, and gave many false hopes of having
+found one. At last I said, "If I run up the mountain side, and look down
+on that mass of scrub, perhaps I may see some way into it from above."
+"No: do you stay here, and see, if the pig breaks cover, which way
+he goes." Up the steep hill, therefore, F---- rushed, as swiftly and
+lightly as one of his own mountain sheep; and in a minute or two I
+saw him standing, revolver in hand, on an overhanging rock, peering
+anxiously down on the leafy mass below.
+
+Pincher and the creek made such a noise between them that I could not
+hear what F---- said, and only guessed from his despairing gestures that
+there was no trap door visible in the green roof. I signalled as well as
+I could that he was to come down directly, for his-standing-place looked
+most insecure. Insecure indeed it proved. As I spoke the great fragment
+of rock loosely embedded in earth on the mountain side gave way with a
+crash, and came tumbling majestically down on the top of the scrub.
+As for F----, he described a series of somersaults in the air, which
+however agreeable in themselves, were very trying to the nerves of the
+spectatrix below. My first dread was least the rock should crush him,
+but to my great joy I saw at once that it was rolling slowly down the
+hill, whilst F----'s vigorous bound off it as it gave way, had carried
+him well into the middle of the leafy cushion beneath him, where he
+presently landed flat on his back!
+
+I expected every moment to hear the revolver go off, but mercifully it
+did not do so; and as his thorny bed was hardly to be endured, F----
+soon kicked himself off it, and before I could realize that he was
+unhurt, had scrambled to his feet, and was rushing off, crying in
+school-boy glee, "That will fetch him out" That (the rock) certainly did
+fetch him (the pig) out in a moment, and Pincher availed himself of the
+general confusion to seize hold of his enemy's hind leg, which he never
+afterwards let go. The boar kept snapping and champing his great tusks;
+but Pincher, even with the leg in his mouth, was too active to be
+caught: so as the boar found that it was both futile and undignified
+to try to run away with a dog hanging on his hind-quarters, he tried
+another plan. Making for a clump of Ti-ti palms he went to bay, and
+contrived to take up a very good defensive position. Pincher would have
+never given up his mouthful of leg if F---- had not called him off, for
+it seemed impossible to fire the revolver whilst the dog held on. This
+change of tactics was much against Pincher's judgment, and he kept
+rushing furiously in between F---- and the boar. As for me, I prudently
+retired behind a big boulder, on which I could climb if the worst came
+to the worst, and called out from time to time, to both dog and man,
+"Oh, don't!"
+
+They did not even hear me, for the din of battle was loud. The pig
+dodged about so fast, that although F----'s bullets lodged in the palm
+tree at his back, not one struck a vulnerable part, and at last F----,
+casting his revolver behind him for me to pick up and reload, closed
+with his foe, armed only with the shear-spear. Pincher considered
+this too dangerous, and rushed in between them to distract the boar's
+attention. Just as F---- aimed a thrust at his chest,--for it was of
+no use trying to penetrate his hide,--the boar lowered his head,
+caught poor faithful Pincher's exposed flank, and tore it open with his
+razor-like tusk; but in the meantime the spear had gone well home into
+his brawny chest, exactly beneath the left shoulder, and his life-blood
+came gushing out. I was so infuriated at the sight of Pincher's
+frightful wound that I felt none of my usual pity for the victim;
+and rushing up to F---- with the revolver, of which only a couple of
+chambers were loaded, thrust it into his hand with an entreaty to "kill
+him quickly." This F---- was quite willing to do for his own sake, as
+a wounded boar is about the most dangerous beast on earth; and although
+the poor brute kept snapping at the broken flax-stick sticking in his
+heart, he fired a steady shot which brought the pig on his knees, only
+to roll over dead the next moment.
+
+I cannot help pausing to say that I sewed up Pincher's wound then and
+there, with some of the contents of my Cambusmore house-wife; which
+always accompanied me on my sporting expeditions, and we carried him
+between us down to where the horses were fastened. There I mounted;
+and F---- lifting the faithful creature on my lap, we rode slowly home,
+dipping our handkerchiefs in cold water at every creek we crossed, and
+laying them on his poor flank. He was as patient and brave as possible,
+and bore his sufferings and weakness for days afterwards in a way
+which was a lesson to one, so grateful and gentle was he. His brave
+and sensible behaviour met its due reward in a complete though slow
+recovery.
+
+I have only left myself space for one little sketch more; but it comes
+so vividly before me that I cannot shut it out. After a long day's
+walking, over the hills and vallies, so beautiful beneath our azure
+winter-sky, walking which was delightful as an expedition, but
+unsuccessful as to sport, we crossed the track of a large boar. We knew
+he was old by his being alone, and it was therefore very certain that he
+would show fight if we came up with him. Patiently we followed the track
+over a low saddle, through a clump of brushwood menuka, the broken twigs
+of which showed how large an animal had just passed by. Here and there a
+freshly grubbed-up Spaniard showed where he had paused for a snack; but
+at length we dropped down on the river bed, with its wide expanse of
+shingle, and there we lost all clue to our game.
+
+After a little hesitation, F---- decided on climbing a high cliff on
+the right bank of the river, and trying to catch a glimpse of him. The
+opposite hill-side was gaunt and bare; a southern aspect shut out the
+sun in winter, and for all its rich traces of copper ore, "Holkam's
+Head" found no favour in the eyes of either shepherds or master. Grass
+would not grow there except in summer, and its gray, shingly sides were
+an eye-sore to its owner. We sat down on the cliff, and looked around
+carefully. Presently F---- said, in a breathless whisper of intense
+delight, "I see him." In vain I looked and looked, but nothing could
+my stupid eyes discover. "Lie down," said F---- to me, just as if I had
+been a dog. I crouched as low as possible, whilst F----settled himself
+comfortably flat on his stomach, and prepared to take a careful aim at
+the opposite side of the hill.
+
+After what seemed a long time, he pulled his rifle's trigger, and the
+flash and crack was followed apparently by one of the gray boulders
+opposite leaping up, and then rolling heavily down the hill. F----
+jumped up in triumph crying, "Come along, and don't forget the
+revolver." When we had crossed the river, reckless of getting wet to
+our waists in icy-cold water, F---- took the revolver from me and went
+first; but, after an instant's examination, he called out, "Dead as a
+door-nail! come and look at him." So I came, with great caution, and
+a more repulsive and disgusting sight cannot be imagined than the huge
+carcass of our victim already stiffening in death. The shot had been a
+fortunate one, for only an inch away from the hole the bullet had made
+his shoulders were regularly plated with thick horny scales, off which
+a revolver bullet would have glanced harmlessly, and he bore marks of
+having fought many and many a battle with younger rivals. His huge tusks
+were notched and broken, and he had evidently been driven out from
+among his fellows as a quarrelsome member of their society. Already the
+keen-eyed hawks were hovering above the great monster, and we left him
+to his fate in the solitary river gorge, where all was bleak and cold
+and gloomy,--a fitting death-place for the fierce old warrior.
+
+
+
+Chapter IV: Skating in the back country.
+
+
+I do not believe that even in Canada the skating can be better than that
+which was within our reach in the Malvern Hills. Among our sheltered
+valleys an sunny slopes the hardest frost only lasted a few hour after
+dawn; but twenty-five miles further back, on the border of the glacier
+region, the mountain tarns could boast of ice several feet thick all the
+winter. We heard rumours of far-inland lakes, across which heavily-laden
+bullock-teams could pass in perfect safety for three months of the year,
+and we grumbled at the light film over our own large ponds, which would
+not bear even my little terrier's weight after mid-day: and yet it was
+cold enough at night, during our short bright winters, to satisfy the
+most icy-minded person. I think I have mentioned before that the wooden
+houses in New Zealand, especially those roughly put together up-country,
+are by no means weather-tight. Disagreeable as this may be, it is
+doubtless the reason of the extraordinary immunity from colds and
+coughs which we hill-dwellers enjoyed. Living between walls formed
+by inch-boards over-lapping each other, and which can only be made to
+resemble English rooms by being canvassed and papered inside, the pure
+fresh air finds its way in on all sides. A hot room in winter is an
+impossibility, in spite of drawn curtains and blazing fires, therefore
+the risk of sudden changes of temperature is avoided.
+
+Some such theory as this is absolutely necessary to account for the
+wonderfully good health enjoyed by all, in the most capricious and
+trying climate I have ever come across. When a strong nor'-wester was
+howling down the glen, I have seen the pictures on my drawing-room walls
+blowing out to an angle of 45 degrees, although every door and window in
+the little low wooden structure had been carefully closed for hours. It
+has happened to me more than once, on getting up in the morning, to find
+my clothes, which had been laid on a chair beneath my bedroom window
+overnight, completely covered by powdered snow, drifting in through the
+ill-fitting casement. This same window was within a couple of feet of my
+bed, and between me and it was neither curtain nor shelter of any sort.
+Of a winter's evening I have often been obliged to wrap myself up in a
+big Scotch maud, as I sat, dressed in a high linsey gown, by a blazing
+fire, so hard was the frost outside; but by ten o'clock next morning
+I would be loitering about the verandah, basking in the sunshine, and
+watching the light flecks of cloud-wreaths and veils floating against
+an Italian-blue sky. Yet such is the inherent discontent of the human
+heart, that instead of rejoicing in this lovely mid-day sunshine, we
+actually mourned over the vanished ice which at daylight had been found,
+by a much-envied early riser, strong enough to slide on for half an
+hour. It seemed almost impossible to believe that any one had been
+sliding that morning within a few feet of where I sat working in a blaze
+of sunshine, with my pretty grey and pink Australian parrot pluming
+itself on the branch of a silver wattle close by, and "Joey," the tiny
+monkey from Panama, sitting on the skirt of my gown, with a piece of its
+folds arranged by himself shawl-wise over his glossy black shoulders. If
+either of these tropical pets had been left out after four o'clock that
+sunny day, they, would have been frozen to death before our supper time.
+
+It was just on such a day as this, and in just such a bright mid-day
+hour, that a distant neighbour of ours rode up to the garden gate,
+leading a pack horse. Outside the saddle-bags, with which this animal
+was somewhat heavily laden, could be plainly seen a beautiful new pair
+of Oxford skates, glinting in the sunshine; and it must have been the
+sight of these beloved implements which called forth the half-envious
+remark from one of the gentlemen, "I suppose you have lots of skating up
+at your place?"
+
+"Well, not exactly at my station, but there is a capital lake ten miles
+from my house where I am sure of a good day's skating any time between
+June and August," answered Mr. C. H----, our newly arrived guest.
+
+We all looked at each other. I believe I heaved a deep sigh, and dropped
+my thimble, which "Joey" instantly seized, and with a low chirrup
+of intense delight, commenced to poke down between the boards of the
+verandah. It was too bad of us to give such broad hints by looks if not
+by words. Poor Mr. C. H---- was a bachelor in those days: he had not
+been at his little out-of-the-way homestead for some weeks, and was
+ignorant of its resources in the way of firing (always an important
+matter at a station), or even of tea and mutton. He had no
+woman-servant, and was totally unprepared for an incursion of skaters;
+and yet,--New Zealand fashion,--no sooner did he perceive that we were
+all longing and pining for some skating, than he invited us all most
+cordially to go up to his back-country run the very next day, with him,
+and skate as long as we liked. This was indeed a delightful prospect,
+the more especially as it happened to be only Monday, which gave us
+plenty of time to be back again by Sunday, for our weekly service. We
+made it a rule never to be away from home on that day, lest any of our
+distant congregation should ride their twenty miles or so across country
+and find us absent.
+
+When the host is willing and the guests eager, it does not take long to
+arrange a plan, so the next morning found three of us, besides Mr. C.
+H---- mounted and ready to start directly after breakfast. I have often
+been asked how I managed in those days about toilette arrangements, when
+it was impossible to carry any luggage except a small "swag," closely
+packed in a waterproof case and fastened on the same side as the
+saddle-pocket. First of all I must assure my lady readers that I prided
+myself on turning out as neat and natty as possible at the end of the
+journey, and yet I rode not only in my every-day linsey gown, which
+could be made long or short at pleasure, but in my crinoline. This was
+artfully looped up on the right side and tied by a ribbon, in such a way
+that when I came out ready dressed to mount, no one in the world could
+have guessed that I had on any _cage_ beneath my short riding habit with
+a loose tweed jacket over the body of the dress. Within the "swag"
+was stowed a brush and comb, collar, cuffs and handkerchiefs, a little
+necessary linen, a pair of shoes, and perhaps a ribbon for my hair if
+I meant to be very smart. On this occasion we all found that our skates
+occupied a terribly large proportion both of weight and space in our
+modest kits, but still we were much too happy to grumble.
+
+Where could you find a gayer quartette than started at an easy canter
+up the valley that fresh bracing morning? From the very first our faces
+were turned to the south-west, and before us rose the magnificent chain
+of the Southern Alps, with their bold snowy peaks standing out in
+a glorious dazzle against the cobalt sky. A stranger, or colonially
+speaking, a "new chum," would have thought we must needs cross that
+barrier-range before we could penetrate any distance into the back
+country, but we knew of long winding vallies and gullies running up
+between the giant slopes, which would lead us, almost without our
+knowing how high we had climbed, up to the elevated but sheltered
+plateau among the back country ranges where Mr. C. H----'s homestead
+stood. There was only one steep saddle to be crossed, and that lay
+between us and Rockwood, six miles off. It was the worst part of the
+journey for the horses, so we had easy consciences in dismounting and
+waiting an hour when we reached that most charming and hospitable of
+houses. I had just time for one turn round the beautiful garden, where
+the flowers and shrubs of old England grew side by side with the wild
+and lovely blossoms of our new island home, when the expected coo-e rang
+out shrill and clear from the rose-covered porch. It was but little past
+mid-day when we made our second start, and set seriously to work over
+fifteen miles of fairly good galloping ground. This distance brought
+us well up to the foot of a high range, and the last six miles of the
+journey had to be accomplished in single file, and with great care and
+discretion, for the track led through bleak desolate vallies, round
+the shoulder of abutting spurs, through swamps, and up and down rocky
+staircases. Mr. C. H---- and his cob both knew the way well however,
+and my bay mare Helen had the cleverest legs and the wisest as well
+as prettiest head of her race. If left to herself she seldom made a
+mistake, and the few tumbles she and I ever had together, took place
+only when she found herself obliged to go my way instead of her own. We
+entered the gorges of the high mountains between us and the west,
+and soon lost the sun; even the brief winter twilight faded away more
+swiftly than usual amid those dark defiles; and it was pitch dark,
+though only five o'clock, when we heard a sudden and welcome clamour of
+dog voices.
+
+These deep-mouthed tones invariably constitute the first notes of a
+sheep-station's welcome; and a delightful sound it is to the belated and
+bewildered traveller, for besides guiding his horse to the right spot,
+the noise serves to bring out some one to see who the traveller may be.
+On this occasion we heard one man say to the other, "It's the boss:" so
+almost before we had time to dismount from our tired horses (remember
+they had each carried a heavy "swag" besides their riders), lights
+gleamed from the windows of the little house, and a wood fire sparkled
+and sputtered on the open hearth. Mr. C. H---- only just guided me
+to the door of the sitting-room, making an apology and injunction
+together,--"Its very rough I am afraid: but you can do what you
+like;"--before he hastened back to assist his guests in settling their
+horses comfortably for the night. Labour used to be so dear and wages so
+high, especially in the back country of New Zealand, that the couple of
+men,--one for indoor work, to saw wood, milk, cook, sweep, _wash_,
+etc., and the other to act as gardener, groom, ploughman, and do all
+the numerous odd jobs about a place a hundred miles and more from the
+nearest shop,--represented a wage-expenditure of at least 200 pounds a
+year. Every gentleman therefore as a matter of course sees to his own
+horse when he arrives unexpectedly at a station, and I knew I should
+have at least half an hour to myself.
+
+The first thing to do was to let down my crinoline, for I could only
+walk like a crab in it when it was fastened up for riding, kilt up my
+linsey gown, take off my hat and jacket, and set to work The curtains
+must be drawn close, and the chairs moved out from their symmetrical
+positions against the wall; then I made an expedition into the kitchen,
+and won the heart of the stalwart cook, who was already frying chops
+over the fire, by saying in my best German, "I have come to help you
+with the tea." Poor man! it was very unfair, for Mr. C. H---- had told
+me during our ride that his servitor was a German, and I had employed
+the last long hour of the journey in rubbing up my exceedingly
+rusty knowledge of that language, and arranging one or two effective
+sentences. Poor Karl's surprise and delight knew no bounds, and he burst
+forth into a long monologue, to which I could find no readier answers
+than smiles and nods, hiding my inability to follow up my brilliant
+beginning under the pretence of being very busy. By the time the
+gentlemen had stabled and fed the horses and were ready, Karl and I
+between us had arranged a bright cosy little apartment with a capital
+tea-dinner on the table. After this meal there were pipes and toddy, and
+as I could not retire, like Mrs. Micawber at David Copperfield's supper
+party, into the adjoining bedroom and sit by myself in the cold, I made
+the best of the somewhat dense clouds of smoke with which I was soon
+surrounded, and listened to the fragmentary plans for the next day. Then
+we all separated for the night, and in two minutes I was fast asleep in
+a little room no bigger than the cabin of a ship, with an opossum rug on
+a sofa for my bed and bedding.
+
+It was cold enough the next morning, I assure you: so cold that it was
+difficult to believe the statement that all the gentlemen had been down
+at daybreak to bathe in the great lake which spread like an inland sea
+before the bay-window of the little sitting room. This lake, the largest
+of the mountain chain, never freezes, on account partly of its great
+depth, and also because of its sunny aspect. Our destination lay far
+inland, and if we meant to have a good long day's skating we must start
+at once. Such a perfect day as it was! I felt half inclined to beg off
+the first day on the ice, and to spend my morning wandering along the
+rata-fringed shores of Lake Coleridge, with its glorious enclosing
+of hills which might fairly be called mountains; but I feared to seem
+capricious or lazy, when really my only difficulty was in selecting
+a pleasure. The sun had climbed well over the high barriers which lay
+eastwards, and was shining brightly down through the quivering blue
+ether overhead; the frost sparkled on every broad flax-blade or slender
+tussock-spine, as if the silver side of earth were turned outwards that
+winter morning.
+
+No sooner had we mounted (with no "swag" except our skates this time)
+than Mr. C. H---- set spurs to his horse, and bounded over the slip-rail
+of the paddock before Karl could get it down. We were too primitive
+for gates in those parts: they only belonged to the civilization nearer
+Christchurch; and I had much ado to prevent my pony from following his
+lead, especially as the other gentlemen were only too delighted to get
+rid of some of their high spirits by a jump. However Karl got the
+top rail down for me, and "Mouse" hopped over the lower one gaily,
+overtaking the leader of the expedition in a very few strides. We could
+not keep up our rapid pace long; for the ground became terribly broken
+and cut up by swamps, quicksands, blind creeks, and all sorts of snares
+and pit-falls. Every moment added to the desolate grandeur of the scene.
+Bleak hills rose up on either hand, with still bleaker and higher peaks
+appearing beyond them again. An awful silence, unbroken by the familiar
+cheerful sound of the sheep calling to each other,--for even the hardy
+merino cannot live in these ranges during the winter months,--brooded
+around us, and the dark mass of a splendid "bush," extending over many
+hundred acres, only added to the lonely grandeur of the scene. We rode
+almost the whole time in a deep cold shade, for between us and the warm
+sun-rays were such lofty mountains that it was only for a few brief
+noontide moments he could peep over their steep sides.
+
+After two hour's riding, at the best pace which we could keep up through
+these terrible gorges, a sharp turn of the track brought us full in view
+of our destination. I can never forget that first glimpse of Lake Ida.
+In the cleft of a huge, gaunt, bare hill, divided as if by a giant hand,
+lay a large _black_ sheet of ice. No ray of sunshine ever struck it from
+autumn until spring, and it seemed impossible to imagine our venturing
+to skate merrily in such a sombre looking spot. But New-Zealand sheep
+farmers are not sentimental I am afraid. Beyond a rapid thought of
+self-congratulation that such "cold country" was not on _their_ run,
+they did not feel affected by its eternal silence and gloom. The ice
+would bear, and what more could skater's heart desire? At the end of the
+dark tarn, nearest to the track by which we had approached it, stood a
+neat little hut; and judge of my amazement when, as we rode up to it,
+a young gentleman, looking as if he was just going out for a day's
+deer-stalking, opened the low door and came out to greet us. Yes, here
+was one of those strange anomalies peculiar to the colonies. A young
+man, fresh from his University, of refined tastes and cultivated
+intellect, was leading here the life of a boor, without companionship
+or appreciation of any sort. His "mate" seemed to be a rough West
+countryman, honest and well meaning enough, but utterly unsuited to Mr.
+K----. It was the old story, of wild unpractical ideas hastily carried
+out. Mr. K---- had arrived in New Zealand a couple of years before, with
+all his worldly wealth,--1,000 pounds. Finding this would not go very
+far in the purchase of a good sheep-run, and hearing some calculations
+about the profit to be derived from breeding cattle, based upon
+somebody's lucky speculation, he eagerly caught at one of the many
+offers showered upon unfortunate "new chums," and bought the worst and
+bleakest bit of one of the worst and bleakest runs in the province. The
+remainder of his money was laid out in purchasing stock; and now he had
+sat down patiently to await, in his little hut, until such time as his
+brilliant expectations would be realized. I may say here they became
+fainter and fainter year by year, and at last faded away altogether;
+leaving him at the end of three lonely, dreadful years with exactly half
+his capital, but double his experience. However this has nothing to do
+with my story, except that I can never think of our skating expedition
+to that lonely lake, far back among those terrible hills, without a
+thrill of compassion for the only living human being, who dwelt among
+them.
+
+It was too cold to dawdle about, however, that day. The frost lay white
+and hard upon the ground, and we felt that we were cruel in leaving our
+poor horses standing to get chilled whilst we amused ourselves. Although
+my beloved Helen was not there, having been exchanged for the day in
+favour of Master Mouse, a shaggy pony, whose paces were as rough as
+its coat, I begged a red blanket from Mr. K----, and covered up Helen's
+stable companion, whose sleek skin spoke of a milder temperature than
+that on Lake Ida's "gloomy shore." Our simple arrangements were
+soon made. Mr. K---- left directions to his mate to prepare a repast
+consisting of tea, bread, and mutton for us, and, each carrying our
+skates, we made the best of our way across the frozen tussocks to the
+lake. Mr. K---- proved an admirable guide over its surface, for he was
+in the habit during the winter of getting all his firewood out of the
+opposite "bush," and bringing it across the lake on sledges drawn by
+bullocks. We accused him of having cut up our ice dreadfully by these
+means; but he took us to a part of the vast expanse where an unbroken
+field of at least ten acres of ice stretched smoothly before us. Here
+were no boards marked "DANGEROUS," nor any intimation of the depth of
+water beneath. The most timid person could feel no apprehension on ice
+which seemed more solid than the earth; so accordingly in a few moments
+we had buckled and strapped on our skates, and were skimming and
+gliding--and I must add, falling--in all directions. We were very much
+out of practice at first, except Mr. K----, who skated every day, taking
+short cuts across the lake to track a stray heifer or explore a blind
+gully.
+
+I despair of making my readers see the scene as I saw it, or of
+conveying any adequate idea of the intense, the appalling loneliness of
+the spot. It really seemed to me as if our voices and laughter, so
+far from breaking the deep eternal silence, only brought it out into
+stronger relief. On either hand rose up, shear from the waters edge, a
+great, barren, shingly mountain; before us loomed a dark pine forest,
+whose black shadows crept up until they merged in the deep _crevasses_
+and fissures of the Snowy Range. Behind us stretched the winding gullies
+by which we had climbed to this mountain tarn, and Mr. K----'s little
+hut and scrap of a garden and paddock gave the one touch of life, or
+possibility of life, to this desolate region. In spite of all scenic
+wet blankets we tried hard to be gay, and no one but myself would
+acknowledge that we found the lonely grandeur of our "rink" too much for
+us. We skated away perseveringly until we were both tired and hungry,
+when we returned to Mr. K----'s hut, took a hasty meal, and mounted our
+chilled steeds. Mr. C. H---- insisted on bringing poor Mr. K---- back
+with us, though he was somewhat reluctant to come, alleging that a
+few days spent in the society of his kind made the solitude of his
+weather-board hut all the more dreary. The next day and yet the next
+we returned to our gloomy skating ground, and when I turned round in my
+saddle as we rode away on Friday evening, for a last look at Lake Ida
+lying behind us in her winter black numbness, her aspect seemed more
+forbidding than ever, for only the bare steep hill-sides could be seen;
+the pine forest and white distant mountains were all blotted and blurred
+out of sight by a heavy pall of cloud creeping slowly up.
+
+"Let us ride fast," cried Mr. K----, "or we shall have a sou'-wester
+upon us;" so we galloped home as quickly as we could, over ground that
+I don't really believe I could summon courage to walk across, ever so
+slowly, to-day,--but then one's nerves and courage are in very different
+order out in New Zealand to the low standard which rules for ladies in
+England, who "live at home in ease!" Long before we reached home the
+storm was pelting us: my little jacket was like a white board when I
+took it off, for the sleet and snow had frozen as it fell. I was wet
+to the skin, and so numb with cold I could hardly stand when we reached
+home at last in the dark and down-pour. I could only get my things very
+imperfectly dried, and had to manage as best I could, but yet no one
+even thought of making the inquiry next morning when I came out to
+breakfast, "Have you caught cold?" It would have seemed a ridiculous
+question.
+
+
+
+Chapter V: Toboggon-ing.
+
+I cannot resist the temptation to touch upon one of the winter
+amusements which came to us two years later. Yet the word "amusement"
+seems out of place, no one in the Province having much heart to amuse
+themselves, for the great snow storm of August, 1867, had just taken
+place, and we were in the first days of bewilderment at the calamity
+which had befallen us all. A week's incessant snow-fall, accompanied by
+a fierce and freezing south-west wind, had not only covered the whole of
+the mountains from base to brow with shining white, through which not
+a single dark rock jutted, but had drifted on the plains for many feet
+deep. Gullies had been filled up by the soft, driving flakes, creeks
+were bridged over, and for three weeks and more all communication
+between the stations and the various townships was cut off. The
+full extent of our losses was unknown to us, and dreary as were our
+forebodings of misfortune, none of us guessed that snow to be the
+winding sheet of half a million of sheep. The magnificent semi-circle of
+the Southern Alps stood out, for a hundred miles from north to south,
+in appalling white distinctness, and no one in the whole Colony had ever
+seen the splendid range thus free from fleck or flaw. We had done all
+we could within working distance, but what was, the use of digging in
+drifts thirty feet deep? Amidst, and almost above, the terrible anxiety
+about our own individual safety,--for the snow was over the roof of
+many of the station-houses,--came the pressing question, "Where are the
+sheep?" A profound silence unbroken by bleat of lamb, or bark of dog,
+or any sound of life, had reigned for many days, when a merciful
+north-westerly gale sprung, up, and releasing the heavily-laden earth
+from its white bondage, freed the miserable remnant of our flocks and
+herds. At least, I should say, it freed those sheep which had travelled
+down to the vallies, driven before the first pitiless gusts, but we
+knew that many hundreds, if not thousands, of wethers must have been
+surprised and imprisoned far back among the hills.
+
+Such knowledge could not be acted upon, however, for no human being
+could hope to plunge through the drifts around us. Old shepherds who
+had lived on the run for fifteen years, confessed that they did not know
+their way fifty yards from the homestead. The vallies were filled up,
+so that one gully looked precisely like its fellow; rocks, scrub, Ti-ti
+palms, all our local land-marks had disappeared; not a fence or gate
+could be seen in all the country side. Here and there a long wave-like
+line in the smooth mass would lead us to suppose that a wire fence lay
+buried beneath its curves, but we had no means of knowing for certain.
+Near the house every shrub and out-building, every hay-stack or
+wood-heap, had all been covered up, and no man might even guess where
+they lay.
+
+This had been the terrible state of things, and although the blessed
+warm wind had removed our immediate and pressing fear of starvation, we
+could not hope to employ ourselves in searching for our missing sheep
+for many days to come. None of us had been able to take any exercise for
+more than a fortnight, and having done all that could possibly be done
+near at hand, F---- set to work to manufacture some sledges out of old
+packing-cases. Quite close to the house, a hill sloped smoothly for
+about 300 yards, at an angle of 40 degrees; along its side lay a
+perfectly level and deep drift, which did not show any signs of
+thawing for more than a month, and we resolved to use this as a natural
+_Montagne Russe_. The construction of a suitable sledge was the first
+difficulty to be surmounted, and many were the dismal failures and
+break-neck catastrophes which preceded what we considered a safe and
+successful vehicle. Not only was it immensely difficult to make, without
+either proper materials or tools, a sledge which could hold two people
+(for F---- declared it was no fun sleighing alone), but his "patent
+brakes" proved the most broken of reeds to lean upon when the sledge was
+dashing down the steep incline at the rate of a thousand miles an hour.
+
+We nearly broke our necks more than once, and I look back now with
+amazement to our fool-hardiness. How well I remember one expedition,
+when F----, who had been hammering away in a shed all the morning, came
+to find me sitting in the sun in the verandah, and to inform me that
+at last he had perfected a conveyance which would combine speed with
+safety. Undaunted by previous mishaps, I sallied forth, and in company
+with Mr. U---- and F----, climbed painfully up the high hill I have
+mentioned, by some steps which they had cut in the frozen snow. Without
+some such help we could not have kept our footing for a moment, and as
+long as I live I shall never forget the sensation of leaving my friendly
+Alpenstock planted in the snow, and of seating myself on that frail
+sledge. Perhaps I ought to describe it here. A board, about six feet
+long by one foot broad, with sheet-iron nailed beneath it, and curved
+upwards in front; on its upper surface a couple of battens were fixed,
+one quite at the foremost end, and one half-way. That was F----'s new
+patent sledge, warranted to go faster down an incline than any other
+conveyance on the surface of the earth. I was the wretched "passenger,"
+as he called me, on more than one occasion, and I will briefly describe
+my experiences. "Why did you go?" is a very natural question to arise in
+my reader's mind; and sitting here at my writing-table, I feel as if I
+must have been a lunatic to venture. But in those delicious wild days,
+no enterprise seemed too rash or dangerous to engage in, from mounting
+a horse which had never seen or felt the fluttering of a habit, to
+embarking on the conveyance I have described above, and starting down a
+mountain-side at the risk of a broken neck.
+
+Well, to return to that terrible moment. I see the whole scene now. The
+frail, rude sledge, with its breaks made out of a couple of standards
+from a wire fence, connected by a strong iron chain; F----seated at the
+back of the precious contrivance, firmly grasping a standard in each
+hand; Mr. U---- clinging desperately to his Alpen-stock with one hand,
+whilst with the other he helps me on to the board; and Nettle, my dear
+little terrier, standing shivering on three legs, sniffing distrustfully
+at the sledge. It is extremely difficult even to take one's place on
+a board a dozen inches wide. My petticoats have to be firmly wrapped
+around me, and care taken that no fold projects beyond the sledge, or
+I should be soon dragged out of my frail seat. I fix my feet firmly
+against the batten, and F---- cries, "Are you ready?" "Oh, not yet!"
+I gasp, clinging to Mr. U----'s hand as if I never meant to let it go.
+"Hold tight!" he shouts. Now what a mockery this injunction was. I
+had nothing to hold on to except my own knees, and I clasped them
+convulsively. Mr. U---- says, "You're all right now," and before I can
+realize that he has let go my hand, before my courage is half-way up to
+the necessary height, we are off. The breaks are slightly depressed for
+the first few yards, in order to regulate our pace, and because there
+is a tremendously steep pitch just at first. Once we have safely passed
+that he tilts up the standards, and our sledge shoots like a meteor down
+the perfectly smooth incline. I cannot draw my breath, we are going at
+such a pace through the keen air; I give myself up for lost. We come to
+another steep pitch near the bottom of the hill; F---- is laughing to
+such a degree at me that he does not put down his breaks soon enough,
+and loses control of the sledge. We appear to leap down the dip, and
+then the sledge turns first one way and then the other, its zinc prow
+being sometimes up-hill and some-times down. It seems wonderful that
+we keep on the sledge, for we have no means of holding on except by
+pressing our feet against the battens; yet in the grand and final upset
+at the bottom of the hill, the sledge is there too, and we find we have
+never parted company from it.
+
+Will any one believe that after such a perilous journey, I could
+actually be persuaded to try again? But so it was. At first the fright
+(for I was really terrified) used to make me very cross, and I declared
+that I was severely hurt, if not "kilt entirely;" but after I had shaken
+the snow out of my linsey skirt, and discovered that beyond the damage
+to my nerves I was uninjured, F---- was quite sure to try to persuade
+me to make another attempt, and I was equally sure to yield to the
+temptation. As well as my memory serves me, we only made one really
+successful journey, and that was on an occasion when we kept the breaks
+down the whole way. But I never could insure similar precautions being
+taken again, and we consequently experienced every variety of mishaps
+possible to sledge travellers. I persevered however for some days until
+the north-westerly wind, which was blowing softly all the time, began to
+lay bare the sharpest points of the rocks, and then I gave in at once,
+and would not be a "passenger" any more. It was rather too much to
+strike one's head against a jagged fragment of rock, or to dislocate
+one's thumb against a concealed stump of a palm tree. Then the sharp
+points of the Spaniards began to stick up through the softening snow,
+and nothing would induce me to run the risk of touching their green
+bayonets. Besides which, the fast-thawing snow made it very difficult
+to climb up to the top of our hill, for the carefully-cut steps had
+disappeared long ago. So I gave up sledge journeys on my own account,
+and used only to look at F---- and Mr. U---- taking them.
+
+These two persevered so long as an inch of snow remained on the
+hill-side. Some of their adventures were very alarming, and certainly
+rather dangerous. One afternoon I had been watching them for more than
+an hour, and had seen them go through every variety of disaster, and
+capsize with no further effect than increasing their desire for "one
+more" trial. On the blind-side of the hill,--that is to say the side
+which gets scarcely any sun in winter,--a deep drift of snow still
+lingered, filling up a furrow made in former years by a shingle-slip.
+Thither the two adventurous climbers dragged their sledge, and down
+the steep incline they performed their perilous descent many a time. I
+became tired of watching the board shoot swiftly over the white streak;
+and I strolled round the shoulder of the hill, to see if there was any
+appearance of the snow-fall lessening in the back country.
+
+I must have been away about half an hour, and had made the circuit of
+the little knoll which projected from the mountain side, returning to
+where I expected to find sleigh and sleighers starting perhaps on just
+"one more" journey. But no one was there, and a dozen yards or so from
+the usual starting-point, the snow was a good deal ploughed up and
+stained in large patches by blood. Here was an alarming spectacle,
+though the only wonder was that a bad accident had not occurred before.
+I saw the sledge, deserted and broken, near the end of the drift: of the
+passengers there was neither sign nor token. I must say I was terribly
+frightened, but it is useless in New Zealand to scream or faint; the
+only thing to do in an emergency is to _coo-e_; and so, although my
+heart was thumping loudly in my ears, and at first I could not produce a
+sound, I managed at last, after many attempts, to muster up a loud clear
+_coo-e_. There was the usual pause, whilst the last sharp note rang
+back from the hill-sides, and vibrated through the clear silent air;
+and then, oh, welcome sound! I heard a vigorous answer from our own flat
+where the homestead stood. I set off down-hill as fast as I could, and
+had the joy, when I turned the slope which had hidden our little house
+from my view, to see F---- and Mr. U---- walking about; but even from
+that distance I could see that poor Mr. U----'s head was bandaged up,
+and as soon as I got near enough to hear, F----shouted "I have broken my
+neck!" adding, "I am very hungry: let us go in to supper."
+
+Under the circumstances these words were consolatory; and when I came to
+hear the story, this was the way the accident happened. As I mentioned
+before, even this drift had thawed till it was soft at the surface and
+worn away almost to the rocks. During a rapid descent the nose of the
+sledge dipped through the snow, and stopped dead against a rock. Mr.
+U---- was instantly buried in the snow, falling into a young but prickly
+Spaniard, which assaulted him grievously; but F---- shot over his head
+some ten yards, turned a somersault, and alit on his feet. This sounds
+a harmless performance enough, but it requires practice; and F----
+declared that for weeks afterwards his neck felt twisted. The accident
+must have looked very ridiculous: the sledge one moment gliding smoothly
+along at the rate of forty miles an hour,--the next a dead stop, and
+F----flying through the air over his passenger's head, finishing feet
+first plump down in the soft snow.
+
+Looking back on that time, I can remember how curiously soon the
+external traces of the great snow-storm disappeared. For some weeks
+after the friendly nor-wester, the air of the whole neighbourhood was
+tainted by dead and decaying sheep and lambs; and the wire fences,
+stock-yard rails, and every "coign of vantage," had to be made useful
+but ghastly by a tapestry of sheep-skins. The only wonder was that a
+single sheep had survived a storm severe enough to kill wild pigs. Great
+boars, cased in hides an inch thick, had perished through sheer stress
+of weather; while thin-skinned animals, with only a few months growth of
+fine merino wool on their backs, had endured it all. It was well known
+that the actual destruction of sheep was mainly owing to the two days
+of heavy rain which succeeded the snow. Out of a flock of 13,000 of all
+ages, we lost, on the lowest calculation, 1,000 grown sheep and nearly
+3,000 lambs; and yet our loss was small by comparison with that of
+our neighbours, whose runs were further back among the hill, and less
+sheltered than our own.
+
+Long before midsummer our cloud-shadowed hills were green once more; and
+I think I see again their beautiful outlines, their steep sides planted
+with semi-tropical palms and grasses, whilst the more distant peaks are
+veiled in a sultry haze. During that peculiarly bright and lovely summer
+we often ask each other, Could it have been true that no one knew one
+mountain from the other, and that hills had been apparently levelled and
+vallies filled up by the heaviest snow-fall ever known. But whilst the
+words were on our lips, we could see a group of palm-trees, ten feet
+high, with their topmost leaves gnawed to the stump by starving sheep,
+that must have been standing on at least seven feet of snow to reach
+them; and there was scarcely a creek on the run whose banks were not
+strewn, for many a long day, by bare and bleaching bones.
+
+
+
+Chapter VI: Buying a run.
+
+
+Like many other people in the world, I have occasionally built castles
+in the air, and equally of course they have invariably tumbled down in
+due time with a crash This particular castle however, not only attained
+to a great elevation in the visionary builder's eyes, but it covered so
+vast an area of land, that the story of its rise and fall deserves to
+be placed on record, as a warning to aerial architects and also as a
+beacon-light to young colonists.
+
+This was exactly the way it all happened. The new year of 186-found us
+living very quietly and happily on a small compact sheep-farm, at the
+foot of the Malvern Hills, in the province of Canterbury, New Zealand.
+As runs went, its dimensions were small indeed; for we only measured
+it at 12,000 acres, all told. The great tidal wave of prosperity, which
+sets once in a while towards the shores of all colonies, had that year
+swelled and risen to its full force; but this we did not know. Borne
+aloft upon its unsubstantial crest we could not, from that giddy height,
+discern any water-valleys of adversity or clouds of change and
+storm along the shining horizon of the new world around us. All our
+calculations were based on the assumption that the existing prices for
+sheep, wool, cattle, and all farm-produce, would rule for many a long
+day; and the delightful part of this royal road to wealth was, that its
+travellers need not exert themselves in any way: they had only to sit
+still with folded hands whilst their sheep increased, and it was well
+known that a flock doubled itself in three short years. The obvious
+deduction from this agreeable numerical fact was, that in an equally
+short period your agent's payments to your bank account would also be
+doubled. In the meantime the drays were busy carting the wool to the
+seaports as fast as they could be loaded, whilst speculative drovers
+rode all about the country buying up the fat cattle and wethers from
+every run. These were wanted to supply the West Coast Diggings which had
+just "broken out" (as the curious phrase goes there), and so was every
+description of grain and dairy produce.
+
+We squatters were not the only inhabitants of this fool's paradise. The
+local Government began planning extensive works: railways were laid
+out in every direction, bridges planned across rivers, which proved
+the despair of engineers; whilst a tunnel, the wonder of the Southern
+Hemisphere, was commenced through a range of hills lying between Port
+Lyttleton and Christchurch. All this work was undertaken on a scale of
+pay which made the poor immigrants who thronged to the place by every
+ship, rub their eyes and believe they must be dreaming, and that they
+would presently wake up and find themselves back again in the old
+country, at the old starvation rate of wages. Small capitalists, with
+perhaps only one or two hundred pounds in the world, bid against each
+other as purchasers of quarter-acre sections in the fast-springing
+townships, or of fifty-acre lots of arable land in the projected
+suburbs. Subscriptions were raised for building a Cathedral in
+Christchurch; but so dear was both labour and material, that 7,000
+pounds barely sufficed to lay its foundations.
+
+The paramount anxiety in men's minds seemed to be to secure land.
+Sheep-runs in sheltered accessible parts of the country commanded
+enormous prices, and were bought in the most complicated way. The first
+comers had taken up vast tracts of land in all directions from the
+Government, at an almost nominal rental. This had happened quite in
+the dark and remote ages of the history of the colony, at least ten
+or twelve years before the date of which I write. As speculators with
+plenty of hard cash came down from Australia, these original tenants
+sold, as it were, the good-will and stock of their run at enormous
+prices; but what always seemed to me so hard was, that after you had
+paid any number of thousand pounds for your run, you might have to buy
+it all, or at any rate, some portion of it, over again. Land could only
+be purchased freehold from the Government, for 2 pounds an acre; and if
+a "cockatoo" (i.e., a small farmer), or a speculator in mines, fancied
+any part of your property, he had only to go to the land office, and
+challenge your pre-emptive rights. The officials gave you notice of the
+challenge, and six weeks' grace in which to raise the money, and buy it
+freehold yourself; but few sheep-farmers could afford to pay a good
+many hundred pounds unexpectedly to secure even their best "flats" or
+vallies. Hence it often happened that large runs in the most favourable
+situations were cut up by small investors, "free selectors" as they are
+called in Australia, and it used to be rather absurd the way one grew
+to distrust any stranger who was descried riding about the run. The poor
+man might be looking for a stray horse, or have lost his way, but we
+always fancied he must be "prospecting" for either gold or coals, or
+else be a "cockatoo" disguised as a traveller.
+
+Such was the state of things when my story opens. Shearing was just
+over, and we knew to a lamb how rapidly our flocks and herds were
+increasing. A succession of mild winters and early genial springs had
+got the flock into capital order. The wool had all been sent off to
+Christchurch by drays, the sheep were turned out on the beautiful green
+hills for ten months of perfect rest and peace; whilst the dogs, who
+had barked themselves quite hoarse, were enabled to desist from their
+labours in mustering and watching the yet unshorn mobs on the vallies.
+Although our run was as well grassed and watered as any in the province,
+still it could not possibly carry more than a certain number of sheep,
+and to that total our returns showed that we were rapidly approaching.
+The most careful calculations warned us that by next shearing we should
+hardly know what to do with our sheep. It is always better to be under
+than overstocked, for the merino gets out of condition immediately, and
+even the staple of the wool deteriorates if its wearer be at all crowded
+on his feeding-grounds.
+
+"You must take up more country directly," was the invariable formula of
+the advice we, comparatively "new chums," received on all sides. This
+was easier to say than to do. Turn which ever way we would, far back
+beyond our own lovely vallies and green hills, back up to the bleak
+region of glaciers, where miles of bush and hundreds of acres of steep
+hill-side, formed the _back-est_ of "back country," every inch of land
+was taken up. No fear had those distant Squatters of "cockatoos," or
+even of miners; for no one came their way who could possibly help it.
+Still we should have been comparatively glad to buy such a run fifty or
+sixty miles further back,--at the foot, in fact of the great Southern
+Alps,--just as a summer feeding-ground for the least valuable portion
+of our flock. But no one was inclined to part with a single acre, and we
+were forced to turn our eyes in a totally different direction.
+
+If my readers will refer to the accompanying map of New Zealand, and
+look at the Middle or South Island, they will notice a long seaboard
+on the eastern side of the island, stretching SS.W. for many hundred
+leagues. It extends beyond the Province of Canterbury to that of
+Otago, and embraces some of the most magnificent pastoral land in the
+settlement. Not only is the soil rich and productive, but the climate
+is rather less windy than with us in the northern portion of the island;
+and the capital of Otago (Dunedin) had risen into comparative position
+and importance before Christchurch,--was in short an elder sister of
+that pretty little town. Most of the settlers in Otago were Scotchmen,
+and as there are no better colonists anywhere, its prosperity had
+attained to a very flourishing height. Gold-digging had also broken out
+at the foot of the Dunstan range, so that Otago held her head quite as
+high, if not higher, than her neighbour Canterbury. Of course all the
+first-class pasture-land "down south," as it was called, had been taken
+up long before; but we heard rumours of splendid sheep country, yet
+unappropriated, far back towards the west coast of Otago, just where its
+boundary joined Canterbury.
+
+With our minds in this state of desire for what poor Mazzini used
+to denounce as "territorial aggrandisement," we paid our usual
+post-shearing visit to Christchurch. F---- had his agent's accounts to
+examine, a nice little surplus of wool-money to receive, and many other
+squatting interests to attend to; whilst I had to lay in chests of
+tea, barrels of sugar and rice, hundreds of yards of candle-wick,
+flower-seeds, reels of cotton, and many other miscellaneous articles.
+But through all our pleasant, happy little bustle ran the constant
+thought: "What shall we do for more country?" A day or two before
+the expiration of the week's leave of absence which we always gave
+ourselves, F---- came into my sitting-room at the hotel, flung down his
+hat on the table with an air of triumph, and cried, "I've heard of such
+a splendid run! One hundred thousand acres of beautiful sheep-country,
+and going for a mere song!" Now I had lived long enough in the world
+to discover that one sometimes danced on the wrong foot to the tune
+of these "mere songs," so I cautiously inquired, "Where is it?" F----
+seemed a little dashed that the only question which he could not answer
+favourably should be the first I asked, and he replied vaguely, "Well,
+it is rather a long way off, but I am sure we can manage it." A
+little more sifting elicited the fact that this "desirable investment"
+stretched along the shores of Lake Wanaka, famous for its beautiful
+scenery, and was to be had for what certainly seemed a ridiculously
+small sum;--only a few hundred pounds. "Of course it has no sheep on
+it," added F----; "but that is all the better. I'll burn it this year,
+and then turn some cattle on it, and after next shearing we'll have a
+good mob of sheep to draft out and stock it." He further added, that
+he had invited his man of business and the individual who owned this
+magnificent property to dine with us that evening, and that then I
+should hear all about it And I may truly say that I _did_ hear about
+it, for my brain reeled with figures and calculations. By bedtime I was
+wondering if we could possibly spend the enormous fortune which would
+be quite certain to accrue to us in a few years if only we could make up
+our minds to invest the modest balance at our bankers in this tempting
+bargain. I remember well that I found myself wishing we were not going
+to be _quite_ so rich; half our promised income would have been ample, I
+thought. My anxieties on that score turned out to have been, to say the
+least, premature.
+
+Not to make my story too long, I may briefly say that after making due
+allowance for the natural exaggeration of the owner, the run on Lake
+Wanaka's shores seemed certainly to offer many attractions. Besides
+thousands of acres of beautiful sheltered sheep country, it was said to
+possess a magnificent bush, in which sawyers were already hard at work.
+Of course all this timber would become our own, and we were to make
+so much a year by selling it. "How about the carriage?" inquired F----
+cautiously, having visions of costly bullock-drays, and teams and
+drivers at fabulous wages. "Oh, the lake is your highway," replied the
+would-be seller, airily; "you have nothing to do but lash your felled
+trees together, as they do in the mahogany-growing countries, and set
+them afloat on the lake, they will thus form a natural raft, and cost
+you little or nothing to get down to a good market. You know the Dunstan
+diggings are just at the foot of the lake, and they haven't a stick
+there; timber is very badly wanted in those parts, not only for fuel and
+building, but also for slabbing the shafts which the miners sink."
+
+By the time the coffee was served F---- had made up his mind to buy the
+Lake Wanaka run; his business agent urging him strongly not to hesitate
+for a moment in securing such a chance. The negotiations reached thus
+far without the least hitch, but at this point F----said, "Well, I'll
+tell you what I'll do: we will start in a day or two and go straight up
+to this run and look round it, and if I find it anything like so good as
+you both make it out, I'll buy it on the spot."
+
+Never did that sociable little word "we" sound so delightful to my ears!
+"Then I am to come too," I thought to myself, but I prudently concealed
+from the company that I had ever had any misgivings on that point.
+However, the company did not concern themselves with my doubts
+and fears, for our two guests seemed much taken aback at this very
+matter-of-fact proposal of F----'s. "That won't do at all, my dear
+fellow," said the owner of the run; "I am going to England by the
+next mail steamer, which you know sails next week, and the reason I am
+literally giving away my property is that I don't want any suspense or
+bother. Take it or leave it, just as you like. There's Wilkinson and
+Fairwright and a lot of others all clamouring for the refusal of it,
+and I've only waited to see if you really wanted it before closing with
+Fairwright. He is walking about with a cheque all ready filled up in his
+pocket, and only begging and praying me to let him have the run on my
+own terms. Why you might be weather-bound or kept there for a month,
+and what shall I do then? No, its all just as I've told you, and you can
+call it your own to-morrow, but I can't possibly wait for you to go and
+look at it." No words of mine can give any idea of the tone of scorn in
+which our guest pronounced these last three words; as if looking at an
+intended purchase was at once the meanest and most absurd thing in-the
+world. F---- seemed half ashamed of himself for his proposal, but still
+he urged that he never liked to take a leap in the dark, backing up his
+opinion by several world-revered adages. "That's all very fine," chimed
+in our precious business adviser," but this transaction can hardly be
+said to be in the dark; here are the plans and the Government lease and
+the transfer deeds, all regular and ready." With this he produced the
+plans, and then it was all up with us. Who does not know the peculiar
+_smell_ of tracing-paper, with its suggestions of ownership? When
+these fresh and crackling drawings were opened before us they resembled
+nothing so much as a veritable paradise. There shone the lake--a
+brilliant patch of cobalt blue, bordered by outlines of vivid green
+pasture and belts of timber. Here and there, on the outskirts, we read
+the words, "proposed township," "building lots," "probable gold fields,"
+"saw mills." F---- laid his hand down over a large wash of light green
+paint and asked," Now what sort of country is this; really and truly,
+you know?" "First class sheep country, I give you my word," replied the
+owner eagerly, "only wants to be stocked for a year or two."
+
+Why need I go on? It was the old, old story of misplaced confidence.
+Neither F---- nor I could believe that our friends would wilfully
+over-reach us, so it was settled that the first thing next morning the
+money should be handed over and the Government lease transferred to us.
+We decided that as we were so far on the way to our new property, we
+would go and look at it before returning to the Malvern Hills, and
+the next few days were very busy ones, as we had to arrange our small
+domestic affairs, send up the dray, etc., etc. I felt rather anxious at
+the postponement of our return home, for I had left several "clutches"
+of eggs on the point of being hatched, and I had grave misgivings as to
+the care my expected ducklings and chickens would receive at the lands
+of my scatter-brained maid servants, to say nothing of the dangers
+besetting them from hawks and rats. However, small interests must give
+way to great ones, and F---- and I were already tasting the cares of
+proprietorship. Our friend, the former owner of our new property, sailed
+for England in the mail steamer, in high spirits, saying cordially as he
+shook F----'s hand at parting, "Well you _have_ got your fortune cut out
+for you, and no mistake; I feel half sorry already to think that I've
+parted with that run." About two days after his departure, F---- who had
+registered his name at the land office as the present tenant of 100,000
+acres in the Lake Wanaka district, received a polite request from
+official quarters to pay up the annual rent, just due, amounting to 100
+pounds or so. We had effected our brilliant negotiations about a week
+too soon it seemed, but that was our own fault, so we had nothing to
+do but pay the money with as good a grace as possible. I am "free to
+confess" that this second cheque ran our banker's account very fine
+indeed, but still in those palmy days of the past this was no subject of
+uneasiness to a squatter. His credit was almost unlimited, and he could
+always raise as much money as he liked on an hypothecation of
+next year's wool. But we had not come to that yet. The weather was
+delightful; the customary week of heavy rain just after our midsummer
+Christmas, had cooled the air and laid the dust, besides bringing out a
+fresh spring-like green tint over the willows and poplars, and causing
+even the leaves of the gums to lose their leather-like look for a few
+days.
+
+After much consultation we decided to go by coach as far as Timaru, and
+then trust to circumstances to decide our future means of transport. Not
+only were we obliged to pay a large sum for our places but our luggage
+was charged for by the pound, so we found it necessary to reduce our
+kit to the most modest dimensions, and only to take what was absolutely
+necessary. The journey was a long and weary one, the only variety being
+caused by a strong spice of danger at each river. At some streams we
+were transferred bodily to a large raft-like ferry boat, and so taken
+across. At others the passengers and luggage only were put into the
+boat, the lumbering coach with its leathern springs left behind, whilst
+the horses swam in our wake across the wide and rushing river, to
+be re-harnessed to another coach on the opposite shore. The Rakaia,
+Ashburton, and Rangitata had been crossed in this way, and we had
+reached the Otaio, a smaller river, when we found a new mode of
+transport awaiting us. A large dray with a couple of powerful horses was
+in readiness, and into this springless vehicle we were unceremoniously
+bundled. The empty coach and horses was driven over at another part of
+the stream. I shall never forget the jolting: the river must have been
+at least a quarter of a mile wide at that reach, and over its bed of
+boulders and rocks we bumped In the middle stretched a long strip of
+shingle, which seemed as smooth as turf by contrast with the first
+half of the river-bed. When we charged into the water again our driver
+removed his pipe from his mouth, looked over his shoulder and remarked,
+"River's come down since mornin'; best tuck up your feet, marms all." I
+can answer for this "marm" tucking up her feet with great agility, and
+not a moment too soon either, for as a light wind was blowing, a playful
+wave came rippling over and through the planked floor of the dray,
+floating all the smaller parcels about. But no one could speak, we were
+so jolted: it literally seemed as if our spines _must_ come through the
+crown of our heads, and I expected all my teeth to tumble out.
+
+In the midst of my fright and suffering, a laugh was jolted out of me
+by the absurd behaviour of one of our fellow-passengers. He was what is
+called a bush carpenter: i.e., a wandering carpenter, who travels from
+station to station, doing any little odd rough jobs wanted. This man had
+been working for us some time before, and had often amused me with his
+quaint ways. On this occasion he was on his oppressively good behaviour,
+and sat quite silent and solemn on the opposite ledge of the dray.
+But when for the second time the water came swirling through our rude
+conveyance with a force which threatened to upset it altogether, Dale
+fumbled in his pocket, as if he were seeking for a life-belt, produced
+an enormous pair of green goggle spectacles, which might have made part
+of Moses Primrose's purchases at the fair, and adjusting them on his
+nose as steadily as he could, said gravely, "This must be looked to!"
+He continued to stare at the wash of water during the remainder of our
+perilous and rough transit without vouchsafing any explanation of his
+meaning, but after we had safely landed he replaced his spectacles,
+first in their huge shagreen case, and next in his pocket, with an air
+which seemed to say, "The danger is now over: thanks to my precautions."
+
+Timaru was reached very late, and the best accommodation at the inn
+placed at our disposal. Still, in those distant days there was no such
+thing as a private sitting room, and we had all to eat our supper in the
+same rough-boarded little apartment. But in all my varied wanderings in
+different parts of the world, when the accidents of travel have thrown
+me for a time among the class whom we foolishly speak of as the lower
+orders, I have never yet had to complain of the slightest inconvenience
+or disagreeableness from my fellow-travellers. On the contrary, I have
+always received the most chivalrous politeness at their hands, and have
+noticed how ready they were to forego their usual tastes and habits lest
+they should cause me any annoyance. I wonder whether fine gentlemen in
+their splendid clubs would be quite so willing to spoil the pleasure of
+their evening if any accident were to throw an unwelcome lady amongst
+them? At all events, they could not be _more_ self-sacrificing than my
+friends in fustian jackets have always proved themselves, and on this
+particular evening the landlord of the inn was so amazed at the orders
+for tea and coffee instead of the usual "nips" of spirits, that he was
+constrained to inquire the reason. A stalwart drover who was sitting
+opposite to me at the rude table, murmured from the depths of his
+great beard, in an oracular whisper, "The smell of speerits might'nt be
+agreeble like to the lady." In vain I protested that I did not mind it
+in the least; tea and coffee was the order of the evening, and solemn
+silence and good behaviour. No smoking, no songs, no conviviality of
+any sort. I would fain have shown my appreciation of their courtesy by
+talking to them; but alas, I was one vast ache all over! Although the
+road had been a dead level, sixteen hours of jolting and bumping had
+reduced me to a limp, black-and-blue creature, with out a word or a
+smile. Of course I retired to what was literally a pallet, and a very
+hard pallet too, as early as possible, but even after I had vanished
+behind the thin wooden partition which formed my bedroom, the greatest
+silence and decorum continued to reign among my fellow-travellers.
+
+
+
+Chapter VII: "Buying a run."--continued.
+
+
+Early the next morning we all breakfasted together, and then separated
+with most polite adieux. We sallied forth to look for a couple of riding
+horses. There were none to be hired, so we had to buy two good-looking
+nags for 45 pounds a-piece. Now-a-days the same horses would not fetch
+more than 10 pounds and I have been told that in Australia you can buy a
+horse for a shilling, but ours in New Zealand have never sunk lower
+than a couple of pounds, if they had any legs at all. It seemed to the
+horse-dealer quite a superfluous question when I timidly inquired if my
+horse had ever carried a lady. "No: I can't just say as he has, mum, as
+you see there aint no ladies in these parts for him to carry. But," he
+added magnanimously, "I'll try him with a blanket fust, if you're at
+all oneasy about him." We did not start until the next day, as we had to
+hunt up side-saddles, and I had to sew a few yards of grey linsey into
+a riding-skirt; but by the following day we were all ready, and our
+"swags" packed and strapped to the saddles by nine o'clock. F----'s
+horse looked a very nice one in every respect; mine was evidently uneasy
+in his mind at the strange shape of his saddle, and I was recommended to
+mount outside the little enclosure, on a patch of open ground, where
+my steed would not be able to brush me off. The moment I mounted, the
+"Hermit" as he was called, made for a dry ditch and tried to lie down,
+but a sharp cut from a stock-whip brought him out of it, and then he
+laid his ears well back and started for a good gallop, to endeavour to
+get rid of his strange rider. However, his head was turned in the right
+direction; there were no obstacles in the way, and before he got tired
+of his pace we had left Timaru a good many miles behind us. F----
+looked complacently at the "Hermit," and observed, "He'll carry you very
+nicely, I think." I could only breathe a sincere hope that he might.
+
+It was a beautiful day, warm but not oppressive, and delightfully
+calm. Our road lay at first along the sea-shore. Ever since we had left
+Christchurch the ground had been almost level, and the road consisted
+merely of a track cleared from tussocks. On our left extended the vast
+strip known as the Ninety-miles Beach, whilst far on our right, between
+us and the west coast, the Southern Alps, rose in all their might and
+beauty, sometimes lightly veiled by a summer haze, at others cutting our
+Italian-blue sky sharp and clear with their grand outlines. Our horses
+were a trifle too fat for good condition, and we feared to hurry them
+the first day, so we made an early halt at Mahiki, only a twenty
+miles stage; but the next day they took us on to Waitaki Ferry, past a
+splendid bush, and so into the heart of the hill country.
+
+Between the ranges, beautiful fertile valleys extended; when I say
+fertile, I mean that the soil was excellent, and the land well-grassed.
+But there was no cultivation. Not a sod had ever been turned there
+since the creation of the world, and the whole country wore the
+peculiar yellow tinge caught from the tall waving tussocks, which is the
+prevailing feature of New Zealand scenery _au naturel_. Every acre
+had been "taken up," but as yet the runs were rather understocked. Our
+fourth day's ride was the longest,--fifty-five miles in all, though we
+halted for a couple of hours at a miserable accommodation house.
+Our bivouac that night was close to Lake Wanaka, at the Molyneux
+Ferry-house, and there I was kept awake all night by the attentions of
+a cat. I never saw such a ridiculous animal. Prince, for that was his
+name, took the greatest fancy to me, or rather to my woollen skirt I
+suppose, and found a linsey lap much more comfortable than the corduroy
+knees on which he took his usual evening nap. At all events he followed
+me into my room, which only boasted of a mattress, stuffed with
+tussock-grass by the way, on the floor. Here I should have slept very
+well after my long journey, if Prince would have permitted it. In vain
+I put him out of the window, not always very gently; he returned in five
+minutes, bringing a palpitating, just-caught bird or mouse, which he
+softly dropped on my face, and purred loudly with delight at his own
+gallantry. Twenty times did I strike a match that night and try to
+restore the victims to life; only one recovered sufficiently to be
+released, and Prince brought it in again, quite dead, five minutes
+later. I shut the little casement window, but the room became so hot and
+stuffy, and suspicious fumes of stale beer and tobacco began to assert
+their presence, so that I found myself obliged to open it again.
+Sometimes the victim's bones were crunched close to my ear, and I found
+more than one feather in my hair in the morning. Never was any one so
+persecuted by a cat as I was by Prince that weary night.
+
+The next day we got to a station known as "Johnson's." It was just at
+the head of the lake, and as we arrived tolerably early in the forenoon
+we embarked, after the usual station dinner of mutton, tea, and damper,
+on Lake Wanaka. Alas for those treacherous blue waters! We had only a
+little pair-oared boat, in which I took my place as coxwain, and after
+pulling for a mile or two under a blazing sun, over short chopping
+waves, with a head-wind, we all became so deadly sea-sick that we had to
+turn back! As soon as we had rested and recovered, a council of war
+was held as to our movements, and we decided, in spite of our recent
+experiences, to turn our horses, who had done quite enough for the
+present, out on the run, and so make our way down the lake by boat.
+Already F---- was beginning to look anxious, for he perceived that,
+even after the head of the lake had been reached, the wool would cost an
+enormous sum to cart down to either Oamaru or Timaru, from whence alone
+it could be shipped.
+
+The mile or two of the run which lay along the shore of the lake showed
+us frightfully rough country. A dense jungle of tussocks and thorny
+bushes choked up the feed, and made it impossible to drive any animals
+through it, even supposing that good pasturage lay beyond. Still we
+hoped that we might be looking at the worst portion of our purchase, and
+deter mined to persevere in the attempt to penetrate to the furthest
+end of our new property. Accordingly we hired a safe old tub of a boat
+which, though too heavy to pull, was warranted to sail steadily, and
+with a couple of men, some cold mutton, bread, tea, and sugar, started
+valiantly on our cruise. But the "blue, unclouded weather," in which
+we had hitherto basked, was at an end for the present. We had already
+enjoyed a longer succession of calm days than usually falls to the lot
+of the travellers in that windy middle island, and it was now quite time
+for the imprisoned "nor'-wester" to have his turn over the surface of
+the domain.
+
+Accordingly the first day's sail was against a light, ominously warm
+head-wind, and we only made any way at all by keeping up a complicated
+system of tacking. The start had not been an early one, so darkness
+found us but little advanced on our voyage, and we passed the night in a
+rough shanty, on beds of fern-leaves, wrapped in our red blankets. Tired
+as we were, none of us could sleep much. The air was dry and parched;
+every now and then a sough of the rising hot gale swept through our
+crazy shelter without cooling us, and warned us to prepare for what was
+coming. Our only chance of getting on was to make an early start, for
+fortunately a true "nor'-wester" is somewhat of a sluggard. The skies
+wore their peculiar chrysoprase green tint, except towards the weather
+quarter, where heavy banks of lurid cloud showed that the enemy was
+collecting in force. Even the hour of dawn, usually so crisp and cool,
+brought no sense of refreshment to our languid limbs, and we embarked
+with the direst forebodings. A few miles further up the lake we reached
+an out-station hut, built by our host Mr. Johnson when he first "took
+up" his country and intended to push his boundary as far as this. He
+soon drew in his lines however on account of the rough nature of the
+ground. The hut was in a most picturesque spot, and although deserted,
+remained still in good repair. The little scrap of garden ground was a
+tangle of gooseberry and currant bushes among which potatoes flourished
+at their own sweet will.
+
+We had only time to beach the boat, that is to say F---- and the two
+men did so, whilst I ran backwards and forwards with the blankets and
+provisions, before the hurricane was upon us. Henceforth there was no
+stirring out of doors until the gale had blown itself out. We dragged
+in some driftwood, barricaded the door, and prepared to pass the time
+as well as we could. Oh, the fleas in the hut! The ground was literally
+alive with them, and their audacity and appetite was unparalleled.
+Our boatmen sat tranquilly by the tiny window and played cribbage
+incessantly with very dirty cards and a board made out of a small bar of
+soap. As for me, I turned an empty box up on its end, so as to get
+out of the way of the fleas, and perched myself on it, finding ample
+occupation in defending my position from the attacks of the active
+little wretches. Sometimes I felt as if I must rush out into the
+lake and drown myself and my tormentors together. It was very bad for
+everybody. The poor boatmen doubtless wished to smoke, but were too
+polite to do anything of the sort. F---- had nothing whatever to read,
+except a torn piece of an old _Times_, at least two years old, which we
+had brought to wrap up some of our provisions; whilst I was still more
+idle and wretched. Two weary interminable days dragged, or perhaps I
+should say, blew, themselves along in this miserable fashion, but at
+sundown on the evening of the third day the wind dropped suddenly, and
+we did not lose a moment in darting out of our prison and embarking once
+more. For the first time since we started we could perceive the grandeur
+of the surrounding country; but grand scenery is not necessary nor
+indeed desirable in a sheep run. Splendid mountains ran down in steep
+spurs to the very shore of the enormous lake. Behind them, piled in
+snowy steeps, rose the distant Alps of the Antipodes; great masses of
+native bush made dark purple shadows among the clefts of the hills,
+whilst the lake rippled in and out of many a graceful bay and quiet
+harbour. Not a fleck or film of cloud floated between us and the serene
+and darkening sky; a profound, delightful calm brooded over land and
+water. Although there was no moon, the stars served us as lights and
+compass until two o'clock in the morning, by which time we had reached
+the head of the lake (which is thirty-five miles in length), where we
+landed, extemporized a tent out of the boat sail, and turned in for a
+refreshing flea-less sleep.
+
+The next day was beautifully still, with a light air from the opposite
+point, just sufficient to cool the parched atmosphere; and we made our
+way along the head of the lake to a place were a couple of sawyers were
+at work. One of them had brought his wife with him, and her welcome to
+me was the most touching thing in the world. She took me entirely under
+her care, and would hardly let me out of her sight. I must say it was
+very nice to be waited on so faithfully, and I gave myself up to
+the unaccustomed luxury. All she required of me in exchange for her
+incessant toil on my behalf was "news." It did not matter of what kind,
+every scrap of intelligence was welcome to her, and she refused to tell
+me to what date her "latest advices" extended. During the three days of
+our stay in that clearing among the great pines of the Wanaka Bush,
+I gave my hostess a complete abridgment of the history of
+England--political, social, and moral, beginning from my earliest
+recollections. Then we ran over contemporary foreign affairs, dwelt
+minutely on every scrap of colonial news, and finally wound up with a
+full, true, and particular account of myself and all my relations
+and friends. When I paused for breath she would cease her washing and
+cooking on my behalf, and say entreatingly, "Go on now, do!" until I
+felt quite desperate.
+
+All this time whilst I was being "interviewed" nearly to death,
+F----employed himself in making excursions to different parts of the
+run. One of the sawyers lent him a miserable half-starved little pony;
+and he penetrated to another sawyer's hut, seven miles distant up the
+Matukituki river. But no matter whether he turned his steps to north or
+south, east or west, he met with the same disheartening report. There
+was the ground indeed, but it was perfectly useless. Not only was there
+was _no_ pasturage, but if there had been, the nature of the country
+would have rendered it valueless, on account of the way it was
+overgrown. It would be tedious to explain more minutely why this was
+the case. Sufficient must it be to say that whilst F---- was only too
+anxious to keep his eyes shut as to the ground he had alighted on after
+his leap in the dark, and the sawyers were equally anxious to induce
+settlers to come there, and so bring a market for their labour close to
+their hand nothing could make our purchase appear anything except a dead
+loss. As for the plans, they were purely imaginary. The blue lake was
+about the only part true to nature; and even that should have had a
+foot-note to state that it was generally lashed into high, unnavigable
+waves, by a chronic nor'-wester.
+
+No: there was nothing for it but to go home again to the little run
+which had seemed such a mere paddock in our eyes, whilst we indulged
+in castle-building over 100,000 acres of country. It was of no use
+lingering amid such disappointment and discomfort; besides which my
+listener, the sawyer's wife, had turned her husband and herself out of
+their hut, and were sleeping under a red blanket tent. Poor woman, she
+was most anxious to get away; and the lovely sylvan scene, with the tall
+trees standing like sentinels over their prostrate brethren, the wealth
+of beauteous greenery, springing through fronds of fern and ground
+creepers, the bright-winged flight of paroquets and other bush birds,
+even the vast expanse of the lake which stretched almost from their
+threshold for so many miles, all would have been gladly exchanged for a
+dusty high street in any country town-ship. Her last words were, "Can't
+you send me a paper or hany thing printed, mam?" I faithfully promised
+to do my best, and carried out my share of the bargain by despatching
+to her a large packet of miscellaneous periodicals and newspapers; but
+whether she ever received them is more than I can say.
+
+We were afraid of lingering too long, lest another nor'-wester should
+become due; and we therefore started as soon as F---- had decided that
+it was of no use exploring our wretched purchase any further. We had a
+stiff breeze from the north-west all the way down the lake; but as it
+was right a-stern it helped us along to such good purpose, that one
+day's sailing before it brought us back to Mr. Johnson's homestead
+and comparative civilization. The little parlour and the tiny bed-room
+beyond, into which I could only get access by climbing through a
+window (for the architect had forgotten to put a door), appeared like
+apartments in a spacious palace, so great was the contrast between their
+snug comfort and the desolate misery of our hut life. Of course nothing
+else was talked of except our disappointment at our new run; and
+although Mr. Johnson had indulged in forebodings, which were only too
+literally fulfilled, he had the good taste never to remind us of his
+prophecies.
+
+          "Of all the forms of human woe,
+          Defend me from that dread, 'I told you so.'"
+
+After a day's halt and rest we mounted our much refreshed horses, and
+set our faces straight across country for Dunedin. This is very easy to
+write, but it was not quite so easy to do. We could only ride for the
+first fifty-two miles, which we accomplished in two days. These stages
+brought us to the foot of the Dunstan Range, and near the gold-diggings
+of that name. I would fain have turned aside to see them, but we had not
+time. However, we felt the auriferous influence of the locality; for a
+perfect stranger came up to us, whilst we were baiting at another place,
+called the Kaiwarara diggings, and offered to buy our horses from us for
+30 pounds each, and also to purchase our saddles and bridles at a fair
+price. This was exactly what we wanted, as we had intended to sell them
+at Dunedin; and I was no ways disinclined to part with the Hermit; who
+retained the sulky, misanthropical temper which had earned him his name.
+He was now pronounced "fit to carry a lady," and purchased to be sold
+again at the diggings. Whether there were any ladies there or not I
+cannot tell. Of course, before parting with our nags we ascertained that
+the ubiquitous "Cobb's coach" started from our resting place for Dunedin
+next day, and we made the rest of our journey in one of that well-known
+line. Its leathern springs, whilst not so liable to break by sudden
+jolts, impart a swinging rocking motion to the body of the vehicle,
+which is most disagreeable; but rough and rude as they are, they deserve
+to be looked upon with respect as the pioneers of civilization. All
+over America, Australia, and now New Zealand, the moment half-a-dozen
+passengers are forthcoming, that moment the enterprising firm starts
+a coach, and the vehicle runs until it is ousted by a railway. All
+previous tracks which I had journeyed over seemed smooth turnpike roads,
+compared to that terrible tussocky track which led to Dunedin.
+
+But that bright little town was reached at last, the hotel welcomed us,
+tired and bruised travellers that we were, and next evening we started
+in the _Geelong_ for Port Lyttleton. This little coasting steamer seemed
+to touch at every hamlet along the coast, and after each pause I had
+to begin afresh my agonies of sea-sickness. There was no such thing
+as getting one's sea-legs; for we were seldom more than a few hours
+outside, and had no chance of getting used to the horrible motion.
+Timaru was reached next day, but we had suffered so frightfully during
+the night from a chopping sea and an open roadstead, that we went on
+shore, and entrusted ourselves once more to the old coach. It seemed
+better to endure the miseries we knew of, than to make experiments in
+wretchedness. So we went through the old jolting and jumbling until we
+were dropped at an accommodation house, fifteen miles from Christchurch,
+where we slept that night, and at daylight despatched a messenger to the
+next station for our own horses. He had only thirty-five miles to ride,
+and about mid-day we started to meet him on hired horses, which we were
+very glad to exchange for better nags a stage further on.
+
+And so we rode quietly home in the gloaming, winding up the lovely,
+tranquil valley, at whose head stood our own snug little homestead. At
+first we were so glad to be safely at hone again that we scarcely gave
+a thought to our fruitless enterprise; but as our bruised bodies became
+rested and restored, our hearts began to ache when we thought of the
+money we had so rashly flung away in BUYING A RUN.
+
+
+
+Chapter VIII: Looking for a congregation.
+
+
+It is to be hoped and expected that such a good understanding has been
+established between my readers and myself by this time, that they will
+not find the general title of these papers unsuitable to the heading
+of this particular chapter. Indeed, I may truly say, that, looking back
+upon the many happy memories of my three years life in that lovely
+and beloved Middle Island, no pleasures stand out more vividly than my
+evening rides up winding gullies or across low hill-ranges in search of
+a shepherd's hut, or a _cockatoo's_ nest. A peculiar brightness seems to
+rest on those sun-lit peaks of memory's landscape; and it is but fitting
+that it should be so, for other excursions or expeditions used to
+be undertaken merely for business or pleasure, but these delicious
+wanderings were in search of scattered dwellings whose lonely
+inhabitants--far removed from Church privileges for many a long
+year past--might be bidden, nay, entreated, to come to us on Sunday
+afternoons, and attend the Service we held at home weekly.
+
+And here I feel constrained to say a word to those whose eyes may haply
+rest on my pages, and who may find themselves in the coming years in
+perhaps the same position as I did a short time ago. A new comer to a
+new country is sure to be discouraged if he or she (particularly _she_,
+I fancy) should attempt to revive or introduce any custom which has
+been neglected or overlooked. This is especially the case with religious
+observances. At every turn one is met by disheartening warnings. "Oh,
+the people here are very different to those in the old country; they
+would look upon it as impertinence if you suggested they should come to
+church." "You will find a few may come just at first, and then when
+the novelty wears off and they have seen all the pretty things in your
+drawing room, not a soul will ever come near the place."
+
+"If even the men don't say something very free and easy to you when you
+invite them to your house on Sunday afternoons, you may depend upon
+it that after two or three weeks you will not know how to keep them in
+order."
+
+Such, and many more, were the discouraging remarks made when I consulted
+my neighbours about my plan for collecting the shepherds from the
+surrounding runs, and holding a Church of England Service every Sunday
+afternoon at our own little homestead. To my mind, the distances seemed
+the greatest obstacle, as many of the men I wanted to reach lived
+twenty-five or even thirty miles away, with very rough country between.
+I had no fear of impertinence, for it is unknown to me, and seldom
+comes, I fancy, unprovoked; whilst with regard to the novelty wearing
+off and the men ceasing to attend, that must be left in God's hands. We
+could only endeavour to plant the good seed, and trust to Him to give
+the increase. It was a great comfort to me in those early days that
+F----, who had been many years in the colony, never joined in the
+disheartening prophecies I have alluded to. Although as naturally averse
+to reading aloud before strangers as a man who had lived a solitary life
+would be sure to be, he promised at once, with a good grace, to read
+the Evening Service and a sermon afterwards, and thus smoothed one
+difficulty over directly. His advice to me was precisely what I would
+fain repeat: "Try, by all means: if you fail you will at least feel you
+have made the attempt." May all who try succeed, as we did! I believe
+firmly they will, for it is an undertaking on which God's blessing is
+sure to rest, and there are no such fertilizing dews as those which fall
+from heaven. The mists arising from earth are only miasmic vapours after
+all!
+
+But I fear to linger too long on the end, instead of telling you about
+the means.
+
+It was May when we were fairly settled in our new home at the head of a
+hill-encircled valley. With us that month answers to your November, but
+fogs are unknown in that breezy Middle Island, and my first winter in
+Canterbury was a beautiful season, heralded in by an exquisite autumn.
+How crisp the mornings and evenings were, with ever so light a film
+of hoar frost, making a splendid sparkle on every blade of waving
+tussock-grass! Then in the middle of the day the delicious warmth of the
+sun tempted one to linger all day in the open air, and I never wearied
+of gazing at the strange purple shadows cast by a passing cloud; or up,
+beyond the floating vapourous wreath, to the heaven of brilliant blue
+which smiled upon us. And yet, when I come to think of it, I don't know
+that I had much time to spare for glancing at either hills or skies, for
+we were just settling ourselves in a new place, and no one knows what
+_that_ means unless they have tried it, fifty miles away from the
+nearest shop. The yeast alone was a perpetual anxiety to me,--it would
+not keep beyond a certain time, and had a tendency to explode its
+confining bottles in the middle of the night, so it became necessary to
+make it in smaller quantities every ten days or so. If by any chance
+I forgot to remind my scatter-brained damsels to replenish the yeast
+bottles, they used up the last drop, and then would come smilingly to me
+with the remark, "There aint not a drop o' yeast, about, anywhere, mum."
+This entailed flap-jacks, or scones, or soda bread, or some indigestible
+compound for at least three days, as it was of no use attempting to
+make proper bread until the yeast had worked. Then the well needed to
+be deepened, a kitchen garden had to be made, shelter to be provided
+for the fowls and pigs; a shed to be put up for coals; a thousand things
+which entailed thought and trouble, had to be done.
+
+It is true these rough jobs were not exactly in my line, but indoors I
+was just as busy trying to make big things fit into little spaces and
+_vice versa_. We could not afford to take things coolly and do a little
+every day, for at that time of year an hour's change in the wind might
+have brought a heavy fall of snow, or a sharp frost, or a; deluge of
+rain down upon the uncovered and defenceless heads of our live stock.
+The poor dear sheep, the source of our income, were after all the least
+well-cared for creatures on the Station. A well grassed and watered
+run, with sunny vallies for winter feeding, and green hills for summer
+pasturage, had been provided by antipodean Nature for them, and to
+these advantages we only added some twenty or twenty-five miles of
+wire fencing, and then they were left to themselves, with a couple of
+shepherds to look after fifteen thousand sheep all the year round.
+
+But yet, busy as we were, we found time to look up a congregation. The
+very first Sunday afternoon, whilst we were still in the midst of a
+chaos of chips and big boxes and straw and empty china-barrels, our own
+shepherds came over, by invitation, and the only very near neighbours we
+had--a Scotch head-shepherd and his charming young wife,--and we held a
+Service in the half-furnished drawing room. After it was ended we had a
+long talk with the men, and they confessed that they had enjoyed it
+very much, and would like to come regularly. When questioned as to
+the feasibility of inducing others to join, they said that it might
+be suggested to more than one distant, lonely hill-shepherd, but his
+uncontrollable shyness would probably prevent his attendance.
+
+"Jim Salter, and Joe Bennett, and a lot more on 'em, would be glad enow
+to come, if so be they could feel as how they was truly wellcombe," said
+our shepherd, Pepper, who prided himself on the elegance and correctness
+of his phraseology. He added, after a reflective pause, turning
+bashfully away, "If so be as the lady would just look round and give 'em
+a call, they'd be to be persuaded belike."
+
+So the scheme was Pepper's after all, you see. But this "looking round,"
+to which he alluded so airily, meant scrambling rides, varying from ten
+to twenty-eight miles in length, over break-neck country, and this
+on the slender chance of finding the men in-doors. Now a New Zealand
+shepherd almost lives out on the hills, so the prospect of finding
+any of our congregation at home was slight indeed. However, as I said
+before, F---- stood by me, and although we neither of us could well
+spare the time, we agreed to devote two afternoons every week, so long
+as the fine open autumn weather, lasted, to making excursions in search
+of back-country huts. There are no roads or finger posts or guides of
+any sort in those distant places. When we inquired what was the name of
+"Mills" shepherd (the masters are always plain Smith or Jones, and the
+shepherds Mr.----, in the colonies) the answer was generally very vague.
+"Wiry Bill, we mostly calls 'im; but I think I've heerd say his rightful
+name was Mr. Pellet, mum. He's a little chap, as strong as the 'ouse,"
+explained Pepper, who was an incorrigible cockney, "and he lives over
+there," pointing with his thumb to a mountain range behind us. "He's in
+one of them blind gullies. You go along the gorge of the river till you
+come to a saddle all over fern, and you drop down that, and follow the
+best o' three or four tracts till you come to a swamp."
+
+Here Pepper paused, in consideration of my face of horror; for if there
+was one thing I dreaded more than another in those early days, it was a
+swamp. Steep hill sides, wide creeks, honey-combed flats, all came in,
+the day's ride,--but a swamp! Ugh! the horrible treacherous thing, so
+green and innocent looking, with here and there a quicksand or a peaty
+morass, in which, without a moment's warning, your horse sank up to his
+withers! It was dreadful, and when we came to such a place Helen used to
+stop dead short, prick her pretty ears well forward, and, trembling with
+fear and excitement, put her nose close to the ground, smelling every
+inch, before she would place her fore foot down on it, jumping off it
+like a goat if it proved insecure. Generally she crossed a swamp, by a
+series of bounds in and out of flax bushes; and hopeless indeed would a
+morass be without those green cities of refuge!
+
+Horrible as a large swamp is however to a timid horsewoman, it is dear
+to the heart of a cockatoo. He gladly buys a freehold of fifty acres
+in the midst of one, burns it, makes a sod fence, sown with gorse seed
+a-top, all round his section, drains it in a rough and ready fashion,
+and then the splendid fertile soil which has been waiting for so many
+thousand years, "brings forth fruit abundantly." Such enormous fields of
+wheat and oats and barley as you come upon sometimes,--with, alas, never
+a market near enough to enable the plenteous crop to return sevenfold
+into its master's bosom!
+
+I shall not inflict upon you a description of all our rides in search of
+members for our congregation. Two, in widely differing directions,
+will serve as specimens of such excursions. In consideration of my
+new-chumishness, F---- selected a comparatively easy track for our
+first ride. And yet, "bad was the best," might surely be said of that
+breakneck path. What would an English horse, or an English lady say,
+to riding for miles over a slippery winding ledge on a rocky hill side,
+where a wall of solid mountain rose up perpendicularly on the right
+hand, and on the left a very respectable sized river hurried over its
+boulders far beneath the aerial path; yet this was comparatively a
+safe track, and presented but one serious obstacle, over which I was
+ruthlessly taken. It is perhaps needless to say we were riding in
+single file, and equally unnecessary to state that I was the last; for
+certainly we should never have made much progress otherwise. Helen, my
+bay mare, would follow her stable companion, on which F---- was mounted,
+so that was the way we got on at all.
+
+A sudden sharp turn showed me what appeared to be a low stone wall
+running own the spur of the mountain, right across our track, and I had
+already begun to disquiet myself about the possibility of turning back
+on such a narrow ledge, when I saw F----'s powerful black horse, with
+his ears well forward, and his reins, lying loose on his neck, make a
+sort of rush at the obstacle, climb up it as a cat would, stand for
+an instant, exactly like a performing goat, with all four legs drawn
+closely together under him, and then with a spring disappear on the
+other side. "This wall", I thought, "must be but loosely built, for
+_Leo_ has displaced some of the stones from its coping." Helen, pretty
+dear, hurried after her friend and leader; and before I had time to
+realize what she was going to do, she was balancing herself on the
+crumbling summit of this stone wall (which was only the freak of a
+landslip), and as it proved impossible to remain there, perched like
+a bird on a very insecure branch, nothing remained except to gather
+herself well together and jump off. But what a jump! the ground fell
+sheer away at the foot of the wall, and left a chasm many feet wide,
+which the horse could not see until it had climbed to the top of the
+wall, and as turning back was out of the question, the only alternative
+was to give a vigorous bound on to the narrow ledge beyond. Terrified as
+I felt, I luckily refrained from jerking Helen's head, or attempting to
+guide her in any way. The only chance of safety over New Zealand tracks,
+or New Zealand creeks, is to leave your horse _entirely_ to itself. I
+have seen men who were reckoned good riders in England, get the most
+ignominious tumbles from a disregard of this advice. An up-country horse
+knows perfectly well the only sound spots in a swamp; or the only sound
+part of a creek's banks. If his rider persists in taking him over the
+latter, where he himself thinks it narrowest and safest, he is pretty
+sure to find the earth rotten and crumbling, and to pay for his
+obstinacy by a wetting; whilst in the case of a swamp the consequences
+are even more serious, and the horse often gets badly strained in
+floundering out of a quagmire.
+
+But it was not all danger and difficulty, and the many varieties of
+scene in the course of a long ride constituted some of its chief charms.
+At first, perhaps, after we had left our own fair valley behind, the
+track would wind through the gorge of a river, with lofty mountains
+rising sheer up from the water side. All here was sad and grey, and very
+solemn in its eternal silence, only made more intense by the ceaseless
+monotonous roar of the ever-rushing water. Then we would emerge on acres
+and acres of softly rolling downs, higher than the hillocks we call by
+that name at home, but still marvellously beautiful in their swelling
+curves all folding so softly into each other, and dotted with mobs of
+sheep, making pastoral music to a flock-owner's ear. Over this sort of
+ground we could canter gaily along, with "Hector," F----'s pet colley,
+keeping close to the heels of his master's horse,--for it is the worst
+of bad manners in a colley to look at a neighbour's sheep. The etiquette
+in passing through a strange run is for the dog to go on the off side of
+his master's horse, so that the sheep shall not even see him; and this
+piece of courtly politeness Hector always practised of his own accord.
+
+A wire fence always proved a very tiresome obstacle, for horses have
+a great dread of them, and will not be induced to jump them on any
+account. If we could find out where the gate was, well and good; but as
+it might be half a dozen miles off, on one side or the other, we seldom
+lost time or patience in seeking it. When there was no help for it, and
+such a fence had to be crossed, the proceedings were, always the same.
+F----dismounted, and unfastened one of his stirrup leathers; with this
+he strapped the wires as firmly as possible together, but if the fence
+had been lately fresh-strained, it was sometimes a difficult task.
+Still he generally made one spot lower than the rest, and over this he
+proceeded to adjust his coat very carefully; he then vaulted lightly
+over himself, and calling upon me to aid by sundry flicks on Leo's
+flank, the horse would be induced to jump over it. This was always a
+work of time and trouble, for Leo hated doing it, and would rather have
+leaped the widest winter creek, than jumped the lowest coat-covered wire
+fence. Helen had to jump with me on her back, and without any friendly
+whip to urge her, but except once, when she caught her hind leg in
+the sleeve of the coat which was hanging over the fence, and tore it
+completely out, she got over very well. Upon that occasion F---- had
+to carry his sleeve in his pocket until we reached the neat little
+out-station hut, where Jim Salter lived, and where we were pretty sure
+to find a housewife, for shepherds are as handy as sailors with a needle
+and thread.
+
+I shall always believe that some bird of the air had "carried the
+matter" to Salter, because not only was he at home, and in his Sunday
+clothes, but he had made a cake the evening before, and that was a very
+suspicious circumstance. However we pretended not to imagine that we
+were expected, and Jim pretended with equal success to be much surprised
+at our visit, so both sides were satisfied. Nothing could be neater
+than the inside of the little hut; its cob walls papered with, old
+Illustrated London News,--not only pictures but letter-press,--its tiny
+window as clean as possible, a new sheep-skin rug laid down before the
+open fireplace, where a bright wood fire was sputtering and cracking
+cheerily, and the inevitable kettle suspended from a hook half-way up
+the low chimney. Outside, the dog-kennels had been newly thatched with
+tohi grass, the garden weeded and freshly dug, the chopping-block and
+camp-oven as clean as scrubbing could make them. It was too late in the
+year for fruit, but Salter's currant, raspberry, and gooseberry bushes
+gave us a good idea of how well he must have fared in the summer. The
+fowls were just devouring the last of the green-pea shoots, and the
+potatoes had been blackened by our first frosts.
+
+It was all very nice and trim and comfortable, except the loneliness;
+that must have been simply awful. It is difficult to realise how
+completely cut off from the society of his kind a New Zealand up-country
+shepherd is, especially at an out-station like this. Once in every three
+months he goes down to the homestead, borrows the pack horse, and leads
+it up to his hut, with a quarter's rations of flour, tea, sugar and
+salt; of course he provides himself with mutton and firewood, and his
+simple wants are thus supplied. After shearing, about January, his wages
+are paid, varying from 75 pounds to 100 pounds a year, according to
+the locality, and then he gets a week's leave to go down to the nearest
+town. If he be a prudent steady man, as our friend Salter was, he puts
+his money in the bank, or lends it out on a freehold mortgage at ten
+per cent., only deducting a few pounds from his capital for a suit of
+clothes, a couple of pair of Cookham boots for hill walking, and above
+all, some new books.
+
+Without any exception, the shepherds I came across in New Zealand were
+all passionately fond of reading; and they were also well-informed
+men, who often expressed themselves in excellent, through superfine,
+language. Their libraries chiefly consisted of yellow-covered novels,
+and out of my visits in search of a congregation grew a scheme for a
+book-club to supply something better in the way of literature, which was
+afterwards most successfully carried out. But of this I need not speak
+here, for we are still seated inside Salter's hut,--so small in its
+dimensions that it could hardly have held another guest. Womanlike,
+my eyes were everywhere, and I presently spied out an empty bottle,
+labelled "Worcestershire Sauce."
+
+"Dear me, Salter," I cried, "I had no idea you were so grand as to
+have sauces up here: why we hardly ever use them." "Well, mum," replied
+Salter, bashfully, and stroking his long black beard to gain time
+to select the grandest words he could think of, "it is hardly to be
+regarded in the light of happetite, that there bottle, it is more in
+the nature of remedies." Then, seeing that I still looked mystified, he
+added, "You see, mum, although we gets our 'elth uncommon well in these
+salubrious mountings, still a drop of physic is often handy-like, and
+in a general way I always purchase myself a box of Holloway's Pills
+(of which you do get such a lot for your money), and also a bottle of
+pain-killer; but last shearing they was out o' pain-killer, they said,
+so they put me up a bottle o' Cain pepper, and likewise that 'ere
+condiment, which was werry efficacious, 'specially towards the end o'
+the bottle!" "And do you really mean to say you drank it, Salter?" I
+inquired with horror.
+
+"Certainly I do, mum, whenever I felt out o' sorts. It always took my
+mind off the loneliness, and cheered me up wonderful, especial if I
+hadded a little red pepper to it," said Salter, getting up from his log
+of wood and making me a low bow. All this time F---- and I were seated
+amicably side by side on poor Salter's red blanket-covered "bunk," or
+wooden bedstead, made of empty flour-sacks nailed between rough poles,
+and other sacks filled with tussock grass for a mattress and pillow.
+
+The word loneliness gave me a good opening to broach the subject of our
+Sunday gatherings, and my suspicions of Jim's having been told of our
+visit were confirmed by the alacrity with which he said, "I have much
+pleasure in accepting your kind invitation, mum, if so be as I am not
+intruding."
+
+"No, indeed Salter," F---- said; "you'd be very welcome, and you could
+always turn Judy into the paddock whilst we were having service."
+
+Now if there was one thing dearer to Salter's heart than another, it was
+his little roan mare Judy: her excellent condition, and jaunty little
+hog-mane and tail, testified to her master's loving care. So it was all
+happily settled, and after paying a most unfashionably long visit to the
+lonely man, we rode away with many a farewell nod and smile. I may say
+here that Salter was one of the most regular of our congregation for
+more than two years, besides being a member of the book club. In time,
+its more sensible volumes utterly displaced the yellow paper rubbish in
+his but library, and I never can forget the poor man's emotion when he
+came to bid me good-bye.
+
+At my request he made the rough little pen and ink sketches which are
+here given, and as he held my offered hand (not knowing quite what else
+to do with it) when I took leave of him after our last home-service,
+when my face was set towards England, he could not say a word. The great
+burly creature's heart must have been nearly as big as his body, and he
+seemed hardly to know that large tears were rolling down his sunburnt
+face and losing themselves in his bushy beard. I tried to be cheerful
+myself, but he kept repeating, "It is only natural you should be glad
+to go, yet it is very rough upon us." In vain I assured him I was not
+at all glad to go,--very, very sorry, in fact: all he would say was, "To
+England, home and beauty, in course any one would be pleased to
+return." I can't tell you what he meant, and he had no voice to waste on
+explanations; I only give poor dear Jim's valedictory sentences as they
+fell from his white and trembling lips.
+
+Very different was Ned Palmer, the most diminutive and wiry of hill
+shepherds, with a tongue which seemed never tired, and a good humoured
+smile for every one. Ned used to try my gravity sorely by stepping up to
+me half a dozen times during the service, to find his place for him in
+his Prayer-book, and always saying aloud, "Thank you kindly, m'm."
+
+
+
+Chapter IX: Another shepherd's hut.
+
+
+To get to Ned's hut--which was not nearly so trim or comfortable as
+Salter's, and stood out in the midst of a vast plain covered with waving
+yellow tussocks,--we had to cross a low range of hills, and pick our
+way through nearly a mile of swampy ground on the other side. The
+sure-footed horses zig-zagged their way up the steep hill-side with
+astonishing ease, availing themselves here and there of a sheep track,
+for sheep are the best engineers in the world, and always hit off the
+safest and easiest line of country. I did not feel nervous going _up_
+the hill, although we must have appeared, had there been any one to look
+at us, more like flies on a wall than a couple of people on horse back,
+but when we came to the ridge and looked down on the descent beneath us,
+my heart fairly gave way.
+
+Not a blade of grass, or a leaf of a shrub, was to be seen on all the
+steep slope, or rather precipice, for there was very little slope about
+it; nothing but grey loose shingle, which the first hoof-fall of
+the leading horse invariably sent slipping and sliding, in a perfect
+avalanche of rubble, down into the soft bright green morass beneath.
+Of all the bad "tracks" I encountered in my primitive rides, I really
+believe I suffered more real terror and anguish on that particular
+hill-side than on any other. My companion's conduct too, used to be
+heartless in the extreme. He let the reins fall loosely on his horse's
+neck, merely holding their extreme ends, settled himself comfortably
+in his saddle, leaning well back, and turning round laughingly to
+me, observed, "Aren't you coming?" "Oh, not there," I cried in true
+melo-dramatic tones of horror; but it was all in vain, F---- merely
+remarked "You have nothing to do but fancy you are sitting in an
+arm-chair at home, you are quite as safe." "What nonsense," I gasped. "I
+only wish I _was_ at home: never, never will I come out riding again."
+All this time the leading horse was slowly and carefully edging himself
+down hill a few steps to the right, then a few to the left, just as he
+thought best, displacing tons of loose stone and even small rocks
+at every movement. Helen, nothing daunted, was eager to follow, and
+although she quivered with excitement at the noise, echoed back from the
+opposite hills, lost no time in preparing to descend. Her first movement
+sent such showers of rubble down upon F---- and his horse, that I really
+thought the latter would have been knocked off his legs. "If you _could_
+keep a little more to the right, so as to send the stones clear of me,
+I should be very grateful," shouted F----, who was actually near the
+bottom of the hill already, so sharp had been the angles of his horse's
+descent. I felt afraid of attempting to guide Helen, lest the least
+check should send us both head over heels into the quagmire below, and
+yet it seemed dreadful to cause the death of one's husband by rolling
+down cart loads of stones upon him. It could not have been more than
+five minutes before Helen and I stood side by side with Leo, on the only
+bit of firm ground at the edge of the morass. I believe I was as white
+as my pocket handkerchief; and if fright could turn a person's hair
+grey, I had been sufficiently alarmed to make myself eligible for any
+quantity of walnut pomade.
+
+Fortunately the summer had proved rather a dry one, and the swamp was
+not so wet as it would have been after a heavy rain-fall. The horses
+stepped carefully from flax bushes to "nigger heads" (as the very old
+blackened grass stumps are called), resting hardly a moment anywhere,
+and avoiding all the most seductive looking spots. I thought my
+companion must have gone suddenly mad, when, a hawk rising up almost
+from beneath our horses' feet, he flung himself off his saddle and cried
+out, "A late hawk's nest, I declare!" And so it proved, for a little
+searching in a sheltered and tolerably dry spot revealed a couple of
+eggs, precisely like hens' eggs, until broken, when their delicate pale
+green inner membrane betrayed their dangerous origin. It is chiefly
+owing to this practice of laying in swamps that the various kinds of
+hawk increase and thrive as they do, for if it were possible to get
+at them, the shepherds would soon exterminate the sworn foe of
+their chickens and pigeons. They are also the great drawback to the
+introduction of pheasants and partridges, for the young birds have not a
+chance in the open against even a sparrow-hawk.
+
+Although it is a digression, I must tell you here how, one beautiful
+early winter's day, I was standing in the verandah at my own home, when
+one of our pigeons, chased by a hawk, flew right into my face and its
+pursuer was so close and so heated by the chase, that it flung itself
+also with great violence against my head, with a scream of rage and
+triumph, hurting me a good deal as it dug its cruel, armed heel into my
+cheek. The pigeon had fluttered, stunned and exhausted to the ground,
+and, quick as lightning I stooped to pick it up; so great had been
+the impetus of the hawk's final charge that he had never perceived his
+victim had escaped him. The cunning of these birds must be seen to be
+believed. I have often watched a wary old hawk perched most impudently
+on the stock-yard rails, waiting until a rash chicken or duckling
+should, in spite of its mother's warning clucks of terror, insist on
+coming out from under her sheltering wings. If I took an umbrella, or a
+croquet mallet, or a walking stick, and went out, the bird would remain
+quite unmoved, even if I held my weapon pointed gun-wise towards him.
+But let anyone take a real gun and hold it ever so well hidden behind
+their back, and emerge ever so cautiously from the shelter of the
+shrubs, my fine gentleman was off directly, mounting out of sight with a
+few strokes of his powerful wings, and uttering a shriek of derision as
+he departed. Nothing is so rare as a successful shot at a hawk.
+
+We consoled ourselves however on this occasion, by reflecting that we
+had annihilated two young hawks before they had commenced their lives
+of rapine and robbery, and rode on our way rejoicing, to find Ned Palmer
+sitting outside his but door on a log of drift wood, making, candles. In
+the more primitive days of the settlement, the early settlers must have
+been as badly off for light, during the long dark winter evenings, as
+are even now the poorer inhabitants of Greenland or of Iceland, for
+their sole substitute for candles consisted of a pannikin half filled
+with melted tallow, in which a piece of cork and an apology for a wick
+floated. But by my time all this had long been past and over, and even
+a back-country shepherd had a nice tin mould in which he could make a
+dozen candles of the purest tallow at a time.
+
+Ned was just running a slender piece of wood through the loops of his
+twisted cotton wicks, so as to keep them above the rim of the mould, and
+the strong odour of melted mutton fat was tainting the lovely fresh air.
+But New Zealand run-holders have often to put up with queer smells as
+well as sights and sounds, therefore we only complimented Ned on being
+provident enough to make a good stock of candles before-hand, for home
+consumption, during the coming dark days. After we had dismounted and
+hobbled our horses with the stirrup leathers, so that they could move
+about and nibble the sweet blue grass growing under each sheltering
+tussock, I sat down on a large stone near, and began to tell Ned how
+often I had watched the negroes in Jamaica making candles after a
+similar fashion, only they use the wax from the wild bee nests instead
+of tallow, which was a rare and scarce thing in that part of the world.
+I described to him the thick orange-coloured wax candles which used to
+be the delight of my childhood, giving out a peculiar perfuming odour
+after they had been burning for an hour or two,--an odour made up of
+honey and the scent of heavy tropic flowers.
+
+Ned listened to my little story with much politeness, and then, feeling
+it incumbent on him to contribute to the conversation, remarked, "I
+never makes candles ma'am without I thinks of frost-bites."
+
+"How is that, Palmer?" I asked, laughingly. "What in the world have they
+to do with each other?"
+
+"Well, ma'am, you see it was just in this way. It was afore I come
+here, which is quite a lively, sociable place compared to Dodson's back
+country out-station, at the foot o' those there ranges beyond. I give
+you my word, ma'am, it used always to make me feel as if I was dead,
+and living in a lonely eternity. Them clear, bright-blue _glassers_
+(glaciers, he meant, I presume) was awful lonesome, and as for a human
+being they never come a-nigh the place. Well as I was saying, ma'am, one
+day I finds I had run out o' candles, and as the long dark evenings (for
+it was the height o' winter) was bad enough, even with a dip burning, to
+show me old Spot's face for company, I set to work, hot haste, to make
+some more. It was bitter, biting cold, you bet, ma'am; and I was hard at
+work--just after I had had my bit o' breakfast, before I went out for to
+look round my boundary--melting and making my dips, so that they might
+be fine and hard for night. I ought praps to mention that Spot used to
+get so close to the fire-place, that as often as not, I dropped a mossel
+of the hot grease on the dog; and if it touched a thin place in his
+coat, he would jump up howling. Well, ma'am, I was pouring a pannikin
+full o' biling tallow into the mould, when poor old Spot he gives a
+sudden howl and yell, and runs to the door. I paid no attention to him
+at the time, for I was so busy; but he went on leaping up and howling as
+if he had gone mad. As soon as I could put down the pannikin out o'
+my hand, I went to the door meaning to open it and,--sorry am I to say
+it,--kick the poor beast out for making such a row about a drop o' hot
+grease. But the dog turned his face round on me, and gave me a look
+as much as to say, 'Make haste, do; there's a good chap: I ought to
+be outside there.' And what with the sense shinin' in his eyes, and
+a curious kind o' sound outside, I takes down the bar (for the door
+wouldn't stay shut otherwise), and looks out. Never until my dyin' day,
+and not even then, I expect, shall I forget what the dog and I saw lying
+on the ground, which was all white and hard with frost, the sun not
+having got over the East range yet. The dog he had more sense and a deal
+more pluck than I had, for he knows there aint a moment to be lost; and
+he runs up to the flat, tumbled-down heap o' clothes, gets on its back
+(for no face could I see), so as to be doing something, and not losing
+time, and begins licking. Not very far off there was a lean horse
+standing, but he didn't seem to like to come through the slip-rail o'
+the paddock fence.
+
+"In coorse I couldn't stand gaping there all day, so I went and stooped
+down to the man, who was lying flat on his face, with his arms straight
+out. He wasn't sensibleless (Palmer's favourite word for senseless), for
+he opened his eyes, and said, "For God's sake, mate, take me in." "So
+I will, mate," I makes reply "and welcome you are. Can you get on your
+legs, think you?" With that he groans awful, and says, "My legs is
+friz." Well, I looks at his legs, and sees he was dressed in what had
+been good moleskins, and high jack riding-boots, coming up to his knees;
+but sure enough they was as hard as a board, and actially, if you'll
+believe me, ma'am, there was a rim o' solid hice round the tops of his
+boots. As for standing, he couldn't do it: his legs was no more use to
+him than they was to me, and he was a tall, high fellow besides. Cold as
+it was, I felt hot enough by the time I had lugged that poor man inside
+my place, and got him up on my bunk. He could speak, though his voice
+was weak as weak could be, and he helped me as well as he could by
+catching hold with his arms, but his legs was stone dead. I had to get
+the tommy (_anglice_-tomahawk), and _chop_ his boots off, and that's the
+gospel truth, ma'am. I broke my knife, first try, and the axe was too
+big. He told me, poor fellow, that two days before, as he was returning
+from prospecting up towards the back ranges, his horse got away, and he
+_couldn't_ catch him. No: he tried with all his might and main, for in
+his swag, which was strapped to the D's of his saddle, was not only his
+blanket, but his baccy, and tea, and damper, and a glass o' grog. The
+curious thing, too, was that the horse didn't bolt right away, as they
+generally do: he jest walked a-head, knowing his master was bound to
+follow wherever he led, for in coorse he had hopes to catch him every
+moment. That ere brute, he never laid down nor rested,--jest kep slowly
+moving on, as if he was a Lunnon street-boy, with a bobby at his heels.
+Through creeks and rivers and swamps he led that poor fellow. His boots
+got chuck full o' cold water, and when the sun went down it friz into
+solid hice; and that misfortnit man he felt his legs--which was
+his life, you see, ma'am--gradially dyin' under him. Yet he was a
+well-plucked one, if ever there was such a party on this airth. He told
+me he had took _five_ mortial hours to come the last mile, the horse
+walkin' slowly afore him, and guiding him like. And how do you think he
+did it, with two pillars of hice for legs? Why he lifted up just one leg
+and then the other with both his hands, and put them afore him, and took
+his steps that way."
+
+Here honest Ned, his eyes glistening, and his ugly little face glowing
+with emotion through its coating of sunburn, paused, as if he did not
+like to go on.
+
+I was more touched and interested than I could avoid showing, and
+cried, "Oh, _do_ tell me, Palmer, what became of the poor fellow! Did he
+die?"
+
+Ned cleared his throat, and moved so as to get between me and the light
+from the door, as he said huskily, "He came very nigh to it, ma'am. I
+never did set eyes on such a decent patient chap as that man was. I did
+the very wust thing I could a' done, the town doctors told me, for I
+brought him into the hut, instead o' keeping him outdoors and rubbing
+his poor black legs with snow. 'Stead o' that, I wrapped him up warm in
+my own blankets, after I had chipped his boots and the hice off of 'em,
+and I made up a roarin' fire. Good Lord, how the poor fellow groaned
+when he begun to get warm! I gave him a pannikin full o' hot tea, with
+a drop o' grog in it, and that seemed to make him awful bad. At last he
+said, with the sweat from sheer agony pouring down his face, "Look here,
+matey: couldn't you hump me out in the snow again? for it aint nigh so
+bad to bear it cold as it is to bear it hot." Not a bad word did he say,
+ma'am, and he tried not to give in more nor he could help; but he was
+clean druv wild with the hanguish in his legs.
+
+"Presently I remembers, quite sudden like, that a bush doctor, name of
+Tomkins, was likely to be round by Simmons, cos' o' his missus. So I got
+on my 'oss in a minnit, and I rides off and fetches him, for sure
+enough he was there; and though Simmons' missis wasn't to say over her
+troubles, she spoke up from behind the curtain of red blanket she had
+put up in her tidy little hut, and bade old Tomkins go with me. May God
+bless her and hers for that same, say I! Well, ma'am, when Tomkins come
+back with me and saw the poor fellow (he was fair shoutin' with the pain
+in his legs by then), he said nothin' could be done. "They'll mortify
+by morrow mornin'," says he, "and then he'll die easy." So with that he
+goes back with the first light next day, to Simmons. Sure enough, the
+poor fellow did get a bit easier next day, and I felt clear mad to
+think he was goin' to die before my very eyes. "Not if I can help it!" I
+cries, quite savage like. But he only smiled a patient smile, and said,
+"God's will be done, mate. He knows best, and I aint in any pain to
+speak of, now."
+
+"By and bye I hears a rumbling and a creaking, and cracking of whips;
+and when I looks out, what do I see but the bullock-dray from Simmons'
+coming up the flat. It was the only thing on wheels within forty mile,
+and Simmons had brought it his own self to see if we couldn't manage to
+get the poor fellow down to the nighest town. I won't make my yarn no
+longer than I can help, ma'am, so I'll only mention that we made a lot
+o' the strongest mutton broth you ever tasted; we slung a hammock of red
+blankets in the dray, and we got the poor fellow down by evening to a
+gentleman's station. There they made us kindly welcome, did all they
+could for him, and transhipped the hammock into a pair-horse dray, which
+went quicker and was easier. We got on as fast as we could every step of
+the way, and by midnight that poor fellow was tucked into a clean bed
+in the hospital at Christchurch, with both his legs neatly cut off just
+above the knee, for there wasn't a minute to lose."
+
+I was almost afraid to inquire how the sufferer fared, for Ned's eyes
+were fairly swimming with unshed tears; but he smiled brightly,
+and said, "The ladies and gentlemen in the town, they set up a
+_subscribetion_, and bought the poor chap a first-rate pair o' wooden
+legs, and he could even manage to ride about after a bit; and instead
+o' wandering about looking for country, or gold, or what not, he settled
+down as a carrier, and throve and did well. And I was thinking, ma'am,
+as how I'd like to return thanks for that poor fellow's wonderful
+recovery, for I've never had a chance of going to Church since, and its
+nigh upon two years ago that it happened."
+
+"So you shall, Ned: so you shall!" we said with one voice. And so at our
+first Church gathering at our dear little antipodean home, F----, who
+acted as our minister, paused in the beautiful Thanksgiving Service,
+after he had read solemnly and slowly the simple words, "Especially for
+Thy late mercies vouchsafed to ----," and Ned Palmer chimed in with an
+"Amen,"--misplaced, indeed, but none the less hearty, and delightful to
+hear.
+
+
+
+Chapter X: Swaggers.
+
+
+Dr. Johnson did not know the somewhat vulgar word which heads this
+paper. At least he did not know it as a noun, but gives "swagger: v.n.,
+to bluster, bully, brag;" but the Slang Dictionary admits it as a word,
+springing indeed from the thieves' vocabulary: "one who carries a swag."
+Neither of these books however give the least idea of the true meaning
+of the expression, which is as fully recognised as an honest word in
+both Australia and New Zealand as any other combination of letters
+in the English language. A swagger is the very antithesis then of a
+swaggerer, for, whereas, the one is full of pretension and abounds
+in unjust claims on our notice, the swagger is humility and civility
+itself. He knows, poor weary tramp, that on the favourable impression he
+makes upon the "boss," depends his night's lodging and food, as well as
+a job of work in the future. We will leave then the ideal swaggerer to
+some other biographer who may draw glowing word-pictures of him in all
+his jay's splendour, and we will confine ourselves to describing the
+real swagger, clad in flannel shirt, moleskin trowsers, and what were
+once thick boots, but might now be used as sieves.
+
+Nothing astonished me so much in my New Zealand Station Life as these
+visitors. Even Sir Roger de Coverley himself would have looked with
+distrust upon most of our swagger-guests, and yet I never heard of an
+instance in our part of the country where the unhesitating, ungrudging
+hospitality extended by the rich squatters to their poorer compatriots
+was ever abused. I say "in our part," because unfortunately, wherever
+gold is discovered, either in quartz or riverbed, the good old primitive
+customs and ways die out of themselves in a few weeks, and each
+mammon-seeker looks with distrust on a stranger. Only fifty or sixty
+miles from us, as the crow might fly across the snowy range, where an
+immense Bush clothes the banks of the Hokitika river right down to its
+sand-filled mouth on the West Coast, the great gold diggings broke
+out seven or eight years ago, and changed the face of society in that
+district in a few days. _There_ a swagger meant a man who might rob or
+murder you in your sleep after you had fed and lodged him; or--under
+the most favourable circumstances supposing him to be a "milder mannered
+man,"--a "fossicker," who would not hesitate to "jump your claim," or
+hang about when you are prospecting, to watch how much of the colour you
+found, and then go off stealthily to return next day at the head of a
+"rush" of a thousand diggers.
+
+Even before the famous Maungatapu murders in 1866, swaggers were looked
+upon with distrust on the West Coast, and after that date hardly any
+one travelled in those parts without carrying a small revolver in
+his breast-pocket. Nothing is more tantalising than an allusion to a
+circumstance which is not well-known; and as I feel certain that very
+few of my readers have ever heard of what may be called the first great
+crime committed in the Middle Island, a brief account of that terrible
+tragedy may not be out of place. Gold of course was at the bottom of it,
+but the canvas-bags full of the glittering flakes were red with blood by
+the time they reached the bank at Nelson. The diggings on the West Coast
+were only two years old at that date, and although it was not uncommon
+for prospecting parties cutting their way, axe in hand, through the
+thick bush, to come upon skeletons of men in lonely places, still
+it might be taken for granted that these were the remains of early
+explorers or travellers who had got lost and starved to death within
+the green tangled walls of this impenetrable forest. The scenery of that
+part of the Middle Island is far more beautiful than in the agricultural
+or pastoral districts. Giant Alps clothed half up their steep sides
+with evergreen pines,--whose dark forms end abruptly where snow and ice
+begin,--stand out against a pure sky of more than Italian blue, and only
+when a cleared saddle is reached can the traveller look down over the
+wooded hills and vallies rolling away inland before him, or turn his
+eyes sea-ward to the bold coast with its many rivers, whose wide mouths
+foam right out to where the great Pacific waves are heaving under the
+bright winter sun.
+
+Such, and yet still more fair must have been the prospect on which
+Burgess, Kelly, Levy, and Sullivan's eyes rested one June morning in the
+mid-winter of 1866. They were, one and all, originally London thieves,
+and had been transported years before to the early penal settlements of
+Australia. From thence they had managed, by fair means and foul, to work
+their way to other places, and had latterly been living in the Middle
+Island, earning what they could by horse-breaking and divers odd jobs.
+But your true convict hates work with a curiously deadly hatred, and
+these four men agreed to go and look round them at the new West Coast
+diggings. They found, however, that there, as elsewhere, it would be
+necessary to work hard, so in disgust at seeing the nuggets and dust
+which rewarded the toil of more industrious men, they left Hokitika and
+reached Nelson on their way to Picton, the chief town of the adjoining
+province of Marlborough. Most of the gold found its way under a strongly
+armed escort to the banks in both these towns, but it was well-known
+that fortunate diggers occasionally travelled together, unarmed,
+and laden with "dust." So safe had been the roads hitherto, that the
+commonest precautions were not taken, nor the least secrecy observed
+about travellers' movements.
+
+It was therefore no mystery that four unarmed diggers, carrying a
+considerable number of ounces of gold-dust with them, were going to
+start from the Canvas-town diggings for Nelson on a certain day, and
+the men I have mentioned set out to meet them. One part of their long
+journey led them over the Maungatapu range by a saddle, which in its
+lowest part is 2,700 feet above the sea-level. The night before the
+murder, the victims and their assassins camped out with only ten miles
+between them. So lonely and deserted was the rough mountain track, that
+the appearance of a poor old man named Battle alarmed Burgess and his
+gang dreadfully, and they immediately murdered him, in order that he
+should not report having passed them on the road. Between the commission
+of this act of precaution and the arrival of the little band of
+travellers, no one else was seen. Burgess appears to have shown some of
+the qualities of a good general; for he selected a spot where the only
+path wound along a steep side-cutting, less than six feet wide, with an
+unbroken forest on the upper, and a mass of tangled bush on the lower
+side. As the doomed men approached the murderers sprang out, and each
+thrusting a revolver close to their faces, called on them "to hold
+up their hands." This is an old bushranger challenge, and is meant to
+ensure perfect quiescence on the part of the victim. The travellers
+mechanically complied, and in this way were instantly separated, led to
+different spots, and ruthlessly shot dead.
+
+It was all over in a moment: Burgess and his men flung the bodies down
+among the tangled bush, and returned to Nelson rejoicing exceedingly
+over the simple and easy means by which they had possessed themselves
+of several hundred pounds. Of course they calculated on the usual
+supine indifference to other people's affairs, which prevails in busy
+gold-seeking communities; but in this instance the public seemed to be
+suddenly seized by a violent and inconvenient curiosity to find out
+what had become of the four men who were known to have started from
+Canvas-town two or three days before. No one ever dreamed of a murder
+having been committed, not even when another "swagger" reached Nelson
+and stated that he had followed the diggers on the road, only a mile or
+so behind, had suddenly lost sight of them at the spot I have mentioned,
+and had never been able to overtake them. Instead of leaving the
+now excited little town, or keeping quiet, Burgess, Kelly, Levy, and
+Sullivan, may truly be said to have become "swaggerers;" for they
+loitered about the place, ostentatiously displaying their bags of gold
+dust. Unsuspicious as the Nelson people were, they acted upon a sort of
+instinct,--that instinct within us which answers so mysteriously to the
+cry of blood from the earth,--and arrested these four men. Still, the
+matter might have ended there for lack of a clue, if one of the party,
+Sullivan, had not suddenly turned informer, and led the horrified
+town's-people to the jungle which concealed the bodies. Here my dreadful
+story may end; for we need not follow the course of the trial, which
+resulted in the complete conviction of the three other men. I have only
+dwelt on so horrible a theme in order to make my readers understand how
+natural it was that I should feel nervous, when it became apparent to
+my understanding that the custom of the country demanded that you
+should ask no questions, but simply tell any travellers who claimed your
+hospitality where they were to sleep, and send them in large supplies of
+mutton, flour, and tea.
+
+On one occasion it chanced that F----, our stalwart cadet Mr. A----,
+and the man who did odd jobs about the place, were all on the point of
+setting out upon some expedition, when a party of four swaggers made
+their appearance just at sundown. No true swagger ever appears earlier,
+lest he might be politely requested to "move on" to the next station;
+whereas if he times his arrival exactly when "the shades of night
+are falling fast," no boss could be hard-hearted enough to point to
+mist-covered hills and valleys, which are a net-work of deep creeks and
+swamps, and desire the wayfarer to go on further. Once, and only once,
+did I know of such a thing being done; but I will not say more about
+that unfortunate at this moment, for I want to claim the pity of all my
+lady readers for the very unprotected position I am trying to depict.
+F---- could not understand my nervousness, and did not reassure me by
+saying, as he mounted his horse, "I've told them to sleep in the stable.
+I am pretty sure they are run-away sailors, they seem so footsore.
+Good-bye! don't expect me until you see me!"
+
+Now I was a very new chum in those days, and had just heard of the
+Maungatapu murders. These guests of mine looked most disreputable, and
+were all powerful young men. I do not believe there was a single lock
+or bolt or bar on any door in the whole of the little wooden house: the
+large plate-chest stood outside in the verandah, and my dressing-case
+could have been carried off through the ever-open bedroom window by
+an enterprising thief of ten years old. As for my two maids,--the
+only human beings within reach,--they were as perfectly useless on any
+emergency as if they had been wax dolls. One of them had the habit of
+fainting if anything happened, and the other used to tend her until she
+revived, when they both sat still and shrieked. Their nerves had once
+been tested by a carpenter, who was employed about the house, and cut
+his hand badly; on another occasion by the kitchen chimney which took
+fire; and that was the way they behaved each time. So it was useless to
+look upon their presence as any safeguard; indeed one of them speedily
+detected a fancied likeness to Burgess in one of the poor swaggers, and
+shrieked every time she saw him.
+
+We were indeed three "lone, 'lorn women," all through that weary night.
+I could not close my eyes; but laid awake listening to the weka's shrill
+call, or the melancholy cry of the bitterns down in the swamp. With the
+morning light came hope and courage; and I must say I felt ashamed of
+my suspicions when my cook came to announce that the "swaggers was just
+agoin' off, and wishful to say good-bye. They've been and washed up the
+tin plates and pannikins and spoons as clean as clean can be; and the
+one I thought favoured Burgess so much, mum, he's been and draw'd water
+from the well, all that we shall want to-day; and they're very civil,
+well-spoken chaps, if you please, mum!" F---- was right in his surmise,
+I fancy; for there were plenty of tattooed pictures of anchors and
+ships on the brawny bare arms of my departing guests. They seemed much
+disappointed to find there was no work to be had on our station; but
+departed, with many thanks and blessings, "over the hills and far away."
+
+Latterly, with increasing civilization and corresponding social economy,
+there have been many attempts made by new-fangled managers of runs, more
+than by the run-holders themselves, to induce these swaggers to work for
+their tucker,--to use pure colonial phraseology. Several devices have
+been tried, such as taking away their swags (_i.e._, their red blankets
+rolled tightly into a sort of pack, which they carry on their backs, and
+derive their name from), and locking them up until they had chopped a
+small quantity of wood, or performed some other trifling domestic duty.
+But the swagger will be led, though not driven, and what he often did of
+his own accord for the sake of a nod or a smile of thanks from my pretty
+maid-servants, he would not do for the hardest words which ever came out
+of a boss's mouth. There are also strict rules of honesty observed among
+these men, and if one swagger were to purloin the smallest article from
+a station which had fed and sheltered him, every other swagger in all
+the country side would immediately become an amateur detective to make
+the thief give up his spoil. A pair of old boots was once missing from
+a neighbouring station, and suspicion fell upon a swagger. Justice was
+perhaps somewhat tardy in this instance, as it rested entirely in the
+hands of every tramp who passed that way; but at the end of some
+months the boots were found at home, and the innocence of the swaggers,
+individually and collectively, triumphantly established.
+
+The only instance of harshness to a swagger which came under my notice
+during three years residence in New Zealand, is the one I have alluded
+to above, and contains so much dramatic interest in its details, that it
+may not be out of place here.
+
+Although I have naturally dwelt in these papers more upon our bright
+sunny weather, our clear, bracing winter days, and our balmy spring and
+autumn evenings, let no intending traveller think that he will not meet
+with bad weather at the Antipodes! I can only repeat what I have said
+with pen and voice a hundred times before. New Zealand possesses a very
+capricious and disagreeable climate: disagreeable from its constant
+high winds: but it is perhaps the most singularly and remarkably healthy
+place in the world. This must surely arise from the very gales which I
+found so trying to my temper, for damp is a word without meaning; as for
+mildew or miasma, the generation who are growing up there will not
+know the meaning of the words; and in spite of a warm, bright day often
+turning at five minutes warning into a snowy or wet afternoon, colds and
+coughs are almost unknown. People who go out there with delicate lungs
+recover in the most surprising manner; surprising, because one expects
+the sudden changes of temperature, the unavoidable exposure to rain and
+even snow, to kill instead of curing invalids. But the practice is very
+unlike the theory in this case, and people thrive where they ought to
+die.
+
+During my first winter in Canterbury we had only one week of _really_
+bad weather, but I felt at that time as if I had never realized before
+what bad weather meant. A true "sou'-wester" was blowing from the
+first to the second Monday in that July, without one moment's lull. The
+bitter, furious blast swept down the mountain gorges, driving sheets of
+blinding rain in a dense wall before it. Now and then the rain turned
+into large snow-flakes, or the wind rose into such a hurricane that the
+falling water appeared to be flashing over the drenched earth without
+actually touching it. Indoors we could hardly hear ourselves speak for
+the noise of the wind and rain against the shingle roof. It became a
+service of danger, almost resembling a forlorn hope, to go out and drag
+in logs of wet wood, or draw water from the well,--for, alas, there were
+no convenient taps or snug coal-holes in our newly-erected little wooden
+house. We husbanded every scrap of mutton, in very different fashion to
+our usual reckless consumption, the consumption of a household which
+has no butcher's bill to pay; for we knew not when the shepherd might be
+able to fight his way through the storm, with half a sheep packed before
+him, on sturdy little "Judy's" back. The creeks rose and poured over
+their banks in angry yellow floods. Every morning casualties in the
+poultry yard had to be reported, and that week cost me almost as many
+fowls and ducks as my great christening party did. The first thing every
+morning when I opened my eyes I used to jump up and look out of the
+different windows with eager curiosity, to see if there were any signs
+of a break in the weather, for I was quite unaccustomed to be pent up
+like a besieged prisoner for so many succeeding days. We did not boast
+of shutters in those regions, and even blinds were a luxury which were
+not wasted in the little hall. Consequently, when my unsatisfactory
+wanderings about the silent house--for no one else was up--led me that
+dreadful stormy morning into the narrow passage called the back-hall,
+I easily saw through its glass-door what seemed to me one of the most
+pathetic sights my eyes had ever rested upon.
+
+Just outside the verandah, which is the invariable addition to
+New Zealand houses, stood, bareheaded, a tall, gaunt figure, whose
+rain-sodden garments clung closely to its tottering limbs. A more dismal
+morning could not well be imagined: the early dawn struggling to make
+itself apparent through a downpour of sleet and rain, the howling wind
+(which one could almost see as it drove the vapour wall before it), and
+the profound solitude and silence of all except the raging storm.
+
+At first I thought I must be dreaming, so silent and hopeless stood
+that weird figure. My next impulse, without staying to consider my
+dishevelled hair and loose wrapper, was to open the door and beckon the
+poor man within the shelter of the verandah. When once I had got him
+there I did not exactly know what to do with my guest, for neither fire
+nor food could be procured quite so early. He crouched like a stray
+dog down on the dripping mat outside the door, and murmured some
+unintelligible words. In this dilemma I hastened to wake up poor F----,
+who found it difficult to understand why I wanted him to get up at
+daylight during a "sou'-wester." But I entreated him to go to the hall
+door, whilst I flew off to get my lazy maids out of their warm beds.
+With all their faults, they did not need much rousing on that occasion.
+I suppose I used very forcible words to convey the misery of the object
+standing outside, for I know that Mary was in floods of tears, and had
+fastened her gown on over her night-gear, whilst I was still speaking;
+and the cook had tumbled out of bed, and was kneeling before the kitchen
+fire with her eyes shut, kindling a blaze, apparently, in her sleep.
+
+As soon as things were in this forward state, I returned to the
+verandah, and found our swagger guest drawing a very long breath after
+a good nip of pure whisky which F---- had promptly administered to him.
+"I'm fair clemmed wi' cold and wet," the swagger said, still bundled up
+in his comparatively sheltered corner. "I've been out on the hills the
+whole night, and I am deadbeat. Might I stop here for a bit?" He asked
+this very doubtfully, for it is quite against swagger etiquette to
+demand shelter in the morning. For all answer he was taken by the
+shoulder, and helped up. I never shall forget the poor tramp's
+deprecating face, as he looked back at me, whilst he was being led
+through the pretty little dining-room, with its bright carpet, on which
+his clay-clogged boots and dripping garments left a muddy, as well as
+a watery track. "All right," I said, with colonial brevity; and so we
+escorted our strange guest through the house into the kitchen, where the
+ever-ready kettle and gridiron were busy preparing tea and chops over
+a blazing fire. Of course the maids screamed when they saw us, and I
+do not wonder at their doing so, for neither F---- nor I looked very
+respectable, with huddled on dressing-gowns and towzled hair; whilst our
+foot-sore, drenched guest subsided into a chair by the door, covered
+his wretched pinched face with two bony hands, and burst into tears. I
+certainly never expected to see a swagger cry, and F---- declared the
+sight was quite as new to him as to me. However, the poor man's tears
+and helplessness gave fresh energy to my maids' treacherous nerves, and
+they even suggested dry clothes. Our good-natured cadet, who at this
+moment appeared on the scene, was only too happy to find some outlet for
+_his_ superfluous benevolence, and hastened off, to return in a moment
+or two with an old flannel shirt, dry and whole, in spite of its
+faded stripes, a pair of moleskin trousers, and a huge pair of canvas
+cricketing shoes. It was no time for ceremony, so we women retreated for
+a few minutes into the store-room, whilst F---- and Mr. A---- made the
+swagger's toilette, getting so interested in their task as even to part
+his dripping hair out of his eyes. He had no swag, poor fellow, having
+lost his roll of red blankets in one of the treacherous bog-holes across
+the range.
+
+That man was exactly like a lost, starving dog. He ate an enormous
+breakfast, curled himself upon some empty flour-sacks in a dry corner
+of the kitchen, and slept till dinner time; then another sleep until the
+supper hour, and so on, the round of he clock. All this time he never
+spoke, though we were dying to hear how he had come into such a plight.
+The "sou'-wester" still raged furiously out of doors without a moment's
+cessation, and we were obliged to have recourse to the tins of meat kept
+in the store-room for such an emergency. The shepherd told us afterwards
+he had ventured out to look for some wethers, his own supply being
+exhausted, but the whole mob had hidden themselves so cleverly that
+neither man nor dog could discover their place of shelter. On the Monday
+night, exactly a week after the outbreak of bad weather; the skies
+showed signs of having exhausted themselves, and nature began to wear
+a sulky air, as if her temper were but slowly recovering herself. The
+learned in such matters, however, took a cheerful view of affairs, and
+declared the worst to be over,--"for this bout,"--as they cautiously
+added.
+
+Whether it was the three days of rest, warmth, and good food which
+unlocked the swagger's heart, or not, I do not pretend to decide; but
+that evening, over a pipe in the kitchen, he confided to Mr. A----that
+he had been working his way down to the sea-coast from a station
+where he had been employed, very far back in the hill ranges. The
+"sou'-wester" had overtaken him about twenty miles from us, but only
+five from another station, where he had applied towards the evening for
+shelter, being even then drenched with rain, and worn out by struggling
+through such a tremendous storm. There, for some reason which I confess
+did not seem very clear, he had been refused the unvarying hospitality
+extended in New Zealand to all travellers, rich or poor, squatter or
+swagger, and had been directed to take a short cut across the hills to
+our station, which he was assured could easily be reached in an hour or
+two more. The track, a difficult one enough to strike in summer weather,
+became, indeed, impossible to discover amid rushing torrents and driving
+wind and rain; besides which, as the poor fellow repeated more than
+once during his story, "I was fair done up when I set out, for I'd been
+travelling all day." Mr. A---- told us what the man had been saying,
+before we all went to bed, adding, "He seems an odd, surly kind of
+creature, for although he declares he is going away the first thing
+to-morrow, if the rain be over, I noticed he never said a word
+approaching to thanks."
+
+The rain was indeed over next morning, and a flood of brilliant sunshine
+awoke me "bright and early," as the country people say. It seemed
+impossible to stop in bed, so I jumped up, thrust my feet into slippers,
+and my arms into a warm dressing-gown, and sallied forth, opening window
+after window, so as to let the sunshine into rooms which not even a
+week's steady down-pour could render damp. What a morning it was, and
+for mid-winter too! No haze, or fog, or vapour on all the green hills,
+whose well-washed sides were glistening in a bright glow of sunlight.
+For the first time, too, since the bad weather had set in, was to be
+heard the incessant bleat which is music to the ears of a New Zealand
+sheep-farmer. White, moving, calling patches on the hillsides told
+that the sheep were returning to their favourite pastures, and a mob of
+horses could be descried quietly feeding on the sunny flat.
+
+But I had no eyes for beauties of mountain or sky. I could do nothing
+but gaze on the strange figure of the silent swagger, who knelt yes,
+positively knelt, on the still wet and shining shingle which formed
+an apology for a gravel path up to the back-door of the little wooden
+homestead. His appearance was very different to what it had been three
+days before. Now his clothes were dry and clean and mended,--my Irish
+maids doing; bless their warm hearts! He had cobbled up his boots
+himself, and his felt hat, which had quite recovered from its drenching,
+lay at his side. The perfect rest and warmth and good food had filled
+up his hollow cheeks, but still his countenance was a curious one; and
+never, until my dying day, can I forget the rapture of entreaty on
+that man's upturned face. It brings the tears into my own eyes now to
+recollect its beseeching expression. I do not think I ever _saw_ prayer
+before or since. He did not perceive me, for I had hidden behind a
+sheltering curtain, to listen to his strange, earnest petitions; so he
+could not know that anybody in the house was stirring, for he knelt at
+the back, and all my fussings had taken place in the front, and he could
+not, therefore, have been doing anything for effect.
+
+There, exactly where he had crouched a wretched, way-worn tramp in
+pouring rain, he knelt now with the flood of sunshine streaming down
+on his uplifted face, whilst he prayed for the welfare and happiness,
+individually and collectively, of every living creature within the
+house. Then he stood up and lifted his hat from the ground; but before
+he replaced it on his head, he turned, with a gesture which would have
+made the fortune of any orator,--a gesture of mingled love and farewell,
+and solemnly blessed the roof-tree which had sheltered him in his hour
+of need. I could not help being struck by the extraordinarily good
+language in which he expressed his fervent desires, and his whole
+bearing seemed quite different to that of the silent, half-starved man
+we had kept in the kitchen these last three days. I watched him turn and
+go, noiselessly closing the garden gate after him, and--shall I confess
+it?--my heart has always felt light whenever I think of that swagger's
+blessing. When we all met at breakfast I had to take his part, and tell
+of the scene I had witnessed; for everybody was inclined to blame him
+for having stolen away, scarcely without saying good-bye, or expressing
+a word of thanks for the kindness he had received. But I knew better.
+
+From the sublime to the ridiculous we all know the step is but short,
+especially in the human mind; and to my tender mood succeeds the
+recollection of an absurd panic we once suffered from, about swaggers.
+Exaggerated stories had reached us, brought by timid fat men on
+horseback, with bulky pocket-books, who came to buy our wethers for the
+Hokitika market, of "sticking up" having broken out on the west land. I
+fear my expressions are often unintelligible to an English reader,
+but in this instance I will explain. "Sticking up" is merely a concise
+colonial rendering of "Your money or your life," and was originally
+employed by Australian bushrangers, those terrible freebooters whose
+ranks used to be always recruited from escaped convicts. Fortunately we
+had no community of that class, only a few prisoners kept in a little
+ricketty wooden house in Christchurch, from which an enterprising baby
+might easily have escaped. I dare say as we get more civilized out
+there, we shall build ourselves handsome prisons and penitentiaries; but
+in those early days a story was current of a certain jailor who let all
+his captives out on some festal occasion, using the tremendous threat,
+that whoever had not returned by eight o'clock should be "_locked out!_"
+
+But to return to that particular winter evening. We had been telling
+each other stories which we had heard or read of bushranging exploits,
+until we were all as nervous as possible. Ghosts, or even burglar
+stories, are nothing to the horror of a true bushranger story, and
+F---- had made himself particularly ghastly and disagreeable by giving a
+minute account of an adventure which had been told to him by one of the
+survivors.
+
+We listened, with the wind howling outside, to F----'s horrid
+second-hand story, of how one fine day up country, eight or ten
+men,--station hands,--were "stuck up" by one solitary bushranger, armed
+to the teeth. He tied them up one by one, and seated them all on a bench
+in the sun, and deliberately fired at and wounded the youngest of the
+party; then, seized with compunction, he unbound one of the captives,
+and stood over him, revolver in hand, whilst he saddled and mounted a
+horse, to go for a doctor to set the poor boy's broken leg. Before
+the messenger had gone "a league, a league, but barely twa',"--the
+freebooter recollected that he might bring somebody else back with him
+besides the doctor, and flinging himself across his horse, rode after
+the affrighted man, and coolly shot him dead. I really don't know how
+the story ended: I believe everybody perished; but at this juncture
+I declared it to be impossible to sit up any longer to listen to such
+tragedies, and went to bed.
+
+Exactly at midnight,--the proper hour for ghosts; burglars, and
+bushrangers, and such "small deer" to be about, everybody was awakened
+simultaneously by a loud irregular knocking, which sounded with hollow
+reverberations all through the wooden house. "Bushrangers!" we all
+thought, every one of us; for although burglars may not usually knock
+at hall-doors in England, it is by no means uncommon for their bolder
+brethren to do so at the other end of the world. It is such a comfort to
+me now, looking back on that scene to remember that our stalwart cadet
+was as frightened as anybody. _He_ stood six feet one in his stockings,
+and was a match for any two in the country side, and yet, I am happy to
+think, he was as bad as any one. As for me, to say that my heart became
+like water and my knees like soft wax, is to express in mild words my
+state of abject terror. There was no need to inquire what the maids
+thought, for smothered shrieks, louder and louder as each peal of
+knocks vibrated through the little house, proclaimed sufficiently their
+sentiments on the subject.
+
+Dear me, how ridiculous it all must have been! In one corner of the
+ceiling of our bedroom was a little trap-door which opened into an attic
+adjoining that where the big cadet slept. Now whilst F---- was hurriedly
+taking down his double-barrelled gun from its bracket just below this
+aperture, and I held the candlestick with so shaky a hand that the
+extinguisher clattered like a castanet, this door was slowly lifted up,
+and a large white face, with dishevelled stubbly hair and wide-open blue
+eyes, looked down through the cobwebs, saying in a husky whisper, "Could
+you let me have a rifle, or any thing?" This was our gallant cadet, who
+had no idea of presenting himself at a disadvantage before the foe.
+I had desperately seized a revolver, but F---- declared that if I
+persisted in carrying it I certainly should go first, as he did not wish
+to be shot in the back.
+
+We held a hurried council of war,--Mr. A---- assisting through the
+trap door, and the maids breathing suggestions through the
+partition-planks,--but the difficulty consisted in determining at which
+door the knocking was going on. Some said one, and some another (for
+there were many modes of egress from the tiny dwelling); but at last
+F---- cried decidedly, "We must try them all in succession," and
+shouldering his gun, with the revolver sticking in the girdle of his
+dressing-gown, sallied valiantly forth. I don't know what became of
+Mr. A----: I believe he took up a position with the rifle pointing
+downwards; the maids retreated beneath their blankets, and I (too
+frightened to stay behind) followed closely, armed with an Indian
+boar-spear. F---- flung the hall door wide open, and called out, "Who's
+there?" but no one answered. The silence was intense, and so was the
+cold; therefore we returned speedily indoors to consult. "It must be at
+the back door," I urged; adding, "that is the short cut down the valley,
+where bushrangers would be most likely to come." "Bushrangers, you silly
+child!" laughed F----. "It's most likely a belated swagger, or else
+somebody who is playing us a trick." However as he spoke a succession of
+fierce and loud knocks resounded through the whole house. "It must be
+at the kitchen door," F---- said. "Come along, and stand well behind me
+when I open the door."
+
+But we never opened the door; for on our way through the kitchen, with
+its high-pitched and unceiled roof,--a very cavern for echoes,--we
+discovered the source of the noise, and of our fright. Within a large
+wooden packing-case lay a poor little lamb, and its dying throes had
+wakened us all up, as it kicked expiring kicks violently against the
+side of the box. It was my doing bringing it indoors, for I never
+_could_ find it in my heart to leave a lamb out on the hills if we came
+across a dead ewe with her baby bleating desolately and running round
+her body. F---- always said, "You cannot rear a merino lamb indoors; the
+poor little thing will only die all the same in a day or two;" and then
+I am sorry to say he added in an unfeeling manner, "They are not worth
+much now," as if that could make any difference! I had brought this,
+as I had brought scores of others, home in my arms from a long distance
+off; fed it out of a baby's bottle, rubbed it dry, and put it to sleep
+in a warm bed of hay at the bottom of this very box. They had all died
+quietly, after a day or two, in spite of my devotion and nursing, but
+this little foundling kicked herself out of the world with as much noise
+as would have sufficed to summon a garrison to surrender. It is all
+very well to laugh at it now, but we were, five valiant souls in all, as
+thoroughly frightened at the time as we could well be.
+
+The only real harm a swagger did me was to carry off one of my best
+maidservants as his wife, but as he had 300 pounds in the bank at
+Christchurch, and was only travelling about looking for work, and they
+have lived in great peace and prosperity ever since, I suppose I ought
+not to complain. This swagger was employed in deepening our well, and
+Mary was always going to see how he was getting on, so he used to make
+love to her, looking up from the bottom of a deep shaft, and shouting
+compliments to her from a depth of sixty feet. What really won her
+Irish heart, though, was his calmly putting a rival, a shepherd, into
+a water-butt. She could not resist that, so they were married, and are
+doing well.
+
+Let no one despise swaggers. They are merely travelling workmen, and
+would pay for their lodging if it was the custom to do so. I am told
+that even now they are fast becoming things of the past; for one could
+not "swagger" by railroad, and most of our beautiful happy vallies will
+soon have a line of rails laid down throughout its green and peaceful
+length.
+
+
+
+Chapter X: Changing servants.
+
+
+To the eyes of an English housewife the title of this chapter must
+appear a very bad joke indeed, and the amusement what the immortal Mrs.
+Poyser would call "a poor tale." Far be it from me to make light of the
+misery of a tolerably good servant coming to you after three months'
+service, just as you were beginning to feel settled and comfortable,
+and announcing with a smile that she was going to be married; or, with
+a flood of tears, that she found it "lonesome." Either of these two
+contingencies was pretty sure to arise at least four times a year on a
+station.
+
+At first I determined to do all I could to make their new home so
+attractive to my two handmaidens that they would not wish to leave it
+directly. In one of Wilkie Collins' books an upholsterer is represented
+as saying that if you want to domesticate a woman, you should surround
+her with bird's-eye maple and chintz. That must have been exactly my
+idea, for the two rooms which I prepared for my maidservants were small,
+indeed, yet exquisitely pretty. Of course I should not have been so
+foolish as to buy any of the unnecessary and dainty fittings with which
+they were decorated, but as all the furniture and belongings of an
+English house, a good deal larger than our station home, had been taken
+out to it, there were sundry toilet tables, etc., whose destination
+would have been a loft over the stable, if I had not used them for my
+maids.
+
+
+I had seen and chosen two very respectable young women in Christchurch,
+one as a cook, and the other as a housemaid. The cook, Euphemia by
+name, was a tall, fat, flabby woman, with a pasty complexion, but a nice
+expression of face, and better manners than usual. She turned out to be
+very good natured, perfectly ignorant though willing to learn, and was
+much admired by the neighbouring _cockatoos_, or small farmers. Lois the
+housemaid, was the smallest and skimpiest and most angular girl I ever
+beheld. At first I regarded her with deep compassion, imagining that
+she was about fifteen years of age, and had been cruelly ill-treated and
+starved. How she divined what was passing in my mind I cannot tell, but
+during our first interview she suddenly fired up, and informed me
+that she was twenty-two years old, that she was the seventh child of
+a seventh child, and therefore absolutely certain to achieve some
+wonderful piece of good luck; and furthermore, that she had been much
+admired in her own part of the country, and was universally allowed to
+be "the flower of the province." This statement, delivered with great
+volubility and defiant jerkiness of manner, rather took my breath away;
+but it was a case of "Hobson's choice" just then about servants, and as
+I was assured she was a respectable girl, I closed with her terms (25
+pounds a year and all found) on the spot. The fat pale cook was to get
+35 pounds. Now-a-days I hear that wages are somewhat lower, but the
+sums I have named were the average figures of six or seven years ago,
+especially "up-country."
+
+Here I feel impelled to repeat the substance of what I have stated
+elsewhere,--that these rough, queer servants were, as a general rule,
+perfectly honest, and of irreproachable morals, besides working,
+in their own curious fashion, desperately hard. Our family was an
+exceptionally small one, and the "place" was considered "light, you
+bet," but even then it seemed to me as if both my domestics worked very
+hard. In the first place there was the washing; two days severe work,
+under difficulties which they thought nothing of. All the clothes had to
+be taken to a boiler fixed in the side of a hill, for the convenience of
+the creek, and washed and rinsed under a blazing sun (for of course it
+never was attempted on a wet day) and amid clouds of sand-flies. Not
+until evening was this really hard day's work over, and the various
+garments fluttering in the breeze up a valley behind the house. The
+chances were strongly in favour of a tremendous nor'-wester coming down
+this said valley during the night, and in that case there would not be a
+sign next morning of any of the clothes. Heavy things, such as sheets or
+table cloths, might be safely looked for under lee of the nearest gorse
+hedge, but it would be impossible even to guess where the lighter and
+more diaphanous articles had been whisked to. A week afterwards the
+shepherds used to bring in stray cuffs and collars, and upon one
+occasion "Judy," the calf, was discovered in a paddock hard by,
+breakfasting off my best pocket handkerchiefs with an excellent
+appetite. Of course everything was dirty, and needed to be washed over
+again. We had a mangle, which greatly simplified matters on the second
+day, but it used not to be uncommon on back-country stations to get
+up the fine things with a flat stone, heated in the wood ashes, for an
+iron. After the washing operations had been brought to a more or less
+successful ending, there came the yeast making and the baking, followed
+by the brewing of sugar beer, preserves had to be made, bacon cured, all
+sorts of things to be done, besides the daily duties of scrubbing and
+cleaning, and cooking at all hours for stray visitors or "swaggers."
+
+But I am overcome with contrition at perceiving into what a digression I
+have wandered; having strayed from my maids' rooms to their duties.
+They arrived as usual on a dray late in the evening, tired and wearied
+enough, poor souls. In those early days I had not yet plucked up courage
+to try my hand in the kitchen, and our meals had been left to the charge
+of F----, who, whatever he may be in other relations of life, is a vile
+cook; and our good-natured cadet Mr. U----, who was exceedingly willing,
+but profoundly ignorant of the elements of cookery. For fear of being
+tempted into another digression, I will briefly state that during that
+week I lived in a chronic state of hunger and heartburn, and sought
+forgetfulness from repeated attacks of indigestion, by decorating my
+servants' rooms. They opened into each other, and it would have been
+hard to find two prettier little nests. Each had its shining brass
+bedstead with chintz hangings, its muslin-draped toilette table, and its
+daintily curtained window, besides a pretty carpet. I can remember now
+the sort of dazed look with which Euphemia regarded a room such as she
+had never seen; whilst Lois considered it to be an instalment of her
+good luck, and proceeded to contemplate her sharp and elfish countenance
+in her looking-glass, pronouncing it as her opinion that she wanted more
+colour. That she certainly did, and she might have added, more flesh
+and youthfulness, while she was about it. However, they were greatly
+delighted, and Euphemia who was of a grateful and affectionate
+disposition, actually thanked me, for having with my own hands arranged
+such pretty rooms for them.
+
+This was a very good beginning. They were both hard-working, civil
+girls, and got on very well together, leaving me plenty of leisure to
+attend to the quantities of necessary arrangements which have to be made
+when you are settling yourself for good, fifty miles from a shop, and
+on a spot where no other human being has ever lived before. F----
+congratulated myself in private on my exceptional good luck, and
+attributed it partly to my having followed the Upholsterer's advice
+in that book of Mr. Wilkie Collins. But as it turned out, F---- was
+dwelling in a fool's paradise. In vain had it been pointed out to me
+that a certain stalwart north countryman, whose shyness could only be
+equalled by his appetite, had been a most regular attendant for some
+weeks past at our Sunday evening services, accepting the offer of tea
+in the kitchen, afterwards, with great alacrity. I scouted these
+insinuations, appealing to the general sense of the public as to whether
+Moffatt had _ever_ been known to refuse a meal anywhere, or under any
+circumstances, and declaring that, if he was "courting," it was being
+done in solemn silence, for never a sound filtered through the thin
+wooden planks between the kitchen and the dining room, except the
+clatter of a vigorously plied knife and fork, for Moffatt's teas always
+included a shoulder of mutton.
+
+But I was wrong and others were right. Early in October, our second
+spring month, I chanced to get up betimes one delicious, calm morning, a
+morning when it seemed a new and exquisite pleasure to open each window
+in succession, and fill one's lungs with a deep, deep breath of that
+heavenly atmosphere, at once so fresh and so pure.
+
+Quiet as the little homestead lay, nestled among the hills, there were
+too many morning noises stirring among the animals for any one to feel
+lonely or dull, I should have thought. From a distance came a regular,
+monotonous, lowing sound. That was "Hetty," the pretty little yellow
+Alderney, announcing from the swamps that she and her two female friends
+were quite ready to be milked. Their calves answered them dutifully from
+the English grass paddock, and between the two I could see Mr. U----'s
+tall figure stalking down the flat with his cattle dog at his heels, and
+hear his merry whistle shrilling through the silent air. Then all the
+ducks and fowls about the place were inquiring, in noisy cackle, how
+long it would be before breakfast was ready, whilst "Helen's" whinneying
+made me turn my head to see her, with a mob of horses at her heels,
+coming over the nearest ridge on the chance of a stray carrot or two
+going begging. All the chained-up dogs were pulling at the staples of
+their fastenings, and entreating by short, joyous barks, to be allowed
+just one good frisk and roll in the sparkling dewy grass around. But
+even I, universal spoiler of animals that I am, was obliged to harden my
+heart against their noisy appeals; for quite close to the stable, on the
+nearest hill-side, an immense mob of sheep and young lambs were feeding.
+That steep incline had been burnt six weeks before, and was now as green
+as the clover field at its base, affording a delicious pasturage to
+these nursing mothers and their frisky infants. I think I see and hear
+it all now. The moving white patches on the hill-side, the incessant
+calling and answering, the racing and chasing among the curly little
+merino lambs, and above all the fair earth the clear vault of an almost
+cloudless sky bent itself in a deep blue dome. Just over the eastern
+hills the first long lances of the sun lay in bright shafts of silver
+sheen on the dew-laden tussocks, and that peculiar morning fragrance
+rose up from the moist ground, which is as much the reward of the early
+riser as the early worm is of the bird.
+
+Was it a morning for low spirits or sobs and sighs? Surely not; and
+yet as I turned the handle of the kitchen door those melancholy sounds
+struck my ear. I had intended to make my entrance with a propitiatory
+smile, suitable to such a glorious morning, proceed to pay my damsels a
+graceful compliment on their somewhat unusual early rising, and wind up
+with a request for a cup of tea. But all these friendly purposes went
+out of my head when I beheld Euphemia seated on the rude wooden settle,
+with its chopped tussock mattrass, which had been covered with a bright
+cotton damask, and was now called respectfully, "the kitchen sofa." Her
+arm was round Lois's waist, and she had drawn that young lady's shock
+head of red curls down on her capacious bosom. Both were crying as if
+their hearts would break, and startled as I felt to see these floods of
+tears, it struck me how incongruous their attitude looked against
+the background of the large window through which all nature looked so
+smiling and sparkling. The kettle was singing on the fire, everything
+seemed bright and snug and comfortable indoors. "What in the world has
+happened?" I gasped, really frightened.
+
+"Nothing, mem: its only them sheep," sobbed Euphemia, "calling like.
+They always makes me cry. Your tea 'll be ready directly, mem" (this
+last with a deep sigh.)
+
+"Is it possible you are crying about that?" I inquired. "Yes, mem,
+yes," said Euphemia, in heart-broken accents, clasping Lois, who was
+positively howling, closer to her sympathetic heart. "Its terrible to
+hear 'em. They keeps calling and answering each other, and that makes
+us think of our home and friends." Now both these women had starved as
+factory "hands" all their lives, and I used to feel much more inclined
+to cry when they told me, all unconscious of the pathos, stories of
+their baby work and hardships. Certainly they had never seen a sheep
+until they came to New Zealand, and as they had particularly mentioned
+the silence which used to reign supreme at the manufactory during work
+hours, I could not trace the connection between a dingy, smoky, factory,
+and a bright spring morning in this delightful valley. "What nonsense!"
+I cried, half laughing and half angry. "You can't be in earnest. Why you
+must both be ill: let me give you each a good dose of medicine." I said
+this encouragingly, for there was nothing in the world Euphemia liked
+so much as good substantial physic, and the only thing I ever needed to
+keep locked up from her was the medicine drawer.
+
+Euphemia seemed touched and grateful, and her face brightened up
+directly, but Lois looked up with her frightful little face more ugly
+than usual, as she said, spitefully, "Physic won't make them nasty sheep
+hold their tongues. I'm sure _this_ isn't the place for me to find my
+luck, so I'd rather go, if you please, mem. I've prospected-up every one
+o' them gullies and never seen the colour yet, so it ain't any good my
+stopping."
+
+This was quite a fresh light thrown upon the purpose of Lois's long
+lonely rambles. She used to be off and away, over the hills whenever she
+had finished her daily work, and I encouraged her rambles, thinking the
+fresh air and exercise must do her a world of good. Never had I guessed
+that the sordid little puss was turning over every stone in the creek in
+her search for the shining flakes.
+
+"Why did you think you should find gold here?" I asked.
+
+"Because they do say it lies in all these mountain streams," she
+answered sullenly; "and I'm always dreaming of nuggets. Not that a girl
+with my face and figure wants 'dust' to set her off, however. But if its
+all the same to you, mem, I'd rather leave when Euphemia does."
+
+"Are _you_ going, then?" I inquired, turning reproachfully to my
+pale-faced cook, who actually coloured a little as she answered, "Well,
+mem, you see Moffatt says he's got his window frames in now, and he'll
+glass them the very first chance, and I think it'll be more company for
+me on Saddler's Flat. So if you'll please to send me down in the dray, I
+should be obliged."
+
+Here was a pretty upset, and I went about my poultry-feeding with a
+heavy heart. How was I to get fresh servants, and above all, what was
+I to do for cooking during the week they were away? These questions
+fortunately settled themselves in rather an unexpected manner. I heard
+of a very nice willing girl who was particularly anxious to come up
+as housemaid, to my part of the world, on condition that I should also
+engage as cook her sister, who was leaving a place on the opposite side
+of a range of high hills to the south. I shall only briefly say that
+all inquiries about these damsels proved satisfactory, and I could see
+Euphemia and Lois depart, with tolerable equanimity. The former wept,
+and begged for a box of Cockles' pills; but Lois tossed her elfish head,
+and gave me to understand that she had never been properly admired or
+appreciated whilst in my service.
+
+
+
+Chapter XII: Culinary troubles.
+
+
+I want to lodge a formal complaint against all cookery books. They are
+not the least use in the world, until you know how to cook! and then you
+can do without them. Somebody ought to write a cookery book which would
+tell an unhappy beginner whether the water in which she proposes to put
+her potatoes is to be hot or cold; how long such water is to boil; how
+she is to know whether the potatoes are done enough; how to dry
+them after they have boiled, and similar things, which make all the
+difference in the world.
+
+To speak like Mr. Brooke for a moment. "Rice now: I have dabbled in that
+a good deal myself, and found it wouldn't do at all."
+
+Of course in time, and after many failures, I did learn to boil a
+potato which would not disgrace me, and to bake bread, besides in time
+attaining to puddings and cakes, of which I don't mind confessing I was
+modestly proud. It used to be a study, I am told, to watch my face
+when a cake had turned out as it ought. Gratified vanity at the lavish
+encomiums bestowed on it, and horrified dismay at the rapidity with
+which a good sized cake disappeared down the throats of the company,
+warred together in the most artless fashion. The reflection would arise
+that it was almost a pity it should be eaten up so very fast; yet was it
+not a fine thing to be able to make such a cake! and oh, would the next
+be equally good?
+
+One lesson I leaned in my New Zealand kitchen,--and that was not to
+be too hard on the point of breakages; for no one knows, unless from
+personal experience, how true was the Irish cook's apology for breaking
+a dish, when she said that it let go of her hand. I declare that I used,
+at last, to regard my plates and dishes, cups and saucers, yea, even the
+pudding basons, not as so much china and delf, but as troublesome imps,
+possessed with an insane desire to dash themselves madly on the kitchen
+floor upon the least provocation. Every woman knows what a slippery
+thing to hold is a baby in its tub. I am in a position to pronounce that
+wet plates and dishes are far more difficult to keep hold of. They have
+a way of leaping out of your fingers, which must be felt to be
+believed. After my first week in my kitchen I used to wonder, not at the
+breakages, but at anything remaining unbroken.
+
+My maids had a very ingenious method of disposing of the fragments of
+their pottery misfortunes. At the back of the house an open patch of
+ground, thickly covered with an under-growth of native grass, and the
+usual large proportion of sheltering tussocks stretched away to the foot
+of the nearest hill. This was burned every second year or so, and
+when the fire had passed away the sight it revealed was certainly very
+curious. Beneath each tussock had lain concealed a small heap of broken
+china, which must have been placed there in the dead of the night. The
+delinquents had evidently been at the pains to perfect their work of
+destruction by reducing the china articles in question, to the smallest
+imaginable fragments, for fear of a protruding corner betraying the
+clever _cache_; and the contrast afforded to the blackened ground on
+which they lay, by the gay patches of tiny fragments huddled together,
+was droll indeed. That was the moment for recognising the remains of a
+favourite jug or plate, or even a beloved tea-cup. There they were all
+laid in neat little heaps, and the best of it was that the existing cook
+always declared loudly her astonishment at the base ingenuity of such
+conduct, although I could not fail to recognise many a plate or dish
+which had disappeared from the land of the living during her reign.
+
+All housekeepers will sympathise with my feelings at seeing an amateur
+scullion, who had distinguished himself greatly in the Balaklava charge,
+but who appeared to have no idea that boiling water would scald his
+fingers,--drop the top plate of a pile which he had placed in a tub
+before him. In spite of my entreaties to be allowed to "wash-up" myself,
+he gallantly declared that he could do it beautifully, and that the
+great thing was to have the water very hot. In pursuance of this theory
+he poured the contents of a kettle of boiling water over his plates,
+plunged his hand in, and dropped the top plate, with a shriek of
+dismay, on those beneath it. Out of consideration for that well-meaning
+emigrant's feelings, I abstain from publishing the list of the killed
+and wounded, briefly stating that he might almost as well have fired
+a shot among my poor plates. A perfect fountain of water and chips and
+bits of china flew up into the air, and I really believe that hardly
+one plate remained uncracked. So much for one's friends. I must candidly
+state that although the servants broke a good deal, we destroyed twice
+as much amongst us during the week which must needs elapse between their
+departure and, the arrival of the new ones.
+
+Shall I ever forget the guilty pallor which overspread the bronzed and
+bearded countenance of one of my guests, who particularly wished to dust
+the drawing-room ornaments, when on hearing a slight crash I came into
+the room and found him picking up the remains of a china shepherdess?
+Considering everything, I kept my temper remarkably well, merely
+observing that he had better go into the verandah and sit down with a
+book and his pipe, and send Joey in to help me. Joey was a little black
+monkey from Panama, who had to be provided with broken bits of delf or
+china in order that he might amuse himself by breaking them ingeniously
+into smaller fragments.
+
+But the real object of this chapter was to relate some of my own private
+misfortunes in the cooking line. Once, when Alice S---- was staying with
+me and we had no servants, she and I undertook to bake a very infantine
+and unweaned pig. It was all properly arranged for us, and, making up a
+good fire, we proceeded to cook the little monster.
+
+Hours passed by; all the rest of the dinner got itself properly cooked
+at the right time, but the pig presented exactly the same appearance at
+dewy eve as it had done in the early morn. We looked rather crest-fallen
+at its pale condition when one o'clock struck, but I said cheerfully,
+"Oh, I daresay it will be ready by supper!" But it was not: not a bit of
+it. Of course we searched in those delusive cookery books, but they only
+told us what sauces to serve with a roasted pig, or how to garnish it,
+entering minutely into a disquisition upon whether a lemon or an orange
+had better be stuck into its mouth. We wanted to know how to cook it,
+and why it would not get itself baked. About an hour before supper-time
+I grew desperate at the anticipation of the "chaff" Alice and I would
+certainly have to undergo if this detestable animal could not be
+produced in a sufficiently cooked state by evening. We took it out of
+the oven and contemplated it with silence and dismay. Fair as ever did
+that pig appear, and as if it had no present intention of being cooked
+at all. A sudden idea came into our heads at the same moment, but it was
+Alice who first whispered, "Let us cut off its head." "Yes," I cried; "I
+am sure that prevents its roasting or baking, or whatever it is." So we
+got out the big carving knife and cut off the piggy's head. Far be it
+from me to offer any solution of the theory why the head should have
+interfered with the baking process, but all I know is, that, like the
+old woman in the nursery song, everything began to go right, and we got
+our supper that night.
+
+Has anybody ever reflected on how difficult it must be to get a chimney
+swept without ever a sweep or even a brush? Luckily our chimneys were
+short and wide, and we used a good deal of wood; so in three years the
+kitchen chimney only needed to be cleansed twice. The first time it was
+cleared of soot by the simple process of being set on fire, but as a
+light nor'-wester was blowing, the risk to the wooden roof became very
+great and could only be met by spreading wet blankets over the shingles.
+We had a very narrow escape of losing our little wooden house, and it
+was fortunate it happened just at the men's dinner hour when there was
+plenty of help close at hand. However great my satisfaction at feeling
+that at last my chimney had been thoroughly swept, there was evidently
+too much risk about the performance to admit of its being repeated, so
+about a year afterwards I asked an "old chum" what I was to do with
+my chimney. "Sweep it with a furze-bush, to be sure," she replied. I
+mentioned this primitive receipt at home, and the idea was carried out
+a day or two later by one man mounting on the roof of the house whilst
+another remained in the kitchen; the individual on the roof threw down
+a rope to the one below, who fastened a large furze-bush in the middle,
+they each held an end of this rope, and so pulled it up and down the
+chimney until the man below was as black as any veritable sweep, and had
+to betake himself, clothes and all, to a neighbouring creek. As for the
+kitchen, its state cannot be better described than in my Irish cook's
+words, who cried, "Did mortial man ever see sich a ridiklous mess?
+Arrah, why couldn't ye let it be thin?" But for all that she set bravely
+to work and got everything clean and nice once more, merely stipulating
+that the next time we were going to sweep chimney we should let her know
+beforehand, that she might go somewhere "right away."
+
+I feel, however, that in all these reminiscences I am straying widely
+from the point which was before my mind when I began this chapter, and
+that is the delusiveness of a cookery book. No book which I have ever
+seen tells you, for instance, how to boil rice properly. They all insist
+that the grains must be white and dry and separate, but they omit to
+describe the process by which these results can be attained. They tell
+you what you are to do with your rice after it is boiled, but not how
+to boil it. The fact is, I suppose, that the people who write such books
+began so early to be cooks themselves, that they forget there ever was a
+time when such simple things were unknown to them.
+
+Even when I had, after many failures, mastered the art of boiling rice,
+and also of making an excellent curry,--for which accomplishment I was
+indebted to the practical teaching of a neighbour,--there used still
+to be misfortunes in store for me. One of these caused me such a bitter
+disappointment that I have never quite forgotten it. This was the manner
+of it. We were without servants. My readers must not suppose that such
+was our chronic condition, but when you come to change your servants
+three or four times a year, and have to "do" for yourself each time
+during the week which must elapse before the arrival of new ones, there
+is an ample margin for every possible domestic misadventure. If any
+doubt me, let them try for themselves.
+
+On this special occasion, which proved to be nearly the last, my mind
+was easy, for the simple reason that I was now independent of cookery
+books. I had puzzled out all the elementary parts of the science for
+myself, and had no misgivings on the subject of potatoes or even peas.
+So confident was I, and vain, that I volunteered to make a curry for
+breakfast. Such a savoury curry as it was, and it turned out to be all
+that the heart of a hungry man could desire; so did the rice: I really
+felt proud of that rice; each grain kept itself duly apart from its
+fellow, and was as soft and white and plump as possible. Everything
+went well, and I had plenty of assistants to carry in the substantial
+breakfast as fast as it was ready: the coffee, toast, all the other
+things had gone in; even the curry had been borne off amid many
+compliments, and now it only remained for me to dish up the rice.
+
+Imagine the scene. The bright pretty kitchen, with its large window
+through which you could see the green hills around dotted with sheep;
+the creek chattering along just outside, whilst close to the back door
+loitered a crowd of fowls and ducks on the chance of fate sending them
+something extra to eat. Beneath the large window, and just in front of
+it, stood a large deal table, and it used to be my custom to transfer
+the contents of the saucepans to the dishes at that convenient place.
+Well, I emptied the rice into its dish, and gazed fondly at it for
+a moment: any cook might have been proud of that beautiful heap of
+snow-white grains. I had boiled a great quantity, more than necessary
+it seemed, for although the dish was piled up almost as high as it would
+hold, some rice yet remained in the saucepan.
+
+Oh, that I had been content to leave it there! But no: with a certain
+spasmodic frugality which has often been my bane, I shook the saucepan
+vehemently, in order to dislodge some more of its contents into my
+already full dish. As I did so, my treacherous wrist, strained by the
+weight of the saucepan, gave way, and with the rapidity of a conjurer's
+trick I found the great black saucepan seated,--yes, that is the only
+word for it,--seated in the midst of my heap of rice, which was now
+covered by fine black powder from its sooty outside. All the rice was
+utterly and completely spoiled. I don't believe that five clean grains
+were left in the dish There was nothing for it but to leave it to get
+cold and then throw it all out for the fowls, who don't mind _riz au
+noir_ it seems. Although I feel more than half ashamed to confess it, I
+am by no means sure I did not retire into the store-room and shed a tear
+over the fate of that rice. Everybody else laughed, but I was dreadfully
+mortified and vexed.
+
+
+
+Chapter XIII: Amateur Servants.
+
+
+I flattered myself on a certain occasion that I had made some very
+artful arrangements to provide the family with something to eat during
+the servants' absence. I had been lamenting the week of experiments in
+food which would be sure to ensue so soon as the dray should leave,
+in the hearing of a gallant young ex-dragoon, who had come out to New
+Zealand to try and see if one could gratify tastes, requiring, say a
+thousand a year to provide for, on an income of 120 pounds. He was
+just finding out that it was quite as difficult to manage this in the
+Southern as in the Northern Hemisphere, but his hearty cheery manner,
+and enormous stock of hope, kept him up for some time.
+
+"I'll come and cook for you," he cried. "I can cook like a bird. But
+I can't wash up. No, no: it burns too much. If you can get somebody
+to wash up, I'll cook. And just look here: it would be very nice if we
+could have some music after dinner. You've got a piano, haven't you?
+That's right. Well, now, don't you ask that pretty Miss A----, who has
+just come out from England, to come and stop with you, and then we could
+have some music?"
+
+"Where did you learn to cook?" I inquired, suspiciously; for F----had
+also assured me _he_ could cook, and this had upset my confidence.
+
+"On the west coast; to be sure! Ask Vere, and Williams and Taylor, and
+everybody, if they _ever_ tasted such pies as I used to make them."
+My countenance must have still looked rather doubtful, because I well
+remember sundry verbal testimonials of capability being produced; and as
+I was still very ignorant of the rudiments of the science of cookery,
+I shrank from assuming the whole responsibility of the family meals. So
+the household was arranged in this way:--Captain George, head cook;
+Mr. U----, scullery-maid; Miss A----, housemaid; myself,
+lady-superintendent; Mr. Forsyth (a young naval officer), butler. On
+the principle of giving honour to whom honour is due, this gallant
+lieutenant deserves special mention for the way he cleaned glass. He did
+not pay much attention to his silver, but his glass would have passed
+muster at a club. The only drawback was the immense time he took over
+each glass, and the way he followed either Miss A---- or me all about
+the house, holding a tumbler in one hand, and a long, clean glass-cloth
+in the other, calling upon us to admire the polish of the crystal. To
+clean two tumblers would be a good day's work for him. From Monday to
+Saturday (when the dray returned), this state of things went on. Of
+course I had taken the precaution of having a good supply of bread made
+beforehand, besides cakes and biscuits, tarts and pies; everything to
+save trouble. But it was not of much use, for, alleging that they were
+working so hard, the young men, F---- at their head, though I was always
+telling him he was married and ought to know better, set to work and ate
+up everything immediately, as completely as if they had been locusts.
+And then, they were all so dreadfully wild and unmanageable! Mine was by
+far the hardest task of all, the keeping them in any sort of order. For
+instance, Captain George declared one day, that if there was one thing
+he did better than another, it was to make jam. Consequently a fatigue
+party was ordered out to gather strawberries, and, after more than half
+had been eaten on the way to the house, a stewpan was filled. I had to
+do most of the skimming, as Captain George wanted to practice a duet
+with Miss A----. I may as well mention here that we never had any
+opportunity of seeing how the jam kept, because the smell pervaded the
+whole house to such an extent, that, declaring they felt like schoolboys
+again, the gentlemen fell on my half dozen pots of preserves in a
+body, carried them off, and ate them all up then and there, announcing
+afterwards, there had just been a pot a-piece.
+
+It was really a dreadful time, although we got well cooked _plats_, for
+Captain George wasted quite as much as he used. The pigs fed sumptuously
+that week on his failures, in sauces, minces; puddings, and what not. He
+had insisted on our making him a paper cap and a linen apron, or rather
+a dozen linen aprons, for he was perpetually blackening his apron and
+casting it aside. Then, he used suddenly to cease to take any interest
+in his occupation, and, seating himself sideways on the kitchen dresser,
+begin to whistle through a whole opera, or repeat pages of poetry. I
+tried the experiment of banishing Miss A---- from the kitchen during
+cooking hours, but a few bars played on the piano were quite enough to
+distract my cook from his work. My only quiet time was the afternoon,
+when about four o'clock, my amateur servants all went out for a ride,
+and left me in peace for a couple of hours. I had enough to do during
+that short time to tidy up; to collect the scattered books and music,
+and prepare the tea-supper, for which they came back in tearing spirits,
+and frantically hungry, between seven and eight o'clock. After this meal
+had been cleared away, and Mr. U---- and I had washed up (the others
+declaring they were too tired to stir), we all used to adjourn to the
+verandah. It happened to be an exceptionally _still_ week, no dry, hot
+nor'-westers, nor cold, wet sou'-westers, and it was perfectly delicious
+to sit out in the verandah and rest, after the labours of the day,
+in our cane easy-chairs. The balmy air was so soft and fresh, and the
+intense silence all around so profound. Unfortunately there was a full
+moon. I say "unfortunately," because the flood of pale light suggested
+to these dreadful young men the feasibility of having what they called
+a "servant's ball." In vain I declared that the housekeeper was never
+expected to dance. "Oh, yes!" laughed Captain George. "I've often danced
+with a housekeeper, and very jolly it was too. Come along! F----, _make_
+her dance." And I was forced to gallopade up and down that verandah till
+I felt half dead with fatigue. The boards had a tremendous spring, and
+the verandah (built by F----, by the way), was very wide and roomy, so
+it made an excellent ball-room. As for the trifling difficulty about
+music, that was supplied by Captain George and Mr. U---- whistling in
+turn, time being kept by clapping the top and bottom of my silver butter
+dish together, cymbal-wise. Oh, dear! It takes my breath away now even
+to think of those evenings! I see Alice A---- flitting about in her
+white dress and fern-leaf wreath, dancing like the slender sylph she
+really was, but never can I forget the odd effect of the gentlemen's
+feet! No one had their dress boots up at the station, and as Alice and
+I firmly declined to dance with anybody who wore "Cookham" boots (great
+heavy things with nails in the soles), they had no other course open to
+them except to wear their smart slippers. There were slippers of purple
+velvet, embroidered with gold; others of blue kid, delicately traced in
+crimson lines; foxes heads stared at us in startling perspective from a
+scarlet ground; or black jim-crow figures disported themselves on orange
+tent-stitch. Then these slippers were all more or less of an easy fit,
+and had a way of flying out on the lawn suddenly, startling my dear dog
+Nettle out of his first sleep.
+
+Ah, well! that may be an absurd bit of one's life to look back upon, but
+its days were bright and innocent enough. Health was so perfect that the
+mere sensation of being alive became happiness, and all the noise of the
+eager, bustling, pushing world, seemed shut away by those steep hills
+which folded our quiet valley in their green arms. People have often
+said to me since, "Surely you would not like to have lived there for
+ever?" Perhaps not. I can only say that three years of that calm,
+idyllic life, held no weary hour for me, and I am quite sure that quiet
+time was a great blessing to me in many ways. First of all, in health,
+for a person must be in a very bad way indeed for New Zealand air not to
+do them a world of good; next, in teaching me, amid a great deal of fun
+and laughter, sundry useful accomplishments, not easily learned in our
+luxurious civilization; and, lastly, those few years of seclusion from
+the turmoil of life brought leisure to think out one's own thoughts, and
+to sift them from other peoples' ideas. Under such circumstances, it is
+hard if "the unregarded river of our life," as Matthew Arnold so finely
+call it be not perceived, for one then
+
+          "---- Becomes aware of his life's flow
+          And bears its winding murmur, and he sees
+          The meadows where it glides, the sun, the breeze;
+          And there arrives a lull in the hot race,
+          Wherein he doth for ever chase
+          That flying and elusive shadow, rest."
+
+One good effect of my sufferings with a house full of unruly volunteers,
+was that during the brief stay (only two months), of my next cook, I
+set to work assiduously to learn as many kitchen mysteries as she could
+teach me, and so became independent of Captain George or F----, or any
+other amateur, good, bad, or indifferent.
+
+Nothing could be more extraordinary than the way in which the two
+affectionate sisters, mentioned [earlier] and who succeeded Euphemia and
+Lois, quarrelled. They were very unlike each other in appearance, and
+one fruitful source of bickering arose from their respective styles of
+beauty. Not only did they wrangle and rave at each other all the day
+long, during every moment of their spare time, but after they had gone
+to bed, we could hear them quite plainly calling out to each other from
+their different rooms. If I begged them to be quiet, there might be
+silence for a moment, but it would shortly be broken by Maria, calling
+out, "I say, Dinah, don't you go for to wear green, my girl. I only
+tell you friendly, but you're a deal too yellow for that. It suits _me_,
+'cause I'm so fresh and rosy, but you never _will_ have my 'plexion,
+not if you live to be eighty. Good night. I thought I'd just mention it
+while I remembered." This used to aggravate Dinah dreadfully, and she
+would retaliate by repeating some complimentary speech of Old Ben's, or
+Long Tom's, the stockman, and then there would be no peace for an hour.
+
+Their successors were Clarissa and Eunice. Eunice wept sore for a
+whole month, over her sweeping and cleaning. To this day I have not the
+dimmest idea _why_. She gave me warning, amid floods of tears, directly
+she arrived, though I could not make out any other tangible complaint
+than that "the dray had jolted as never was;" and to Clarissa, I gave
+warning the first day I came into the kitchen.
+
+She received me seated on the kitchen table, swinging her legs, which
+did not nearly touch the floor. She had carefully arranged her position
+so as to turn her back towards me, and she went on picking her teeth
+with a hair-pin. I stood aghast at this specimen of colonial manners,
+which was the more astonishing as I knew the girl had lived in the
+service of a gentleman's family in the North of England for some time
+before she sailed.
+
+"Dear me, Clarissa," I cried, "is that the way you behaved at Colonel
+St. John's?"
+
+Clarissa looked at me very coolly over her shoulder (I must mention she
+was a very pretty girl, blue-eyed and rosy-cheeked, but with _such_ a
+temper!) and, giving her plump shoulders a little shrug, said, "No, in
+course not: _they_ was gentlefolks, they was."
+
+I confess I felt rather nettled at this, and yet it was difficult to
+be angry with a girl who looked like a grown up and very pretty baby. I
+restrained my feelings and said, "Well, I should like you to behave here
+as you did there. Suppose you get off the table and come and look what
+we can find in the store room."
+
+"I _have_ looked round," she declared: "there 'aint much to be seen." My
+patience began to run short, and I said very firmly, "You must get off
+the table directly, Clarissa, and stand and speak properly; or I shall
+send you down to Christchurch again." I suppose that was exactly what
+the damsel wished, for she made no movement; whereat I said in great
+wrath, "Very well, then you shall leave at the end of a month." And so
+she did, having bullied everybody out of their lives during that time.
+
+Whilst we are on the subject of manners, it may not be out of place to
+relate a little episode of my early days "up country." I think I have
+alluded [in "Station Life in New Zealand"] to our book club; but I
+don't know that it has been explained that I used to change the books on
+Sunday afternoon, after our little evening service. It would have been
+impossible to induce the men to come from an immense distance twice a
+week, and it was therefore necessary that they should be able to get
+a fresh book after service. Nothing could have been better than the
+behaviour of my little congregation: they made it a point of giving no
+trouble whatever with their horses or dogs, and they were so afraid
+of being supposed to come for what they could get, that I had some
+difficulty in inducing those who travelled from a distance to have a
+cup of tea in the kitchen before they mounted, to set off on their
+long solitary ride homewards. They were also exceedingly quiet and
+well-behaved; for if even a dozen men or more were standing outside in
+fine weather, or waiting within the kitchen if it were wet or windy,
+not a sound could be heard. If they spoke to each other, it was in the
+lowest whisper, and they would no more have thought of lighting their
+pipes anywhere near the house than they would of flying.
+
+This innate tact and true gentlemanly feeling which struck me so much in
+the labouring man as he appears in New Zealand, made the lapse of good
+manners, to which I am coming, all the more remarkable. Of course they
+never touched their hats to me: they would make me a bow or take their
+hats _off_, but they never touched them. I have often seen a hand raised
+involuntarily to the soft felt hat, which every one wears there, but
+the mechanical action would be arrested by the recollection of the first
+article of the old colonial creed, "Jack is as good as his master." I
+never minded this in the least, and got so completely out of the habit
+of expecting any salutations, that it seemed quite odd to me to receive
+them again on my return. No, what I objected to was, that when I used to
+go into my kitchen, about ten minutes or so after the service had been
+concluded, with the list of club books in my hand, not a single man rose
+from his seat. They seemed to make it a point to sit down somewhere;
+on a table or window seat if all the chairs were occupied, but at all
+events not to be found standing. They would bend their heads and blush,
+and glance shyly at each other for encouragement as I came in, but no
+one got up, or took his hat off. This went on for a few weeks, until I
+felt sure that this curious behaviour did not spring from forgetfulness,
+or inattention. When I mentioned my grievance in the drawing-room to the
+gentlemen, I only got laughed at for my pains, and I was asked what
+else I expected? To this question used to be added sundry anecdotes of
+earlier colonial life, intended to reconcile me to the manners of these
+later days. I remember particularly a legend of a man cook, who was said
+to have walked into the sitting-room of the station where the master was
+practising tunes on an accordion, and exclaimed, "Now, look here, boss,
+if you don't leave off that there noise, which perwents me gettin' a
+wink o' sleep, I'll clear out o' this, sharp, to-morrow mornin'. So now
+yer know," and with that remark he returned to his bunk.
+
+At last I was goaded to declare I felt sure that the men only behaved
+in that way from crass ignorance, and that if they knew how much my
+feelings were hurt, they would alter their manners directly. This
+opinion was received with such incredulity that I felt roused to declare
+I should try the experiment next Sunday afternoon. The only warning
+which at all daunted me was the assurance that I should affront my
+congregation and scare them away. It was the dread of this which made
+my heart beat so fast, and my hands turn so cold as I opened the
+kitchen-door the next Sunday afternoon. There were exactly the same
+attitudes, every body perfectly civil and respectful, but every body
+seated. Luckily my courage rose at the right moment, and I came forward
+as usual with a smile, and said, "Look here, my men, there is one little
+thing I want to ask you. Do you know that it is not the custom anywhere,
+in any civilized country, for gentlemen to remain seated and covered
+when a lady comes into the room? If I were to go into a room in England,
+where the Prince of Wales, or any of the finest gentlemen of the land
+were sitting, just as you are now, they would all get up, the Prince
+first, most likely, and they would certainly take off their hats! Now
+why can't you all do the same, here?"
+
+The effect of my little speech was magical. Pepper glanced at McQuhair,
+Moffatt crimsoned and nudged McKenzie, Wiry Ben slipped off the
+window-seat and shyed his hat across the kitchen, whilst Long Tom, the
+bullock-driver, "thanked me kindly for mentioning of it;" and every body
+got up directly and took their hats off. I felt immensely proud of my
+success, and hastened the moment of my return to the drawing room, where
+I announced my triumph. I repeated my little speech as concisely as
+possible; but, alas, it was not nearly so well received as it had been
+in the kitchen! "Have you ever gone to see a London club?" one person
+inquired. "Ah: I thought not! I don't know about the Prince, because he
+always _does_ do the prettiest things at the right moment, but I
+doubt very much about all the others. I fear you have made a very wild
+assertion to get your own way." I need hardly say I sulked at that
+incredulous individual for many days but he always stuck firmly to his
+own opinion. However, my men never required another hint. They came just
+as regularly as usual to church, and we all lived happily ever after.
+
+I feel that my chapter should end here; but any record of my New Zealand
+servants would be incomplete without mention of my "bearded cook." Every
+body thinks, when I say this, that I am going to tell them about a man,
+but it is nothing of the sort. Isabella Lyon, in spite of her pronounced
+beard, was a very fine woman; exceedingly good-humoured looking and
+fresh-coloured, with most amiable prepossessing manners. She had not
+long arrived, and had been at once snapped up for an hotel, but she
+applied for my place, saying she wished for quiet and a country life.
+Could any thing be more propitious? I thought, like Lois, that my luck,
+so long in turning, was improving, and that at last I was to have a cook
+who knew her business. And so she did, thoroughly and delightfully. For
+one brief fortnight we lived on dainties. Never could I have believed
+that such a variety of dishes could have been produced out of mutton.
+In fact we seemed to have everything at table except the staple dish.
+Unlike the cook who actually sent me in a roast shoulder of mutton
+for breakfast one morning, Isabella prided herself on eliminating the
+monotonous animal from her bills of fare. Certainly she was rather
+heavy on the sauces, etc., and I was trying to pluck up courage to
+remonstrate, as it would not be easy or cheap to replace them before
+a certain time of year. And then she was so clean, so smiling, and so
+good-tempered. She seemed to treat us all as if we were a parcel of
+children for whom she was never weary of preparing surprises. As for me,
+I felt miserable if any shepherd or well-to-do handsome young bachelor
+cockatoo came near the place, dreading lest the wretch should have
+designs on my cook's heart and hand. I rejoiced in her beard, and would
+not have had her without it for worlds, as I selfishly hoped it might
+stand in her matrimonial path.
+
+This Arcadian state of kitchen affairs went on for exactly a fortnight.
+One evening, at the end of that time, we had been out riding, and
+returned as usual very hungry. "What are we going to have for supper?"
+inquired F----. I told him what had been ordered; but when that meal
+made its appearance, lo, there was not a single dish which I had named!
+The things were not exactly nasty, but they were queer. For instance,
+pears are not usually stewed in gravy; but they were by no means bad,
+and we took it for granted it was something quite new. The housemaid,
+Sarah, looked very nervous and scared, and glanced at me from time
+to time with a very wistful look; but I was so delightfully tired and
+sleepy--one never seemed to get beyond the pleasant stage of those
+sensations--that I did not ask any questions.
+
+Next morning, when we came out to breakfast, imagine my astonishment
+at seeing a tureen of half cold soup on the table, and nothing else!
+I could hardly believe my eyes, and hastened to the kitchen to explain
+that this was rather too much of a novelty in the gastronomic line. If I
+live to be a hundred years old, I shall never forget the sight--at once
+terrible and absurd--which met my eyes. Before the kitchen fire stood
+Isabella, having evidently slept in her clothes all night. She looked
+wretched and bloated, and quite curiously dirty, as black as if she had
+been up the chimney; and even I could see that, early as was the hour,
+she was hopelessly drunk. Between both of her nerveless, black hands,
+she held a poker, with which she struck, from time to time, a feeble
+blow on a piled-up heap of plates, which she persisted in considering
+a lump of coal. The fire was nearly out, but she hastened to assure me
+that if she could only break this lump of coal it would soon burn up.
+Need I say that I rescued my plates at once, and marched the bearded one
+off to her own apartment.
+
+Oh, how dimmed its dainty freshness had become since even yesterday!
+Sarah was summoned, and confessed that she had known last night that
+"Hisabella" had gone on the "burst," having bought, for some fabulous
+sum, a bottle of rum from a passing swagger. It was all very dreadful,
+and worst of all was the scene of tears and penitence I had to endure
+when the rum was finished. The dray, however, relieved me of the incubus
+of her presence; and that was the only instance of drunkenness I came
+across among my domestic changes and chances.
+
+
+
+Chapter XIV: Our pets.
+
+
+One of the first things which struck me when I came to know a little
+more about the feelings and ways of my neighbours in the Malvern Hills,
+was the good understanding which existed between man and beast. I am
+afraid I must except the poor sheep, for I never heard them spoken of
+with affection, nor do I consider that they were the objects of any
+special humanity even on their owners' parts. This must surely arise
+from their enormous numbers. "How can you be fond of thousands of
+anything?" said a shepherd once to me, in answer to some sentimental
+inquiry of mine respecting his feelings towards his flock. That is the
+fact. There were too many sheep in our "happy Arcadia" for any body to
+value or pet them. On a large scale they were looked after carefully.
+Water, and sheltered feed, and undisturbed camping grounds, all these
+good things were provided for them, and in return they were expected to
+yield a large percentage of lambs and a good "clip." Even the touching
+patience of the poor animals beneath the shears, or amid the dust and
+noise of the yards, was generally despised as stupidity.
+
+Far different is the feeling of the New Zealander, whether he be
+squatter or cockatoo, towards his horse and his dog. They are the
+faithful friends, and often the only companions of the lonely man. Of
+course there will soon be no "lonely men" anywhere, but a few years ago
+there were plenty of unwilling Robinson Crusoes in the Middle Island;
+and whenever I came upon one of these pastoral hermits, I was sure to
+find a dog or a horse, a cat, or even a hen, established as "mate" to
+some poor solitary, from whom all human companionship was shut out by
+mountain, rock, or river.
+
+"Are you not _very_ lonely here?" was often my first instinctive
+question, as I have dismounted at the door of a shepherd's hut in the
+back country, and listened to the eternal roar of the river which formed
+his boundary, or the still more oppressive silence which seemed to have
+reigned ever since the creation.
+
+"Well, mum, it aint very lively; but I've got Topsy (producing a black
+kitten from his pocket), and there's the dogs, and I shall have some
+fowls next year, p'raps."
+
+But my object in beginning this chapter was not to enter into a
+disquisition on other people's pets, with which after all one can have
+but a distant acquaintance, but to introduce some of my own especial
+favourites to those kind and sympathetic readers who take pleasure in
+hearing of my own somewhat solitary existence in that distant land. I
+am quite ready to acknowledge that I never thoroughly comprehended the
+individuality of animals, even of fowls and ducks, until I lived up at
+the Station. Perhaps, like their masters, they really get to possess
+more independence of character under those free and easy skies; for
+where would you meet with such a worldly and selfish cat as "Sandy," or
+so fastidious and intelligent a smooth terrier as "Rose"? Sandy was an
+old bachelor of a sleek appearance, red in colour, but with a good deal
+of white shirt-front and wristbands, as to the get-up of which he was
+most particular. It was easy to imagine Sandy sitting in a club window;
+and I am _sure_ he had a slight tendency to gout and reading French
+novels. Sandy's selfishness was quite open and above-board. He liked
+you very much until somebody else came whom he liked better, and then he
+would desert his oldest friend without hesitation. I don't suppose the
+wildest young colley-pup ever dreamed of chasing or worrying Sandy, who
+would not have stirred from his warm corner by the fire for Snarleyow
+himself. Every now and then Sandy must have felt alarmed about his
+health or his figure, for he ate less, and walked gravely and sulkily
+up and down the verandah for hours, but as soon as he considered himself
+out of danger, he relapsed into all his self-indulgent ways. No one
+ventured to offer Sandy anything but the choicest meats, and he was wont
+to sit up and beg like a dog for a savoury tit-bit. But he would revenge
+himself on you afterwards for the humiliation, you might be sure.
+
+What always appeared to me so odd, was that in spite of his known and
+unblushing selfishness, Sandy used to be a great favourite, and we all
+vied with each other for the honour of his notice. Now why was this? If
+boundless time and space were at our disposal, we might go deeply into
+the question and work it out, but as the dimensions of this volume are
+not elastic, the impending social essay shall be postponed, and we will
+confine ourselves to a brief description of Sandy's outer cat. He was of
+a pure breed, far removed from the long-legged, lanky race of ordinary
+station-cats, who from time to time disappeared into the bush and
+contracted alliances with the still more degraded specimens of their
+class who had long been wild among the scrub. No: Sandy came of "pur
+sang," and held his small square head erect, with a haughty carriage
+as beseemed his ancestry. His fur was really beautiful, a sort of
+tortoiseshell red, the lighter stripes repeating exactly the different
+golden tints of a fashionable chignon. In early youth, though it is
+difficult to imagine Sandy ever a playful kitten, his tail had been
+curtailed to the length of three inches, and this short, flexible
+stump gave an air of great decision to Sandy's movements. But his chief
+peculiarity, and I must add, attraction, in my opinion, was the perfume
+of his sleek coat. When Sandy condescended to take his evening doze on
+my linsey lap, I never smelt anything so strange and so agreeable as the
+odour of his fur, specially that on the top of his head. It was like the
+most delicate musk, but without any of the sickly smell common to that
+scent. I believe Sandy knew of this personal peculiarity, and felt proud
+of it.
+
+A far more unselfish and agreeable personage was Rose, the white
+terrier, whose name often finds a loving place in these pages. She and
+Sandy dwelt together in peace and amity, although the little doggie
+never could have felt any affection for her selfish companion. Rose's
+nerves were of a delicate and high-strung order, and there was nothing
+she hated so much as uproarious noise. Every now and then it chanced
+that during a few days of wet or windy weather, our little house had
+been filled by passing guests: gentlemen who had called in to ask for
+supper and a bed, intending to go on next day. In a country where
+inns or accommodation-houses are fifty miles apart, this is a common
+incident, and it sometimes happens that the resources of station
+hospitality are taxed to the utmost in this way. I have known our own
+little wooden box to be so closely packed, that besides a guest on each
+sofa in the drawing-room, there would be another on a sort of portable
+couch in the dining-room. This was after the spare room had been filled
+to the utmost. A delicate "new chum," who required to be pampered, had
+retired to rest on the hard kitchen sofa described elsewhere; whilst a
+couple of sturdy travellers were sleeping soundly in the saddle
+room. After that, there could be nothing for the last comer except a
+shake-down in red blankets.
+
+It _always_ happened I observed that everybody arrived together. For
+weeks we would be alone. I lived once for eight months without seeing
+a lady; and then, some fine evening, half a dozen acquaintances would
+"turn up,"--there really is no other word for it. Well, on these
+occasions, when, instead of departing next morning, our impromptu guests
+have sometimes been forced to wait until such time as the rain or the
+wind should cease; their pent-up animal spirits became often too much
+for them, and they would feel an irresistible impulse to get rid of some
+of their superfluous health and strength by violent exercise. I set
+my face at once against "athletic sports" or "feats of strength" being
+performed in my little drawing-room, although they were always very
+anxious to secure me for the solitary spectator; and I forget who hit
+upon the happy thought of turning the empty wool-shed into a temporary
+gymnasium. There these wild boys--for, in spite of stalwart frames
+and bushy beards, the Southern Colonist's heart keeps very fresh and
+young--used to adjourn, and hop and leap, wrestle and box, fence and
+spar, to their active young limbs' content. They seemed very happy, and
+loud were the joyous shouts and peals of laughter over the failures; but
+after seeing the performance once or twice, I generally became tired
+and bored, and used to slip away to the house and my quiet corner by
+the fire. Rose considered it her duty to remain at her master's heels as
+long as possible, but after a time she too would creep back to silence
+and warmth, though she never deserted her post until the noise grew
+altogether too much for her nerves; and then, with a despairing whimper,
+sometimes swelling to a howl, poor little Rose would tuck her tail
+between her legs, and dash out, through the storm, to seek shelter and
+quiet with me.
+
+Whenever Rose appeared thus suddenly in my quiet retreat, I felt sure
+some greater uproar than usual was going on down at the wool-shed, and,
+more than once, on inquiry, I found Rose's nerves must have been tried
+to the utmost before she turned and fled.
+
+As for the intelligence of sheep-dogs, a volume could be written on
+the facts concerning them, and a still more entertaining book on the
+fictions, for a New Zealand shepherd will always consider it a point of
+honour to cap his neighbour's anecdote of _his_ dog's sagacity, by a yet
+stronger proof of canine intelligence. I shall only, briefly allude
+to one dog, whose history will probably be placed in the colonial
+archives,--a colley, who knows his master's brand; and who will, when
+the sheep get boxed, that is mixed together, pick out; with unfailing
+accuracy, all the bleating members of his own flock from amid the
+confused, terrified mass. As for the patience of a good dog in crossing
+sheep over a river, I have witnessed that myself, and been forced to
+draw conclusions very much in favour of the dog over the human beings
+who were directing the operation. Some dogs again, who are perfectly
+helpless with sheep, are unrivalled with cattle, and I have stood on
+the edge of a swamp more than once, and seen a dog go after a couple of
+milch cows, and fetch them out of a herd of bullocks, returning for the
+second "milky mother" after the first had been brought right up within
+reach of the stockman's lash.
+
+Then among my horse friends was a certain Suffolk "Punch," who had
+been christened the "Artful Dodger," from his trick of counterfeiting
+lameness the moment he was put in the shafts of a dray. That is to say
+if the dray was loaded; so long as it was empty, or the load was light,
+the "Dodger" stepped out gaily, but if he found the dray at all heavy,
+he affected to fall dead lame. The old strain of staunch blood was too
+strong in his veins to allow him to refuse or jib, or stand still. Oh,
+no! The "Dodger" arranged a compromise with his conscience, and though
+he pulled manfully, he resorted to this lazy subterfuge. More than once
+with a "new chum" it had succeeded to perfection, and the "Dodger" found
+himself back again in his stable with a rack of hay before him, whilst
+his deluded owner or driver was running all over the place to find a
+substitute in the shafts. If I had not seen it myself, I could not have
+believed it. In order to induce the "Dodger" to act his part thoroughly,
+a drayman was appointed whom the horse had never seen, and therefore
+imagined could be easily imposed upon. The moment the signal was given
+to start, the "Dodger," after a glance round, which plainly said, "I
+wonder if I may try it upon you," took a step forward and almost fell
+down, so desperate was his lameness. The driver, who was well instructed
+in his part, ran round, and lifted up one sturdy bay leg after the
+other, with every appearance of the deepest concern. This encouraged
+the "Dodger," who uttered a groan, but still seemed determined to do
+his best, and limped and stumbled a yard or two further on. I confess it
+seemed impossible to believe the horse to be quite sound, and if it had
+depended on me, the "Dodger" would instantly have been unharnessed
+and put back in his stable. But the moment had come to unmask him. His
+master stepped forward, and pulling first one cunning ear, on the alert
+for every word, and then the other; cried, "It wont do, sir! step out
+directly, and don't let us have any nonsense." The "Dodger" groaned
+again, this time from his heart probably, shook himself, and, leaning
+well forward in his big collar, stepped out without a murmur. The
+lameness had disappeared by magic, nor was there even the slightest
+return of it until he saw a new driver, and considered it safe to try
+his oft-successful "dodge" once more.
+
+Very different was "Star," poor, wilful, beauty, whose name and fate
+will long be remembered among the green hills, where her short life was
+passed. Born and bred on the station, she was the pride and joy of her
+owner's heart. Slender without being weedy, compact without clumsiness,
+her small head well set on her graceful neck, and her fine legs, with
+their sinews like steel, she attracted the envy of all the neighbouring
+squatters. "What will you take for that little grey filly when she is
+broken?" was a constant question. "She's not for sale," her owner used
+to answer. "I'll break her myself, and make her as gentle as a dog, and
+she'll do for my wife when I get one." But this proved a castle in the
+air, so far as Star was concerned. The wife was not so mythical. In due
+time _she_ appeared in that sheltered valley, and, standing at the head
+of a mound marked by a stake whereon a star was rudely carved, heard the
+story of the poor creature's fate. From the first week of her life,
+Star (so-called from a black, five-pointed mark on her forehead), showed
+signs of possessing a strange wild nature. Unlike her sire or dam, she
+evidently had a violent temper,--and not to put too fine a point on
+it,--was as vicious a grey mare as ever flung up her heels in a New
+Zealand valley.
+
+When her second birthday was passed, Star's education commenced. The
+process called "gentling," was a complete misnomer for the series of
+buck jumps, of bites and kicks, with which the young lady received
+the slightest attempt to touch her. She had a horrible habit also of
+shrieking, really almost like a human being in a frantic rage; she would
+rush at you with a wild scream of fury, and after striking at you with
+her front hoofs, would wheel round like lightning, and dash her hind
+legs in your face. The stoutest stockman declined to have anything
+whatever to do with Star; the most experienced breaker "declined her,
+with thanks;" generally adding a long bill for repairs of rack and
+manger, and breaking tackle, and not unfrequently a hospital report of
+maimed and wounded stablemen. Amateur horsemen of celebrity arrived at
+the station to look at the beautiful fiend, and departed, saying they
+would rather not have anything to say to her. At last, she was given
+over in despair, to lead her own free life, never having endured the
+indignity of bit or bridle for more than two minutes.
+
+Months passed away, and Star and her tantrums had been nearly
+forgotten, when one mild winter evening the stockman came in to report
+that,--wonder of wonders,--Star was standing meekly outside, whinnying,
+and as "quiet as a dog." Her master went out to find the man's report
+exact: Star walked straight up to him, and rubbed her soft nose
+confidingly against his sleeve. The mystery explained itself at a
+glance: she was on the point of having her first foal, and, with some
+strange and pathetic instinct, she bethought herself of the kind hands
+whose caresses she had so often rejected, and came straight to them for
+help and succour. Her shy and touching advances were warmly responded
+to, and in a few minutes the poor beast was safely housed in the warm
+shed which then represented the present row of neat stables long
+since on that very spot. A warm mash was eagerly swallowed, and the
+good-hearted stockman volunteered to remain up until all should be
+happily over; but his courage failed him at the sight of her horrible
+sufferings, and in the early dawn he came to rouse up his master, and
+beg him to come and see if anything more could be done. There lay Star,
+all her fierce spirit quenched, with an appealing look in her large
+black eyes, which seemed positively human in their capacity for
+expressing suffering. It was many hours before a dead foal was born, and
+there is no doubt that if she had been out on the bleak hills, the poor
+exhausted young mother must have perished from weakness. She appeared to
+understand thoroughly the motive of all that was being done for her, and
+submitted with patience to all the remedies. Gradually, but slowly,
+her strength returned; and, alas, her evil nature, tamed by anguish,
+returned also! Day by day she became shyer of even the hand which had
+fed and succoured her; and, as this is a true chronicle, it must be
+stated that the very first use Mrs. Star made of her convalescence
+was, to kick her nurse on the leg, break her halter into fragments,
+and gallop off to the hills with a loud neigh of defiance. Whenever the
+topic of feminine ingratitude came on the carpet at that station, this,
+which Star had done, used always to be told as an instance in point.
+
+Two years later, exactly the same thing happened again. The dreaded hour
+of suffering found the wayward beauty once more under the roof which had
+sheltered her in her former time of trial, and once more she rested her
+head in penitence and appeal against her owner's shoulder. Who could
+bear malice in the presence of such dreadful pain? Not Star's owner,
+certainly. Besides the home resources, a man on horseback was sent off
+to fetch a famous veterinary who chanced to be staying at a neighbouring
+station, and they both returned before Star's worst sufferings began.
+All that skill and experience could do was done that night; but the
+morning light found the poor little grey mare dying from exhaustion,
+with another dead foal lying by her side. She only lived a few hours
+later, in spite of stimulants and the utmost care, and died gently
+and peacefully, with those human hands whose lightest touch she had
+so flouted, ministering tenderly to her great needs. The stockman had
+become so fond of the wayward beauty, in spite of her ingratitude, that
+the only solace he could find for his regret at her early death, lay in
+digging a deep grave for her, and carving the emblem of her pretty name
+on the rude stake which still marks the spot.
+
+No account of station pets would be complete without a brief allusion to
+my numerous and unsuccessful attempts to rear merino lambs in the house.
+It never was of any use advising me to leave the poor little creatures
+out on the bleak hill-side, if, in the course of my rambles after ferns
+or creepers, I came upon a dead ewe with her half-starved baby running
+round and round her. How could I turn my back on the little orphan, who,
+instead of bounding off up the steep hill, used to run confidingly up to
+me, and poke its black muzzle into my hand, as if it would say, "Here is
+a friend at last"? And then merino lambs are so much prettier than any I
+have seen in England. Their snow-white wool is as tightly screwed up
+in small curls as any Astracan fleece, and from being of so much more
+active a race, they are smaller and more compact than English lambs, and
+not so awkward and leggy. A merino lamb of a couple of hours old is far
+better fitted to take care of itself up a mountain than a civilized and
+helpless lamb of a month old, besides these latter being so weak about
+the knees always. I only mention this, not out of any desire to "blow"
+about our sheep, but because I want to account for my tender-heartedness
+on the subject of desolate orphans. The ewes scarcely ever died of
+disease, unless by a rare chance it happened to be a very old lady whose
+constitution gave way at last before a severe winter. We oftenest found
+that the dead mother was a fine fat young ewe; who had slipped up on a
+hill-side and could not recover herself, but had died of exhaustion and
+fatigue from her violent efforts to kick herself up again. If we chanced
+to be in time to rescue her by the simple process of setting her on her
+legs again, it would be all right, but sometimes the poor creature had
+been cold and stiff for hours before we found her, and her lamb had
+bleated itself hoarse and hungry, and was as tame as a pet dog. Now
+_who_ could turn away from a little helpless thing like that, who
+positively leaped into your arms and cuddled itself up in delight,
+sucking vigorously away at your glove, or anything handy? Not I, for
+one,--though I might as well have left it alone, so far as its ultimate
+fate was concerned; but I always hoped for better luck next time, and
+carried it off in my arms.
+
+The first thing to be do be on arrival at home, was to give the starving
+little creature a good meal out of a tea-pot, and the next, to put it
+to sleep in a box of hay in a warm corner of the kitchen. What always
+seemed to me so extraordinary, was that the lambs, one and all,
+preserved the most cheerful demeanour, ate and drank and slept
+well,--and yet died within a month. Some lingered until quite four weeks
+had passed, others succumbed to my treatment in a week. I varied their
+food, mixing oatmeal with the milk; some I fed often, others seldom; to
+some I gave sugar in the milk, others had new milk. There was abundance
+of grass just outside the house for them to eat, if they could. Some
+did mumble feebly at it, I remember, but the mortality continued
+uninterrupted. It must have been very ridiculous to a visitor, to see
+my dear little snowy pets going down on their front knees before me, and
+wagging their long tails furiously the moment the tea-pot was brought
+out. They were far too sensible to do this if my hands were empty.
+Gentle, affectionate little creatures, they used to be wonderfully
+well-behaved, though now and then they would wander through the
+verandah, and so into my bedroom, where the drapery of my dressing-table
+afforded them endless amusement and occupation. They gnawed and sucked
+all my "daisy" fringe, until the first thing that had to be done when
+a lamb arrived at the house, was to take off muslins and fringes from
+that, the only trimmed table in the house.
+
+Often and often, of a cold night (for we must remember that New Zealand
+lambing used always to come off in winter), we would all become suddenly
+aware of a strong smell of burning pervading the whole house; which, on
+being traced to its source, was often found to proceed from the rosette
+of wool on the forehead of a chilly lamb. The creature drew nearer and
+nearer to the genial warmth of the kitchen fire, until at last it used
+to lean its brow pensively against the red hot bars. Hence arose the
+powerful odour gradually filling the whole of the little wooden house.
+Of course I used to rush to the rescue, and draw my bewildered pet away
+from the fatal warmth, but not until it had usually singed the wool
+off down to the bone, and there was often a bad burn on its forehead
+as well. But still, in spite of stupidity and an insatiable appetite, I
+always grieved very sincerely for each of my orphan lambs as it in turn
+sank into its early grave. I used to be well laughed at for attaching
+any sentiment to an animal which had sunk so disgracefully low in the
+money-market as a New Zealand lamb, but the abundant supply of my little
+pets never made it easier for me to lose the particular one which I had
+set my heart on rearing. It certainly did afford me some comfort to hear
+that merino lambs had always been difficult, if not impossible to
+bring up, like so many "pups," by hand; and among all the statistics I
+carefully collected, I could only find one well-authenticated instance
+of a foundling having been reared indoors. My informant tried to comfort
+me by tales of the tyranny that stout and tame sheep exercised over the
+household which had sheltered it, but I fear that the stories of its
+delightful impudence only made me more anxious to succeed in my own
+baby-farming experiments among the lambs.
+
+
+
+Chapter XV: A feathered pet.
+
+
+No record of those dear, distant days would be complete without a short
+memoir of "Kitty." She was only a grey Dorking hen, but no heroine in
+fact or fiction, no Lady Rachel Russell or _Fleurange,_ ever exceeded
+Kitty in unswerving devotion to a beloved object, or rather objects.
+
+To see Kitty was to admire her, at least as I saw her one beautiful
+spring evening in a grassy paddock on the banks of the Horarata. We
+had ridden over there to visit our kind and friendly neighbours,
+the C----'s; we had enjoyed a delicious cup of tea in the
+passion-flower-covered verandah, which looked on the whole range, from
+East to West, of the glorious Southern Alps, their shining white summits
+sharply cut against our own peculiarly beautiful sky; we had strolled
+round the charming, unformal garden, on either sloping side of a wide
+creek, and had admired, with just a tinge of envy, the fruits and
+flowers, the standard apple and rose trees, the tangle of fern and
+creepers, the wealth of the old and new worlds heaped together in floral
+profusion; we had done all this, I say, and very pleasant we had found
+it. Now we were trying to say goodbye: not so easy a task, let me tell
+you, when there are so many temptations to linger, and when you are
+greatly pressed to stay. The last device of our hospitable hostess to
+keep us consisted in offering to show me her poultry-yard. Now I was a
+young beginner in that line myself, and tormented my ducks and fowls
+to death by my incessant care: at least that is the conclusion I have
+arrived at since; but at that time, I considered it as necessary to
+look after them as if they had been so many children. The consequence
+was,--as I pathetically complained to Mrs. C----, that my hens sat
+furiously for a week, and then took to lingering outside, where
+perpetual feeding was going on, until their eggs grew cold; that my
+ducks neglected their offspring and allowed the rats to decimate them,
+and that every variety of epidemic and misfortune assailed in turns my
+unhappy poultry yard. Kind Mrs. C---- listened as gravely as she could,
+hinting _very_ gently, that perhaps I took too much trouble about them;
+then, fearing least she might have wounded my feelings, she hastened to
+suggest that I should try the introduction of a different breed.
+
+As a preliminary step to this reformation, she offered to bestow upon
+me one of her best Dorking hens. It was too tempting an offer to be
+refused, and I forthwith bestowed my affections on a beautiful grey
+pullet, whose dignified carriage and speckled exterior bespoke her high
+lineage. "That's Kitty," said Mrs. C----. "I am so glad you fancy
+her; she is one of my nicest young hens. We'll catch her for you in a
+moment." I must pause to mention here, that it struck me as being
+very odd in New Zealand the way in which _every_ creature has a name,
+excepting always the poor sheep. If one sees a cock strutting proudly
+outside a shepherd's door; you are sure to hear it is either Nelson or
+Wellington; every hen has a pet name, and answers to it; so have the
+ducks and geese,--at least, up-country; of course, dogs, horses, cows
+and bullocks, each rejoice in the most inflated appellations, but I
+don't remember ever hearing ducks and fowls answer to their names in any
+other country.
+
+But this is only by the way. I gratefully and gladly accepted the
+transfer of the fair Kitty, and only wondered how I was to convey her to
+her new home, fifteen miles away. Kitty was soon caught, and carried off
+into the house to be packed up for her first ride. Accustomed as I am
+to ridiculous things happening to me, still I never felt in so absurd a
+position as when, having mounted "Helen," who seemed in a particularly
+playful mood after a good feed of oats, Kitty was handed to me neatly
+tied up in a pillow-case with her tufted head protruding from a hole
+in the seam at the side. Although very anxious to carry her home
+immediately, my heart died within me at the prospect of a long gallop on
+a skittish mare with a plump Dorking hen tied up in a bag on my lap.
+
+There was no help for it, however, and I tried to put my bravest face on
+the matter. The difficulties commenced at the very point of departure,
+for it is not easy to say farewell cordially with your hands full of
+reins, whip, and poultry. But it proved comparatively easy going whilst
+we only cantered over the plains. It was not until the first creek
+had been reached, that I really perceived what lay before me. Helen
+distrusted the contents of the bag, and kept trying to look round and
+see what it contained; and her fears of something uncanny might well
+have been confirmed when she took off at her first flat jump. Kitty
+screamed, or shrieked, or whatever name best expresses her discordant
+and piercing yells. I more than suspect I shrieked too, partly at the
+difficulty of keeping both Kitty and Helen in any sort of order, and
+partly at my own insecurity. No sooner had Helen landed on the other
+side, than she fled homewards as if a tin kettle were tied to her tail.
+The speed at which we dashed through the fragrant summer air completely
+took away Kitty's breath, and the poor creature appeared more dead than
+alive by the time I dismounted, trembling myself in every limb for her
+safety as well as my own, at the garden gate.
+
+However, next morning brought a renewed delight in existence to both
+Kitty and me, and our night's sleep had made us forget our agitation
+and peril. After breakfast I introduced her to the poultry yard, and
+she adapted herself to her new home with a tact and good humour most
+edifying to behold. Months passed away. Kitty had made herself a nest in
+a place, the selection of which did equal honour to her head and heart,
+and she gladdened my eyes one fine morning by appearing with a lovely
+brood of chicks around her. Who so proud as the young mother? She
+exhibited them to me, and after I had duly admired them, used to carry
+them off to a nursery of her own, which she had established among the
+tussocks just outside the stable door. Mrs. C---- had impressed upon me
+that Kitty could be safely trusted to manage her own affairs. No fear of
+her dragging her fluffy babies out among the wet grass too early in
+the morning, or losing them among the flax bushes on the hill-side. No:
+Kitty came of a race who were model mothers, and was to be left to take
+care of herself and her chickens.
+
+About a week after Kitty had first shown me her large, small family,
+a friend of ours arrived unexpectedly to stop the night. Next morning,
+when he was going away, he apologised for asking leave to mount at the
+stables, saying his led horse was so vicious, and the one he was riding
+so gay, that it was quite possible their legs might find themselves
+within the verandah, or do some mischief to the young shrubs which were
+the pride and joy of my heart. This gentleman rode beautifully, and
+I used to like to see the courage and patience with which he always
+conquered the most unruly horse.
+
+"We will come up to the stable and see you mount," I cried, seizing my
+hat. Of course every one followed my lead, and it was to the sound of
+mingled jeers and compliments that poor Mr. T---- mounted his fiery
+steed, and seized hold of the leading rein of his pack-horse. But
+this animal had no intention of taking his departure with propriety or
+tranquillity: he pranced and shied, flinging out his heels as he wildly
+danced round to every point of the compass, in a circle. Gradually he
+drew Mr. T---- and his chestnut a dozen yards away from the stable,
+and it was just then that I perceived poor Kitty sitting close under a
+tussock. It chanced to be the hour for the chickens' siesta, and they
+were all folded away beneath her ample brooding wings. Perhaps the
+danger had come too near to be avoided before I perceived it, but at
+all events my loud shriek of warning was too late to save the pretty
+crouching head from the flourish of the pack-horse's glancing heels.
+Swift indeed was the blow; for scarcely ten seconds could have passed
+between my first glimpse of poor Kitty's bright black eye looking out,
+with such mortal terror in its expression, from beneath the yellow tuft
+of grass, and my seeing the horse's heel lay her head right open. The
+brave little mother never dreamed of saving herself at the cost of
+her nestlings. She crouched as low as possible, and when the horse
+had jumped over her I flew to see if she had escaped. No. There lay my
+pretty pet, with her wings still outspread and her chickens unhurt. But
+she seemed dead: her head had been actually cut clean open, and I never
+expected that she would have lived a moment. Yet she did. I took her
+at once to the well hard by, and bound up her split head with my pocket
+handkerchief, keeping it well wetted with cold water. Later on I put
+forth all the surgical art I possessed, and dressed the wound in the
+most scientific manner, nursing poor Kitty tenderly in the kitchen, and
+feeding her with my own hands every two hours. She was for a long
+time incapable of feeding herself and; even when all danger was over,
+required most careful nursing. However, the end of the story is that,
+she recovered entirely her bodily health, but her poor little brain
+remained clouded for ever. She never took any more notice of her
+chickens, who had to be brought up by hand, and she never mixed again
+with the society of the poultry-yard. At night she roosted apart in the
+coalshed, and she never seemed to hear my voice or distinguish me from
+others, though she was perfectly tame to everybody. Kitty's end was very
+tragical. She grew exceedingly fat, and at last, one time when we were
+all snowed up and could not afford to be sentimental, my cook laid hold
+of poor Kitty, who was moping in her usual corner, and converted her
+into a savoury stew without telling me, until I had actually dined off
+her. I was very angry; but Eliza only repeated by way of consolation,
+"She had no wits, only flesh, consequently she was better in my stew-pot
+nor anywhere else, mum, if you'll only look at it calm like." But it
+was very hard to be made to eat one's patient, especially when I was so
+proud of the way her poor head had healed.
+
+If anybody wanted to teaze me, they suggested that I had omitted to
+replace my dear Kitty's brains before closing that cruel wound in her
+skull.
+
+
+
+Chapter XVI: Doctoring without a diploma.
+
+
+So many reminiscences come crowding into my mind,--some grave and others
+gay,--as I sit down to write these final chapters, that I hardly know
+where to begin.
+
+The most clamorous of the fast-thronging memories, the one which pushes
+its way most vividly to the front, is of a little amateur doctoring of
+mine; and as my patient luckily did not die of my remedies, I need not
+fear that I shall be asked for my diploma.
+
+Shearing was just over; over only that very evening in fact. We had been
+leading a sort of uncomfortable picnic life at the home station for more
+than ten days, and had returned to our own pretty little home up the
+valley, late on Saturday night, in time for the supper-dinner I have so
+often described. It was my doing, that fortnight's picnic at the home
+station, and I may as well candidly confess it was a mistake; although,
+made, like most mistakes in life, with good intentions. Our partner had
+gone to England, our manager had just left us to set up sheep-farming
+on his own account, and all the responsibility of shearing a good many
+thousand sheep devolved on F----. And not only the shearing; the flock
+had to be carefully draughted, the ewes, wethers, and hoggets, to be
+branded, ear-marked, and turned out on their several ranges; the wethers
+for home consumption, which consisted of a good-sized flock of many
+hundred sheep, turned into the home-paddock,--an enclosure of some five
+or six hundred acres,--and various other minute details to be seen to;
+the wool to be sent down to Christchurch, and the stores brought up by
+the return drays.
+
+My motives for the plan I formed for us to go over, bag and baggage, to
+the home station, the evening before the shearing began, and live there
+till it was over, were varied. We will put the most unselfish first,
+for the sake of appearances. I knew it would be very hard work for poor
+F---- all that time, and I thought it would add to his fatigue if he had
+to go backwards and forwards to his own house every day, getting up
+at five in the morning and returning late at night, besides having no
+comfortable meals. The next motive was that I wanted very much to see
+the whole process of shearing, and all the rest of it, myself; and as it
+turned out, though I little dreamed of it at the time, this proved to
+be my only chance. Every body tried to dissuade me from carrying out
+the scheme, by urging that I should be very uncomfortable; but I did not
+care in the least for that, and insisted on being allowed at all events
+to see how I liked it.
+
+Accordingly one evening we set forth: such a ridiculous cavalcade. I
+would not hear of riding, for it was only a short two miles walk; and
+as we did not start until after our last meal, the sun had dipped behind
+Flag-pole's tall peak, and nearly the whole of our happy valley lay in
+deep, cool shadow. Besides which, it looked more like the real thing
+to walk, and that was half the battle with me. The "real thing" in this
+case, though I did not stop to explain it to myself, must have meant
+emigrants, Mormons, soldiers on the march, what you will; any thing
+which expresses all one's belongings being packed into a little cart,
+with a huge tin bath secured on the top of all. Such a miscellaneous
+assortment of dry goods as that cart held! A couple of mattresses (for
+my courage failed me at the idea of sleeping on chopped tussocks for a
+fortnight), a couple of folding-up arm-chairs, though, as it turned out,
+one would have been enough, for poor F---- never sat down from the time
+he got up until he went to bed again; a large hamper of provisions, some
+books, our clothes, and various little matters which were indispensable
+if one had to live in an empty house for a fortnight. I had sent my
+two maids over one morning a few days before, with pails and mops
+and brushes, and they had given the couple of rooms which we were to
+inhabit, a thorough good cleaning and scouring, so my mind was easy
+on that point. It would not have answered, for many reasons, to have
+encumbered ourselves with these damsels during our stay at the home
+station. In the first place, there was really no accommodation for them;
+in the next, it would have entailed more luggage than the little cart
+could hold; and, finally, we should have been obliged to leave them
+behind at the last moment: for only the evening before we started,
+a couple of friends arrived, in true New Zealand fashion, from
+Christchurch, to pay us a month's visit. It was too late to alter our
+plans then, so we told them to, make themselves thoroughly at home, and
+took our departure next day in the way I have alluded to.
+
+We had plenty of escort as far as the first swamp. When that treacherous
+and well-known spot had been reached, everybody suddenly remembered that
+they had forgotten something or the other which obliged them to return
+directly, so our farewells had to be exchanged from the centre of a flax
+bush. The cart meanwhile was nearly out of sight, so wide a _detour_ had
+its driver been forced to make in order to find a place sound enough to
+bear its weight. But we caught it up again after we had happily crossed
+the quagmire which used always to be my bug-bear, and in due time we
+made our appearance, in the gloaming, at the tiny house belonging to the
+home station. Early as was the hour, not later than half-past eight, the
+place lay silent and still under the balmy summer haze. All the shearers
+were fast asleep in the men's hut, whilst every available nook and
+corner was filled with the spare hands; the musterers, branders,
+yard-keepers, and many others, whose duties were less-defined. Far down
+the flat we could dimly discern a white patch,--the fleecy outlines
+of the large mob destined to fill the skillions at day-break to-morrow
+morning; and, although we could not see them distinctly, close by,
+watchful and vigilant all through that and many subsequent summer
+nights, Pepper and his two beautiful colleys kept watch and ward over
+the sheep.
+
+Writing in the heavy atmosphere of this vast London world, I look
+back upon that, and such evenings as that, with a desperate craving to
+breathe once more he delicious air unsoiled by human lungs, and stirred
+into fresh fragrance by every summer sigh of those distant New Zealand
+valleys. No wonder people were always well in such a pure, clear, light
+atmosphere. I try to feel again in fancy the exquisite enjoyment of
+merely drawing a deep breath, the thrilling sensation of health and
+strength it sent tingling down to your finger ends. No fleck or film of
+vapour or miasma could be seen or smelt, though the day had been burning
+hot, and, as I have said, there were plenty of creeks and swamps
+hard by. Damp is unknown in those valleys, and we might have lingered
+bareheaded even after the heavy dew began to fall, without risk of cold,
+or fever, or any other ailment. But we could not afford to linger a
+moment out of doors that lovely tempting evening. F---- and the driver
+of the cart, who had some important part to take in the morrow's
+proceedings (I forget exactly what), soon tossed out my little stores,
+which looked very insignificant as they lay in a heap in the verandah,
+and departed to see that all was in train for next day's work. I had
+no time to enjoy the evening's soft beauty: the beds had to be made;
+clothes to be unpacked and hung up; stores must be arranged on the
+shelves in the sitting-room,--for the house only consisted of two small
+rooms in front, with a wide verandah, and a sort of lean-to at the back,
+which was divided into a small kitchen and store-room. This last was
+empty. I confess I thought rather regretfully of my pretty, comfortable,
+English-looking bed-room at the other house, with its curtains and
+carpet, its wardrobes and looking-glasses, when I found myself surveying
+the scene of my completed labours. Two station _bunks_,--i.e., wooden
+bed-frames of the simplest and rudest construction, with a sacking
+bottom,--a couple of empty boxes, one for a dressing-table and the
+other for a wash-stand, a tin basin and a bucket of water, being the
+paraphernalia of the latter, whilst some nails behind the door served
+to hang our clothes on, such was my station bedroom and all my own doing
+too! Certainly it looked uncomfortable enough to satisfy any one, but
+I would not have complained of it for the world, lest I might have been
+ordered home directly.
+
+Hard as was my bed that night, I slept soundly, and it appeared only
+five minutes before I heard a tremendous noise outside the verandah.
+The bleating of hundreds of sheep announced that the mob were slowly
+advancing, before a perfect army of men and dogs, up to the sheep yards.
+What a din they all made! F---- was wide awake, and up in a moment. I,
+anxious to show _why_ I had insisted on coming over, got up too, and
+made my way into the little kitchen, where I found a charming surprise
+awaiting me in the shape of some faggots of neatly-stacked wood, cut
+into exactly, the right lengths for the American stove; and also a heap
+of dry Menuka bushes, which make the best touchwood for lighting fires
+in the whole world. The tiny kitchen and stove were both scrupulously
+clean, and so were my three saucepans and kettle. This had been, of
+course, my maids' doing, but the fuel was a delicate little attention
+on Pepper's part. How he blushed and grinned with delight when I thanked
+him before all his mates! This was indeed station-life made easy! It
+did not take two minutes to light my fire, and in five more I had a
+delicious cup of tea and some bread-and-butter all ready for F----. It
+was nearly cold, however, by the time I could catch him and make him
+drink it. Of course, being a man, instead of saying, "Thank you," or
+anything of that sort, he merely remarked, "What nonsense!" but equally
+of course, he was very glad to get it, and ate and drank it all up,
+returning instantly to his shed.
+
+After this little episode, I set to work to unpack a little, and make
+the sitting-room look the least bit more home-like; then I laid the
+cloth for breakfast, put out the pie and potted meat, etc. (no words can
+say how heartily tired of pies we both were before the week was over),
+and arranged everything for breakfast. Then I waylaid one of the
+numerous stray "hands" which hang about a station at shearing time, and
+got him to fetch me a couple of buckets of water as far as the verandah.
+These I conveyed myself into the little sleeping-room, and finished my
+toilette at my leisure: tidying it all up afterwards. I wonder if any
+one has any idea what hot work it is making a bed? So hot, in fact,
+that I resolved in future to be wise enough to finish all these domestic
+occupations before I had my bath. The worst of getting up so early
+proved to be that by nine o'clock I was very tired, and had nothing else
+to do for the remainder of the long, noisy day. As for the meals, they
+were wretchedly unsociable; for F---- only came in to snatch a mouthful
+or two, standing, and it was of little use trying to make things
+comfortable for him. I must confess here, what I would not acknowledge
+at the time, that I found it a very long and dull visit. My husband
+never had time to speak to me, and when he did, it was only about sheep.
+I grew weary of living on cold meat, for it was really too hot to cook;
+and my servants used to send me over, every second day, cold fowls or
+pies; besides, one seemed to live in a whirl and confusion of dust, and
+bleating, and barking. After the day's work was fairly over, F---- used
+to rush in, seize a big bath-towel, cry "I am off for a bathe in the
+creek," and only return in time for supper and bed. The weather was all
+that a sheep-farmer could desire. Bright, sunny, and clear, one lovely
+summer day followed another; hot, almost to tropical warmth, without any
+risk or fear of sun-stroke or head-ache, and a delicious lightness in
+the atmosphere all the time, which merged into a cool bracing air
+the moment the sun had slowly travelled behind the high hills to the
+westward.
+
+But all these details, though necessary to make you understand what I
+had been doing, are not the story itself, so to that we will hurry on.
+The shearing was over; Saturday evening had come, as welcome to poor
+imprisoned me as to any one, and the great work of the New Zealand year
+had been most successfully accomplished. F---- was in such good humour
+that he even deigned to admit that his own comfort had been somewhat
+increased by my living at the home station, so I felt quite rewarded
+for my many dreary hours. The shearers had been paid, and were even
+then picking their way over the hills in little groups of two and three;
+some, I grieve to say, bound for the nearest accommodation-house or
+wayside inn, and others for the next station, across the river, where
+the skillions were full, and waiting for them to begin on Monday
+morning. Only half-a-dozen people, instead of thirty, were left at our
+place, and there would not even have been so many if it had not
+been thought well to keep a few there until the bale-loft was empty.
+Generally it was arranged for the wool-drays to follow each other every
+two days with a load down to Christchurch; for the greatest risk a
+sheep-farmer runs is from his shed taking fire whilst it is full of
+bales of wool. This had happened often enough in the colony, and even in
+our neighbourhood, to make us more and more careful every year; and, as
+I have said, amongst our precautions, was that of keeping as little wool
+as possible in the shed. Most flock-owners waited until the shearing
+should be quite over before they carted the wool away; but in that case,
+a spark from a pipe, a match carelessly dropped in a tussock outside,
+when a nor'-wester was blowing,--and the slight wooden building would be
+blazing like a torch, and your year's income vanishing in the smoke!
+
+Even at the last moment, when the cart had already started homewards,
+with the tin bath balanced once more on the top of the mattresses and
+boxes; when the house was empty, and I was waiting, my hat and jacket
+on, and flax-stick in hand, eager to set out, a doubt arose about the
+expediency of our return home. Some accidental delay had prevented the
+dray from arriving in time to start for Christchurch with the last load,
+and between two and three hundred pounds worth of wool still remained in
+the shed,--packed and labelled indeed, but neither insured nor protected
+from the risk of fire in any way. F---- was very loath to leave them
+there; but, yielding to my entreaties, he called Pepper, the head
+shepherd, and solemnly gave the wool-shed and its contents over into
+his charge, with many and many a caution about fire. Pepper was as
+trustworthy and steady a shepherd as any in the colony, and promised to
+"keep his weather-eye open," as he phrased it, in nautical slang picked
+up from some run-away sailor.
+
+All the way home F---- said from time to time, anxiously, "I wish the
+shed was empty;" but I cheered him up, and told him he was over-tired
+and unreasonably nervous, and so forth, but with a great longing myself
+for Monday morning to come, and for the dray to take its load and
+start. I need not dwell on how delicious it was to return home, where
+everything seemed so comfortable and nice, and the bed felt especially
+soft and welcome to tired limbs. Early were our hours, you may be sure,
+and we slept the sleep of the hard-worked until between two and three
+o'clock the next morning. Then we were roused up by some one knocking
+loudly against our wide-open latticed window.
+
+I was the first to hear the noise, and cried, "Who's there? what is it?"
+all in a breath.
+
+"The wool-shed on fire," murmured F----, in a tone of agonized
+conviction.
+
+"It's you that's wanted, please mum, this moment, over at the home
+station!" I heard Pepper say, in impatient tones.
+
+"It's the wool-shed," repeated F----, more than half asleep, and with
+only room for that one idea in his dreamy mind.
+
+"Nonsense!" I cried, jumping out of bed. "I should not be wanted if the
+wool-shed were on fire. Don't you hear Pepper say he wants me?"
+
+"All right, then," said F----, actually turning over and proposing to go
+to sleep again. But there was no more sleep for either of us that night.
+Whilst I hastily put on my riding-habit, Pepper told me, through the
+window; an incoherent tale of some one being at the point of death, and
+wanting me to cure him, and the master to bring over pen and ink, to
+make a will, and dying speeches and cold shivers, all mixed up together
+in a tangle of words. F---- took some minutes to understand that it was
+Fenwick, a gigantic Yorkshireman, who had been seized with what Pepper
+would call the "choleraics," and who, in spite of having swallowed all
+the mustard and rum and "pain-killer" left on the premises, grew worse
+and worse every moment. "He's dying, safe enough," concluded Pepper,
+"but he's main anxious to see you, mum, and the master; and he wants a
+Bible brought to swear him, and he's powerful uneasy to make his will."
+I knew quite as little of medicine as my husband did of law, but of
+course we decided instantly that we ought both to go and see what could
+be done in any way to relieve either the body or mind of the sufferer.
+
+We said to each other while we were hastily dressing, "How shall we ever
+catch the horses? They have all been turned out, of course, as no one
+thought they would be wanted until Monday; and who knows where they have
+gone to?--miles away, perhaps; and it's pitch dark." Judge, then, of our
+delighted surprise, when, on going out into the verandah, preparatory to
+starting off to look for our steeds, we found them standing at the gate,
+ready saddled and bridled. It seemed like magic, but the good fairies
+in this case had been the two guests to whom I have alluded as having
+arrived just as we were starting for our picnic life. They were both
+"old chums," and understood the situation instantly. Whilst we were
+questioning Pepper (you can hear every word all over a New Zealand
+house), they had jumped up, huddled on their clothes, and gone over the
+brow of the hill to look for the horses. By great good fortune the whole
+mob was found quietly camping in the sheltered valley full of sweet
+grass, on its further side. To walk up to my pretty bay mare Helen, and
+lay hold of her mane, and then, vaulting on her back, ride the rest of
+the mob back into the stockyard, was, even in the deep darkness of a
+midsummer night, no difficult task for eyes so practised to catching
+horses under all circumstances. So here was one obstacle suddenly
+smoothed, and as I hastily collected my few simple remedies, consisting
+chiefly of flannel, chlorodyne, and brandy, I could only trust and pray
+that poor Fenwick's case might not be so desperate as Pepper represented
+it.
+
+To our impatience, the difficult track, with its swamps and holes, its
+creeks to be jumped, and morasses to be avoided, seemed long indeed; but
+to judge from the continued profound darkness,--that inky blackness of
+the sky which is the immediate forerunner of daylight,--the dawn could
+not be far off. How well I remember the whole scene! F---- tied his
+white handkerchief on his arm, that Helen and I might have a faint speck
+of light by which to guide ourselves. Pepper rode close to me, pouring
+into my ears dismal predictions of Fenwick's end; whilst I, amid all my
+anxiety, could only think of the dangers of the track, and whether, in
+the pitchy darkness, we should ever get to the home station. The dew
+fell so heavily that more than once I thought it must be raining, but
+those were only wind-clouds brooding in the great dark vault above us.
+More welcome than ever sounded the bark of the dogs, which told us we
+had reached the end of our stumbling ride; and the moment their tongues
+woke up the silence, a lantern showed a ray of light to guide us to the
+hut door.
+
+I jumped off my horse instantly, and went in. At first I thought my
+patient was dead, for he lay, rigid and grey, in his bunk. At a glance
+I perceived that nothing could really be done to help him whilst he was
+lying on a high shelf, almost out of my reach, in a small hut filled
+with bewildered men, who kept offering him from time to time a "pull"
+at a particularly good pipe, having previously poured all the grog they
+could muster down his throat, or rather over his pillow (his saddle
+performed that duty by night), for he had been unable to swallow for
+some hours. I remembered that there were the bedsteads we had used at
+the house, and also some firewood still left in the kitchen. Explaining
+to Pepper how he was to wrap poor Fenwick in every available blanket
+in the place, and carry him across the open space into the parlour, I
+hastily ran on before, got some one to help me to drag one of the light
+frames into the sitting-room, laced it before the fireplace, and then
+made up a good blazing fire on the open hearth. By the time the dry wood
+was crackling and sparkling out its cheery welcome, my patient arrived,
+and was laid down, blankets and all, on the rude little bedstead, before
+the blaze. By its fitful and uncertain light I proceeded to examine the
+enormous frame stretched so helplessly before me, feeling half afraid to
+touch him at all. F---- was very trying as an assistant, for he looked
+on without making any suggestions, and only said from time to time,
+"Take care: the man is dead." To my inexperienced eyes he indeed seemed
+past all human help. His skin was icy cold, and as wet as if he had been
+lying out in the dew. No flutter of pulse, nor sign of breath, could
+my trembling efforts discover; but I fancied there was the least little
+sign of pulsation about his heart. Of course I had not the vaguest
+notion of what was the matter with the man, for all Pepper could tell me
+was that "Fenwick's been powerful bad, you bet." This does not sound
+a minute diagnosis to go on, and the only remedies which presented
+themselves to my mind were those I had studied as being useful for the
+recovery of drowned persons. So to work I set, as if the poor fellow had
+just been fished out of the creek; and whenever any one wanted to teaze
+me afterwards they would declare I had insisted on Fenwick's being held
+up by his heels. But of course that was all nonsense. What I did really
+do was this, and a doctor in Christchurch, whom I afterwards consulted
+as to my treatment, assured me, laughingly, that it was "capital."
+
+I made Pepper and another man both rub the cold clammy body, as hard as
+they could with mustard and hot flannel. I got some bottles filled with
+hot water (for it did not take five minutes to boil the kettle) and
+placed to his icy-cold feet and under his arms, then I mixed a little
+very strong and hot brandy and water, to which I added a few drops of
+chlorodyne, and gave him a teaspoonful every five minutes. For the
+first half-hour there was no sign of life to be detected, and the same
+horrible bluish pallor made poor Fenwick's really handsome face
+look ghastly in the flickering light. My two assistants were getting
+exhausted, and Pepper had more than once murmured, with the recollection
+of the past fortnight's work strong upon him, "Spell, oh!" or else
+"Shears!" [Note: the shearer's demand for a few minutes rest] whilst
+his companion inquired pathetically, "What was the use of flaying a dead
+man?" To these hints I paid no attention, though my damp riding habit
+was steaming from the heat of the fire and I felt dreadfully tired; for
+certainly there seemed to my eyes a healthier tinge stealing over the
+rigid features, and it could not be my fancy which detected a stronger
+effort to swallow the last spoonful of brandy.
+
+I need not go into the details of my jumbled-up remedies; probably I
+should bring upon myself serious remonstrances from the Royal Humane
+Society, if my treatment of that unhappy man were made public. It is
+enough to say that I "exhibited" mustard by the pound and brandy by the
+quart, that I roasted him first on one side and then on the other, that
+his true skin was rubbed off, that I chlorodyned him until he slept for
+nearly a week, and that when he finally recovered he declared he felt
+"as if he'd been dead:" "And no wonder," as Pepper always remarked. The
+only clue I could get to the cause of his illness was a shy confession,
+about a week afterwards, that he had eaten a few mushrooms. Fenwick's
+idea of a few of anything was generally a liberal notion. I questioned
+him narrowly as to what he had had for supper the night he was taken
+ill, and this was his bill of fare:--
+
+"Well, you see, mum, I wasn't rightly hungry: it must have been them
+gripses coming on. So I only had a shoulder (of mutton, _bien entendu_;
+when Fenwick had really a good appetite he regarded anything less than a
+whole leg of a sheep as an insult) that night, half-a-dozen slap jacks,
+and a trifle of mushrooms." "How big were the mushrooms?" I asked. "Oh,
+they was rather fine ones, mum, I won't deny: they might have been the
+bigness of a plate." Now even supposing them to have been perfectly
+wholesome, a few dozen mushrooms of that size, eaten half raw with
+a whole shoulder of mutton, are quite enough to my ignorant mind to
+account for so severe a fit of the "choleraics."
+
+
+
+Chapter XVII: Odds and ends.
+
+
+My nerves had hardly recovered the shock of having the care of such a
+huge patient thrust on me; for, seriously speaking, Fenwick took a good
+deal of nursing and attention before he got well again, when we had
+another night alarm. Our beautiful summer weather was breaking up; high
+nor'-westers had blown down the gorges for days, and now a cold wet
+gale was coming up in heavy banks of fleecy clouds from the sou'-west.
+Everything looked cold and wretched out of doors, but the sheep-farmers
+were thankful and pleased. Their "mobs" could find excellent shelter for
+themselves, for it takes _very_ bad weather to hurt a Merino sheep, and
+the creeks had been running rather low. "We shall have a splendid autumn
+after this is over," said all the squatters gleefully, "with lots of
+feed: there's Tyler's creek coming down beautifully."
+
+So I was fain to be content, though my fowls looked draggled and
+wretched, and my pet patch of mignonette became a miniature desert, its
+fragrance being all blown and rain-beaten away. Good fires of lignite
+and wood made the house cheery, and we went to bed, hoping for fine
+weather next day. In the middle of the night everyone was awakened by
+a tremendous, echoing noise outside, whilst the frail wooden house
+vibrated perceptibly. It could not be caused by the wind: for, although
+the rain kept pouring steadily down, the furious sou'-west gusts had
+long ago been beaten into a sullen silence by the descending torrents.
+For a moment, and half-awake, an old tropical reminiscence floated
+through my sleepy, startled mind: "Can it be an earthquake?" I dreamily
+wondered. But, no earthquake of my acquaintance was ever yet so
+resounding and noisy, for all its crumbling horror: yet, the house was
+certainly shaking. "What is it? What are you doing?" rang in shouts
+through the little dwelling, as its dwellers came thronging, one after
+another, to our door. Frightened as I was, I can perfectly remember how
+indignant I felt, when it became clear to my mind that they all thought
+_we_ were making such an uproar. How could we do it, if even we had
+wished to get out of our warm beds, and create a disturbance on such a
+wild night.
+
+
+"Good gracious! the house is coming down," I cried, as a fresh shudder
+ran through the slight framework of, our little wooden home. "Pray go
+out, and see what is the matter." Thus urged, F---- opened a casement on
+the sheltered side,--if any side could be said to be sheltered in such
+weather,--and cautiously put his head out. I peered over his shoulder,
+and never can I forget the ridiculous sight which met our eyes. There,
+dripping and forlorn, huddled together under the wide roof of our summer
+parlour, as the verandah used to be often called, the whole mob of
+horses had gathered themselves. The garden gate chanced to have been
+left open, and, evidently under old Jack's' guidance, they had all
+walked into the verandah, wandered disconsolately up and down its
+boarded floor, and after partaking of a slight refreshment in the shape
+of my best creepers, had proceeded to make themselves at home by rubbing
+their wet sides against the pillars and the wooden sides of the house
+itself.
+
+No wonder the noise had aroused us all. Ironshod hoofs clattering up and
+down a boarded verandah is riot a silent performance; and Jack was
+so cool and impudent about it, positively refusing to stir from the
+sheltered corner by the silver-pheasants' aviary, which he had chosen
+for himself. The other horses evidently felt they were intruders, and
+were glad enough, on the flapping of a handkerchief, to hurry out of
+their impromptu stables, making the best of their way through the narrow
+garden gate, and so out upon the bleak hills again. But Jack's conduct
+was very trying; he found himself perfectly comfortable, and evidently
+intended to remain so; neither for wishing nor coaxing, for fair words
+nor foul, would he stir. It seemed so horrid to have to dress and go out
+in such a downpour of rain, that we weakly deliberated on the expediency
+of letting the cunning old stock-horse remain; but fortunately, at
+that moment he began to scratch his ear with his hind foot, waking up a
+thousand echoes against the side of the house as he did so, and making
+the pictures dance again on the canvas and paper walls. "This will never
+do," cried we all, desperately: "he sure must be taken to the stable or
+he'll come back again." That was exactly what Jack meant and wanted: so
+to the stable he went, under poor shivering Mr. U----'s guidance, and
+the old rogue spent a dry, warm night under its roof.
+
+It was the more absurd Jack pretending to be afraid of a wet night, when
+he had walked many and many a weary mile over the rough mountain passes
+towards the West-Coast, with a heavy pack on his back and in all sorts
+of weather. A tradition existed in our neighbourhood that Jack had once
+been met crossing the Amuri Downs with a small barrel-organ, an American
+cooking stove, and a sow with a litter of young ones, all packed on his
+back, "and stepping out bravely under them all," as my informant added.
+But I cannot vouch for the truth of the items of this load. Jack's fame
+as a stock-horse, as well as a pack-horse, stood high in the Malvern
+Hills, but his conduct in the shafts was eccentric, to say the least
+of it. He could not bear to be guided by his driver, and was always
+squinting over his blinkers in the most ridiculous manner. If he
+perceived a mob of cattle or horses on a distant flat, he would set
+off to have a look at them and determine whether they were strangers or
+friends, dragging the gig after him "over bank, bush, and scaur."
+
+Once when we were in great despair for a cart-horse, Jack was elected to
+the post, but long before we had come to the journey's end we regretted
+our choice. It was during the first summer of my life in the Malvern
+Hills, and whilst the nor'-westers were still steadily setting their
+breezy faces against such a new fangled idea as a lawn. I had wearied of
+sowing grass seed at, a guinea a bag, long before those extremely rude
+zephyrs got tired of blowing it all out of the ground. There was my
+beautiful set of croquet, fresh from Jacques, lying idle in its box in
+the verandah, and there was my charming friend, Alice S----, longing for
+a game of croquet. When pretty young ladies wish for anything very much,
+and the house is full of gentlemen, it goes hard, but that they get
+the desire of their innocent hearts. So it was in this case. One fine
+afternoon Alice wandered into the verandah and peeped for the hundredth
+time into the box. "What beautiful things," she sighed, "and how hard it
+is we can't have a game." "I know a patch of self-sown grass," sang one
+of the party, "whereon we might play a game." "Where: oh, where?" we
+asked, in eager chorus. "About two miles from this, near a deserted
+shepherd's hut; it is as thick and soft as green velvet, and the sheep
+keep it quite short." "Is the ground level?" we inquired. "As flat as
+this table," was the satisfactory answer.
+
+Of course we wanted to start immediately, but how were we to get the
+croquet things there, to say nothing of the delightful excuse for tea
+out of doors which immediately presented itself to my ever-thirsty mind.
+A dray was suggested (carriages we had none; there being no roads for
+them if we had possessed such vehicles); but alas, and alas! the proper
+dray and driver and horse were all away, on an expedition up a distant
+gulley getting out some brush-wood for fires. "There's Jack," some one
+said, doubtfully. He had never even drawn a dray in his life, so far
+as we knew, but at the same time we felt sure that when once Jack
+understood what was required of him, he would do his best to help us to
+get to our croquet ground. So we flew off to our different duties. Alice
+to see that the balls, hoops, and mallets were all right in numbers and
+colours, &c.; I to pack a large open basket with the materials for my
+favourite form of dissipation--an out-door tea; and the gentlemen to
+catch Jack and harness him into the cart.
+
+Peals of laughter announced the setting forth of the expedition; and no
+wonder! Inside the dray, which was a very light and crazy old affair,
+was seated Alice on an empty flour-sack; by her side I crouched on
+an old sugar bag, one of my arms keeping tight hold of my beloved
+tea-basket with its jingling contents, whilst the other was desperately
+clutching at the side of the dray. On a board across the front three
+gentlemen were perched, each wanting to drive, exactly like so many
+small children in a goat carriage, and like them, one holding the reins,
+the other the whip, and the third giving good advice. In the shafts
+stood poor shaggy old Jack, looking over his blinkers as much as to say,
+"What do you want me to do now?" Our good humoured and stalwart cadet
+Mr. U----, walked backwards, holding out a carrot and calling Jack to
+come and eat it.
+
+In this extraordinary fashion we proceeded down the flat for two or
+three hundred yards, one carrot succeeding the other in Jack's jaws
+rapidly. Mr. U---- was just beginning to say "Look here: don't you think
+we ought to take turns at this?" when Jack caught sight of a creek right
+before him. He only knew of one way of crossing such obstacles, and that
+was to jump them. No one calculated on the sudden rush and high bound
+into the air with which he triumphantly cleared the water; knocking Mr.
+U---- over, and scattering his three drivers like summer leaves on
+the track. As for Alice and me, the inside passengers, we found the
+sensation of jumping a creek in a dray most unpleasant. All the croquet
+balls leapt wildly up into the air to fall like a wooden hailstorm
+around us. The mallets and hoops bruised us from our head to our feet;
+and the contents of my basket were utterly ruined. Not only had my
+tea-cups and saucers come together in one grand smash, but the kettle
+broke the bottle of cream, which in its turn absorbed all the sugar.
+Jack looked coolly round at us with an air of mild satisfaction, as if
+he thought he had done something very clever, whilst our shrieks were
+rending the air.
+
+What a merry, light-hearted time of one's life was that! We all had to
+work hard, and our amusements were so simple and Arcadian that I often
+wonder if they really did amuse us so much as we thought they did at the
+moment. Let all New Zealanders who doubt this, look into those perhaps
+closed chapters of their lives, and as memory turns over the leaves one
+by one, and pictures like the sketches I try to reproduce in pen
+and ink, grow into distinctness out of the dim past, it will indeed
+"surprise me very much," if they do not say, as I do,--my pleasant task
+ended,--"Ah, those were happy days indeed!"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Station Amusements, by Lady Barker
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