beside the kerb-stones. In rainy weather these streams become swollen, and rush along with much speed and violence; indeed, it is not uncommon for a cab-horse to refuse to cross them. In former days, before little iron bridges were put up, 'another child drowned' was a common occurrence. Even while we were there we read in the morning paper about a woman who tumbled in and was carried away by the stream, and drowned before any one could come to her rescue. In hot weather these streams give a peculiar and pleasant look to the streets, and serve also to cool the air.

4. I intended going out into the country to visit a friend of mine, so, at ten o'clock in the evening we got into a coach which was very much like an omnibus. There was only one other passenger, and we lay and slept upon the mailbags, of which there was quite a cargo. When I awoke the sun was shining bright and warm, the sky was clear and blue, and the coach was rumbling along at a good pace through a flat and open country covered with yellow grass. On this sheep and cattle were contentedly grazing. The sunshine sparkled everywhere on the dew-covered grass and the foliage; the piebald 'piping crows' mingled their flute-like bubblings with the harsher screams of the yellow-crested cockatoos, and the prolonged haa, haa, haa, of the 'laughing jackasses,' and amid these sights and sounds we rolled along into a neat little wooden village.

5. Here we were glad to get a wash and a good

breakfast, and then resume our journey in a light one-horse vehicle which my friend had sent to meet us. We soon left the high road and took to a bush' road. These bush roads go straight as an arrow all over the country, through anybody's property, and are the public highways for vast herds of cattle and sheep travelling to market.

6. During the first hour's drive, every mile seemed a repetition of the last. The country was everywhere flat, and was everywhere fenced off into immense fields called 'paddocks ;' the grass was long and coarse-looking, and dead gum-trees, bleached and white, were lying about in all directions. We jolted along between mile after mile of post and rail fences, seeing now and then a few sheep in a paddock, and now and then a kangaroo.

7. As we drove on, the boundless paddocks became rich fields of grass and clover, on which flocks of sheep and droves of cattle were browsing. And now the fields soon became an almost English-looking park; the grass was short and green, the gum-trees were large and healthy, and not far off, on the crest of a hillock, was the pretty cottage of my friend. It was backed by trees and shrubbery, below it was the farm and the stables, and behind it were various outhouses. In front a grass bank dipped into a field in which were a number of splendid sheep, and beyond that were more fields, all lightly sprinkled with gumtrees.

8. We received a hearty welcome and stayed

two days. The weather was beautiful, and we made the most of it. As I had a great desire to shoot a kangaroo, we went after them that day. We commenced by lying down in a field and eating luncheon, and then walked about some low hills a mile behind the house. We soon saw kangaroos, their heads peering at us above high ferns and grass. Long shots proving useless, except to make them go bounding away up-hill in their very peculiar and mad-looking manner, we altered our plans and sent the keeper round the other side of the hills, while we posted ourselves in convenient spots. And soon back they all came, a jumping mob of over fifty kangaroos, both large and small. We all shot one or two, and I could have shot more if I had so chosen, as they came quite close to me. The proper thing to do is to hunt them with dogs, which requires good riding: they say it is great fun, but I had no chance of trying it. We left all our kangaroos on the ground where they fell, merely cutting off their tails, which make tolerable soup, and are the only portion of the whole animal that is fit for eating. Kangaroos are regarded as a great nuisance, for they nibble at all the best pasture.

9. We made most admirable shooting afterwards at cockatoos and laughing jackasses' with a small Henri rifle-the most deadly I ever shot with —at two hundred yards. I must tell you, that after I had shot that object of my ambition-a kangaroo

1

-I felt no sort of exultation; on the contrary, I thought the proceeding a mean and unsatisfactory act. The next day we walked and drove about, shot black swans and black geese, watched fat cattle being selected out of large herds for the

market by men on horseback, looked over the sheep-shearing and washing houses, saw great flocks of white cockatoos in the fields, and thought it all a most charming life.

6

Adapted from the Log Letters from the Challenger,' by Lord G. CAMPBELL. By permission of Messrs. MACMILLAN and Co. 1 ! Exultation, proud rejoicing.

THE VILLAGE SCHOOLMASTER.

1

BESIDE yon straggling fence that skirts the way
With blossomed furze unprofitably gay,
There in his noisy mansion, skilled to rule,
The village master taught his little school.
A man severe he was, and stern to view;
I knew him well, and every truant knew:
Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace
The day's disasters in his morning face;
Full well they laughed with counterfeited 1 glee
At all his jokes, for many a joke had he ;
Full well the busy whisper circling round,
Conveyed the dismal tidings when he frowned.
Yet he was kind, or if severe in aught,
The love he bore to learning was in fault.
The village all declared how much he knew ;
'Twas certain he could write, and cipher too;
Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage,2
And e'en the story ran that he could gauge.
In arguing, too, the parson owned his skill;
For e'en though vanquished, he could argue still,
While words of learnèd length, and thund'ring sound,
Amazed the gazing rustics ranged around;
And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew,
That one small head could carry all he knew.

'Counterfeited, pretended.

2 Presage, foretell.

GOLDSMITH.