; generally, however, the country was thoroughly park-like,
and I could not help expecting to see a herd of deer start up and go
bounding away before us. In lieu of them, we occasionally caught sight
of three or four kangaroos, and sometimes of solitary individuals,--
which, however, made their escape before we could get a shot at them.
They are wary animals; and it is difficult to approach them unless where
the cover is thick, and the sportsman is on the alert. But even when
feeding they keep a watchful eye round on every side, to give notice of
their two enemies, the natives or the dingos, as they approach.

"Well, after all, this is a very jolly life," observed Tommy to me, as
he and Harry and I brought up the rear, having been ordered to keep a
look-out on every side, as well as behind us, lest any natives should be
following our trail. "I only wish those black fellows would take
themselves off and not interfere with us."

"Perhaps they may be saying the same thing of us," I observed. "We must
remember that we are the trespassers; and they, by right of previous
occupation, consider the country their own, and are naturally not
pleased at seeing us killing the animals on which they subsist."

"But there must be enough for both of us," said Tommy, "judging from the
number of birds we see overhead. And it is very foolish in them to
attempt to interfere with the white men: the weakest must always go to
the wall."

"That may be," I observed: "but they have to learn that lesson; and in
the meantime they fancy that they can drive us out of the country. We
have, of course, a perfect right to come here; but we are bound to treat
them with humanity, and to take every pains not to injure them or
deprive them of their means of subsistence."

"That, I am sure, is very right," observed Harry. "It is not their
fault that they are ignorant savages; and we must think of what we
should have been ourselves if we had not been instructed. I never can
forget what I might have become had I been left with those dreadful
people from whom you rescued me. I should have known nothing of God or
of his love for man, or of his desire that man should be reconciled to
him through his own appointed way, and come to live with him in the
glorious heaven he has prepared, for ever and ever."

"Then why is it that thousands and tens of thousands of savages, in all
parts of the world, are allowed to live and die without ever hearing of
him?"