e butter and
cheese, fed the poultry, worked in the garden, but still found time to
stitch, sew, and darn, and make their mother's and their own dresses, as
well as clothes for their father and brother, while they did not neglect
the culture of their minds, aided by their father, who had brought a
small library with him, which had been increased from time to time as he
was able to obtain books from England. They were all cheerful and
happy; but a shade of melancholy occasionally passed over the
countenance of Mrs Broderick, as if her thoughts were reverting to some
cause of grief during the past.

Captain Broderick had now been settled at Falls Farm about twelve years.
He had selected it on account of the beauty of its situation and the
fertility of its soil, but had not sufficiently considered at the time
its distance from a market. He had been over-persuaded by the Boer,
from whom he purchased it, that settlers would speedily gather round
him, and that navigation would be established on the river, by which his
produce could be conveyed southward. But neither of these expectations
had been fulfilled. Having a small annual income, he had struggled
manfully on, had got up a good house, had planted an orchard of fruit
trees, and brought numerous acres under cultivation, while his herds of
cattle and flocks of sheep and goats had greatly increased. He had done
his utmost also to win the confidence and affections of the natives in
his neighbourhood, who looked up to him as a counsellor and a friend, on
whose assistance they could always rely. When they would work, and he
had employment to give them, he justly paid them the wages he promised,
which were equal to any they could obtain by going farther in search of
them. While they were thus friendly and ready to protect him and his
family, there were others at a distance beyond his influence, who were
as savage as the generality of the Kaffir tribes, and addicted to
predatory excursions on the property of their neighbours. The captain
was an old soldier, and when building his house, had had an eye to its
defence. He therefore had enclosed the acre or so of ground in which it
stood with a high palisade, on the outside of which ran a deep ditch,
and this could be filled by diverting a stream from the falls above,
inaccessible to an enemy.

The stream served amply to irrigate the grounds and fields beyond, and
neither did it nor the palisade appear to have been formed