is grip of our housekeeping was of the feeblest, and in
a very short time the matter fell entirely into my hands when Ted was
not with us. Ted was my exemplar; from him such knowledge and ability
as I acquired were derived. But to his shrewd practicality I was able
to add something, in the shape of theory evolved from my father's
conversation; and thus presently I obtained a quite respectable grasp
of bush domesticity.

This day of Ted's absence in Werrina we devoted to a more or less
systematic exploration of our territory. My father was in a cheery
vein, and entertained me by bestowing names upon the more salient
features of our domain. The two horns of Livorno Bay, I remember, were
Gog and Magog; the lagoon remained always just The Lagoon; the timber
belt was Arden; our camp, Zoar; and so forth. We found an eminently
satisfactory little spring, not quite so near at hand as the water-hole
from which Ted had drawn our supplies till now, but yielding
brighter, fresher water. And we botanised with the aid of a really
charming little manuscript book, bound in kangaroo-skin, and given to
my father by the widow of a Queensland squatter whom we had met on the
coasting steamer. That little volume is among my few treasured
possessions to-day. Some of its watercolour sketches look a little
worn and pallid, after all these years, but it is a most instructive
book; and from it came all my first knowledge of the various wattles,
the different mahoganies, the innumerable gums, the ferns, creepers,
and wild flowers of the bush.

It was almost dark when Ted returned--in a cart. We were greatly
surprised to see Jerry between the shafts of this ancient vehicle, and
my father found it hard to credit that any cart could be driven over
the bush track by which we had travelled, with its stumps and holes
and sudden dips to watercourses. However, there the cart was, its
harness plentifully patched with pieces of cord and wire; and it
seemed well laden, too.

'Who lent it you?' asked my father. And Ted explained how the cart had
been offered to him for L3, and how, at length, he had bought it for
L2, 5s. and a drink. It seemed a sin to miss such a chance, but if my
father really did not want it, well, he, Ted, would pay for it out of
his earnings. Of course my father accepted responsibility for the
purchase, and very useful the crazy old thing proved as time went on;
for, though its collapse, like that of other more important
institutions