This black was as faithful, as he was affectionate. Once he was sent by a
farmer on a message. It was this, "Take this letter to my brother, and
he will give you sixpence, and then spend the sixpence in pipes for me."
The black man took the letter, and went towards the place where the
brother lived. He met him on horseback. The brother after reading the
letter, rode away without giving the sixpence to the bearer. What was the
poor black man to do? "Shall I go back," thought he, "without the pipes?
No. I will try to get some money." He went to a house that he knew of,
and offered to chop some wood for sixpence, and with _that sixpence_ he
bought the pipes. Was not this being a good servant? This was not
eye-service; it was the service of the heart. But there are not many
natives like this man. They are generally soon tired of working. For
instance, a boy called Jackey, left a good master who would have provided
for him, to live again wild in the woods, and went away with the blanket
off his bed.

ANIMALS.--There are few of _our_ animals in Australia, or of _their_
animals in England. There is no hare, no rabbit, no nightingale, no
thrush, in Australia. _Once_ there were no horses, nor cows, nor sheep,
nor pigs; but _now_ there are a great many. Much terrified were the
natives at the sight of the first horse which came from England; for they
had never seen such a large animal before.

The largest beast in Australia is the Kangaroo, remarkable for its short
fore-legs, and its great strong hind-legs, and for the pocket in which it
shelters its little one. It is a gentle creature, and can be easily
tamed. A pet kangaroo may often be seen walking about a settler's garden,
cropping the grass upon the lawn. But though easily _tamed_, a wild
kangaroo is not easily _caught_; for it makes immense springs in the air,
far higher than a horse could leap, though it is not as big as a sheep.
When hunted by dogs, it gets, when it can, into the water, and turning
round, and standing still, dips the dogs, one by one, till it drowns
them.

There is another beast, called the opossum, not much bigger than a large
cat, and it also has a pocket for its young ones. But instead of cropping
the grass, it eats the leaves of trees. It has a gentle face like a deer,
and a long tail like a monkey. It hides itself, as the squirrel does, in
the hollows of trees. Like the owl, it is never seen in the day, but at
night it comes out to feed. The blac