hed it in safety, and just in time, as my feet were all but
frost-bitten, when I should have been fortunate to lose only a few of
my toes, as I knew a man here who had _both_ legs cut off in
consequence of a severe frost-bite.

"As it was, I was a sorry figure; my clothes were like a board, my
socks were in a similar state, while icicles hung in festoons from my
hair and beard. But, when at last I managed to open the door, and get
a light, one or two rough towels, and some ten minutes' hard rubbing,
soon put a glow of heat over my whole body; and by the time I turned
into bed, after a cup of scalding hot coffee (I was too hungry to
eat), my misfortunes were forgotten, and all I felt was thankfulness
for having reached my house, which seems to me, even now, to have been
a very doubtful matter, had 'Jack' not barked when he did.

"See how many things turned out all for my good--the mare and the colt
in the snow, the dingo running after her through hunger, and my dog
barking at it, showed me where my house was, when I was fairly lost,
and thus saved my life, and enabled me to spin you this yarn, which I
must now finish by saying that since that time I am always glad to
have a warm house to shelter me in such weather as this, and cannot
help thinking that if any boys had ever been placed in my predicament,
they would only be too thankful to remain inside on such a day as
this, without requiring their mother to order them to do so."

"But what about the poor mare? Did she die? and did the wild dogs eat
the colt?"

"O, I almost forgot to tell you that, to my astonishment, in two or
three days, when the snow hardened a bit, the pair found their way
home, and I, after a deal of trouble, got them to the banks of the
Tumut River, which, although only a couple of miles away, was so many
hundred feet lower, that they could paw away the snow, and so got
grass enough to live till spring when they soon got fat. The little
colt I named 'Snowdrop,' and when she was old enough, broke her in;
and many a good gallop we had over the place where she and her mother
neighed to me on that dark and dismal night."

FOOTNOTE:

[A] A peculiar shout, heard at a great distance, which is common among
the Australian settlers.

SPRING HAS COME.

Spring has come back to us, beautiful spring!
Blue-birds and swallows are out on the wing;
Over the meadows a carpet of green
Softer and richer than velvet is seen.

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