was not till I got home again that I was able to go and see poor
Kathleen, and to give her the few things belonging to Marshall. She was
still single; and I have good reason to think that for his sake she
would remain so. Such as I have described them, are some of the common
events of a soldier's life.

STORY FIVE, CHAPTER 1.

JOSEPH RUDGE, THE AUSTRALIAN SHEPHERD.

When God formed the round world we live on, He made some parts very
unlike other parts. The climate, the trees and plants, and the animals
of some countries altogether differ from those of other countries. If
we could go right through the globe just as a darning needle is run
through a ball of worsted, we should come out close to a country ten
times as large as England, which belongs to our Queen, and is called
Australia. To get to it, however, we have really to sail round about
over the sea, and the voyage takes about three months. When it is
winter in England, it is summer there. The trees do not shed their
leaves, and many of the animals carry their young about in bags before
them, and like the kangaroo, have long hind legs with which they spring
over the ground. It is a fine country for cattle and horses, and still
more so for sheep, the wool of which is very fine.

About three hundred miles from the sea, up the country, and towards the
end of December, a few years back, a busy scene was to be witnessed.

The country was not hilly nor flat, but swelling with ups and downs. On
one side was a forest, but the trees were wide enough apart to let
horsemen gallop between them. Other trees of odd twisted shapes, but
large, with the bark often torn off from the stems, were scattered about
here and there. Still most of the country was open and covered with
grass, long leaved and scanty, very unlike that of meadow land in
England, but still affording good feed for sheep. A creek ran out from
the forest with a stream of water, which filled a small lake or
water-hole. On the higher ground stood a house of one floor, with a
verandah round it, a large wool-shed, a stable, three or four smaller
cottages, or rather huts, and other outhouses. There was a small garden
enclosed, but no other signs of cultivation. There were numerous
sheepfolds and two cattle pens, but the rest of the country round was
quite open. It was the head sheep station of Moneroo, owned by Mr
Ramsay, who managed it himself.

It was well managed, too, for the watchful eye of