daughters to the world, their cognates, the fair
"corn-stalks" of Australia, will not only have long since made their
_debut_ in society, but have settled into devoted wives and happy
mothers. And, bless their little hearts! we doubt not, but that, as
they are matured both in person and mind at an earlier age, and have
consequently less time and opportunities to acquire the deceptions of
society, they are as much, if not more, calculated to fulfil their
worldly destiny, with credit to themselves and happiness to their
concomitants, as their more favoured sisters of our own glorious isle.

Eleanor Rainsfield, as we have hinted, retained a cast of melancholy in
her features, which gave her an appearance of coldness and reserve to
strangers, aided, perhaps, by a natural diffidence and desire for
seclusion; which she preferred to thrusting herself forward, or mixing
much with the world. When known, however, she was gentle and kind, with
an amiability and candour exceedingly attractive; and when interested
with the conversation of one for whom she entertained respect, a smile
usually played over her placid features and made her perfectly
irresistible. This smile would vanish with the cessation of the
conversation, and the evanescent animation pass with it; leaving the
stranger in doubt, when gazing on the returning gloom, if the former
sunshine had been the effect of pleasurable emotions, or a shadowing
forth of a latent melancholy. She was highly accomplished, and her mind
was the emblem of purity itself. Her present refuge had been offered to
her by her cousin upon the death of her father, and gratefully accepted;
while the remainder of the family had been dispersed amongst various
relatives.

The other members of the Rainsfield family were the children, of whom we
have already made mention, and Thomas Rainsfield, a junior brother of
the proprietor of the station, with whom he was "acquiring experience."
He was a fine, frank, open-hearted young fellow of about
three-and-twenty; but as he was absent from home at the period of which
we write, we will defer introducing him to the reader until we can do so
in _propria personae_. In a small cottage, a short distance from the
house, resided Mr. Billing (who acted as clerk and storekeeper, and
whose duties were to keep the accounts of the station, and distribute
the rations to the men) and his wife (who officiated as governess); with
sundry olive branches, who bore unmistakeabl