les of wool, which are generally handed about in the heat of a great
argument, the long white locks are so glistening, and soft, and crinkly.

My five-o'clock tea was duly remembered, and then, as there was nothing
more to see out of doors within a short distance, I proposed that I
should make a cake. The necessary ingredients were quickly collected.
I had relays of volunteers to beat up the eggs, and though I suffered
great anxiety until it was cut at supper, it turned out satisfactorily.
The worst of my cookery is, that while I always follow the same
directions most carefully, there is great uncertainty and variety about
the result. In the evening we played round games. But we all went early
to bed, as, we had to be up betimes, and in the saddle by seven o'clock,
to catch the 9-30 train at Rolleston; twenty miles off. We had a
beautiful, still morning for our ride, and reached the station--a shed
standing out on the plain--in time to see our horses safely paddocked
before the train started for Christchurch. The distance by rail was only
fifteen miles, so we were not long about it; and we walked to the hotel
from the railway-station in the town. A bath and breakfast were both
very enjoyable, and then F---- went out to transact his business, and I
employed myself in unpacking and _ironing_ a ball-dress for a party,
to which we were engaged that evening. There was also another ball the
following night. The second was a very late one, and we had scarcely an
hour's sleep before we were obliged to get up and start by the 6 A.M.
train back to Rolleston, where we remounted our horses and rode to dear
little Waireka in time for breakfast. By the evening I was sufficiently
rested to make another cake, which also, happily, turned out well.

We intended to return home the next day (Friday), but a terrific
"nor'-wester" came on in the night, and it was impossible to stir out of
the house; it was the severest gale since our arrival, and it is hardly
possible to give you a correct idea of the force and fury of the wind.
Not a glimpse of the mountains was to be seen; a haze of dust, as thick
as any fog, shut everything out. The sheep had all taken refuge under
the high banks of the creeks. It is curious that sheep always feed head
to wind in a nor'-west gale, whereas they will drift for miles before
a sou'-wester. The trees bent almost flat before the hot breath of this
hurricane, and although the house was built of cob, and its walls