age made against a wire fence (which it just "topped" in
passing), he sprang out of his bed in the attic, and clambered out of
the window, expecting to find the very heavy sort of staircase-ladder in
its place; but it was "over the hills and far away," so he had a drop of
about twelve feet to the ground, which thoroughly aroused him. He went
into the verandah to see if the cage was safe, and was nearly knocked
down by a big tin bath, ordinarily kept there, which was just starting
across country. As soon as he missed the cage he very pluckily went
after it, being able to keep sight of it by the fitful gleams of
moon-light, and he was just in time to rescue the poor little surviving
canary. We could not help laughing at the recital of all the mischief
which had been done, but still it is very tiresome, and the garden
looks, if possible, more wretched than ever. There is no shelter for
it yet, and my poor green-peas are blown nearly out of the ground. It
rained hard all the evening, so our congregation was confined to the
home party.

Letter XIV: A Christmas picnic, and other doings.

Broomielaw, December 1866. It is too late to wish you a merry Christmas
and a happy New Year in this letter. In order to allow them to reach you
in time I should have sent my good wishes in October's letter; I must
remember to do so next year. I am writing on the last days of the month,
so I shall be able to tell you of our own Christmas doings; though,
first, I must describe the festivities attending a "coming of age in
the Bush," to which we were invited about the middle of this month. How
strange Christmas picnics and balls will appear in your eyes, before
which still dangle probably the dear old traditional holly and ivy! I am
obliged to preface all my descriptions with an account of a ride, if
I am to begin, according to your repeated injunctions, at the very
beginning; for a ride is quite certain to be both the beginning and end
of each excursion, simply because we have no other means of going about,
except on our feet. The ride upon this occasion was to Rockwood, where
the birthday party was to assemble, but the road had not now so many
terrors for me. In consequence of the fine dry weather, most of the bad
places were safer and firmer, and the numerous creeks were only shallow
sparkling streamlets over which a child could jump, instead of the muddy
noisy wide brooks of three months ago. The day on which we started, this
time,