cold, but the hours from 10 A.M. till 5 P.M. are
exquisitely bright, and quite warm. We are glad of a fire at breakfast,
which is tolerably early, but we let it out and never think of
relighting it until dark. Above all, it is calm: I congratulate myself
daily on the stillness of the atmosphere, but F---- laughs and says,
"Wait until the spring." I bask all day in the verandah, carrying my
books and work there soon after breakfast; as soon as the sun goes down,
however, it becomes very cold. In an English house you would hardly feel
it, but with only one plank an inch thick, a lining-board and canvas and
paper, between you and a hard frost, a good fire is wanted. We burn coal
found twelve miles from this; it is not very good, being only what
is called "lignite." I don't know if that conveys to you a distinct
impression of what it really is. I should say it was a better sort
of turf: it smoulders just in the same way, and if not disturbed will
remain many hours alight; it requires a log of dry wood with it to
make a really good blaze. Fuel is most difficult to get here, and very
expensive, as we have no available "bush" on the Run; so we have first
to take out a licence for cutting wood in the Government bush, then
to employ men to cut it, and hire a drayman who possesses a team of
bullocks and a dray of his own, to fetch it to us: he can only take two
journeys a day, as he has four miles to travel each way, so that by the
time the wood is stacked it costs us at least thirty shillings a cord,
and then there is the labour of sawing and cutting it up. The coal costs
us one pound a ton at the mouth of the pit, and the carriage exactly
doubles its price; besides which it is impossible to get more, than a
small quantity at a time, on account of the effect of the atmosphere on
it. Exposure to the air causes it to crumble into dust, and although we
keep our supply in a little shed for the purpose, it is wasted to the
extent of at least a quarter of each load. We are unusually unfortunate
in the matter of firing; most stations have a bush near to the
homestead, or greater facilities for draying than we possess.

You tell me to describe my little house to you, so I must try to make
you see it, only prefacing my attempt by warning you not to be disgusted
or disappointed at any shortcomings. The house has not been built in
a pretty situation, as many other things had to be considered before
a picturesque site: first it was necessary