we may have after the old life. We are very natural men, you
see, very simple and childlike, unused to the artificialities of larger
and organized society. Our characters have been reformed back to primary
essentials; and the raree-show of civilization dazzles and frightens our
primitive nervous systems. We may have our little failings, but we ask
no pity for them from people whom we so utterly scorn, as we do the
denizens of the elder world. Art! Culture! AEstheticism! Bah! Pouf! Away
with all such degrading, debasing, dehumanizing trumpery! We are men of
a harder, sterner, simpler mould than the emasculate degeneracies of
modern England! We are the pioneers and founders of a new Britain, of a
stronger and purer life!

When describing our farm I gave some hint as to the causes which have
kept us from building a better house hitherto. Some day we shall have
one, of course; or, possibly, we shall have more than one, for some of
our chums have been showing a tendency towards matrimony of late; and if
any of us marry they must have houses of their own, I suppose. We should
need a barrack else, you understand, for families _do_ run large out
here.

Some of our neighbours live in very comfortable houses; and by visiting
them we are kept from becoming reformed into the uttermost savagery
altogether. Other people had more capital than we, or spent what they
possessed in a different manner. There are those who have laid
themselves out to render their homes more in accordance with the taste
that prevails among--I had nearly written _decent_ people, but will say
worldly instead. They have got nicer domiciles than our shanty; but,
then, it takes a woman to look after things. There must be a mistress in
a house that is to be a house, and not a--well, shanty, let us say. Even
Old Colonial is sensible of that.

A frame-house here is built upon exactly the same plan as ours, so far
as regard the piles, framework, outside wall and roof; but the plan of
it varies much. Every man is his own architect, or at least that
business lies between him and the carpenter who builds for him. One sees
some very singular examples sometimes. Rows of isolated rooms connected
by a verandah; houses all gable-ends and wings; all sorts in fact.

A good house will have the outside walls boarded up and down, with
battens covering the chinks, instead of weather-boarding like our
shanty. The inside walls and ceilings will be lined with grooved and
jointed