is the father of a big Jim of his own; that is, if he is
the right kind of a human being and keeps the Australian spirit.

After the midday meal, all sorts of games until the lengthening shadows
tell that homeward time comes near. Then the "billy" is boiled again
and tea made, the horses harnessed up and the picnickers turn back
towards civilization. The setting sun starts a beautiful game of shine
and shadow in among the trees of the gum forest; the aromatic
exhalations from the trees give the evening air a hint of balm and
spice; the people driving or riding grow a little pensive, for the spell
of the Australian forest, "tender, intimate, spiritual," is upon them.
But it is a pensiveness of pure, quiet joy, of those who have come near
to Nature and enjoyed the peace of her holy places.

* * * * *

I took you from near Sydney to see the Australian forest and to learn
something of its trees and flowers, because that part I know best, and
its beauties are the typical beauties of the Bush. Almost anywhere else
in the continent where settlement is, something of the same can be
enjoyed. A Hobart picnic-party would turn its face towards Mount
Wellington, and after passing over the foothills devoted to orchards,
scale the great gum-forested mountain, and thus have added to the
delights of the woods the beautiful landscape which the height affords.
From Melbourne a party would take train to Fern-tree Gully and picnic
among the giant eucalyptus there, or, without going so far afield, would
make for one of the beautiful Hobson's Bay beaches. Farther north than
Sydney, a note of tropical exuberance comes into the forest. You may see
a gully filled with cedars in sweet wealth of lavender-coloured
blossom; or with flame trees, great giants covered all over with a
curious flowerlike red coral.

But everywhere in Australia, the hot north and cool south, on the bleak
mountains and the sunny coasts, will be found the gum-tree. It is the
national tree of this curious continent, the oldest and the youngest of
the countries of the earth. Some find the gum-tree "dull," because it
has no flaring, flaunting brightness. But it is not dull to those who
have eyes to see. Its spiritual lightness of form, its quiet artistry of
colour, weave a spell around those who have any imagination. Australians
abroad, who _are_ Australians (there are some people who, though they
have lived in Australia--perhaps have been bor