ding, writing, sewing done there; in many households
the family will also sleep there, the little couches being protected by
nets to keep off mosquitoes which may be hovering about in thousands.
And in the morning, as the sun peeps through the bare beautiful trunks
of the white gums, the magpies will begin to carol and the kookaburras
to laugh, and the family will wake to a freshness which is divine.

Around the house are lawns, of coarser grass than that of England, but
still looking smooth and green, and many flower-beds in which all the
flowers of earth seem to bloom. There are roses in endless
variety--Jim's mother boasts that she has sixty-five different
sorts--and some of them are blooming all the year round, so mild is the
climate. Phlox, verbenas, bouvardias, pelargoniums, geraniums, grow side
by side with such tropical plants as gardenias, tuberoses, hibisci,
jacarandas, magnolias. In season there are daffodils, and snowdrops, and
narcissi, and dahlias, and chrysanthemums. Recall all the flowers of
England; add to them the flowers of Southern Italy and many from India,
from Mexico, from China, from the Pacific Islands, and you have an idea
of the fine garden Jim enjoys.

[Illustration: A HUT IN THE BUSH. PAGE 63.]

Beyond the garden is a tennis-court, and around its high wire fences are
trained grape-vines of different kinds, muscatels and black amber and
shiraz, and lady's-fingers, which yield splendidly without any shelter
or artificial heat. On the other side of the house is a little orchard,
not much more than an acre, where, all in the open air, grow melons,
oranges, lemons, persimmons (or Japanese plums), apples, pears, peaches,
apricots, custard-apples (a curious tropical fruit, which is soft inside
and tastes like a sweet custard), guavas (from which delicious jelly is
made), and also strawberries and raspberries.

The far corner is taken up with a paddock, for the horses are not kept
in a stable, night or day, except occasionally when a very wet, cold
night comes.

That is the surrounding of Jim's home. Inside the house there is to-day
a great deal of bustle. Everybody is working--all the members of the
family as well as the two maid-servants, for in Australia it is the rule
to do things for yourself and not to rely too much on the labour of
servants (who are hard to get and to keep). Even baby pretends to help,
and has to be allowed to carry about a "billy" to give her the idea that
she is useful