nkets, and I (too
frightened to stay behind) followed closely, armed with an Indian
boar-spear. F---- flung the hall door wide open, and called out, "Who's
there?" but no one answered. The silence was intense, and so was the
cold; therefore we returned speedily indoors to consult. "It must be at
the back door," I urged; adding, "that is the short cut down the valley,
where bushrangers would be most likely to come." "Bushrangers, you silly
child!" laughed F----. "It's most likely a belated swagger, or else
somebody who is playing us a trick." However as he spoke a succession of
fierce and loud knocks resounded through the whole house. "It must be
at the kitchen door," F---- said. "Come along, and stand well behind me
when I open the door."

But we never opened the door; for on our way through the kitchen, with
its high-pitched and unceiled roof,--a very cavern for echoes,--we
discovered the source of the noise, and of our fright. Within a large
wooden packing-case lay a poor little lamb, and its dying throes had
wakened us all up, as it kicked expiring kicks violently against the
side of the box. It was my doing bringing it indoors, for I never
_could_ find it in my heart to leave a lamb out on the hills if we came
across a dead ewe with her baby bleating desolately and running round
her body. F---- always said, "You cannot rear a merino lamb indoors; the
poor little thing will only die all the same in a day or two;" and then
I am sorry to say he added in an unfeeling manner, "They are not worth
much now," as if that could make any difference! I had brought this,
as I had brought scores of others, home in my arms from a long distance
off; fed it out of a baby's bottle, rubbed it dry, and put it to sleep
in a warm bed of hay at the bottom of this very box. They had all died
quietly, after a day or two, in spite of my devotion and nursing, but
this little foundling kicked herself out of the world with as much noise
as would have sufficed to summon a garrison to surrender. It is all
very well to laugh at it now, but we were, five valiant souls in all, as
thoroughly frightened at the time as we could well be.

The only real harm a swagger did me was to carry off one of my best
maidservants as his wife, but as he had 300 pounds in the bank at
Christchurch, and was only travelling about looking for work, and they
have lived in great peace and prosperity ever since, I suppose I ought
not to complain. This swagger was employed