e had
to go backwards and forwards to his own house every day, getting up
at five in the morning and returning late at night, besides having no
comfortable meals. The next motive was that I wanted very much to see
the whole process of shearing, and all the rest of it, myself; and as it
turned out, though I little dreamed of it at the time, this proved to
be my only chance. Every body tried to dissuade me from carrying out
the scheme, by urging that I should be very uncomfortable; but I did not
care in the least for that, and insisted on being allowed at all events
to see how I liked it.

Accordingly one evening we set forth: such a ridiculous cavalcade. I
would not hear of riding, for it was only a short two miles walk; and
as we did not start until after our last meal, the sun had dipped behind
Flag-pole's tall peak, and nearly the whole of our happy valley lay in
deep, cool shadow. Besides which, it looked more like the real thing
to walk, and that was half the battle with me. The "real thing" in this
case, though I did not stop to explain it to myself, must have meant
emigrants, Mormons, soldiers on the march, what you will; any thing
which expresses all one's belongings being packed into a little cart,
with a huge tin bath secured on the top of all. Such a miscellaneous
assortment of dry goods as that cart held! A couple of mattresses (for
my courage failed me at the idea of sleeping on chopped tussocks for a
fortnight), a couple of folding-up arm-chairs, though, as it turned out,
one would have been enough, for poor F---- never sat down from the time
he got up until he went to bed again; a large hamper of provisions, some
books, our clothes, and various little matters which were indispensable
if one had to live in an empty house for a fortnight. I had sent my
two maids over one morning a few days before, with pails and mops
and brushes, and they had given the couple of rooms which we were to
inhabit, a thorough good cleaning and scouring, so my mind was easy
on that point. It would not have answered, for many reasons, to have
encumbered ourselves with these damsels during our stay at the home
station. In the first place, there was really no accommodation for them;
in the next, it would have entailed more luggage than the little cart
could hold; and, finally, we should have been obliged to leave them
behind at the last moment: for only the evening before we started,
a couple of friends arrived, in true New Zealand f