ashion, from
Christchurch, to pay us a month's visit. It was too late to alter our
plans then, so we told them to, make themselves thoroughly at home, and
took our departure next day in the way I have alluded to.

We had plenty of escort as far as the first swamp. When that treacherous
and well-known spot had been reached, everybody suddenly remembered that
they had forgotten something or the other which obliged them to return
directly, so our farewells had to be exchanged from the centre of a flax
bush. The cart meanwhile was nearly out of sight, so wide a _detour_ had
its driver been forced to make in order to find a place sound enough to
bear its weight. But we caught it up again after we had happily crossed
the quagmire which used always to be my bug-bear, and in due time we
made our appearance, in the gloaming, at the tiny house belonging to the
home station. Early as was the hour, not later than half-past eight, the
place lay silent and still under the balmy summer haze. All the shearers
were fast asleep in the men's hut, whilst every available nook and
corner was filled with the spare hands; the musterers, branders,
yard-keepers, and many others, whose duties were less-defined. Far down
the flat we could dimly discern a white patch,--the fleecy outlines
of the large mob destined to fill the skillions at day-break to-morrow
morning; and, although we could not see them distinctly, close by,
watchful and vigilant all through that and many subsequent summer
nights, Pepper and his two beautiful colleys kept watch and ward over
the sheep.

Writing in the heavy atmosphere of this vast London world, I look
back upon that, and such evenings as that, with a desperate craving to
breathe once more he delicious air unsoiled by human lungs, and stirred
into fresh fragrance by every summer sigh of those distant New Zealand
valleys. No wonder people were always well in such a pure, clear, light
atmosphere. I try to feel again in fancy the exquisite enjoyment of
merely drawing a deep breath, the thrilling sensation of health and
strength it sent tingling down to your finger ends. No fleck or film of
vapour or miasma could be seen or smelt, though the day had been burning
hot, and, as I have said, there were plenty of creeks and swamps
hard by. Damp is unknown in those valleys, and we might have lingered
bareheaded even after the heavy dew began to fall, without risk of cold,
or fever, or any other ailment. But we could not affor