gh a deep
running stream and roughly washed, to remove sand and grease. Wool
certified to have been so cleaned will command a higher price than
unwashed wool.

At the time to which I refer, most of the runs in Nelson Province were
"unclean"--that is, infected with scab; and it became so general that it
was considered almost impossible to eradicate. The disease was most
infectious. A mob of clean, healthy sheep merely driven over a run upon
which infected sheep had recently fed would almost surely catch the
disease.

A sheep severely infected with scab becomes a pitiful object. The body
gets covered with a yellow scaly substance, the wool falls off or is
rubbed off in patches, the disease causing intense itchiness, the animal
loses flesh and appetite, and unless relieved sickens and dies.

The Nelson settlers, although they could not hope to speedily eradicate
the pest, were nevertheless bound by the Provincial Government to adopt
certain precautions against its spreading. Every station was provided
with a scab yard and a tank in which the flocks were periodically bathed
in hot tobacco water, and such animals as were unusually afflicted
received special attention and hand-dressing. These arrangements
strictly enforced proved successful to a great extent in keeping the
disease in check.

Mr. Lee's run was scabby, although not so bad as some of his
neighbour's, and the strictest precautions were observed to keep it as
clean as possible.

Upon arrival at Highfield we had immediate opportunity to see for
ourselves the most interesting part of the working of the run. The
cutting season had just commenced, and the mustering and shearing would
ere long follow.

My chum C---- was a particularly smart fellow at everything appertaining
to this kind of life. He speedily picked up the routine, and made
himself so generally valuable that Mr. Lee offered him the post of
overseer, with L60 a year as a beginning, and all found. But C----, on
the plea that the pay was too small, refused it. This was his great
mistake, to refuse what ninety-nine men in a hundred would have jumped
at in his circumstances! It would have been the first step on the
ladder, and with his abilities and experience he had only to wait a
certain time to become a partner. But his heart was not in the country,
and nothing would reconcile him to remaining in it. Within two months of
our coming to Highfield he determined to return home.

This resolution being