have reflected credit on a soldier on duty at the Horse Guards. The slightest sound at night sufficed to rouse him; and if I merely opened my door to let in our pet opossum he was awake directly, crying out from his lair of kangaroo skins in the verandah, "Hullo, mother! what's the matter?" His appreciation of being trusted kept him proof against all temptations to drink, and in spite of the vicinity of many public-houses, he never once got drunk when left in a post of responsibility.
Barladong deserved its reputation of a very scorching place in the summer-time, but it had this compensation that the heated granite on the top of Mount Douraking cooling faster after sunset than the ground in the valley, caused a current of air to come sweeping down to us at a certain fixed hour every evening, and made our nights deliciously cool. If, however, there were bush-fires on every side, encircling us in a calm smoky atmosphere, the rocky hill was unable to radiate its heat so quickly, and we were deprived of our evening breeze. On such nights the stars on the horizon shone but very dimly, and an aromatic scent hung in the air from the burning of the great forest trees belonging to the same order as the myrtle.
It was after a day of intense heat, followed by no night breeze, that I summoned up courage to take a walk with Rosa, just as darkness had fallen and a dull red line was all that marked the west. Our way led past the convict depot and the house of the colonial surgeon, below which, on a bank sloping towards the river, often stood one or two lonely huts containing sick natives, who were brought thither by their friends for the benefit of medical assist-
