When God formed the round world we live on, He made some parts very
unlike other parts. The climate, the trees and plants, and the animals
of some countries altogether differ from those of other countries. If
we could go right through the globe just as a darning needle is run
through a ball of worsted, we should come out close to a country ten
times as large as England, which belongs to our Queen, and is called
Australia. To get to it, however, we have really to sail round about
over the sea, and the voyage takes about three months. When it is
winter in England, it is summer there. The trees do not shed their
leaves, and many of the animals carry their young about in bags before
them, and like the kangaroo, have long hind legs with which they spring
over the ground. It is a fine country for cattle and horses, and still
more so for sheep, the wool of which is very fine.
About three hundred miles from the sea, up the country, and towards the
end of December, a few years back, a busy scene was to be witnessed.
The country was not hilly nor flat, but swelling with ups and downs. On
one side was a forest, but the trees were wide enough apart to let
horsemen gallop between them. Other trees of odd twisted shapes, but
large, with the bark often torn off from the stems, were scattered about
here and there. Still most of the country was open and covered with
grass, long leaved and scanty, very unlike that of meadow land in
England, but still affording good feed for sheep. A creek ran out from
the forest with a stream of water, which filled a small lake or
water-hole. On the higher ground stood a house of one floor, with a
verandah round it, a large wool-shed, a stable, three or four smaller
cottages, or rather huts, and other outhouses. There was a small garden
enclosed, but no other signs of cultivation. There were numerous
sheepfolds and two cattle pens, but the rest of the country round was
quite open. It was the head sheep station of Moneroo, owned by Mr
Ramsay, who managed it himself.
It was well managed, too, for the watchful eye of a master who
understood the work to be done was everywhere. The sheep-pens were
full, and there were a number of men moving about. Some were down at
the creek up to their knees in water, busy washing the sheep, which were
driven down to them. A still larger number were near the wool-shed,
with long shears in their hands taking the soft snowy fleeces off the
creatures' backs. One flock was seen coming in from a distant
out-station, following the careful shepherd, who, like those we read of
in the Holy Land, had taught his flock to know his voice. Another
flock, having been shorn, was moving off to its usual run.
Towards evening, a dray laden with stores was seen, its wheels and
bullocks' hoofs as it drew near the station stirring up the dry earth
into clouds of dust. It brought casks of flour, and pork, and hogsheads
of sugar, and boxes of tea, and cheeses, and all sorts of cooking and
mess things, and saddles, and harness, and ropes, and tobacco, and
cattle medicines; indeed, it would be hard to say what it did not bring.
By the side of it, besides the usual driver and his mate, strode a
sturdy, fresh-looking Englishman, whose cheeks had not yet been burnt by
the hot sun of Australia, and two young boys; while on the top of the
dray sat his wife--a comely looking woman--a girl of thirteen, and three
smaller children. Dick Boyce, the bullock driver, pointed out the
master to the new chum he had brought up from the chief port of the
colony. The latter stepped forward at once, with one of his boys, while
the other stayed with his mother, whom Boyce and his mate, Tom Wells,
helped to dismount. The new comer gave a letter to Mr Ramsay, and he
and his sons stood watching his face while the master read it.
"Very good," said Mr Ramsay, as he folded up the letter, "your name I
see is Joseph Rudge, and you have brought your wife and children."
"Yes, sir; that is my good woman out there by the dray, and this is our
eldest boy, Sam," answered Joseph, touching the arm of one of the stout,
fine-looking lads by his side with a look of honest pride.