The Gilpins and their Fortunes | Page 7

fingers to keep them warm, and to think a blazing fire
and a blanket pleasant companions."
Sam thought that Larry was quizzing him, but still he did not like to
accuse him directly. "It's a strange country this, then, muster, I'm
thinking," he remarked cautiously.
"Strange! It is a strange country, faith!" answered Larry. "It is summer
here when, by all dacent rules, it should be winter; the south wind is
cold, and the north blazing hot. There are creatures with four legs
which have ducks' heads; and birds, with long legs and no wings, as tall
as horses; while some of the animals stow their young away in a bag in
front of them, instead of letting them follow properly at their heels, as
pigs and ducks and hens do in the old country. The trees shed their bark
instead of their leaves; and it's only just surprising to me that the people
walk on their feet instead of their heads, and that the sun thinks fit to
rise in the east instead of the west; and it's often when I wake in the
mornin' that I look out expecting to see that he's grown tired of his old
ways, and changed to suit the other things in the land."
Sam, who could appreciate an English style of joke, was unable to
make out whether or not the Irishman was in earnest; but he thought it
wise to wait till he could learn the truth from his young friends, when
they camped in the evening.
"It's only just come out, ye are?" asked Larry.
Sam told him all about himself, as he had told Sykes, expecting an
equal amount of communicativeness in return. "You've been some time

in the country, master, I'm thinking? How did you come out?"
Larry looked at him with a twinkle in his eye. "Faith, that's just a sacret
between myself and them who knows all about it," he answered, with a
laugh. "It's my belief that the big-wigs across the fish-pond had just an
idea of the mighty great value I'd be to the country, and sent me out
free of all charge to myself and family intirely."
The scenery improved as the travellers advanced, and contrasted
favourably with the dusty, stony, and worn-out region through which
they had passed nearer the capital.
"Horrible farming!" observed James; "if such were practised in
England universally, the whole country would become a desert in a few
years."
Sometimes they passed through scenery like that of a park in England,
with open green pastures sprinkled with clumps of trees; some
deserving the names of woods, others consisting but of a few trees. The
greater number were Eucalypti_ the evergreen gum, and stringy-bark
trees; but on the banks of streams and on the hillsides, and sometimes
in rich, alluvial valleys, such as are found in the northern hemisphere
and in less sunny climes, were to be seen flowers, of great size and
beauty, such as flourish only in greenhouses in England; while a great
variety of the orchis tribe, and geraniums, both large and small, were
found in great profusion. The trees, the names of many of which were
given by Larry, bore little or no resemblance to those of the same name
at home. Among the most common were the box, wattle, and cherry;
but undoubtedly the most prominent everywhere in the landscape were
the old gum trees, and the huge iron stringy-bark trees, which, now
with shattered and weird appearance, had braved the fierce storms of
winter and the hot blasts of summer for centuries. Many strange birds
flew by overhead, and still stranger wild animals started up from
beneath some sheltering bush, and ran off along the fresh glades, all
reminding the new-comers how far distant they were from the home of
their childhood.
The old settled district had been left far behind before the animal they

most wished to see started up near them. He was a large creature, full
five feet in height as he sat upright under the scant shade of a venerable
gum tree, contemplating apparently the scene before him. His long tail
was stretched out on the ground behind him--an important support, and
his little fore-paws tucked up in front. James and Arthur were ahead of
their party, and so quietly had their horses trod over the soft ground that
he did not appear to have heard them. They possessed guns, parting
gifts from Mr Prentiss; but, not being required as a means of defence or
offence, they had been left in the dray. The kangaroo ("an old man"
Larry called him) at length, hearing a sound, turned his mild, intelligent
countenance towards them, and as he did so instantly gave a spring
forward, startling them by its suddenness and the extent