When the hut is
finished, a hen-house, and a pig-sty are built, and a dairy also
underground. A garden is soon planted, and there the vines, and the
peach-trees bear beautiful fruit. The daughters attend to the rearing of
the fowls, and the milking of the cows, and soon have a plentiful supply
of eggs and butter. The men clear the ground of trees, in order to sow
wheat and potatoes. Thus the family soon have all their wants supplied;
and they find time by degrees to build a stone house, with eight large
rooms; and when it is completed, they give up their wooden hut to one of
the laborers. This is the way of life in the "Bush;" for such is the name
given to the wild parts of Australia.
Some settlers keep large flocks of sheep, and gain money by selling the
wool and the fat, to make cloth and tallow. A shepherd in Australia leads
a very lonely life among the hills, and he is obliged to keep ever upon
the watch against the wild dogs. These voracious animals prowl about in
troops, and cruelly bite numbers of the sheep, and then devour as many as
they can. Happily there are no _large_ wild beasts, such as wolves, and
bears, lions, and tigers; for these would devour the shepherd as well as
the sheep.
But there are _men_, called "bush-rangers," as fierce as wild beasts.
These are convicts who have escaped from punishment. They often come to
the settlers' houses, and murder the inhabitants.
The natives are not nearly as dangerous as these wicked _white_ men;
indeed _they_ are generally very harmless, unless provoked by
ill-treatment.
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