time otherwise in the meanwhile.

For the young man who can afford the time, and many can, a few years'
fling in the Colonies would be the best of educations, but he should
determine to see all that was to be seen on the spot, and take part in
all that was doing, and not rest content only with a few days' sojourn
in an hotel here and there, or joining in the gaieties and dissipations
of the towns.




CHAPTER I.

HOW I CAME TO EMIGRATE.


I was one of a family of nine, of which four were sons. My eldest
brother was destined for the Church; the second had entered a mercantile
house in Liverpool; and I, who was third on the list, it was my father's
intention, should be educated for the Royal Engineers, and at the time
my story opens I was prosecuting my studies for admission to the Academy
at Woolwich, and had attained the age of sixteen, when my health failed,
and I was sent home for rest and change. I did not again resume my
studies, because it was soon after decided that I should emigrate to New
Zealand.

The decision was principally, if not entirely, due to my own wishes. I
had long entertained a strong bent to seeing the world for myself, and
the idea was congenial to my boyish and quixotic notions of being the