CHAPTER XXII. A VISIT TO NEW SOUTH WALES.
CHAPTER XXIII. MORE PUBLIC WORK.
CHAPTER XXIV. THE EIGHTIETH MILESTONE AND THE END.





CHAPTER I.



EARLY LIFE IN SCOTLAND.


Sitting down at the age of eighty-four to give an account of my life, I
feel that it connects itself naturally with the growth and development
of the province of South Australia, to which I came with my family in
the year 1839, before it was quite three years old. But there is much
truth in Wordsworth's line, "the child is father of the man," and no
less is the mother of the woman; and I must go back to Scotland for the
roots of my character and Ideals. I account myself well-born, for My
father and my mother loved each other. I consider myself well
descended, going back for many generations on both sides of intelligent
and respectable people. I think I was well brought up, for my father
and mother were of one mind regarding the care of the family. I count
myself well educated, for the admirable woman at the head of the school
which I attended from the age of four and a half till I was thirteen
and a half, was a born teacher in advance of her own times. In fact.
like my own dear mother, Sarah Phin was a New Woman without knowing it.