out of doors without a moment's cessation, and we were obliged to
have recourse to the tins of meat kept in the store-room for such an
emergency. The shepherd told us afterwards he had ventured out to
look for some wethers, his own supply being exhausted, but the whole
mob had hidden themselves so cleverly that neither man nor dog could
discover their place of shelter. On the Monday night, exactly a
week after the outbreak of bad weather; the skies showed signs of
having exhausted themselves, and nature began to wear a sulky air,
as if her temper were but slowly recovering herself. The learned in
such matters, however, took a cheerful view of affairs, and declared
the worst to be over,--"for this bout,"--as they cautiously added.

Whether it was the three days of rest, warmth, and good food which
unlocked the swagger's heart, or not, I do not pretend to decide;
but that evening, over a pipe in the kitchen, he confided to Mr. A---
that he had been working his way down to the sea-coast from a
station where he had been employed, very far back in the hill
ranges. The "sou'-wester" had overtaken him about twenty miles from
us, but only five from another station, where he had applied towards
the evening for shelter, being even then drenched with rain, and
worn out by struggling through such a tremendous storm. There, for
some reason which I confess did not seem very clear, he had been
refused the unvarying hospitality extended in New Zealand to all
travellers, rich or poor, squatter or swagger, and had been directed
to take a short cut across the hills to our station, which he was
assured could easily be reached in an hour or two more. The track,
a difficult one enough to strike in summer weather, became, indeed,
impossible to discover amid rushing torrents and driving wind and
rain; besides which, as the poor fellow repeated more than once
during his story, "I was fair done up when I set out, for I'd been