universal _coiffeuse_, and I dressed all the girls' heads with
flowers, as I was supposed to be best up in the latest fashions. In
the meantime, the piano had been moved to the bay-window of the
ball-room, and at ten o'clock dancing commenced, and may be truly
said to have been kept up with great spirit until four o'clock: it
only ceased then on account of the state of exhaustion of the
unfortunate five ladies, who had been nearly killed with incessant
dancing. I threw a shawl over my head, and sauntered alone up one
of the many paths close to the house which led into the Bush. Tired
as I was, I shall never forget the beauty and romance of that hour,
--the delicious crisp _new_ feeling of the morning air; the very
roses, growing like a red fringe on the skirts of the great Bush,
seemed awaking to fresh life and perfume; the numbers of gay lizards
and flies coming out for their morning meal, and, above all, the
first awakening of the myriads of Bush-birds; every conceivable
twitter and chatter and chirrup; the last cry of a very pretty
little owl, called, from its distinctly uttered words, the
"More-pork," as it flitted away before the dawn to the highest
trees: all made up a jubilant uproar compared to which one of the
Crystal Palace choruses is silence. I sat down on a fallen tree,
and listened and waited: every moment added to the lovely dawn
around me, and I enjoyed to the full the fragrant smells and joyous
sounds of another day in this fresh young land.

All too soon came a loud "coo-ee" from the house, which I allowed
them to repeat before I answered; this was to tell me that the ball-
room was deserted, and had been again turned into a bed-room. When
I opened my eyes later, after a six hours' nap, the room looked like
a fairy bower, the flowers still unfaded. We had another picnic the
next day up the gorge of a river, amid very wild and beautiful