picturesque and half-ruinous house, their dogs at their side, and
their gaze fixed upon the river that rolled beneath them. The same
thoughts probably occupied them all: they were now left in a land
which looked much like a desert, with Heaven for their aid, and no
other resources than a small capital, and their own energies and
truth. The great game of life was now to begin in earnest, and the
question was, how it should be played with success? Individual
activity and exertion were absolutely necessary to ensure good
fortune; and warmly impressed with the consciousness of this, we
turned with one impulse in search of employment.

Aesculapius began to prepare their supper for the dogs, and Meliboeus
looked after his sheep, which were grazing in the paddock in front of
the dwelling. As for myself, with the ardent mind of a young
settler, I seized upon the axe, and began to chop firewood -- an
exercise, by the way, which I almost immediately renounced.

And now for supper!

Our most necessary articles were buried somewhere beneath the heaps
of rubbish with which we had filled the store-room at Fremantle. Our
plates, cups and saucers, etc., were in a crate which was not to be
unpacked until we had removed our property and abode to the inland
station which we designed for our permanent residence. There were,
however, at hand for present use eight or nine pewter plates, and a
goodly sized pannikin a-piece. In one corner of the room was a bag
of flour, in another a bag of sugar, in a third a barrel of pork, and
on the table, composed of a plank upon two empty casks, were a couple
of loaves which Simon had purchased in the town, and a large tea-pot
which he had fortunately discovered in the same cask with the