situated, with its cottage ornee, and its spreading vines, and a
noble fig-tree, beneath which they are to sit in the cool of the
evening, with their little ones around them. All this they may
really possess; and for some time they are in raptures at the novel
feeling of being men of landed interest. This is always the first
ambition of a colonist -- to have some property which he may lawfully
call his own. And, indeed, the human heart never expands with more
satisfactory pride than in the breast of him whose territorial
possessions have hitherto been confined to a few flower-pots in his
parlour-window, but who now stands firmly beneath a lofty gum-tree,
and looking round him, murmurs "This is mine!" It is, indeed, a very
pleasant sensation, but, unfortunately, it is very short-lived.

Men do not come out to a colony to spend an income, but to make a
living. When once their capital is laid out in the acquisition of a
farm, and in the necessary purchase of stock, they have to raise
money out of it to pay their labourers' wages, and find their
households with tea, sugar, clothing, and "sundries." Many things
may be grown upon your farm, but not everything. At first, the
settler is satisfied with finding that he can sell sufficient produce
to enable him to pay his way, provided he practise the utmost
economy, and exhibit a reasonable degree of good management.

But soon there are extra expenses to be liquidated; a long illness in
his family brings him in debt to the doctor; or his neighbour has
injured him, and he has, thereupon, further injured himself by going
to law and avenging the wrong. He now becomes discontented, and
thinks he is as badly off as he was before he left England; or,
perhaps he may have sustained no losses, and is just able to live on
his property without getting into debt; he forgets, however, the