ould be required.
Although an enemy might climb to the top of the rock, yet by posting a
couple of men there with rifles, it might be defended against a whole
host of foes. The wood being but a short distance off from which the
timber required could be obtained, all hands setting to work, before
dark the camp was as strongly fortified as we thought requisite.

It was the first time for many days that we had enjoyed a feeling of
perfect security. Dio had lighted a fire a little apart from that of
the men, that its smoke might keep off the flies, which were inclined to
be troublesome. To utilise it, he had hung up one of our pots to boil.
Kathleen, being somewhat tired, was asleep in our waggon, while my
mother and Lily were seated on the ground near it. Boxer and Toby lay a
short distance off, as Lily said, looking at themselves in the lake,
into which the oxen, having taken their fill of the luscious grass
growing on the bank, had come down to drink.

My father, accompanied by Dan and me, having made a circuit of the camp,
to see that all was right, had just joined my mother. Dio, who had been
attending to the pot, drew my father aside, to propound some knotty
point with regard to the waggon which was under his especial charge,
while Dan threw himself down by our mother, to have a game of play with
Lily, Rose and Biddy being at a little distance off, busily washing
clothes in the lake and singing at the top of their voices, the one a
negro, the other an Irish melody, the result, as may be supposed, far
from melodious, each stopping, however, every now and then to exchange
jokes with the men who happened to be passing near them.

That evening-scene in our camp near the mountains made an impression on
me, which is as vivid at the present day as then, and I describe it more
perhaps for my own gratification than for any it may afford the readers
of my journal.

The next morning we set off on our expedition, Martin Prentis being left
in charge of the camp. Our exploring party consisted of my father,
Uncle Denis, Mr Tidey, Dan, and I, Dio, and two of the men. My mother
begged that she might go with us, and as she would not leave the two
little girls behind, Biddy came to assist in taking care of them. We
carried one tent, with provisions and everything requisite for forming a
camp, so that we might send the empty carts back to bring on more
stores, should we find that we could not get the heavy waggons through.
Th