an a grazing district; and the streets had the distinction of being
the most deplorably dirty and untended I have seen.

The same could be said of a cook, or some such individual of whom I
caught a glimpse when landed at a corner hotel, where I sat inside the
door of a parlour awaiting the appearance of the landlady or the
publican, while for diversion I watched the third arrival wending his
way from the station on foot and shouting something concerning melons
to a man in a dray in the middle of the roadway.

Evidently it was the land of melons and other fruits and vegetables.

Over at the railway, loaded waggons, drays, and carts were backed
against a line of trucks drawn up to convey such produce to the city
and other parts of the country, while strings of vehicles similarly
burdened were thundering up the street. Some carts were piled with
cases of peaches, grapes, tomatoes, and rock-melons--the rich aromatic
scent of the last mentioned strongly asserting their presence as they
passed. On some waggons the water-melons were packed in straw and had
the grower's initials chipped in the rind, others were not so
distinguished, and at intervals the roughness of the thoroughfare
bumped one off. If the fall did not break it quite in two, a stray
loafer pulled it so and tore out a little of the sweet and luscious
heart, leaving the remainder to the ants and fowls. The latter were
running about on friendly terms with the dogs, which they equalled in
variety and number. Droves of small boys haunted the railway premises
at that time of the year and eagerly assisted the farmers to truck
their melons in return for one, and came away with their spoils under
their arms. Never before had I seen so many melons or so large. Some
weighed sixty and eighty pounds or more, while those from sixteen to
twenty-five pounds, in all varieties,--Cuban Queens, Dixies, Halbert's
Honey, and Cannon Balls,--were procurable at one shilling the dozen,
and nearly as much produce as sent away wasted in the fields for want
of a market.

An hour after arrival, having refused the offer of refreshments, which
in such places are not always refreshing, I betook myself to a
comparatively cool back verandah to further investigate my temporary
surroundings.

A yellow-haired girl with rings on her fingers sprawled in a hammock
reading a much-thumbed circulating-library novel and eating peaches.
This was the landlord's daughter, and a very superior young lady