no great
reason to complain. I also remember that I should have been much worse
off in many respects had I remained at home."

"But what about the blacks and the bushrangers?" asked Guy.

"The blacks have been troublesome at times, but I have hitherto been
able to keep them at bay," answered Bracewell; "and with regard to the
bushrangers, none have ever paid me a visit. The fellows who stuck me
up the other day were the first I had the misfortune to fall in with. I
wonder if Vinson recognised me; but I think not, or if he did he kept
out of sight. I am grieved to think it was him, as he will certainly,
before long, come to an untimely end; for no bushranger ultimately
escapes, and most of them run but a very short career: they either get
shot or die of starvation and sickness in the bush."

When we talked of continuing our journey the next day, Bracewell would
not hear of it.

"Your relative does not expect you," he observed, "and you will pick up
more useful knowledge on my station than you will on a more extensive
run; besides which I want you to have some hunting with me, to show you
this part of the country."

Nothing loth, we agreed to Bracewell's proposal. It was not until a
late hour, for the bush, that we turned into our bunks in one of the
side-rooms, which he told us he kept as his guest-chamber. Bracewell
slept in a hammock in the sitting-room, while old Bob occupied the other
room.

The first day we spent riding over the run, visiting the cattle and
inspecting the sheep. In the evening Bracewell proposed that we should
go into the neighbouring wood in search of opossum, whose skins he
wished to obtain to make some rugs, which he said he wanted to sleep on
when camping out or to serve as coverlets in cold weather. His shepherd
possessed a couple of small dogs, famous opossum hunters. The sheep
having been penned, their master was requested to accompany us.

The Australian opossum is a long-bodied short-legged little animal, with
a furry tail by which he can suspend himself on the branches of trees,
while it assists him to make rapid progress among them. He is fond of
hiding himself in the holes of decayed trees, out of which it is no easy
matter to smoke him. Being a nocturnal animal he is more generally
captured during the day-time, for the bright light of the sun puzzles
him and he knows not in what direction to make his escape.

We soon arrived at a large hole in a gum-tree round which