across the dry deserts of Australia. Wherever the
settler may be, he is never very far from the wires or the railway;
the railway meets the ocean steamer; and we can form no conception of
the utter lack of communication in the old world of our immediate
forefathers. The farmer, being away from the main road and the track
of the mail coaches, knew no one but his neighbours, saw no one, and
heard but little. Amusements there were none, other than could be had
at the alehouse or by riding into the market town to the inn there. So
that when this great flush of prosperity came upon them, old Jonathan
and his friends had nothing to do but drink.

Up at The Idovers, as his place was called, a lonely homestead on a
plain between the Downs, they used to assemble, and at once put up the
shutters, whether it was dark or not, not wishing to know whether it
was day or night. Sometimes the head carter would venture in for
instructions, and be gruffly told to take his team and do so and so.
'Eez, zur,' he would reply, 'uz did thuck job isterday.' His master
had ordered him to do it the day before, but was oblivious that
twenty-four hours had passed. The middle-aged men stood this
continuous drinking without much harm, their constitutions having
become hardened and 'set,' but it killed off numbers of the younger
men.

They drank ale principally--strong ale, for at that time in lonely
farmhouses they were guiltless of wines and spirits. But the enormous
price of 50_l._ per load suggested luxuries, and it was old Jonathan
at The Idovers who introduced gin. Till then no gin even--nothing but
ale--had been consumed in that far-away spot; but Jonathan brought in
the gin, which speedily became popular. He called it 'spoon-drink' (a
spoon being used with the sugar) as a distinguishing name, and as
spoon-drink accordingly it was known. When any one desired to reduce
the strength of his glass, they did indeed pour him out some more
water from the kettle; but having previously filled the kettle with
the spirit, his last state became worse than the first.

While thus they revelled, the labourers worked with the flails in the
barn threshing out the truly golden grain. The farmers used to take
pains to slip round upon them unexpectedly, or meet them as they were
going home from work, in order to check the pilfering of the wheat.
The labourer was not paid wholly in cash; he had a bushel of the
'tail,' or second flour, from the mill in lieu of mo