quite so tall as his brother, with a
cheerful and pleasant countenance, a profusion of rich curly flaxen
hair, and a disposition the counterpart of his father's. Their sister,
Kate, was the third. She was about eighteen years of age, in the first
blush and florescence of youth; the idol of her parents, and the pet of
her brother William (whom she resembled in her disposition and
complexion), while she seemed to have inherited her mother's beauty and
virtues. Besides these, there were three other children, two girls and a
boy; but as we shall have no occasion to notice them in our narrative,
we will merely mention that they were as pretty and interesting, and as
well conducted and dutiful, as children usually are.

Though this family had rarely been away from their home in the bush, and
seldom called upon to exercise their hospitality on others than the
neighbouring settlers, or receive their father's magisterial friends,
they possessed all the acquirements of a polished education, and the
ease, grace, and elegance of a fashionable training, more as an inherent
quality of their nature than as the effect of example from their
neighbours.

CHAPTER II

"Then blessings all. Go, children of my care,
To practice now, from theory repair."

POPE.

When William Ferguson left the presence of his sister, he hastened with
his sable attendant to overtake his brother; whom he joined a few miles
on the road. As might have been gathered from his conversation with his
sister, the object of the brothers in undertaking their present journey,
was to visit some tracts of country, the right of tenure to which was
offered them by the possessor for sale; and if the nature of the country
pleased and suited their views, it was the intention of their father to
purchase it, and start them in life, by giving them sufficient sheep to
commence stocking it. To decide upon the eligibleness of the run, they
had appointed to meet the vendor at his station, and to proceed together
to the ground, inspect it, and form their own opinion of its
capabilities. With this intention, they had left Acacia creek early in
the day, to enable them to reach the town of Warwick before night, and
their place of appointment by the close of the third day.

New England, in the northern portion of which their father's station was
situated, is separated from what was then known as the Moreton Bay
district by a