nymede, turned into the house to partake of their repast. During their
short absence, the company had increased by the entrance of a few of the
towns-people, who had joined the circle, and added fresh impetus to the
argument (if their disjointed disputation could be called such), and
stimulated an increased devotion at the shrine of Bacchus. Amid this
earthly pandemonium, John Ferguson and his brother sat down to discuss
their meal.

The "fast" style of life, so common among the early settlers in the
bush, but now happily dying out, rarely found favour in the eyes of the
native youths of the colony; and the Fergusons, having been brought up
to entertain an abhorence of such scenes, naturally felt a repugnance to
the society into which they now found themselves thrown. Curiosity to
see the termination of their companion's orgies, however, detained them
in the room; and for the consummation of their desire, they were not
destined to wait long.

The party consisted principally of individuals called "supers," or more
properly speaking, the superintendents of stations, the owners of which
were not resident on their properties; and in the management of which,
excepting the disposal of stock, they had entire control: a few settlers
of considerable means, whose stations, being situated in the remote
bush, afforded them very rare opportunities of visiting town, but, when
such an occasion presented itself, it was the means of supplying an
indulgence, such as the present, of the wildest and most reckless course
of dissipation that could be devised: one or two settlers of minor
importance, and dignified with the title of "stringy bark" or "cockatoo"
squatters: and, as we have already said, one or two of the towns-people,
who would run into any excess, and expose themselves to any expense and
ignominy, to court the patronage, conversation, and companionship of
the squatter, who in his sobriety would not condescend even to recognise
him, made up the group.

At one end of the table, sat a squatter of collosal size, whose features
were hardly discernible from the hair that almost covered his face. He
was dressed in the usual bush costume: that is, a low-crowned,
broad-brimmed hat, made of the platted fibre of the cabbage tree, and
called after the plant from which it is named, "a cabbage tree hat;" a
loose woollen frock, barely covering his hips, made so as, in putting on
and taking off, to require slipping over the head, and as a ga