ture of the place. In front of the door a large log
had been rolled, and was burning with lively force, emitting a lurid
glare on the surrounding group; while on its end untouched by the fire,
sat the hut-keeper, with his companion standing near him, and their
visitors stretched on the ground awaiting the completion of the culinary
operations of Bob Smithers' man.

The position of these guardians of the fleece is usually monotonous and
dreary in the extreme; and those located here were a fair sample of the
general herd. There was a shepherd and a hut-keeper. The duty of the
former was to lead out the flocks daily at dawn, to follow and tend them
while depasturing, and protect them from the depredations of the blacks,
or the molestations of the native dogs; for which purpose in very remote
districts, such as this, they are provided with guns. The hut-keeper, on
the other hand, remains all day at the hut, resting from his vigils and
preparing the meals of himself and coadjutor, in readiness for the
latter's return at dusk with his charge; which are forthwith penned and
handed over to the safe keeping of the other, who watches them during
the night.

These men remain in this happy state of seclusion and ignorance of the
proceedings of the world, from which they are thus (by their voluntary
act of expatriation) excluded, from year's end to year's end; except at
shearing time, when they bring their flocks to the head station to be
shorn; and the only being with whom they have any intercourse, is the
man who brings them their weekly supply of rations. When "old hands,"
they in general pass their lives in a lethargic existence; having no
apparent thought of past, present, or future; but breathe on in a dreamy
obliviousness, until at the expiration of perhaps one or two years,
their wages having accumulated to an amount somewhat considerable, they
leave their employment to proceed to the nearest public-house and plunge
into a course of drinking. After the endurance of a week's delirium,
madness, and unconsciousness, they generally find themselves, when
robbed of the greater portion of their hard-got earnings, thrust upon
the world penniless, wretched, dispirited, and sick, to seek employment
and re-enact the same scenes of solitary penance and wild debauchery.

It is true the denizens of these out-stations are not always such
characters; occasionally "fresh arrivals," or as they are called "new
chums," may be hired by the squ