ing of interest, including the
Pongerup and Stirling Ranges in the blue distance.

At the end of the thirty-one miles we came to one of the advanced
railway villages inhabited by the pioneers of civilisation. It was
very like the one we visited yesterday; in fact, I suppose they are
all similar, experience having taught that a certain style of
arrangement is the most convenient.

[Illustration: A Breakdown in the Bush]

A couple of miles further brought us--in two hours forty minutes from
Chorkerup--in sight of a tidy little house and homestead standing in
the midst of a small clearing, surrounded by haystacks and sheds, and
really looking like a bit of the old country.

Right glad we all were to get out and stretch our weary limbs after
the shaking and jolting of the last sixteen miles; and still more
welcome was a cup of good tea with real cream, home-made bread, and
fresh butter, offered with the greatest hospitality and kindness, in a
nice old-fashioned dining-room. Everything was exquisitely clean, and
nicely served. The sitting-room contained several books, and the
bedrooms all looked comfortable. The outside of the house and the
verandah were covered with woodbines, fuchsias, and Marechal Niel
roses, whilst the garden was full of pink and white oxalis and other
flowers. I ought, in sheer gratitude, to add that the mistress of this
pretty hostelry absolutely refused all payment, and indeed sent out
her two nice daughters to gather some roses and other flowers for a
nosegay for me.

If it had been difficult to reach this inn from the high road, it
seemed ever so much more difficult to get away from it by quite
another route. It was like leaving the palace of the Sleeping Beauty,
so dense was the forest and so impossible to find the ancient track,
already quite overgrown. A little perseverance, however, brought us
once more to the main road, along which we bowled and jolted at a
merry pace for about ten miles. We met four wagons, drawn by four
horses each, and laden with sandal-wood, guided, or rather left to
themselves, by a Chinaman. It was with great difficulty that we
succeeded in passing the first three wagons, and in getting out of our
way the fourth collided with a tree, which, I thought, _must_ bring it
to a standstill; but no: after prodigious exertion on the part of the
horses, and a great straining of harness and knocking about of
woodwork, it crashed slowly on, breaking the tree--which was a
toler