pectable comfort. Still, the ladies, living
in the bush, get to know its more primitive ways, though they may not
experience them themselves. So, our domestic arrangements, though made
the occasion for a great deal of banter and fun, were neither unexpected
nor novel to our lady visitors. But the banquet that was provided for
them made them open their eyes indeed. It was something altogether new
to the bush. Such a miracle of catering! such marvellous unheard of
cookery! It surpassed anything any one of them had ever seen before,
anywhere.

The table was covered with white linen, borrowed at the township, and
all the equipage we could muster was displayed upon it. Plates, forks,
spoons, and knives, there were in plenty; but we had not been able to
collect enough dishes and bowls for the profusion of viands Old Colonial
had provided. Some parts of the service were therefore peculiar, and
caused much addition to the merriment. There was always such incongruity
between the excellence of the comestible and the barbaric quaintness of
the receptacle that happened to contain it. Soups in billies, turkeys
in milk-pans, salads in gourd-rinds, custards in cow-bells, jellies in
sardine-boxes, plum-pudding in a kerosene case, vegetables, fruits, and
cakes in kits of plaited flax; anything and everything was utilized that
possibly could be.

High enthroned upon a pile of potato sacks, Old Colonial presided over
the feast he had created; while, as vice, sat O'Gaygun, his barbaric
conservatism laid aside for the nonce in favour of grace and gallantry.
What glorious fun we had! What a flow of wit beneath the august
influence of ladies' smiles! And we were cool in our ferny bower, out of
the strong hot sunshine. And in the intervals of eating and drinking, we
could look about us on the splendid perspective of bush and river,
across the clearings, where the air shimmered in the heat, where the
crickets whistled and hummed, and where the cattle were lazily lying
among the stumps. It was a magnificent picnic, so everybody declared.
There never was anything to match it in all New Zealand!

I can fancy, that in days to come, when the full tide of civilization
has overtaken this fair country, some of those ladies will be sitting in
boudoirs and drawing-rooms talking to their children; and they will tell
them of the early pioneering days. And one of their best-remembered
stories will be that of the Christmas-time, when they were banqueted by