And now that I have recorded the manner of our start, I may go on to
speak of things as they are, seven or eight years later.

CHAPTER VIII.

OUR PIONEER FARM.

II.

We have a large farm, and a great deal of work to get through, but then
there are eight or nine of us to share in the first and to do the
latter; yet we find that we never have time to do all that we ought to
do, and all that we want to do. Every year brings with it an increasing
amount of labour, just to keep things going as they are, consequently
the time for enlarging the farm becomes more and more limited. Thus it
is, that though we cleared and grassed a hundred and forty acres in our
first year, yet we have now only five or six hundred acres of grass in
our eighth.

Hampered as we were by the lack of capital, and by the necessity of
scraping and pinching to meet those payments spoken of, it is little
wonder that we seem as poor and pauperized as we were at the
commencement. But we are by no means really so. We are actually in very
good circumstances. Our farm is immensely increased in value, and is now
beginning to pay substantially. Another year will see the sum completed,
which will close the purchase of the land. After that, we shall have
means to make outlays of sundry kinds, be able to build a fine house, go
in for marriage. Who knows what else?

The grass on our clearings is rich and abundant, and, owing to the
nature of the soil, keeps fresh and green all through the dry season,
when other districts are crying out against the drought. In spite of the
standing stumps, the rough ground, and the mere surface-sowing, our
grass will carry four sheep per acre all the year round; some of it
more. It is not all fenced in--that would be too much to expect--but
most of it is; and what is not gives the milch cows plenty of feed, and
so keeps them from wandering off. The clearings are not all in one
piece. They are divided off into paddocks, and there is a good deal of
standing bush among them, some of which will eventually come down, and
some of which will be left.

We have now seven or eight hundred head of sheep. We had to buy our
original store flock on credit, but the increase and wool has enabled us
to pay that off long since. Similarly, grass-seed, some stock, and
other things were bought on credit, which has since been liquidated.
What we have is our own. We have had years of incessant toil, the
hardest possible work, with plent