e
like the note of one of those strange hallowed gongs you hear from the
groves of Eastern temples. Often riding through the wild Australian Bush
you hear the chimes of distant bells, hear and wonder until you learn
that the bell-bird makes the clear, sweet music.

One more note about Australian nature life. In the summer the woods are
full of locusts (cicadae), which jar the air with their harsh note. The
locust season is always a busy one for the doctors. The Australian small
boy loves to get a locust to carry in his pocket, and he has learned, by
a little squeezing, to induce the unhappy insect to "strike up," to the
amusing interruption of school or home hours. Now, to get a locust it is
necessary to climb a tree, and Australian trees are hard to climb and
easy to fall out of. So there are many broken limbs during the locust
season. They represent a quite proper penalty for a cruel and unpleasant
habit.

CHAPTER V

THE AUSTRALIAN BUSH

An introduction to an Australian home--Off to a picnic--The
wattle, the gum, the waratah--The joys of the forest.

The Australian child wakens very often to the fact that "to-day is a
holiday." The people of the sunny southern continent work very hard
indeed, but they know that "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy";
and Jill a dull girl too. So they have very frequent holidays--far more
frequent than in Great Britain. The Australian child, rising on a
holiday morning, and finding it fine and bright--very rarely is he
disappointed in the weather of his sunny climate--gives a whoop of joy
as he remembers that he is going on a picnic into the forest, or the
"Bush," as it is called invariably in Australia. The whoop is, perhaps,
more joyful than it is musical. The Australian youngster is not trained,
as a rule, to have the nice soft voice of the English child. Besides,
the dry, invigorating climate gives his throat a strength which simply
must find expression in loud noise.

Let us follow the Australian child on his picnic and see something of
the Australian Bush, also of an Australian home.

Suppose him starting from Wahroonga, a pretty suburb about ten miles
from Sydney, the biggest city of Australia. Jim lives there with his
brothers and sisters and parents in a little villa of about nine rooms,
and four deep shady verandas, one for each side of the house. On these
verandas in summer the family will spend most of the time. Meals will be
served there, rea