isposition as to be indifferent to the annoyance
of great logs of heavy wood dangling and bumping against his heels as
the sledge pursued its uneven way down the bed of a mountain torrent, in
default of a better road.

Imagine, then, a beautiful day in our early New Zealand autumn. For
a week past, a furious north-westerly gale had been blowing down the
gorges of the Rakaia and the Selwyn, as if it had come out of a funnel,
and sweeping across the great shelterless plains with irresistible
force. We had been close prisoners to the house all those days, dreading
to open a door to go out for wood or water, lest a terrific blast should
rush in and whip the light shingle roof off. Not an animal could be seen
out of doors; they had all taken shelter on the lee-side of the gorse
hedges, which are always planted round a garden to give the vegetables
a chance of coming up. On the sky-line of the hills could be perceived
towards evening, mobs of sheep feeding with their heads _up_-wind,
and travelling to the high camping-grounds which they always select in
preference to a valley. The yellow tussocks were bending all one way,
perfectly flat to the ground, and the shingle on the gravel walk outside
rattled like hail against the low latticed windows. The uproar from the
gale was indescribable, and the little fragile house swayed and shook as
the furious gusts hurled themselves against it. Inside its shelter, the
pictures were blowing out from the walls, until I expected them to be
shaken off their hooks even in those rooms which had plank walls lined
with papered canvas; whilst in the kitchen, store-room, etc., whose
sides were made of cob, the dust blew in fine clouds from the pulverized
walls, penetrating even to the dairy, and settling half an inch thick
on my precious cream. At last, when our skin felt like tightly drawn
parchment, and our ears and eyes had long been filled with powdered
earth, the wind dropped at sunset as suddenly as it had risen five days
before. We ventured out to breathe the dust-laden atmosphere, and
to look if the swollen creeks (swollen because snow-fed) had done or
threatened to do any mischief, and saw on the south-west horizon great
fleecy masses of cloud driving rapidly up before a chill icy breeze.
Hurrah, here comes a sou'-wester! The parched-up earth, the shrivelled
leaves, the dusty grass, all needed the blessed damp air. In an hour it
was upon us. We had barely time to house the cows and horses,