y time I am having.'

"Then the new chum and the black fellow try it on again, and with the
same result. All the old hands sit around the fence and have a good
laugh, and we let the new chum keep at it until our sides are sore.
After awhile we agree that we have had enough of it, and then we turn in
and catch the horse and saddle him in about half no time.

"But there is more fun to come," continued the stockman, "and that is
when the new chum tries to ride. He gets into the saddle, and just as he
gets fairly seated the horse begins to buck-jump. Perhaps you don't know
what buck-jumping is?"

"I have heard of it," I said. "In fact, I have seen what was said to be
a very good performance of it, and that was in Buffalo Bill's show."

"How high up in the air did the horses throw the fellows in the show?"

"Oh, a little ways," I answered; "enough to pitch them out of the
saddles and bring them to the ground."

"Oh, nonsense," said the stockman; "you wait till you see an Australian
horse send a new chum up into the air. I've seen a fellow tossed up so
high that he didn't look bigger than a dog. He must have gone up fifty
feet, at least, and he came down astraddle of the horse again."

The man said this with all possible gravity, but I thought I could see a
twinkle at the corner of his eye. I smiled politely, as I did not want
to contradict him, and, at the same time, did not wish him to believe
that I swallowed his preposterous story.

"Some of our horses," he continued, "will stand still and allow
themselves to be saddled, and then they will take a long breath, swell
themselves up with air, burst the girths, and throw the saddle up at
least twenty feet above them, and all this in one motion."

"Seems to me, I have heard of something of the kind in America," I
remarked. "As I remember the story, they first fed the horse with
self-raising flour, and then gave him a pail of water to drink."

The man stood silent for a moment, and then said, "You'll do, youngster;
you ought to stay in Australia."

CHAPTER XV.

EXPERIENCES AT A CATTLE STATION--A KANGAROO HUNT.

"They breed good horses in Australia," continued Harry in his journal.
"As a general thing, however, the horses of this part of the world are
vicious, and it is no wonder, when we consider that they are harshly
treated all their lives, and very rarely hear a kind word. The owner of
the cattle run gave orders that the gentlest animals should be reserv