If trade continued to prosper with him as it did at present, it would be no time before he could sell out and joyfully depart for the old country.
In the meantime, why complain?
He had much to be thankful for.

To take only a small point: was this not Saturday night?
To-morrow the store was closed, and a string of congenial occupations offered: from chopping the week's wood--a clean and wholesome task, which he gladly performed--through the pages of an engrossing book to a botanical ramble round old Buninyong.

The thought of it cheered him.

He stooped to caress his two cats, which had come out to bear him the mute and pleasant company of their kind.
What a night! The great round silver moon floated serenely through space, dimming the stars as it made them, and bathing the earth in splendour.

It was so light that straight black lines of smoke could be seen mounting from chimneys and open-air fires.