The little parlour and the tiny bed-room beyond, into which I could only get access by climbing through a window (for the architect had forgotten to put a door), appeared like apartments in a spacious palace, so great was the contrast between their snug comfort and the desolate misery of our hut life.

Of course nothing else was talked of except our disappointment at our new run; and although Mr.Johnson had indulged in forebodings, which were only too literally fulfilled, he had the good taste never to remind us of his prophecies.
"Of all the forms of human woe, Defend me from that dread, 'I told you so.'" After a day's halt and rest we mounted our much refreshed horses, and set our faces straight across country for Dunedin.

This is very easy to write, but it was not quite so easy to do.

We could only ride for the first fifty-two miles, which we accomplished in two days.

These stages brought us to the foot of the Dunstan Range, and near the gold-diggings of that name.