And if we could get a few colts by him out of thoroughbred mares we might win half the races every year on our side and no one a bit the wiser.' It did seem a grand sort of thing--young fools that we were--to get hold of this wonderful stallion that we'd heard so much of, as thoroughbred as Eclipse; good as anything England could turn out.

I say again, if it weren't for the horse-flesh part of it, the fun and hard-riding and tracking, and all the rest of it, there wouldn't be anything like the cross-work that there is in Australia.

It lies partly between that and the dry weather.

There's the long spells of drought when nothing can be done by young or old.

Sometimes for months you can't work in the garden, nor plough, nor sow, nor do anything useful to keep the devil out of your heart.