Harrington called to him to stop, and aiming
at a small dark object, he fired, and an animal
fell to the ground. I took it up to look at
it, as I had never seen one before.

"Is it good to eat?" I asked.

"Wait till you try," answered Harrington.
"It's an opossum."

We halted at once, collected wood, and
lighted a fire; then roasted the little beast.
It was a very young one. I thought it would
never be cooked. We went no further that
night, for by the time our dinner was over,
it had become too dark to trace the
footprints of the horses.

Next day we had nothing but some tea for
breakfast before we started. We followed
the tracks of the horses, not always so
steadily as before, for we were all anxiously
looking for some object of food. We shot
several birds at intervals, but did not cook
them until night. When it was dark we sat
down, without having come upon the horses.
We had now entered the plains of New England,
and the sudden change of climate was very
severe. I no longer felt disposed to glory in
an Australian winter. We clothed ourselves
in warm garments; but the night was still
bitterly cold, and we had to sleep close to
the fire to keep ourselves warm. Harrington
was becoming extremely vexed about the
horses; for on the previous day we appeared
to have lost all traces of them, and he feared
that we must have inadvertently passed them
in the forest, where the trees and locust-wood
were very thick. He sat gloomily musing by
the fire instead of going to sleep, and was the
first on the following morning to renew the
search. We had not advanced many yards
from our sleeping ground, when an apparition
suddenly stood in our path. It was that of
an Australian native: although not attired
in what would generally be supposed native
costume, for his only garment was a pair of
civilised inexpressibles, worn in a fashion
entirely his own— that is, tied by the two
legs round his throat, so that the seat of
them hung down his back as a mantle. I
suppose the poor fellow had found that the
usual way of wearing them restrained his
movements, so had adopted a more novel
and less appropriate mode. He stood, as I
said, in our path, and exclaimed upon seeing
us: " How you do, Harrington? " then
having, I presumed, exhausted his stock of
English, he continued the conversation in his
native tongue. Presently, Harrington turned
to me, and observed:

"He has found the horses, it seems— we
must have passed them yesterday, as I
thought, and he has come in search of us.
By the bye, I will introduce you. He is the
chief of his tribe, and as you may see by his
dress a man of distinction; besides, a friend
and ally of mine."

Then speaking in Australian to the darky,
that gentleman, with a great deal of unstudied
grace, notwithstanding the grotesqueness of
his appearance, made me a short speech
which I presumed to be a compliment, and
to which I raised my hat, and then stretched
out his hand to me in token of friendship.
I quite regretted that I could not understand
the fellow, for he spoke with such animation,
and his eyes and face were so bright: he was
by no means unhandsome and not very dark.
After he had talked with Harrington for
half an hour, he nodded, and moved away;
and I understood that he had gone for the
horses. We therefore sat down to await his
return. The sight of the horses was a
welcome one; but scarcely less so the present
of a dead opossum, which the chief, whose
name I forget, brought to Harrington. We
were also pleased to be relieved of the
weights which we had hitherto carried;
and mounting, we shook hands again with the
Australian, and pressed forward on our way.

We were not above two days' journey now
from Harrington's home. We stopped during
the following day at the Guy Fawkes Falls,
as they are called; and notwithstanding the
cold, I could not help pausing to admire
them. Harrington gazed with apparent
indifference. During the winter, the falls are
considerably swollen from the rains, and the
turbid angry stream and foaming rush of
waters over the double fall— for there are
two precipices over which the Guy Fawkes
tumbles— makes a complete contrast to the
gentle scenery around. The noise of the
roaring waters pursued me long after we
had lost sight of them, and still sounded in
my ears when I went to sleep at night
spectrally, for we were miles away out of
hearing.

On that night I woke from my sleep,
while yet quite dark, and rising to stir up
the fire into a blaze, and to rouse myself,
Harrington followed me thither for the same
purpose. It was a clear frosty night, and I
felt disinclined for sleep. We had re-
provisioned ourselves at a friendly house by the
way, so we were neither hungry nor anxious;
but drawing near the close of our journey,
Harrington seemed thoughtful and grave.
We could hear the snoring of the servants as
we sat; and the occasional movement of the
horses, which, since our misadventure, we had
taken care to hobble at night.

"You will stay with me some time, I
hope," said Harrington, after a time, breaking
the silence.

I said, thank you; and presently he asked:

"What about the lungs?" I laughed.

"I have strictly followed your directions
in not mentioning them," said I; " and I
believe I have forgotten them myself. I
shall certainly advise all people afflicted in
that way to—"

"Kick their medicine chest overboard,"
he suggested. "I tell you what, you had
better come and settle out here. Now you
would do so under every advantage ; not as
I did years ago."