Jean, Our Little Australian Cousin

ether the grown folk had many an anxi

Elsie," said her sister. "Let your husband go

"I can rough it, and it will do Fergus

little girl to pet and take care of and Jean will be ever so much safer with me than t

. "I will talk it over with Fergus and leave Je

ery decided ideas as to

e Gold Fields is only an experiment. It will be a long, hard journey and an expensive one, and I may not find anything worth doing when I get there, and

drive you distracted if left here with Sandy. I shall do better wor

wife. So it was arranged, and with a heavy heart Jean saw her father and bro

her uncle, who had taken her before him for

lassie, so you can have fine

she said, her lip quivering. "How do they get gold in fie

place they find it the Gold Fields. It is dug out of

?" asked Jean. She liked her burly uncle, who was always ready to t

d in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, but recently it has been discovered in Western Australia. The miners often strike a good lead and grow very rich, but it is a hard life and especially

e new places and set to work sifting the sands in which are found the grains of gold, sometimes as large as nuts. Soon there is a camp started. Little canvas huts dot the country. Then if the camp proves successful, houses are built and finally a city will grow up, almost as if by magic. One city, that of Ballarat, has grown in twenty-five years to be one of the handsomest i

father will find a good mine and then sell it out quickly and come bac

e at the stables. Jump down and run and call Sandy for me

se queer looking sheds," said Jean as

wool press, and the shearing board runs along the sides of the shed. Sheep used to be sheared by hand, but Lord Wesley's brother invented a machi

ean. "I had a little Shetland pony a

e Bruce,'" said Mr. McDonald, and both the children fairly jumped with deli

n one the ewes are kept, in another the wethers, and then t

so many animals

use as food. It has to be irrigated and is quite a little trouble, but it pays in

d?" asked Jean. Sandy shouted with laug

hey have a hard time at first. A story is told of some Englishmen who had just come out and were going hunting. They hadn't found any game and so they asked some station hands if they h

roos do, Uncle

or even run stations of their own. They have to ride the boundary every day to see that there are not holes in the fe

dy must have to look after them. Do

and do any necessary carpenter work. These draw their groceries, meat, and so forth from the store

e kitchen and watch him bake brownie, but he won't allow Ferg

many people hate the yellow-skinned Celestials and raise a hue and cry about a 'Wh

said Sandy. "But he got very angry

said Jean. "What beautiful thi

y's the day I have wished they never came. The soil here is so rich that everything grows fast, and the thorny plants have spread all over the land, in some places growing so thick that they have ruined whole tracts of grazing land. They are nearly as bad as the foxes. These were bro

p rabbits, to

said her uncle. "A good trapper can make ￡4 a week

interesting things in your c

me will be the f

e them shear. May I

like. We'll make a regular station-hand

said. "What is that queer noise? It

BIRD, ISN'T HE A

ottle tree. We have a pair of them and never allow them to be touched, as they are

n old-fashioned lyre, and it is one

t was a bottle t

mouth? The stems have water in them, and if you are ever lost in the Bush and thirsty, fin

an. "It seems as if everything in Australia was

ul in making other people h

ly useful and learn to d

t get well and strong before you can do very much, la

hurry to go to work," said Sandy. "