ave employed the carpenter and boat-builder, who resides at the township, to put up a good and well-made frame-house for us, for a price of a hundred pounds or upwards. Bu

or anything else; therefore we decided to build a shanty ourselves. Meantime, we were camped on our new estate in a manner more picturesque than comfortable. A rude construction of poles covered with an old tarpaulin sufficed us. It was summer weather, and this was quite good enough for

does not require such a style of building. The labour of cutting and squaring logs for the purpose is great. The native wharè of thatch is quickly and easily raised, serves all requirements, and lasts for years. In most parts hitherto settled, water-communication places the settler within reach of

pose, for about twelve or fifteen pounds. We hired a big punt, and fetched this stuff down

sitate such an amount of "humping." Bosh about humping! returned the majority. It was only a temporary affair; in a year or two we should be having a regular frame-house. Old Colonial gave w

p, beyond which flows the river-the mangroves filling up a space that without them would have been an open bay. The prospect in this direction is bounded by the forest-clothed ranges on the opposite side of the ri

iles behind us. The little eminence, on which stands the shanty, slopes down on the left to a flat, where originally flax and rushes

de, tumbling into a pool that beyond is still and clear and gravelly. It is a most romantically beautiful spot, shaded and shut in completely by fern-covered rocks and overhanging trees. This is our lavatory. Here we bathe,

ful as we anticipated. Of course not! Away with such base insinuations! But we have never any time to see about it, and are grown so used to the shanty that we do not seem to hanker after anything more commodious. So all these years, we have had to hump on our backs and shoulders every blessed thing

then a novelty, and we regarded it as a labour of love. Now we know better, and, when we do get that frame-house, w

o build a proper frame-house, not a shanty. That is a name for our habitation, which has since grown up into usage. We were none of us practis

logs, some two feet thick, with squarely-sawn ends. They are fixed in the ground two or three feet apart, so as to bring their fl

he floor is planked over, the sides weather-boarded, doors, windows, and partitions being put in according to the desi

he township. There is a partition across the shanty, two rooms having originally been intended; but as this partition has a doorway without a door, and is only the height of the sides, being open above, t

the rest of the shanty, and at its highest point a long narrow slit is left open for a chimney. There is no flooring to this chamber, the ground being covered with stones well pounded down. Its level is necessarily sunk a little below that of the shanty floor, which is raise

Some of us are landowners, and some have no capital, being simply labourers. Which is which does not matter. I shall not particularize, as each and all have the same work to do, and live in exactly the same style. There is brotherhood and equality among us,

ut here we are navvies, day-labourers, mechanics, artisans, anything. At home, we should have to uphold the family position by grinding as clerks on a miserable pitt

to a home and a competence, won by his toil. Can every one in the old country, no matter how industrious, say that of himself? Is it not too often the poor-house, or the charity of friends, that is t

according to the prevailing notions of that caste at home. Here, the very air has dissolved all those ancient prejudices, and much better do we feel

ame-houses in this country ought to require no repairs for twenty years at least. That is the received opinion. We dogmatically assert that the house we built ourselves, with such infinite labour and trouble, is as good as any other of its size and kind. Consequent

n the cause of the shanty's premature decay, that, even Old Colonial says, is ridiculous. No, the wood was un

is engaged trying to fasten and wedge them into noiseless security. The door developed a most obstreperous and noxious habit of being blown into the middle of the house du

he place from our bunks, without the trouble of rising and going to the window. Old Colonial says that free ventilation is one of the great blessings of li

rds, or stand and eye us as we are taking our meals. The Saint says he has invited them to breakfast with us, on the fir

ome thing, says Old Colonial, and sweetens and preserves everything. "None of your gassy, sooty coal-smoke, but the fragrant vapours of the burning forest!" so he remarked one night, when we were all blinded and cho

hoice varieties of rhetorical flowers of speech; there is a continual shifting about of beds; and often unseemly scuffling for drier places.

and securely. The nails must have been some inferior rotten quality, doubtless. Loose shingles lie about all around the shanty. They come in useful as plates, as our crockery is generally short. In fact, O'Gaygun

ereby formally allow that it required such renovation. No one will dare to initiate such a serious thing. Besides, it is no one man's particular business to begin the work of mending; whi

y of nights. His views on some subjects are peculiar, and they are always hurled at our heads wit

time and labour must be given to the one purpose of hewing out the new path. We cannot stop to repair our faults and failures. For us that would be a waste of energy and of time. It is for those who inherit the commencem

re is the table. It is our pride and glory, that table, for it was made in Auckland, and imported by us from Helensville. It is the one piece of furniture we possess that d

t went by the name of O'Gaygun's four-poster, that gentleman having a predilection for sleeping on it. He is a huge, bony Irishman, and somewhat restless in his sleep. Accordingly, it was no unusual thing for him to roll off the table in the night, and descend

egs and boxes, sawn logs set up on end, and the sides of our bunks, when we sit at table. When at our ease an

ut of the section of a cask set up on four legs. It possesses a fifth leg, or outrigger at the back, and has cushions of flour-bags, stuffed with tu

seat is therefore of the ponderous kind. At first sight it would seem to be of immense strength, since it is made of heavy stakes, cut in the adjoining bush. These are abundantly jointed with bars and bolts of the same solid a

gh delight, would proceed to show how cleverly the Little'un had adapted his armchair to his exact weight; and how it was unable to support the addition of the great load of victuals which that individual had unthinkingl

the township. A simple folding trestle at head and foot supports two parallel bars. Across these is stretched and nailed stout canvas. Each of us has one

ilized. The stuffing is of fern, feathers, mounga, and sundry other matters. Each of us has two or mo

ury and even comfort. He holds that almost anything civilized is an effeminacy, and out of place in the bush, where he considers that life ought to be lived in a stern and "natchral" way. He is intensely conservative in the primitive usages and habits o

serting that a soft bed is a sin. His blankets have long been worn out; in fact, they are the mere shreds and tatters of what once were blankets. Bunk he has none. It would go against

ng on the sacks which he has spread out upon the table, he proceeds to draw his tattered blankets carefully over his lengthy limbs. Piece by piece he spreads the coverings. First one foot and then another, then the

mong them are the remains of former state, in the shape of certain trunks, portmanteaus, and boxes. These receptacles held our w

f beef and pork are always kept stored ready for use. Other cases hold sugar, salt, flour, and so on; a uniform case is now our bread-basket; each has its proper purpose, and is accomplishing its final destiny. There is a fine leather portmanteau, or what was once such, now the residence of a colley bitch and her litter of pups. Mildewed and battered as it is, it still seems

be to derogate from our character as bushmen. We are not over-burdened with too large a choice of clothing. Such as we have is pretty much held in common, and all that is not in immediate use finds a place on the partition-rack, or the shelves

we visit the township, or our married neighbours, we clean ourselves as much as possible, and put on the best coat we can find in the shanty. We do not entirely dispense with such things as towels and handkerchiefs, thoug

or mending in the bush, so we are often rather ragged. Washing is a nuisance, but we feel bound to go through it sometimes; and very knowing laundrymen are we, up to every dodge

ner. Besides, it is unnecessary where there are no women abo

h money, and time, and thought, in the endeavour to compete with our dandy chum, but have had, sooner or later, to give up in despair, and return to tatters and grime like the common run of folk. Dandy Jack always carries a small swag about with him from place to place, wherever he may temporarily pi

couple of shelves. Upon them are a pile of tattered newspapers and periodicals, a row of greasy volumes, mostly of the novel sort, one or two ancient account-books, and the fragmentary relics

t and sleep in it as part of the general apartment. But here, arranged on shelves all round the walls, are tin dishes and billies, a churn, a cheese-press, and the various appurtenances of a dairy. Humble and primitive as are these arr

m time to time, and always presents the spectacle of pleasing variety. We are never without appliances and substitutes of one kind or other; an

as good, better we think, as when served up on Palissy ware or silver. Knives and forks are distinctly a product of civiliza

of the table. Plates, forks, and spoons are to them degeneracies,-things that no noble bushman needs or requires. They scorn any leanin

lf remaining. But we had our cooking-pots and billies, our sheath-knives, wooden skewers, fingers, and O'Gaygun's shingle-plates. What more could any one want? And if there were not eno

South Island. Our chum had not been able to resist the temptation, and had invested all he was worth in an assortment of goods. It was night wh

ed. Even O'Gaygun was enchanted for a moment, till he remembered himself, and assumed the

ask, fingering contemptuously f

article after article was reviewed, affecting the airs

anged, and he passed in

ers! did ivver anny wan see the loike? F'what do ye expict nixt? Kid gloves to work in, maybe! That ivver I'd

Gaygun. But there is a

ash up, as we generally work through the set before any one will act as scullery-maid. The Little'un got through his task; he washed every plate and cup we had got; but, not finding any

open door, he resolved to prospect a bit, and accordingly entered the shanty. What followed

o persevere in his investigations. He inserted his nose into a long, hollow thing that lay there, but could not get it out of the jug again. In his horror and fright at such an extraordinary accident, he plunged round and round the place; and, as he went, things fell and cracked and crashed under his feet in an awful and terrifying manner. At last he hit the thing tha

at on every brow, as the Little'un unfolded his tale, and we surveyed the universal smas

he aginst yer exthravagance an' lukshury! The pigs is tachin' ye as t

e assembly was turned upon this audacious prophet; and, excommunicated from the shanty, it was very late before humanity