"I have service in my house on Sunday, but I cannot ask them to come to it, though sometimes the stockmen do come.

The shepherds, you know, are employed on Sunday as on any other day.

Sheep must eat!" "Are any of these men convicts ?" "All the shepherds," said the Major.

"The stockman and his assistant are free men, but their hut-keeper is bond." "Are any of them married ?" "Two of the shepherds; the rest single; but I must tell you that on our run we keep up a regular circulation of books among the huts, and my wife sticks them full of religious tracts, which is really about all that we can do without a clergyman." "Do you find they read your tracts, Mrs.Buckley ?" asked Frank.
"No," said Mrs.Buckley, "with the exception, perhaps, of 'Black Giles the Poacher,' which always comes home very dirty.

Narrative tracts they will read when there is nothing more lively at hand; but such treatises as 'Are You Ready ?' and 'The Sinner's Friend,' fall dead.