I shall keep them chained up for another week, to get them more used to the place.

They may do what you will not do-- go astray." Five minutes later Nic was waving his hand to his mother at the window as he strode off, proud and elate, with his gun over his shoulder and his shot belt across his breast, the powder flask peeping out of his breast pocket--for in those days men had not dreamed of even percussion guns, let alone breech-loaders and cart ridges ready to slip into the piece.
"Nic!" The boy turned to see his father mounted on his chestnut, and with a stock whip in his hand.
"Which way are you going ?" "I want to try and find my way to the edge of the precipice, father, and look down from the Bluff into the great gully." "Very well.

Straight away for a mile--north-west.

Shoot any snakes you see.

They alarm your mother and sisters, and they are dangerous to the dogs." The doctor pressed his horse's sides, turned his head, and went off at a canter, looking as if he had grown to its back, and Nic watched him in admiration for a few minutes.
"I wish I could ride like that," he said to himself as he strode off taking great breaths of the elastic air.