Page:An Australian Parsonage.djvu/41

 more nights on board, when a boat came alongside, carrying a clergyman, who introduced himself as the chaplain of Fremantle, and begged us with much kindness to return with him and pass the Sunday at his house. We gladly accepted his hospitable proposal, and came ashore, bringing with us our favourite little black and tan terrier, "Lady."

As we drew near we saw a scattered little town of white houses, looking like the beginning of an English watering-place, and passed a boat or two rowed by men on whose hats "Water Police" was inscribed; but the jetty upon which we landed was so lonely and deserted that, with the exception of these amphibious guardians of the peace, one might have supposed that the great jail upon the hill had absorbed almost all the population. Three men, two ladies with crinolines of considerable magnitude, and a large dog, were the only beings assembled at the landing-place where we left the boat. I had been curious to see whether our little dog would show much delight when she found her feet once more upon dry land after her three months' voyage; but my desire to notice this was unluckily disappointed, for the two dogs immediately began running races together, and it was impossible to tell whether "Lady's" hilarity was due to the pleasure of meeting her fellow-creature, or to finding herself on terra firma.

The sand of the beach was so white and deep that our foot-prints, when we crossed it, looked like tracks on snow, an illusion which, on further acquaintance with the shore, we found to be much encouraged by the loose nature of the sand, often blown into drifts and half