Page:An Australian Parsonage.djvu/75

 blackened with bush-fires, that they look as much like a piece of stove-piping as can well be imagined. The body of the tree is most curiously formed of shining resinous flakes, which are highly inflammable, and when set alight burn with great brilliancy. If people are passing the night out of doors, they always search for a piece of "blackboy" to kindle their fire with, as it ensures such a speedy blaze; and in the dwelling-houses it is in request not only as a fire-reviver, but even to read by, when, as sometimes happens, a candle is scarcer than a book. I have been told, though I do not know with what truth, that to burn much "blackboy" in a house is very bad for the complexion of its inmates; and I have found that if a flake or two accidentally fall into the hot water which is used for washing clothes, they will be always, here and there, stained with a colour varying from mauve to yellow.

We made one more stoppage before reaching our final resting-place for the night, to water our horse at a spring, where an old oven stood solitary, bearing witness that a road party had once encamped beside the water. Now that the day's heat was over, I would willingly have loitered a little on the road, but it was getting so dark amongst the trees that we made the best of our way onwards, and soon after, when the night had set in, we came upon the light of a great fire, and saw the warder of a road party standing on the look-out for an expected ration cart, the advent of which he had hoped for on hearing the sound of our wheels. We had not long passed him, when we began to hear the croaking of a multitude of frogs; a most welcome sound, as it conveyed