Page:An Australian Parsonage.djvu/82

 and our state of perplexity was presently increased by arriving at a point where two ways meet. We turned to the left at a venture, and were soon relieved by the welcome apparition of a man in a helmet-hat standing in front of a little store. Our driver's request that the stranger would point out the way to the "Protestant church" seemed to me a vague mode of seeking for information; but, owing perhaps to the number of Irish that have settled in Western Australia, the word Protestant is generally accepted there as a synonym of the Church of England, and I even found that a dog, who habitually followed his master to church, had received the complimentary name of "the Protestant" in consequence. Being properly directed by our helmeted friend, to whom the form of my driver's question was apparently quite natural, we went on towards a wooden bridge which crossed a tributary of the Swan, called the Avon, upon which Barladong is situated. The great length and height of the bridge told a tale of heavy floods, but the river was in its summer condition, and, except in one spot, where there lay a narrow pool of still water, the timbers spanned only brushwood and sand. The centre piers must have been very nearly 30 feet high; nevertheless, I learned that the stream had overflowed the handrail of the bridge only two winters before.

Halfway across the bridge we met my husband coming out to meet us, fearing that we had been detained by some disaster. He turned back with us, and we passed a few detached houses, and an open space of ground which had been laid out years ago for a street, to part of which the bush was once more asserting its right. On one side