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144 made; some scraps of lead found lining an old tea-chest were melted down and cast into bullets, and as more were required, a quantity of shot, which Dodge had in store, was also converted into a similar use.

"Shot," Dodge said, "was, in a general way, the sort of metal to fill the pot with, but bullets will do for that as well as other things, and we are not going foraging for a dinner to day."

As Rugsby's station lay in the direction of Melbourne, the two partners took a farewell look at the hut as they were about leaving, and availed themselves of the opportunity to thank its owner warmly for the hearty welcome and valuable assistance he had rendered them in their search for a station.

"No thanks, no thanks," was the reply; "I never enjoyed a trip more in my life. We have been very lucky too. Many men have been bushing it for years and have not seen such adventures, nor learnt as much as you have, during the short time we've been together. To those who don't understand it, the bush is of all other places the most miserable, outlandish, and monotonous; but I think you will acknowledge that it possesses some novelties and excitements. Of course, a man who spends one month in building a hut, and then is satisfied to vegetate in it for the remainder of his life, is not one who should have chosen the bush for a home. He," Dodge said, with some show of contempt, "should have been satisfied to remain a 'respectable' man in some old settled country: his quiet