Page:Bridefrombush00horn.pdf/252

246 But all this about Australia's beside the mark: the real point is that it suits Gladdie and me better than any other country in the world.

'Now for some news. We have decided upon our station at last. It is the one in Victoria, in the north-eastern district I think I mentioned it among the "probables" in my last. It is not large as stations go; but "down in Vic" you can carry as many sheep to the acre as acres to the sheep up here in the "back-blocks." You see, it is a grass country. But the scenery is splendid: great rugged ranges covered with the typical gum-trees, of which there are none up here, and a fine creek clean through the middle of the "run." Then there are parrots and 'possums and native bears all over the place, none of which you get up here, though I fear there will be more snakes too. The only drawback is the "cockatoos." I don't mean the bird, dear mother, but the "cockatoo selectors." Personally, I don't think these gentry are the vermin my father-in-law makes them out to be; he brackets them with the rabbits; but I mean to make friends with them—if I can.