Page:Diary of ten years.djvu/397

 379 stumbled. I pulled him up sharply with a severe bit, and he came head foremost to the ground, pitching me right over, and then, to mend the matter, he rolled over me. I thought I was made into a pancake, but luckily got off with some knocks and bruises. The poor horse seemed very much astonished, and looked quite penitent, as if at a loss to account for it, so I patted his neck, and he rubbed his head against me, and we made friends and went on again. I fear that we shall become hot house plants here. This day the thermometer was 65, and people were all complaining of cold, and looking quite blue. We thought that degree of heat tolerably warm at home. We still look out for vessels from England, but they seem to be like "the watched pot which is slow to boil." Two native boys have been brought prisoners from my place near York for being concerned in stealing sheep from a neighbouring farm—luckily not from mine. I suppose, like all other thieves, they keep their own place clear. They knew me immediately by name, as I am now generally recognised among them as "wurdagaderak"—which, being interpreted, means "one having authority." We have only finished the letter A in our vocabulary, having got 218 words or forms of expression in that letter.

Saturday.—Another cool pleasant day. I put in no fewer than fourteen panes of glass to-day, which were broken in the kitchen and different places. I broke two, through unskilfulness in the use of the glazier's diamond. I have now in this neighbourhood 12,119 acres of land, of which I mean to surrender to the Crown about 9000 of the back land, for which I will get an allowance of 1s. 6d. an acre in a purchase of a fresh selection of land. The land back here, after the first three or four miles, is mere mahogany forest on the Darling Range of hills, and not available either for pasture or agriculture. I think of examining the ground above my grant on the Ellensbrook, and taking it in continuation of the farm, if the ground be worth it.