Page:Extracts from the letters and journals of George Fletcher Moore.djvu/98

 72 moderated. Ah, woe is me! the calf became so weak and ill, that I have been obliged to cut its throat,—poor innocent! Some gentlemen came here, while my larder was so well supplied with veal, and did me the favour of dining and sleeping sub tegmine. Next day we all dined at Mr. Mackey 's, across the river, where we had a noble feast of vegetables from his garden, which being on moist ground yields abundantly

31st.—I went to bed early last night, but was deprived of my desired slumbers by the arrival of two gentlemen, who had been benighted on the river, and requested a night's lodging; they had come from the Surveyor's office on a holiday excursion. On the next night again, after I had composed myself to rest, with the expectation of taking a double dose of sleep, I was aroused by a furious barking of my dogs; up I jumped, and hearing moans of distress, commenced a search, which ended in the discovery of a drunken fellow lying in the bottom of a deep ditch: he proved to be one of Mr. Burgess's servants, who had gone up the river, got drunk en chemin, lost his companion (who was in a similar condition), and his way. I am in great want of a good kangaroo dog, which, besides his proper office of game-hunting, would be a watchful sentry at night: fifteen guineas are demanded for one, which is a high price; but the dog, if good, enables his owner to have a constant supply of fresh kangaroo meat,—a very material