Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/389

Rh soft, like dough. The wound turned into a running sore, which did not heal for months.

"We thought we were going to sleep well at the station, but soon found our mistake. We were not far from a pen where a dozen weanling calves were shut to separate them from their mothers. The calves kept up a steady bleating, and their mothers in the paddock close by plaintively answered them. About the same distance off on the other side was the chicken-house, and we had the benefit of the voices of the chanticleers. Cocks in Australia begin to crow at midnight and stop at sunrise. They must have had a clock to look at, as the first of them crowed exactly at twelve, and the others followed without a minute's delay. Then a flock of ducks added their clamor; and the fun was liveliest when a dingo, or wild dog, set up a howl in the bush. This started all the canines on the place, and as Mr. Watson and his brother were the owners of four bull-dogs, six fox-terriers, three cattle-dogs, four kangaroo-dogs, and two wolf-hounds, I leave you to imagine the sounds that greeted our ears.

"One gets used to this sort of thing, like everything else, and on the second night on the place we slept without much interruption; but on that first morning we were glad when daylight came, so that we could get up; and when we saw the beauty of the breaking day we were very glad we had risen so early. There was a peculiar freshness about the air, and the scent of the gum-trees was clearly perceptible. Over the low ground there lay a thin mist, which the rising sun dispelled, and then as the sunlight came breaking over the landscape it bathed the whole scene in an atmosphere of gold. Ducks flapped their wings over the surface of a pond a few hundred yards away; crows sailed around in the air or perched on trees not far from the dwelling-house, and two or three other birds added their notes to the chorus. Chickens, pigeons, and other domestic birds gathered in front of the storehouse, waiting for their morning meal; cows were