Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/70

, varied only by the periodical returns of seasons of greater or less activity.

His sheep are either lambing or about to lamb, or are to be sheared, or dressed if scabby—the settler, indeed, who is unfortunate enough to have scabby sheep should never rest. Then there is the carting down of wool, and the bringing up of stores, the parting with and engaging of servants; then either a waterhole is to be cleaned, or a hut to be repaired, or a new one built; and then there is the new paddock, which is always to be begun when there is nothing else to do; all of which, with the general surveillance required in an extensive and necessarily scattered establishment, leave him no room to complain of want of employment. Most men have, besides, some acres of cultivation, and many have gardens, which are another source of employment and recreation. Books, however, form the great source of entertainment for many solitary hours of the settler; and it will perhaps astonish many to hear that a book club has been established in the neighbourhood of the Grange and Wannon, 200 miles west of Melbourne, where there are several married settlers, who thus obtain from England all the recent periodicals and interesting publications. I should not omit the never-failing black pipe, which to a great number of the settlers is that to which they look for enjoyment. Still, with all these