THE DESIRE FOR ADVENTURE 7 



were the happiest days of my life. I seemed to take 

 naturally to the Bush life, and I came to terms of 

 firm friendship with Mr. Barnard's three sons, who 

 were about of the same age as myself. They were 

 all expert cattle men and keen collectors, and could 

 climb trees like blackfellows. I seemed to learn to 

 ride a horse without any difficulty, for so far as my 

 recollection goes I was out after cattle with the young 

 Barnards almost from the first day of my arrival. 



Life on a cattle station has many pleasures and 

 no puzzles. It is simple. It is direct. You are 

 in the open air every hour of the day and have always 

 the feeling of doing something useful. Our system 

 of work was this. We had a mob of twenty or thirty 

 saddle horses, all of which would be let loose in a 

 large paddock to graze during the nights. But one 

 particular horse called " the night horse " would be 

 kept by itself in a little paddock where it could be 

 caught easily. The first man up in the morning 

 would catch the night horse, saddle him and then 

 drive the other riding horses into a yard, where we 

 would draft out the best half-a-dozen for ourselves 

 and three black fellows who were our helpers. Since 

 there were about thirty horses and no more than six 

 would be used on one day, no nag got more than two 

 days' work a week, and all were able to keep in good 

 fettle. After the horses had been got ready we had 

 breakfast and, packing up a little lunch in the saddle- 

 bags, we would get out after the cattle, being some- 



