THE DESIRE FOR ADVENTURE 11 



the homestead, and we had plenty of fruit and vege- 

 tables and milk and butter and cream to eke out the 

 salt beef. That was the usual meat ration, except 

 when a beast was killed, about every fortnight, 

 when fresh beef was available. On the Queensland 

 cattle stations it is the custom also to get a small 

 herd of goats for meat. A fat goat, if it is not too 

 old, makes excellent eating. To my mind goat 

 mutton is quite as good as sheep mutton. 



I had not been a week on Coomooboolaroo Station 

 before it had become quite clear to me that I did 

 not want to go into any museum. The thought of 

 sitting in an office, of living in a city, of working at 

 a desk, was to me now quite intolerable. But my 

 host at Coomooboolaroo, who treated me with a 

 degree of kindness of which I shall always cherish 

 grateful memories, thought that it was not a fair 

 thing for me, as a youngster with his way to make in 

 the world, to waste my time on his station. He liked, 

 as he said, to have me there, but there was no future 

 good or present profit to be got out of life there for 

 me. Finally he got me a position on a sheep station 

 outside Hughenden, telling me that if I was deter- 

 mined to stick to the country life it would be well 

 for me to see something of the work on a sheep station. 

 At Hughenden of course I was an employee, and got 

 some wages, and I suspect that Mr. Barnard's idea 

 was that I should find life there so different that 

 I would be glad to give up the Bush and turn to 



