CHAPTER X 



WE cannot be too thankful that the great 

 plague scare which took possession of us 

 here ended in nothing more serious than the in- 

 disposition of one flea on one rat, and the good 

 result of it all is that we are left very much 

 cleaner. Everyone's premises underwent a good 

 scraping in fact, the inspectors carried out their 

 duties with such vigilance that one gentleman 

 was deprived of all his leaf-mould for potting, it 

 being voted a suspicious-looking heap. We are 

 comparatively free from epidemics, and we have 

 not many indigenous ills other than human. I 

 want, however, to relate the bad as well as the 

 good traits of our rising English offshoot, but 

 when I come to put them in the scales together 

 the advantages often outweigh the drawbacks. 



Those who live here, and love country life, will 

 agree with me that the absence of snakes is no 

 small item in a list of blessings, for their presence 

 would almost be the death of excursions to the 

 Bush, ferning, etc. They seem so undesirable, 

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