"is this grass?" 253 



inaptitude in the savage to learn, or too great impa- 

 tience in the teachers to witness the fruits of their 

 labours, and a proneness to be discouraged by 

 difficulties. 



In the journal of my residence at Sydney I find 

 as the result of one day's experience, the following 

 laconic and somewhat enigmatical memorandum : — 

 *' Is this grass?" The question implies a doubt, which 

 it would not be easy for any person unacquainted 

 with the circumstances of time and place, tosolv^e; 

 but the reader, when he has seen the explanation, 

 will understand why very pleasing associations are 

 connected with this brief note. I was going down 

 to the jetty late one evening, when I met a party 

 just landed, evidently complete strangers in this 

 quarter of the world. Their wandering and unsteady 

 glances would have convinced me of this fact, had 

 their whole appearance left any doubt about the 

 matter : among them were some ladies, one of whom 

 suddenly detached herself from her companions, 

 and directed as it were by instinct through the 

 gloom, hastened towards a few sods of turf, pressed 

 them exultingly with her foot, and exclaimed in 

 a light, joyous, happy voice — through which other 

 emotions than that of mere gladness struggled — "Zs 

 this grass V The words were nothing. They might 

 have been uttered in a thousand different tones and 

 have not fixed themselves on my memory; but 

 as they fell in accents of delight and gratitude 

 from the lips of the speaker, they told a whole 



