THE RISE AND FALL OF H. G.-S. AND A. M. C. 149 



wool peeling off, anxious to escape yet balked by the river, the kind 

 of stock always in the very worst of condition. Such was our 

 fatuous folly, that we believed against the evidence of our senses that 

 they were not so very, very, very wretched, that not every single 

 solitary bone in their lank frames was visible. 



We climbed from the river-bed to the Eeserve long afterwards 

 rechristened "The Kacecourse Flat," and rode very quietly through 

 the lambing ewes. We could hardly bear to tear ourselves away. If 

 the sight of the scrags at the Waikoau ford had thrilled us with pride 

 of possession, our hearts exulted at the sight of these lambs lambs 

 that apparently came from nowhere, but were even now swelling the 

 numbers of our newly-purchased flock as if thrown in gratis, a gift 

 from a beneficent Heaven to H. G.-S. and A. M. C. 



We rode along the shelf of the flat until suddenly, in an instant, 

 the lake lay at our feet. The feelings of one of the new owners were 

 those of Marmion's squire at sight of Edinburgh. Had the grass-fed 

 pony permitted the feat, its rider, like Eustace, would have " made 

 a demi-volte in air" at joy of the prospect. Before his eyes lay the 

 whole length of the lake, picturesque in its wooded promontories and 

 bays. Along its steeps grew breaks of native woodland brightened 

 at this season with the deep yellow blossoms of the kowhai. The silky 

 leaves of the weeping willows were in their tenderest green, the peach- 

 groves sheets of pink. The south-westerly breeze that blew stirred the 

 flax blades, making them glitter like glass ; west of the lake the land 

 was dark in shadow, the eastern hill-tops were bright in sun. I have 

 looked at this lovely sheet of water a million times since then, but 

 have rarely seen it more fair. 



There are some spots on earth that seem to inspire in their owners 

 a very special affection, as if perchance there might exist an occult 

 sympathy betwixt the elementals of the soil and those who touch its 

 surface with their feet. A race so eager in their appreciation of natural 

 objects of beauty as the Maori could not but have felt thus towards. 

 Tutira ; we know they did so, I have heard its native owners a score 

 of times rejoicing in their possession ; the lines of the waiata cited on 

 the first page express it. The diary entries of its pioneers bear witness 

 to the pangs with which the place was relinquished ; if there is anything 

 of value in this volume, it is because of the author's affection for the 

 spot where he has lived so long. 



