108 THE GREAT THIRST LAND. 



other than dear Morris, looking so well. In all my 

 life I had not experienced a happier reunion. 



"The Laird" had followed me for several days, 

 and almost despaired of overtaking me ; his driver had 

 mutinied, and refused to proceed any farther, so that he 

 w-as compelled to take whip and reins in his own hands. 



The cattle hy this time were yoked, the driver and 

 his trap dismissed : so leaving the pony to Jim, together, 

 as of yore, we walked on ahead, I listening to all he had 

 endured, afterwards narrating my own sufferings to him ; 

 neither was the subject exhausted, for when the out- 

 spanning-place was reached, over our supper we fought 

 again our battles, and once more repeated the process in 

 the interior of the wagon, while discussing our glass of 

 grog and pipe before closing our eyes for the night. 

 Too much pleasure for one day I had received, so could 

 not sleep. Thus when we trecked in the morning I 

 did not disturb him, so that we were at our next halt- 

 ing-place preparing for breakfast before he turned out. 



Again we apparently had entered the country of 

 incessant rain. Seldom for an hour did it cease ; the 

 ground was perfectly soddened, and all the watercourses 

 brimful; but when unfordable a delay of a few hours 

 would often produce such a subsidence, that the felloes 

 of the wheel would scarcely become submerged. If the 

 country was wild, what about the people ? for we passed 

 two or three cottages in fifty miles. Well, they were 

 as near savages as it is possible for whites to become. 

 One barn-like house, two or three hundred yards from 

 the road, I visited. My approach cannot have been 

 seen, for when I knocked at the door, and the inmates, 

 a mother and three or four scared-looking children, per- 

 ceived me, they rose from the table with a scream, and 



