MY BLUE GUM GROVE. 213 



fastened a piece of paper to the wire fence by 

 the road, and another paper to the nest tree, 

 binding it on with a eucalyptus twig in true 

 sailor fashion. 



It was always a relief to leave the hot beating 

 sun and the glare of the yellow fields and enter 

 the cool shade of the quiet grove. I could let 

 down the fence and put it up behind me; thus 

 having my small forest all to myself ; and used 

 to enjoy riding up and down the fragrant blue 

 avenues. The eucalyptus-trees, although thirty 

 or forty feet high, were lithe and slender ; some 

 of them could be spanned by the hands. The 

 rows were planted ten feet apart, but the long 

 branches interlaced, so one had to be on the 

 alert, in riding down the lines, to bend low on 

 the saddle or push aside the branches that ob- 

 structed the way. The limbs were so slender 

 and flexible that a touch was enough to bend 

 back a green gate fifteen to twenty feet long, 

 and Billy often pushed a branch aside with his 

 nose. In places, fallen trees barred our path, 

 but Billy used to step carefully over them. 



The eucalyptus - trees change very curiously 

 as they grow old. When young they are cov- 

 ered with branches low to the ground, and their 

 aromatic tender leaves are light bluish green; 

 afterwards they lose their lower branches, while 

 their leaves become stiff and sickle-shaped, dull 

 green and almost odorless. The same changes 



