172 The Trotter. 



the clothier's back-yard, with his bundle of new clothes, a bucket 

 of water, and some soap. Here he performed his toilet, cast away 

 his old "slough" on to a huge heap of old clothes which lay in the 

 corner of the yard, and walked out of the shop, in all the pride of a 

 new cabbage-tree hat, jumper, and moleskins, so altered that his 

 most intimate bush friend would hardly know him. 



We used in our tent to "change our coats" about once a quarter. 

 On one occasion we all three walked up to Melbourne together for 

 that purpose. Not one of us had a shilling in his pocket, but we 

 had money to receive when we got to town. We left the tent in 

 the afternoon, and walked up through the night. It was in March 

 (the Australian autumn), and the morning sun rose in a clear 

 cloudless sky, so peculiar to this beautiful country. It was a lovely 

 morning, and by about seven we had reached Brighton, a little 

 suburb, then six miles from Melbourne, now, I suppose, annexed 

 to it. 



As we were tired, we threw ourselves down and lit our pipes under 

 a large gum tree on a piece of common land, for there still remained 

 signs of the bush, even so near town, although the country round 

 was studded with pretty little villas built with the greatest taste, 

 surrounded by small parks or gardens. We rested just in front of 

 one of the prettiest of these. A neat flower garden faced the road, 

 on the grass plot of which lay some of the very largest pumpkins I 

 ever did see in my life. We lay smoking our pipes, speculating as 

 to the weight of the pumpkins, when a tall, handsome, portly, 

 florid-looking old gentleman, in a dressing-gown and straw hat, 

 walked out of the house, apparently to get a sniff of the fresh morn- 

 ing air. He had all the look of a man who was perfectly at home, 

 and appeared to survey his little house and garden with great satis- 

 faction. We were just wondering what the "old bloke" was going 

 to have for breakfast, and wishing he would ask us in, for, as we 

 had no money, we knew we must wait till we came to Melbourne 

 before we got a " feed." All at once his eye fell upon us, and he 

 stepped out of the wicket to have a nearer view of us. Our 



