My husband, of course, was delighted at the prospect of
seeing her again, while I too welcomed the idea of meeting my Scottish
sister-in-law, with whom I had much charming correspondence, but had
never met face to face.
As the above conversation shows, my husband's chief care was to make his
sister's visit bright and enjoyable--no easy task in the lonely
back-blocks where our station was, and where the dreary loneliness and
deadly monotony of the West Australian bush reaches its climax. Miles
upon miles of uninteresting plains, covered with the usual gums and
undergrowth, surrounded us on all sides; beautiful, indeed, in early
spring, when the wealth of West Australian wild flowers--unsurpassed for
loveliness by those of any other country--enriched the land, but at
other times painfully unattractive and monotonous.
Except kangaroos, snakes, and lizards, animal life was a-wanting. Bird
and insect life, too, was hardly to be seen, and owing to the absence of
rivers and lakes, aquatic life was unknown.
The silent loneliness of the bush is so oppressive and depressing that
men new to such conditions have gone mad under it when living alone, and
others almost lose their power of intelligent speech.
Such were hardly the most cheerful surroundings for a young convalescent
girl, and so I fully shared Jack's anxiety as to how to provide healthy
excitement during his sister's stay.
Pages:
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116