AN AUSTRALIAN GIRL

CHAPTER I.

It was one Sunday afternoon in the middle of Decemberand in the province of South Australia. The grass waswithered almost to the roots, fast turning gray and brown.Indeed, along the barer ridges of the beautiful hills thatrise in serried ranks to the east of Adelaide, the herbagewas already as dry and bleached as carded flax. In thegullies, thickly timbered and lying in perpetual shade, theground still retained the faint graying green distinctive ofAustralian herbage in a state of transition from springverdure to summer drought.

But soon even the shadiest recesses would bear witnessto the scorching dryness of the season. For even beforethe middle of this first month of summer, two or three ofthose phenomenal days had come which furnish anecdotesfor many successive months alike to the weather statist andthe numerous class who cultivate community of soul bycomparing experiences of those dreadful days on which 'thehall thermometer stood at 104° before noon.' This Sundayhad not quite been one of the days that make the oldestresidents turn over heat averages extending to the earlydawn of the country's history. But, nevertheless, it was avery hot, still day, without a breath of wind stirring, andin the distance that faint shimmering bluish haze which,to the experienced eye, tells its own tale of days to come.

The masses of white, silver and messmate gum-trees thatclothe these same Adelaide hills so thickly, formed agrateful resting-place for the eye, wearied with the steadfastglare of sunshine. So did the vineyards that dot theirdeclining slopes, and the gardens and orchards that arescattered broadcast to the east of the town. But evenAdelaide itself is interwoven with the foliage of trees, whichdo so much to mitigate, both for eye and body, the severitiesof a semi-tropical climate. This fascinating embroideryof trees is more especially observable in glancing over NorthAdelaide. This extensive and important suburb, which isdivided from Adelaide proper by the Torrens Lake and ParkLands, lies considerably above the city and adjacentsuburbs. So large a proportion of the houses aresurrounded by gardens, that from some points of view NorthAdelaide looks like a well-trimmed wood, thickly stud

BU KİTABI OKUMAK İÇİN ÜYE OLUN VEYA GİRİŞ YAPIN!

Sitemize Üyelik ÜCRETSİZDİR!