Minor errors, attributable to printer’s errors, have been corrected.Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this textfor details regarding the handling of any textual issues encounteredduring its preparation.
THE SQUATTER’S DREAM
CHAPTER I.
Jack Redgrave was a jolly, well-to-do young squatter,who, in the year 185—, had a very fair cattle station in oneof the Australian colonies, upon which he lived in muchcomfort and reasonable possession of the minor luxuries oflife. He had, in bush parlance, “taken it up” himself,when hardly more than a lad, had faced bad seasons, blacks,bush-fires, bushrangers, and bankers (these last he alwayssaid terrified him far more than the others), and had finallysettled down into a somewhat too easy possession of acouple of thousand good cattle, a well-bred, rather fortunatestud, and a roomy, cool cottage with a broad verandah allcovered with creepers.
The climate in which his abode was situated was temperate,from latitude and proximity to the coast. It wascold in the winter, but many a ton of she-oak and box hadburned away in the great stone chimney, before which Jackused to toast himself in the cold nights, after a long day’sriding after cattle. He had plenty of books, for he did notaltogether neglect what he called his mind, and he had time2to rea