LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Illustration 1. 
“Joey’s out.”

Illustration 2. 
“I’ll show you who is master aboard this ship.”

Illustration 3. 
“You stockman, Frank, come off that horse.”

Illustration 4. 
“The biggest bully apropriated the belle of the ball.”

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“The best article in the March (1893) number of the ‘Austral Light’ is a pen picture by Mr. George Dunderdale of the famous Ninety-Mile Beach, the vast stretch of white and lonely sea-sands, which forms the sea-barrier of Gippsland.”—­’Review of Reviews’, March, 1893.

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“The most interesting article in ‘Austral Light’ is one on Gippsland pioneers, by George Dunderdale.”—­’Review of Reviews’, March, 1895.

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“In ‘Austral Light’ for September Mr. George Dunderdale contributes, under the title of ‘Gippsland under the Law,’ one of those realistic sketches of early colonial life which only he can write.”—­’Review of Reviews’, September, 1895.

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THE BOOK OF THE BUSH.

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PURGING OUT THE OLD LEAVEN.

While the world was young, nations could be founded peaceably.  There was plenty of unoccupied country, and when two neighbouring patriarchs found their flocks were becoming too numerous for the pasture, one said to the other:  “Let there be no quarrel, I pray, between thee and me; the whole earth is between us, and the land is watered as the garden of Paradise.  If thou wilt go to the east, I will go to the west; or if thou wilt go to the west, I will go to the east.”  So they parted in peace.

But when the human flood covered the whole earth, the surplus population was disposed of by war, famine, or pestilence.  Death is the effectual remedy for over-population.  Heroes arose who had no conscientious scruples.  They skinned their natives alive, or crucified them.  They were then adored as demi-gods, and placed among the stars.

Pious Aeneas was the pattern of a good emigrant in the early times, but with all his piety he did some things that ought to have made his favouring deities blush, if possible.

America, when discovered for the last of many times, was assigned by the Pope to the Spaniards and Portuguese.  The natives were not consulted; but they were not exterminated; their descendants occupy the land to the present day.

England claimed a share in the new continent, and it was parcelled out to merchant adventurers by royal charter.  The adventures of these merchants were various, but they held on to the land.

New England was given to the Puritans by no earthly potentate, their title came direct from heaven.  Increase Mather said:  “The Lord God has given us for a rightful possession the land of the Heathen People amongst whom we dwell;” and where are the Heathen People now?