Australia, though a continent, is a part of the Empire of Great Britain. A few years ago it was a wild country, where no white people lived, filled with Blacks, who were man-eating savages. These are fast dying out, but in this story you will learn something about them, and of the lives of your Australian Cousins. Contents CHAPTER PAGE I. "LAND!" 1 II. SAILING TO SYDNEY 8 III. A DRIVE 20 IV. ON THE WAY TO THE "RUN" 32 V. LIFE AT DJERINALLUM 47 VI. "LOST!" 60 VII. JEAN FINDS A FRIEND 76 VIII. IN THE BUSH 90 IX. HOUSEKEEPING IN A CAVE 101 X. DANDY SAVES THE DAY 117 List of Illustrations PAGE JEAN _Frontispiece_ "'I THOUGHT PACIFIC MEANT PEACEFUL,' SAID FERGUS" 11 "'THAT IS THE LYRE BIRD, ISN'T HE A HANDSOME FELLOW?'" 58 "'THAT WAS A PLATYPUS, OR WATER MOLE,' SAID MR. MCDONALD" 66 "THE LEAVES PARTED AND A BLACK FACE PEERED THROUGH THE BUSHES" 99 "THE BLACK BOY ON A PONY LED BY A WHITE CHILD" 128 Our Little Australian Cousin CHAPTER I "LAND" FERGUS and Jean were very tired of the long voyage. They stood at the taffrail looking over the dancing waves, longing for the sight of land. "It seems as if we would never get there, Father," said Fergus. "How long it is since we left home!" "And how far away Scotland seems," sighed his mother, as she took little Jean on her lap and stroked her fair hair. "But Australia is to be our home now," said Mr. Hume cheerfully. "See, there is the very first glimpse of it," and he pointed across the water to a dim line, as the look-out called "Land!" "We are passing Port Phillip's Head," he said presently. "See the lighthouse! Soon we shall land and you will see a beautiful city." "Beautiful!" Fergus said in surprise. "Why, I thought Melbourne was a wild sort of a place. You have told us about the time you were here long ago, before you married my mother, and you had floods in the streets and had to climb up on top of some one's porch for fear of being drowned." "That was fifteen years ago, my son," said Mr. Hume with a smile. "Melbourne is very different now from what it was then, and then it was not at all like it was when its first settlers saw it.