Of course, there are numberless phases of life out here which I have never even touched: my nose has been too close to the grindstone, while life has resolved itself for the most part into a mere struggle for existence. Still, that very struggle has brought me into touch with real people, and with the many grades of society which are to be found here as elsewhere, in spite of all the theories of democracy. I have edited a woman’s fashion paper, of sorts, and was dismissed because—I confess it—the compositors were quite incapable of reading my writing. I have written short stories and articles; I have decorated houses, painted friezes, made blouses for tea-room girls, designed embroideries for the elect of Toorak, even for the sacred denizens of Government House. I have housekept, washed, ironed, cooked. Once I made a garden, drew out the estimates, engaged the men, bought soil and manure, shrubs and plants, laid out a croquet-lawn, delved, sowed and planted shrubs which, now threatening to become trees, perhaps represent the best result of all these years of continuous labour. Palpable results, I mean, for the other results, the enlarged outlook, the humanity, the pathos, and the friendship, with which the memory of them is crammed, form, after all, an asset which is by no means to be despised. Still, when I recollect that I have been here for more than eight years; and that even now less than ten times that number of years has actually passed since the natives ceded to Batman, for knives, and beads, and looking-glasses, the present site of Melbourne, and much of the surrounding country, I am filled with the most abject shame at my own achievements and unlimited admiration for these people, so often dismissed by the ignorant at home and abroad as only “colonials,” who have built up such a town as Melbourne and such a country as Victoria is to-day. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION v I. EARLY DAYS IN VICTORIA 1 II. SOME FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF MELBOURNE 12 III. MOSTLY CONCERNING “SAUCE FOR THE GOOSE AND SAUCE 40 FOR THE GANDER” IV. THE WORKING-MAN AND THE WORK-A-DAY WORLD 71 V. THE WORKING-WOMEN OF MELBOURNE, AND IN 117 PARTICULAR THE CHAR-LADY VI. VICTORIAN YOUTH 146 VII. ALIEN LIFE 173 VIII. THE AMUSEMENTS AND THE ARTS 199 IX. RURAL LIFE, MOUNTAIN, AND FOREST 229 X. OF THE COUNTRY AND CLIMATE, AND OF MELBOURNE 253 GARDENS XI. PRIMITIVE VICTORIA 276 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS