Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1912-12-07


everywhere else, there are so
many kinds of homes that it is
difficult to typify the life of the
country. l take, however the rec
tory in a country town as fairly repre-
sentative, being, broadly speaking, in
the middle of things and coming in
touch with all kinds of life, writes
Anna Woodward in the Chicago Daily
News.
The rector himself is half way on
the road from the bush to the big
city, whittier his next promotion will
take him-the road which so many
Australians tread. His wife, at all
events, is glad that the years of COM
parative isolation are over. The coun-
try town, with its electric lights, its
telephones, its shops, it's considerable
population, Is a wonderland after the
immense spaces and solitudes of the
brush.
Australia is a country so cast, its
population outside the towns is so
scattered, that the brush parson may
find himself in charge of a really vast
territory. With six or seven churches,
widely separated, to minister at, his
less central to his work. however cut
off from the world. His daily duties
will carry him far afield, and will
often make it impossible for him to re-
turn to his family at night
Australian Horse SkilIful.
He cannot, of course, conduct serv-
Ices at all his churches every Sunday,
but to reach even two or three in the
same day he must be in the saddle
before dawn, and If he returns at the
end of the day it will be by the light
of the moon or the stars. 1t is no
easy matter to make ones way at
night through the vast forests of eu-
calyptus, through the almost impene-
trable scrub, perhaps across gullies
and creeks, and over hills and noun
tains; but the Australian horse is al
most as skillful as the native blacks
in finding path through the brush.
AS it is very surefooted, the rider may
sometimes fall asleep in the saddle
without danger
If home cannot be reached, the par
son Is sure of welcome wherever he
calls, at some wealthy squatters
house, at some little tiny shanty that
serves as a homestead or even at the
hut of native His wife during these
intervals is left in charge of the house
and children; perhaps with a white or
black girl as servant, perhaps quite
alone.
l was told by the wife of clergy
man who had lived six years in the
brush that she never conquered her
dread of those lonely nights, that she
seldom slept while her husband was
away, but at every sound would sit
up in bed holding in her hand re-
volver.
Welcome, therefore, is the change
country town. To such a home the
reader is now introduced.
To this one-story house come many
clerical visitors, expected and unex-
pected Brother clergy who have
driven in from the bush for a meal
or perhaps to ask a bed for the night.
A bishop, an archdeacon, or it may
be a special preacher comes for,
visit of few days or a week. If
the spare room is occupied a bed can
always be put up on the veranda.
But the clergymans wife, even il she
is fortunate enough to have a serv-
ant, has much to do besides the rou-
tine of the house and the care of her
children.
Make Morning Calls.
In Australia the morning. so far
from being free from callers, is the
usual time for women to drop in to
chat. At II o'clock 1t is expected
that tea and cakes will be served and
the visitor, not content with a few
minutes stay, will often remain till
dinner time, perhaps producing her
needlework and settling herself COM
fortably on the veranda; begging, no
doubt, her hostess by no means to in
terrupt such work as she may have
to do. In the afternoon and in the
evening come other visitors, and there
are visits to be paid in return, besides
expeditions to the markets and shops,
and such work in the parish. as falls
to the share of clergyman's wife.
You may picture him as one of the
busiest of men-so busy that he has
to keep two horses, which he looks
after himself. He rises early to feed
and groom them or to turn them out
in the paddock behind the house.
There are jobs to be done in the yard
and the garden; carts to be washed.
harness TO be oiled, bits and stirrup
irons to be polished, flowers to be wa