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SKETCHES IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

room overpoweringly hot? Then as to the number of doors in the room; if it is to be a bed-room, will it be a necessary passage room to any of the others? All these things must be carefully considered before coming to a decision, or else perpetual discomfort will be sure to follow.

Our four rooms all opened into one another, and into the verandah also, as I have already noticed, and there were no passages whatever inside the house. The kitchen was paved roughly with brick, and we were at first much puzzled to conceive what good purpose could be served by a strange red-brick enclosure, about seven feet square, and open at top, which filled up one of its corners. On inquiry we discovered that it was meant for a maid-servant's bed-room.

At the opposite end of the house there was one good-sized room, which had always been used as the sitting-room, and between it and the kitchen were two narrow rooms opening into each other, and into the verandah as well, so that in one of them there were three, and in the other four doors, though some of them were glass doors doing duty for windows. It was thus not an easy matter to decide whether it would be better to sacrifice appearance to comfort by taking the one large room for our bedroom, and contriving two little sitting-rooms out of what were in reality narrow thoroughfares, or whether we should follow the example of our predecessors by retaining the spacious apartment for our parlour, and making shift with one of the uncomfortable rooms for our dormitory. We decided upon the former plan, which secured to us a most cheerful and pleasant sleeping-room, and we