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SKETCHES IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

she had already enjoyed than it was to dislodge her, she walked off to a certain extent victorious. It was not only the ovens that were usually placed apart from the dwelling; more often than not the kitchen itself was an isolated building, called a cooking-house; and this had been, I fancy, in some cases the original tenement, retained for culinary purposes alone as the family increased and its circumstances improved. In such cases it was easier to build an entirely new house than to add on to the first structure, though the arrangement reminded one of the plan which was adopted by the travelling showman and his wife, who when their caravan, in the form of a teapot on wheels, became too small for their increasing family, but admitted of no enlargement, supplemented it by a second caravan shaped like a coffee-pot, and thus secured a fresh feature of attraction for their show, as well as sufficient accommodation.

The best instance of this adding of house to house that we ever saw was in the dwelling-place belonging to a friend of ours, whose home looked like the nucleus of a small town. His entrance-hall, parlour, and best bed-room were in one house, the family slept in another, and their meals were cooked in a third. In many households it is a common practice to keep a convict as cook, and for the ladies to do the housemaid's work, yet the evils of fatigue and heat appeared to me more endurable than the presence of a convict as an indoor servant in our small establishment; for however well such a man may cook, and however good his behaviour in general may be, he is certain to get drunk occasionally, and, if granted a holiday, is probably being led to the lock-up at the hour when he ought to