Page:An Australian Parsonage.djvu/194

hinge by a glass bottle, care being specially taken to select one which, with regard to its original purpose, would have been censured as unreasonably dishonest as to the cavity at the bottom. The bottle is then buried beside the gate-post neck downwards, and the lower end of the upright of the gate being made longer than the other is set within the hollow bottom. An upper hinge is contrived by passing the topmost end of the upright through a round hole in a piece of board nailed on the summit of the gate-post. Such primitive hinges answer much better and last much longer than anyone would be inclined to suppose, and are often seen upon newly-cleared farms. Inverted bitter-beer bottles buried in a row to half their length are also used in some colonial gardens as edgings to flower-beds. If the rails of fences are not kept in the most perfect condition, and made of sound strong wood, the owners of horses are constantly inconvenienced by their getting away into the bush, where, joining company with others, they will often run wild for months together. As most of the horses have been foaled in the bush, and their first impulse on regaining their freedom is to hanker after youthful scenes, it is generally possible to guess the direction in which the animal will travel, and, if no time is lost in sending a native to track the hoof-marks, a few hours will suffice for its recapture, even in the driest weather; otherwise the proprietor has to trust to accidental information for learning his horse's whereabouts, and when this is ascertained he must furthermore expend a guinea in having him "brought in." The sum may seem vexatiously heavy to pay, but is fairly earned, for horse hunting requires such hard and