Australian Tales - Setis

Mr. M'Faddle's Pic-Nic Party.
THAT Port Jackson is a delightful place for boating excursions, few
persons deny who know anything about it. For my part, I cannot think of
a more agreeable way of spending a holiday, or a more efficient way of
rallying vapours from a wearied brain, than a trip in a carefully handled
sailing-boat, with a fresh breeze, in and out of the lovely bays and coves,
or round the many green islands, which grace our matchless harbour.
Away from the excitement and jostle of city life, with nothing but the
smoke in the distance, and the softened din of cart wheels, to remind one
that mankind were not all asleep, the mind finds rest and quietude; while
the physical senses are refreshed with the uncontaminated air of heaven.
Often have I started from home with mind and body impaired by
sedentary duties and cares which increased with indoor nursing, like
fungus on the mouldy walls of a vault. Sometimes I have been favoured
with the company of a congenial friend, who needed gentle out-of-door
exercise as much as myself, and was equally disposed to relish an aquatic
trip. After selecting a boat to our mind, from the well-kept fleet at the
Subscription Boat Club, we have hoisted our sails to the breeze, and
bounded over the billows, as rejoiced at our liberty as a couple of
seagulls just released from a week's confinement in a ship's hen coop;
and a few hours afterwards to have seen us seated on a rock, eating hot
mutton chops (which we had cooked al fresco on a wooden gridiron) and
roasted potatoes, would have astonished a gourmand, and made him long
for such an appetite as we displayed. I have pleasing recollections of
many such invigorating trips, and can with confidence recommend an
occasional treat of that sort (with such extemporaneous meals) to persons
suffering from dyspepsia, a disorder which is frequently laughed at — as
an imaginary old bogy, by persons who, fortunately for themselves, do
not know what they laugh at, or they would confess that a man with
fractured ribs, might with equal reason be made the subject of ridicule.
But while I so heartily recommend aquatic pleasures, I would at the same
time remark, by way of caution, that there is necessity for using
judgment in choosing favourable weather, and securing efficient boats'
crews, or your excursion may be anything but enjoyable; as the following
little story will exemplify.
Mr. M'Faddle loved fresh air, and rightly appreciated its invigorating
influence; but he was not able to enjoy so much of it as he wished, for he