Hocking, Silas Kitto: For Such Is Life. v1. 13 Mar 2016
 

Silas Kitto Hocking (24 March 1850 – 15 September 1935) was a Cornish novelist and Methodist preacher. He is known for his novel for youth called Her Benny (1879), which was a best-seller.
Extract
To anyone used to the roar and rush of city life, this Australian farmstead would have seemed oppressively quiet. Nothing stirred about the place. Not a bird fluttered in the trees. The servants lay about in the shadow, and panted or smoked, but no one was in the humour for speech.