Part 7 (1/2)

'But how's he going to nail hiht, and his box is close to his house'

'Starlight says he has a friend handy; he seems to have one or two everywhere It's wonderful, as father told hie! it would be a touch, and no hbred ht win half the races every year on our side and no one a bit the wiser'

It did seeet hold of this wonderful stallion that we'd heard so land could turn out I say again, if it weren't for the horse-flesh part of it, the fun and hard-riding and tracking, and all the rest of it, there wouldn't be anything like the cross-work that there is in Australia It lies partly between that and the dry weather There's the long spells of drought when nothing can be done by young or old Soh, nor sow, nor do anything useful to keep the devil out of your heart Only sit at horass witherin' and the water dryin' up, and the stock dyin' by inches before your eyes And no change, round like iron and the sky like brass, as the parson said, and very true, too, last Sunday

Then the youngsters, havin' so affin' and flash talk; and ot to sport and pay up if they lose; and the stock all ramblin' about and mixed up, and there's a temptation to collar somebody's calves or foals, like we did that first red heifer I shall re day It seems as if I had put that brand on my own heart when I jaot it, and there'sJim and I started off hoot round a bit He told us not to tell mother or Ailie a word about where we'd been Of course they couldn't be off knowin' that we'd been with hi hi we could think off 'It'll do no good, and your h as it is, boys,' he said 'She'll know tih, and maybe break her heart over it, too Poor Norah!'

Dashed if I ever heard father say a soft thing before I couldn't 'a believed it I always thought he was ironbark outside and in But he seemed real sorry for once And I was near sayin', 'Why don't ye cut the whole blessed lot, then, and come home and work steady and ain his face was all changed and hard-like 'Off you go,' he says, with his old voice 'Next tial for you'

And with that he walked off fro our horses, and never looked nigh us again

We rode away to the low end of the gully, and then we led the horses up, foot by foot, and hard work it was--like cliot to the tableland at the top

We made our way to the yard, where there were the tracks of the cows all round about it, but nothing but the wild horses had ever been there since

'What a scrubby hole it is!' said Jim; 'I wonder how in the world they ever found out the way to the Hollow?'

'Some runaway Governin [] showed 'e They lived on kangaroos at first Then, by degrees, they used to crawl out by ht and collar a horse or two or a few cattle They ed to live there years and years; one died, one was killed by the blacks; the last ht Warrigal's in that showed it to the first white men'

A black woht e got holad to see us that they didn't ask too many questions

Mother would sit and look at the pair of us for ever so long without speaking, and then the tears would come into her eyes and she'd turn away her head

The old place looked very snug, clean, and co-out, and it was first-rate to have our own beds again Then the s and bacon--oin' on all night

'By George! ho to stay ever so long this time, and work like an old near-side poler--see if I don't Let's look at your hands, Aileen; my word, you've been doin'

your share'

'Indeed, has she,' saidbrothers, too'

'Poor Ailie,' said Jim, 'she had to take an axe, had she, in her pretty little hands; but she didn't cut all that wood that's outside the door and I nearly broke o bail'

'How do you know?' says she, sht have been here for what you'd been the wiser--going away nobody knohere, and coers,' says I 'Say it out; but we haven't turned out yet, if that's what youbut what's kind and loving, you naughty boy,'