A Little Bush Maid Part 18

"Old Harry's our champion elocutioner at school, you know," Wally said.

"You should have heard him last Speech Day! He got more clapping than all the rest put together."

"Shut up, young Wally!" growled Harry in tones of affected wrath.

"Same to you," said Wally cheerfully. "Why, you had all the mammas howling into their hankies in your encore piece!"

After which nothing would satisfy Norah but another recitation, and another after that; and then the timber ended, and there was only the level plain be tween them and home, with the moon just high enough to make it sufficiently light for a gallop. They tore wildly homeward, and landed in a slightly dishevelled bunch at the gate of the paddock.

No one was about the stables.

"Men all gone off somewhere," said Jim laconically, proceeding to let his pony go. His example was followed by each of the others, the steeds dismissed with a rub and a pat, and the saddles placed on the stands.

"Well, I don't know about you chaps," said Jim, "but I'm as hungry as a hunter!"

"Same here," chorused the chaps.

"Come along and see what good old Brownie's put by for us," said Norah, disappearing towards the house like a small comet.

The boys raced after her. In the kitchen doorway Mrs. Brown stood, her broad face resplendent with smiles.

"I was just beginning to wonder if any of you had fallen into the creek," she said. "You must be hungry, poor dears. Supper's ready."

"Where's Dad?" asked Norah.

"Your Pa's gone to Sydney."

"Sydney!"

"Yes, my dears. A tallygrum came for him--something about some valuable cattle to be sold, as he wants."

"Oh," said Jim, "those shorthorns he was talking about?"

"Very like, Master Jim. Very sorry, your Pa were, he said, to go so suddint, and not to see you again, and the other young gentlemen likewise, seein' you go away on Monday. He left his love to Miss Norah, and a letter for you; and Miss Norah, you was to try not to be dull, and he would be back by Thursday, so he 'oped."

"Oh," said Norah, blankly. "It's hardly a homecoming without Dad."

Supper was over at last, and it had been a monumental meal. To behold the onslaughts made by the four upon Mrs. Brown's extensive preparations one might have supposed that they had previously been starving for time uncounted.

"Heigho!" said Jim. "Our last day to-morrow."

Groans followed from Harry and Wally.

"What do you want to remind a fellow for?"

"Couldn't help it--slipped out. What a jolly sell not to see old Dad again!" Jim wrinkled his brown handsome face into a frown.

"You needn't talk!" said Norah gloomily. "Fancy me on Monday--not a soul to speak to."

"Poor old Norah--yes, it's rough on you," said Jim. "Wish you were coming too. Why can't you get Dad to let you go to school in Melbourne?"

"Thanks," said Norah hastily, "I'd rather not. I think I can bear this better. School! What on earth would I do with myself, shut up all day?"

"Oh, all right; I thought you might like it. You get used to it, you know."

"I couldn't get used to doing without Dad," returned Norah.

"Or Dad to doing without you, I reckon," said Jim. "Oh, I suppose it's better as it is--only you'll have to get taught some day, old chap, I suppose."

"Oh, never mind that now," Norah said impatiently. "I suppose I'll have a governess some day, and she won't let me ride astride, or go after the cattle, or climb trees, or do anything worth doing, and everything will be perfectly hateful. It's simply beastly to be getting old!"

"Cheer up, old party," Jim laughed. "She might be quite a decent sort for all you know. As for riding astride, Dad'll never let you ride any other way, so you can keep your mind easy about that. Well, never mind governesses, anyhow; you haven't got one yet, and sufficient unto the day is the governess thereof. What are we going to do to-morrow?"

"Can't do very much," said Norah, still showing traces of gloom. "It's Sunday; besides, the horses want a spell, and you boys will have to pack--you leave pretty early on Monday, you know."

"Oh, botheration!" said Wally, jumping up so suddenly that he upset his chair. "For goodness' sake, don't talk of going back until we actually get there; it's bad enough then. Let's go and explore somewhere to-morrow."

"We can do that all right," said Jim, glad of any turn being given to the melancholy conversation. "We've never taken you chaps to the falls, two miles up the creek, and they're worth seeing."

"It's a nice walk, too," added Norah, putting sorrow to flight by deftly landing a pellet of bread on Harry's nose. "Think you can struggle so far, Harry?"

"Yes, and carry you back when you knock up," said that gentleman, returning the missile, without success, Norah having retreated behind a vase of roses. "I think it would be a jolly good plan."

"Right oh!" said Jim. "That's settled. We'll pack up in the morning, get Brownie to give us dinner early, and start in good time. It doesn't really take long to walk there, you know, only we want to be able to loaf on the way, and when we get to the falls."

"Rather," said Harry. "I never see any fun in a walk when you tear somewhere, get there, and tear back again. Life's too short. Come on, Norah, and play to us."

So they trooped into the drawing-room, and for an hour the boys lay about on sofas and easy chairs, while Norah played softly. Finally she found that her entire audience was sound asleep, a state of things she very naturally resented by gently pouring water from a vase on their peaceful faces. Peace fled at that, and so did Norah.

CHAPTER X. THE LAST DAY

"Now then, Harry, are you ready?"

"Coming," said Harry's cheerful voice. He appeared on the verandah, endeavouring to cram a gigantic apple into his pocket.

"Norah's," he said, in response to Jim's lifted eyebrows. "Don't know if she means to eat it in sections or not--it certainly doesn't mean to go into my pocket as it is." He desisted from his efforts. "Try it in the crown of your hat, old man."

"Thanks--my hat's got all it knows to hold my brains," retorted Jim.

"You can't take that thing. Here, Norah," as that damsel appeared on the step, "how do you imagine Harry's going to cart this apple?"

"Quite simple," said Norah airily. "Cut it in four, and we'll each take a bit."

"That's the judgment of Solomon," said Wally, who was lying full length on the lawn--recovering, as Jim unkindly suggested, from dinner.

"Well, come along," Jim said impatiently--"you're an awfully hard crowd to get started. We want to reach the falls in fair time, to see the sunlight on them--it's awfully pretty. After about three or four o'clock the trees shade the water, and it's quite ordinary."