d from all over the floor. "Nor.,
you'll not have a penny left, and we'll all be violently ill if we eat
half you've bought. Come on home."

"Brownie's laid in large stocks of medicine, she says," Norah answered,
tranquilly, climbing into the buggy. "So you needn't worry, need you?
But we've truly finished now, Jim, I think. Ready, Wally?"

"Quite," said Wally cheerfully. "I've put these peaches in with the
neatsfoot oil, and it seems a beautiful arrangement!" He hopped up
nimbly. "Right oh, Jimmy, and pray remember I am nervous!"

"I will," Jim grinned. He laid the whip on the ponies' backs, and they
shot forward with a bound, unused to such liberties. They went down the
main street of Cunjee in a whirl of dust, and turned over the bridge
spanning the river, where the ponies promptly rose on their hind legs
at the sight of Dr. Anderson's motor, and betrayed a rooted
disinclination to come down from that unusual altitude. Jim handled
them steadily, and presently they were induced to face the snorting
horror, wherein the doctor sat, waving his hand and calling cheery
Christmas greetings as they shot past, to which the three responded
enthusiastically. Cunjee sank into the distance behind them.

The miles flew past. On the metalled road the rubbered tyres spun
silently, and only the flying hoofs clattered and soon they had left
the made road and turned on to the hard-beaten track that led to
Billabong, where progress was even smoother. The tongues flew almost as
swiftly as the wheels. The hot sun sank gradually, and the evening
breeze sprang up. It was a time for quick questions and answers. Norah
wanted details of the term just over, the sports, the prize-giving, and
had to laugh over messages from those of Jim's boy friends whom she
knew; and Jim had a hundred things to ask about home--the cattle, the
fishing, his horses, his dogs, "Brownie," and the prospects of fun
ahead. They roared over her ducking and subsequent encounter with
Cecil, and chaffed her unmercifully.

"Such a mud-lark!" said Wally, with glee. "And that prim young man! Oh,
Norah, you are a dream! I'd have given something to see your face."

"I was altogether worth seeing," Norah remarked modestly. "When I
caught sight of myself in a glass I really didn't wonder at Cecil." But
Jim glowered and referred to the absent Cecil as a "silly ass."

They turned in at last at the homestead gate, and the ponies fairly
flew up the long paddock, something in t