ckoned had hold of him Heaven
only can tell. His mother thought he must have gone mad and ran after
him. Our Mother fairly tore after her. Dad and Dave left a dray-load
of corn and joined in the hunt. Between them they got Jacob down and
took him out of the trap. Dad smashed the infernal machine, and then
went to look for Joe. But Joe was n't about.

The corn shelled out 100 bags--the best crop we had ever had; but when
Dad came to sell it seemed as though every farmer in every farming
district on earth had had a heavy crop, for the market was
glutted--there was too much corn in Egypt--and he could get no price
for it. At last he was offered Ninepence ha'penny per bushel,
delivered at the railway station. Ninepence ha'penny per bushel,
delivered at the railway station! Oh, my country! and fivepence per
bushel out of that to a carrier to take it there! AUSTRALIA, MY MOTHER!

Dad sold--because he could n't afford to await a better market; and
when the letter came containing a cheque in payment, he made a
calculation, then looked pitifully at Mother, and muttered--"SEVEN
POUN'S TEN!"

Chapter XII.

Kate's Wedding.

Our selection was a great place for dancing. We could all dance--from
Dan down--and there was n't a figure or a movement we did n't know. We
learned young. Mother was a firm believer in early tuition. She used
to say it was nice for young people to know how to dance, and be able
to take their part when they went out anywhere, and not be awkward and
stupid-looking when they went into society. It was awful, she thought,
to see young fellows and big lumps of girls like the Bradys stalk into
a ballroom and sit the whole night long in a corner, without attempting
to get up. She did n't know how mothers COULD bring children up so
ignorantly, and did n't wonder at some of them not being able to find
husbands for their daughters.

But we had a lot to feel thankful for. Besides a sympathetic mother,
every other facility was afforded us to become accomplished. Abundance
of freedom; enthusiastic sisters; and no matter how things were
going--whether the corn would n't come up, or the wheat had failed, or
the pumpkins had given out, or the water-hole run dry--we always had a
concertina in the house. It never failed to attract company. Paddy
Maloney and the well-sinkers, after belting and blasting all day long,
used to drop in at night, and throw the table outside, and take the
girls up, and