play as you did to-day, with a stick, ought to have nothing but a big
three-foot of blue steel in his hand, and Her Majesty's commission to
use it against her enemies."

"That will come," said Jim, "the day after Sam has got the right to
look after Alice; not before; the governor is too fond of his
logarithms."

When Sam came to dress for dinner he found that he was bruised all
over, and had to go to the Captain for "shin plaster," as he called it.

Captain Brentwood had lately been trying homeopathy, which in his case,
there being nothing the matter with him, was a decided success. He
doctored Sam with Arnica externally, and gave him the five-hundredth of
a grain of something to swallow; but what made Sam forget his bruises
quicker than these dangerous and violent remedies, was the delightful
change in Alice's behaviour. She was so agreeable that evening, that he
was in the seventh heaven; the only drawback to his happiness being
poor Cecil Mayford's utter distraction and misery. Next morning, too,
after a swim in the river, he handled such a singularly good knife and
fork, that Halbert told Jim privately, that if he, Sam, continued to
sport such a confoundedly good appetite, he would have to be carried
half-a-mile on a heifer's horns and left for dead, to keep up the
romantic effect of his tumble the day before.

They were sitting at breakfast, when the door opened, and there
appeared before the assembled company the lithe lad I spoke of
yesterday, who said,--

"Beg your pardon, sir; child lost, sir."

They all started up. "Whose child?" asked the Captain.

"James Grewer's child, sir, at the wattle hut."

"Oh!" said Alice, turning to Sam, "it is that pretty little boy up the
river that we were admiring so last week."

"When was he lost?" asked Major Buckley.

"Two days now, sir," said the lad.

"But the hut is on the plain side of the river," said the Major; "he
can't be lost on the plains."

"The river is very low, sir," said the lad; "hardly ancle deep just
there. He may have crossed."

"The black fellows may have found him," suggested Mrs. Buckley.

"They would have been here before now to tell us, if they had, I am
afraid," said Captain Brentwood. "Let us hope they may have got him;
however, we had better start at once. Two of us may search the river
between this and the hut, and two may follow it towards the Mayfords'.
Sam, you have the best horse; go down to the hut, and see if you can
find an