ey were
riding through; Hakeas, Acacias, Grevilleas, and what not. In spring
this brown heath would have been a brilliant mass of flowers; but now,
nothing was to be seen save a few tall crimson spikes of Epacris, and
here and there a bunch of lemon-coloured Correas. Altogether, he kept
them so well amused, that they were astonished to come so quickly upon
the station, placed in a snug cove of the forest, where it bordered on
the heath beside a sluggish creek. Then, seeing the mountain towering
up close to them, and hearing, as they stayed at the door, a low
continuous thunder behind a high roll in the heath which lay before
them, they knew that the old ocean was close at hand, and their journey
was done.

The people at the station were very glad to see them, of course.
Barker, the paterfamilias, was an old friend of both the Major and the
Captain, and they found so much to talk about, that after a heavy
midday-meal, excellent in kind, though that kind was coarse, and
certain libations of pale ale and cold claret and water, the older of
the party, with the exception of Dr. Mulhaus, refused to go any
farther; so the young people started forth to the Cape, under the
guidance of George Barker, the fourth or fifth son, who happened to be
at home.

"Doctor," said Alice as they were starting, "do you remark what
beautiful smooth grass covers the cape itself, while here we have
nothing but this scrubby heath? The mountain is, I suppose, some
different formation?"

"Granite, my dear young lady," said the Doctor. "A cap of granite
rising through and partly overlying this sandstone."

"You can always tell one exactly what one wants to know," said Alice;
and, as they walked forwards, somehow got talking to Halbert, which I
believe most firmly had been arranged beforehand with Sam. For he,
falling back, ranged alongside of the Doctor, and, managing to draw him
behind the others, turned to him and said suddenly,--

"My dear old friend! my good old tutor!"

The Doctor stopped short, pulled out a pair of spectacles, wiped them,
put them on, and looked at Sam through them for nearly a minute, and
then said:

"My dear boy, you don't mean to say----"

"I do, Doctor.--Last night.--And, oh! if you could only tell, how happy
I am at this moment! If you could guess at it!----"

"Pooh, pooh!" said the Doctor; "I am not so old as that, my dear boy.
Why, I am a marrying man myself. Sam, I am so very, very glad! You have
won her, an