cher went to live?" said Mr.
Melrose in a musing fashion. "They have a little way of repeating names
in these colonial places which is rather distracting. But Fletcher told
me that the Hammerville to which he went was nearly three hundred miles
from Sydney."

"I suppose there is a railway?" queried Nealie, knitting her brows, and
wondering how they were all to be transported for three hundred miles
across an unknown country, in the event of there being no railway by
which they could travel.

"I suppose the rail would go a point nearer than three hundred miles,
unless indeed the place is quite at the back of beyond, as some of those
Australian towns are," replied Mr. Melrose. "But Fletcher told me that
he hired a horse and wagon and drove the whole distance, sleeping in the
wagon at night to save hotel charges."

"Oh, what a perfectly charming thing to do!" cried Sylvia, who had come
up behind and was leaning over the back of Nealie's chair. "If Father is
not waiting to meet us when we reach Sydney, shall we hire a horse and a
wagon and drive out to Hammerville, Nealie?"

"It would be very jolly," said Nealie, with shining eyes. "I have always
longed to go caravanning, but I expect the difficulty would be to find
anyone willing to hire a horse and wagon to entire strangers like
ourselves; and if Hammerville is so far from Sydney, Father would hardly
be known so far away, even though he is a doctor."

"Did you say your father is a doctor?" asked Mr. Melrose, who was very
much interested in this adventurous family, who seemed so well able to
take care of themselves, and were roaming about the world without even
the pretence of a guardian to look after them.

"Yes; he is Dr. Plumstead. Have you heard of him?" asked Sylvia, with
the happy belief in her father's greatness which was characteristic of
them all.

"I used to know a Dr. Plumstead some years ago, but I do not expect it
was the same," said Mr. Melrose, looking as if he were going to say
something more, and then suddenly changing his mind.

It was some days later, and they were nearing Cape Town, which was the
halfway house of their journey, when Mr. Melrose, who had been keeping
his cabin from illness, appeared again on deck, and, seeking Nealie out,
laid an addressed envelope in her hand.

"It is the privilege of friends to help each other," he said quietly. "I
know a man in Sydney who lets horses and wagons on hire, and I have
ventured to give you a let