y at the edge of the reed-fringed water; and on through the home
paddock to look at the little herd of Jerseys that were kept for the
use of the house, and some great bullocks almost ready for the Melbourne
market. So they came back to the homestead, wandering up from the creek
through Lee Wing's rows of vegetables, and came to rest naturally in the
kitchen, where they had afternoon tea with Brownie, who beamed from ear
to ear at the sight of Jim and Wally again sitting on her table.

"I used to think of you in them 'orrible trenches, an' wonder wot you
got to eat, an' if it was anything at all," she said tremulously.

"We got something, but it was apt to be queer," said Jim, laughing.
"We used to think of sitting on the table here, Brownie, and eating hot
scones--like this. May I have another?"

"My pore dears!" said Brownie, hastily supplying him with the largest
scone in sight. "Now, Master Wally, my love, ain't you ready for
another? Your appetite's not 'alf wot it used to be. A pikelet, now?"

"I believe I've had six!" said Wally, defending himself.

"An' wot used six pikelets to be to you? A mere fly in the ointment,"
said Brownie, whose similes were always apt to be peculiar. "Just
another, then, my dear. An' I've got your fav'rite sponge cake, Miss
Norah--ten aigs in it!"

"Ten!" said Norah faintly. "Hold me, daddy! Doesn't it make you feel
light-headed to think of putting ten eggs in one cake again?"

"An' why not?" sniffed Brownie. "Ah, you got bad treatment in that old
England. I never could see why you should go short, an' you all 'elpin'
on the war as 'ard as you could." Brownie's indifference to national
considerations where her nurselings were concerned was well known, and
nobody argued with her. "Any'ow, the cake's there, an' just you try
it--it's as light as a feather, though I do say it."

Once in the kitchen Norah and the boys went no further. They remained
sitting on the tables, talking, while presently David Linton went away
to his study, and, one by one, Murty and Boone and Mick Shanahan drifted
in. There was so much to tell, so much to ask about; they talked until
the dusk of the short winter afternoon stole into the kitchen, making
the red flames in the stove leap more redly. It was time to dress for
tea. They went round the wide verandas and ran upstairs to their rooms,
while old Brownie stood in the kitchen doorway listening to the merry
voices.

"Ain't it just 'evinly to 'ear 'em agai