tes."

"Good gracious! I forgot all about tea!" Jim exclaimed. "Thanks awfully,
Brownie. Had your own?" He slipped his arm through hers as they turned
back to the house.

"Not yet, my dear," said Brownie, beaming up at him. That this huge
Major, with four years of war service to his credit, was exactly the
same to her as the little boy she had bathed and dressed in years gone
by, was a matter of nightly thanksgiving in her prayers. "I was just
goin' to settle to it when it come over me that you weren't in--and the
visitors there an' all."

"I'd come and have mine with you in the kitchen if they weren't there,"
Jim told her. "Tea in your kitchen is better than anything else." He
patted her shoulders as he left her at the door of her domain, going off
with long strides to wash his hands.

"We didn't wait for you," Norah said, as he came into the drawing-room;
a big cheery room, with long windows opening out upon the veranda, and a
conservatory at one end. A fire of red gum logs made it pleasantly
warm; the tea table was drawn near its blaze, and the arm-chairs made
a semicircle round it. "These poor people looked far too hungry to
wait--to say nothing of Wally and myself. How did the car go, Jimmy?"

"Splendidly," Jim said, taking his cup, and retiring from the tea-table
with a scone. "Never ran better; that man in Cunjee knows his job, which
I didn't expect. Are you tired, Tommy?"

"Tired?--no," said Tommy. "I was very hungry, but that is getting
better. And Norah is going to show me Billabong, so I could not possibly
dream of being tired."

"If Norah means to show you all Billabong before dark, she'll have
to hurry," said Jim lazily. "Don't you let yourself be persuaded into
anything so desperate, Tommy."

"Don't you worry; I'll give her graduated doses," Norah said. "I'll
watch the patient carefully, and see if there is any sign of strength
failing. When do you begin to teach Bob to run a station?"

"I never saw anyone in such a hurry," said Jim. "Why, the poor beggar
hasn't had his tea yet--give him time."

"But we are in a hurry," said Tommy. "We're burning to learn all about
it. Norah is to teach me the house side, while you instruct Bob how to
tell a merino bullock--is it not?--from an Ayrshire." Everybody ate with
suspicious haste, and she looked at them shrewdly. "Now, I have said
that all wrong, I feel sure, but it's just as well for you to be
prepared for that. Norah will have a busy time correcting