orah. Is it sheep country, Mr. Linton?"

"So it's to be sheep, is it? Well, I'd advise you to put some young
cattle on to some scrub country at the back, but you could certainly
run sheep on the cleared paddocks," Mr. Linton answered. "We could drive
over and look at it to-morrow, if you like. The terms are easy; you'd
have money over to stock it, or nearly so. And there's plenty to be done
in improving the place, if you should buy it; you could easily add a
good deal to its value."

"That's what I'd like," Bob answered eagerly. "It doesn't take a whole
lot of brains to dig drains and cut scrub. I could be doing that while
the sheep turn into wool and mutton!"

"So you could; though there's a bit more to be done to sheep than just
to watch them turn," said the squatter, with a twinkle. "I fancy Tommy
will be pleased if you get this place."

"Tommy's mad keen to start," Bob said. "She says Norah has taught her
more than she ever dreamed that her head could contain, and she wants
to work it all off on me. I think she has visions of making me kill a
bullock, so that she can demonstrate all she knows about corning and
spicing and salting beef. I mentioned it would take two of us quite a
little while to work through a whole bullock, but she evidently didn't
think much of the objection."

"I'll see you get none fat enough to kill," grinned Jim. "Norah says
Tommy's a great pupil, dad."

"Oh, they have worked as if they were possessed," Mr. Linton answered.
"I never saw such painfully busy people. But Norah tells me she has
had very little to teach Tommy--in fact, I think the teaching has been
mutual, and they've simply swapped French and Australian dodges. At all
events they and Brownie have lived in each other's pockets, and they all
seem very content."

"Are you all talking business, or may we come in?" demanded a cheery
voice; and Norah peeped in, with Tommy dimly visible in the background.

"Come in--'twas yourselves we were talking about," Jim said, rising
slowly from the armchair; a process which, Norah was accustomed to say,
he accomplished yard by yard. "Sit here, Tommy, and let's hear your
views on Australia!"

Tommy shook her head.

"Too soon to ask me--and I've only seen Billabong," she said, laughing.
"Wait until I've kept house for Bob for a while, and faced life without
nice soft buffers like Norah and Mrs. Brown!"

"I'm not a nice soft buffer!" said Norah indignantly. "Do I look like
one, Jimmy?"