caught in a hurry
so that she can tear over and find out from Norah how to cook
something--then she'll come to heel. It's something in your climate, I
think, because she was never so cheeky at home--meek was more the word
to describe her."

"Meek!" said his sister indignantly. "Indeed, I never was meek in my
life!"

"Indeed you were, and it was very becoming," Bob assured her. "Now
you're more like a suffragette--" He stopped, staring. "Why, that's it!
It must be in the air! She knows she'll have the vote pretty soon!" He
broke into laughter. "Glory! Fancy little Tommy with a vote!"

Tommy joined in the general mirth.

"I hadn't realized it," she said, "and I needn't bother for over
eighteen months, anyhow. And I don't believe that any of you have ever
voted, even if you are twenty-one--except Mr. Linton, of course; and you
don't know a bit more about it than I do."

"Hear, hear!" said Wally. "I certainly don't, and neither does Jim. But
when we do vote, it's going to be for the chap who'll let us go and dig
our own coal out if there's a strike. That's sense; and it seems to me
the only sensible thing I've ever heard of in politics!" A speech which
manifested so unusual an amount of reflection in Wally that every one
was spellbound, and professed inability to eat any more.

Bob and Tommy stood on the verandah to watch their visitors go; Mr.
Linton and Norah in the motor, while Jim and Wally rode. The merry
shouts of farewell echoed through the gathering dusk.

"Bless them," said Tommy--"the dears. I don't believe we'd have a home
now but for them, Bob."

"We certainly wouldn't," Bob answered. "And sometimes I feel as if
they'd spoon-fed us. Look at all they've done for us--these months at
Billabong and all they've taught us, and all the things that they've
showered on us. We couldn't pay them back in twenty years."

"And they talk as if the favour were on their side," his sister said.
"There's the buggy they've lent us--Mr. Linton spent quite a long time
in pointing out to me how desirable it was for them that we should use
it, now that they have the car and don't need it. And the horses that
apparently would have gone to rack and ruin from idleness if we hadn't
come."

"And the cows that don't seem to have had any reason for existence
except to supply us with milk," Bob said laughing; "and the farm
machinery that never was really appreciated until immigrants came
along--at least, you'd think so to hear Jim