presence threw over the camp, and throughout the evening ejaculated a
fervent 'My colonial!' every time his eyes encountered the girl.

'Hello!' said Aurora. 'I've invited myself to tea, boys.'

''Pon my soul, you're good to see,' cried Burton feelingly.

'That's mighty kind for a man who doesn't waste much breath in
compliments.'

This is magnificent!' said Jim. 'Why have you never thought of it
before?'

'Hear him! Little he knows I'm just here to convince him what a model
wife I'd make. Would you believe it, boys, all the time I've known the
villain it never occurred to him to ask me?'

'I'd ask yer quick enough, b'gosh!' blurted Con.

Jim blushed. 'She wouldn't have me,' he cried in self-defence.

'At laste ye might have given a poor girl the refusal.'

'Take me, then,' said Jim through the soapsuds. He was washing over a
bucket.

'I will not. You know you're safe, anyhow, when there's not priest or
parson to be got for love or money. Come, hurry up, there's enough for
all, and my contribution is an armful of Mary Kyley's hot scones.'

The butt of a tree lying a few yards from the fire served the diggers as
table and on to this Jim lifted Aurora.

'That's your place,' he said, 'at the head of the board.'

'No, no!' cried the girl, slipping to the ground again. 'I am mistress. I
mean to attend at table.' She served the men with the manners of a kindly
hostess. 'There's milk for the tea!' she cried.

'Milk! I haven't seen the colour of it in Australia. Who work the
miracle?' said Jim.

'Mary sent to a station out there by the ranges. She got a quart, and I
cabbaged half for my tea-party.'

'You're an angel, Aurora!'

'There!' she laughed; 'and the trouble I've taken to keep it dark.'

'We'll be the envy of the whole field,' said Mike; and Con uttered a
corroborative 'My colonial oath!' that was eloquent of a grateful heart.

Aurora poured out the tea and buttered the scones, and then, sitting on a
gin-case with her plate in her lap, ate a good meal in cheeriest
fellowship, adding to the felicity of the party with gay badinage and
happy laughter. Aurora's laugh was a delightful thing to hear; it had
never ceased to give Done a peculiar stir of joyance, whilst awakening
something of surprise. It was the laugh of a merry child; its mirth was
strangely infectious, strangely suggestive of an unsullied soul. Hearing
it, Jim turned to her wonderingly, but he had long since acquitted her of
the suspici