; but promised to make amends
at an early opportunity, when he anticipated he would be under the
necessity of craving the hospitality of Barra Warra for his sister; who
purposed joining her brothers when their station was made a little
comfortable. The bare proposition quite delighted Mrs. Dawson, who was
warm in her expressions of approval; and said she would be charmed to
make the acquaintance of Miss Ferguson, and hoped she would have more
sociability than her brothers, and not require so much pressing to
induce a visit from her.

William assured his friend, that his sister would reciprocate the
delight; for she had already, he said, expressed a desire to know Mrs.
Dawson, from simply hearing him mention her name.

We need not trace the conversation through all its minutiae, nor delay
our narrative by detailing the further progress of William Ferguson; but
simply mention, that on the following morning he proceeded on his
journey, while we turn to view the movements of his brother.

In the meantime, John had got all his buildings so far completed, as to
have them ready for the settlement of the station as soon as the flocks
and the drays with the supplies should have arrived. It was not his
intention to build the house until they settled themselves, and got some
little leisure after shearing time; and, until then, he proposed living
with his brother in one of the huts erected for the men. He now looked
anxiously for the drays; and as the weather had been fine since they
started, and they had been a good time on the road, he believed they
could not be far distant; especially as he had received intimation from
Mr. Smithers that a man had arrived at Brompton, who had passed them the
day before he reached that station. He therefore thought it advisable to
leave the carpenters at work on a few odds and ends that still required
doing, and proceed along the road to meet the drays, and hurry them on
to their destination. He did so; and some few miles past Strawberry Hill
he descried the lumbering vehicles jogging on at their (or rather the
bullocks') leisure; and he turned with them, in company, until they
reached the crossing-place of the Wombi. The appearance of this spot did
not, by any means, favourably prepossess the minds of the
bullock-drivers: the banks were of black alluvial soil, and had a steep
descent to the water; which, though reduced to its ordinary level,
looked black from the colour of the banks and the soi