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ht for a little while, thinking there was nothing so glorious as the open-air feeling, and the night scents of the bush; then she fell asleep. "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho!!" A cheeky jackass on a gum tree bough fairly roared with laughter, and Norah woke up with a violent start. The sunlight was streaming across her bed. For a moment she was puzzled, wondering where she was; then the walls of the tent caught her eye, and she laughed at herself, and then lay still in the very pleasure of the dewy morning and the wonderful freshness of the air. For there is a delight in awaking after a night in the open that the finest house in the world cannot give. Presently the flap of the tent was parted and Mr. Linton peeped in. "Hallo!" he said, smiling, "did the old jackass wake you? I found him as good as an alarum clock myself. How about a swim?" "Oh--rather!" said Norah, tumbling out of bed. She slipped on a jacket and shoes, and presently joined her father, and they threaded their way through the scrub until they came to a part of the creek where a beach, flat and sandy, and shelving down to a fairly deep hole, offered glorious bathing. Mr. Linton left Norah here, and himself went a few yards farther up, round a bend in the creek. At the first plunge the water was distinctly cold, but once the first dip was taken Norah forgot all about chilliness, and only revelled in the delights of that big pool. She could swim like a fish--her father had seen to that in the big lagoon at home. Not until Mr. Linton's warning voice sang out that it was time to dress did she leave the water, and then with reluctance. A brisk rub down with a hard towel and she rejoined her father. He cast an approving look at her glowing face. "Well, you look as if you'd enjoyed your swim," he said. "Oh it was lovely, Daddy! Did you have a good bathe?" "Yes--I struck a very good place--deep enough to dive in," her father answered. "Not that I counsel diving altogether--you strike such a lot of mud at the bottom--soft, sticky, black mud! I spent most of my bathe in getting myself clean after my dive! Still, I had a good swim, notwithstanding. I say, Norah, I'm ready for breakfast." "So am I," said his daughter. "I hope Billy's got the fish on!" However, there was no sign of the black retainer when they reached the camp. The fire was blazing and the billy boiling, but of the other Billy no trace existed. "He's gone after the horses,
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