e horses in turn.

"Yes!" cried Nic. "What beauties, father!"

"Glad you like them. I bought that sorrel nag for you. He isn't up to
my weight."

"But--"

"Well, but what, boy?"

"I've never been on a horse, father," said Nic, with a shamefaced air.

"Never learned to ride? No, of course not," said the doctor. "Riding
was not included in the range of studies at the Friary."

"But we boys used to catch the donkeys on the common of an evening, and
mount them."

"Oh, come," cried the doctor; "then you can ride a donkey?"

"Sometimes, father," said Nic, laughing. "They often used to send us
off."

"Kicking?"

"It was hardly kicking, father. One I used to try and ride would stand
perfectly still till I was on and tried to make him go, and then he used
to bring all his legs close together, put his head down, arch up his
back, and somehow or other, when he began to dance about, we always got
shot off, and came down on our backs. You never saw anything so queer."

"Oh! yes, I have," said the doctor drily, "often. Our horses here have
that bad habit, and we call it buck jumping, for it is very much the
action of a bounding deer. Have you been pitched off like that more
than once?"

"Oh! yes, father; scores, perhaps hundreds of times," said Nic,
laughing.

"Come then, you will not be afraid to mount this horse, and I dare say I
can soon teach you to ride. It's too late now, or I'd give you a
lesson."

He closed the door of the shed, went back to the waggon, where the
younger man was on the top straining at a rope, and the elder giving
orders, while the black was squatting down and looking on. Here a few
words of instruction were given, and a question or two asked about the
flour barrels and bacon.

These being answered satisfactorily, the doctor led the way back to the
Government House, where they had just time to prepare for dinner and
meet the two officers and the captain and ship's doctor, who had been
asked to meet them by way of farewell.

Bed was sought early, the doctor laughingly telling his son to make much
of it, for he would have to make shift for some time to come.

"It's good-bye to civilisation when we leave here in the morning," said
the doctor, looking hard at his son.

"And he won't mind it a bit," said Lady O'Hara. "He's just the boy to
take to a bit of rough work in the bush."

"I'm glad of it," said the doctor drily, "for we rough it in the bush,
and no mistake."

Nic