vised should be also taken up, they returned to the hut. A
shout greeted them as they arrived, and they saw Mr. Atherton walking up
from the river towards the hut.

"A charming site for a mansion," he said as they rode up. "Mr. Mitford,
I think I shall make you a bid for this on my own account, and so cut
out my young friend Wilfrid."

"I am afraid you are too late," Mr. Mitford laughed. "I have already
agreed to give him the option of it, keeping it open until we can
receive a reply from his father."

"I call that too bad," Mr. Atherton grumbled. "However, I suppose I must
move on farther. But really this seems a charming place, and I am sure
Mrs. Renshaw will be delighted with it. Why, there must be thirty acres
of natural clearing here?"

"About that," Mr. Mitford replied; "and there are two or three other
patches which amount to about as much more. The other hundred and forty
are bush and forest. The next lot has also some patches of open land, so
that altogether out of the four hundred acres there must be about a
hundred clear of bush."

"And how about the next lot, Mr. Mitford?"

"I fancy that there is about the same proportion of open land. I have
only once been up the river higher than this, but if I remember right
there is a sort of low bluff rising forty or fifty feet above the river
which would form a capital site for a hut."

"I will set about the work of exploration this afternoon," Mr. Atherton
said, "and if the next lot is anything like this I shall be very well
contented to settle down upon it for a bit. I have always had a fancy
for a sort of Robinson Crusoe life, and I think I can get it here,
tempered by the change of an occasional visit to our friends when I get
tired of my own company."

The men had by this time brought up the basket of provisions, and the
two girls were spreading a cloth on the grass in the shade of a tree at
a short distance from the hut, for all agreed that they would rather
take their lunch there than in the abode so lately tenanted by young
Langston. After the meal was over the party mounted their horses and
rode back. One of the natives who had come up from the boat remained
with Mr. Atherton, the others started back in the boat, as Mr. Atherton
declared himself to be perfectly capable of making the journey on foot
when he had finished his explorations. He returned two days later, and
said he was quite satisfied with the proposed site for his hut and with
the ground