I exclaimed, covering my face with my hands. I am so
dreadfully ugly that I cannot bear to have anyone look at me."

"What a silly little girl! You are not like your mother, but you are not
at all plain-looking. Harold says you are the best style of girl he has
seen yet, and sing beautifully. He got a tuner up from Sydney last week,
so we will expect you to entertain us every night."

I learnt that what Harold pronounced good no one dared gainsay at
Five-Bob Downs.

We proceeded direct to the dining-room, and had not been there long when
Mr Beecham entered with the little girl on his shoulder. Miss Beecham had
told me she was Minnie Benson, daughter of Harold's married overseer on
Wyambeet, his adjoining station. Miss Beecham considered it would have
been more seemly for her nephew to have selected a little boy as a
play-thing, but his sentiments regarding boys were that they were
machines invented for the torment of adults.

"Well, O'Doolan, what sort of a day has it been?" Harold inquired,
setting his human toy upon the floor.

"Fine wezzer for yim duts," she promptly replied.

"Harold, it is shameful to teach a little innocent child such abominable
slang; and you might give her a decent nickname," said Miss Beecham.

"O'Doolan, this is Miss Melvyn, and you have to do the same to her as you
do to me."

The little thing held out her arms to me. I took her up, and she hugged
and kissed me, saying:

"I luz oo, I luz oo," and turning to Mr Beecham, "zat anuff?

"Yes, that will do," he said; and she struggled to be put down.

Three jackeroos, an overseer, and two other young men came in, were
introduced to me, and then we began dinner.

O'Doolan sat on a high chair beside Mr Beecham, and he attended to all
her wants. She did everything he did, even taking mustard, and was very
brave at quelling the tears that rose to the doll-like blue eyes. When Mr
Beecham wiped his moustache, it was amusing to see her also wipe an
imaginary one.

After dinner the jackeroos and the three other men repaired to a
sitting-room in the backyard, which was specially set apart for them, and
where they amused themselves as they liked. My host and hostess, myself,
and the child, spent the evening in a tiny sitting-room adjoining the
dining-room. Miss Beecham entertained me with conversation and the family
albums, and Harold amused himself entirely with the child.

Once when they were absent for a few minutes, Miss Beecham told me