ughed heartily at the
disparity in the size of our hands.

"I'll agree to your bargain," he said. "But you'll be really engaged to
me all the same.`

"Yes; under those conditions. Then it will not matter if we have a tiff.
We can part, and no one will be the wiser."

On my suggesting that it was now time to go to the house, he swung
himself down by a branch and turned to assist me. Descending from that
tree was a feat which presented no difficulties to me when no one was by,
but now it seemed an awkward performance.

"Just lead your horse underneath, so that I can get on to his back,
thence to the ground quite easily," I said.

"No fear! Warrigal wouldn't stand that kind of dodge. Won't I do? I don't
think your weight will quite squash me," he returned, placing himself in
leap-frog position, and I stepped on to his back and slid from there to
the ground quite easily.

That afternoon, when leaving the house, I had been followed by one of the
dogs, which, when I went up the willow-tree, amused himself chasing water
lizards along the bank of the creek. He treed one, and kept up a furious
barking at the base of its refuge. The yelping had disturbed grannie
where she was reading on the veranda, and coming down the road under a
big umbrella to see what the noise was about, as luck would have it she
was in the nick of time to catch me standing on Harold Beecham's back.
Grannie frequently showed marked displeasure regarding what she termed my
larrikinism, but never before had I seen her so thoroughly angry.
Shutting her umbrella, she thrust at me with it, saying, "shame! shame!
You'll come to some harm yet, you immodest, bold, bad hussy! I will write
to your mother about you. Go home at once, miss, and confine yourself in
your room for the remainder of the day, and don't dare eat anything until
tomorrow. Spend the time in fasting, and pray to God to make you better.
I don't know what makes you so forward with men. Your mother and aunt
never gave me the slightest trouble in that way."

She pushed me from her in anger, and I turned and strode housewards
without a word or glancing behind. I could hear grannie deprecating my
conduct as I departed, and Harold quietly and decidedly differing from
her.

From the time of my infancy punishment of any description never had a
beneficial effect upon me. But dear old grannie was acting according to
her principles in putting me through a term of penance, so I shut myself
in my room