red Mr M'Swat a piece
of my mind, I felt that I owed him an apology. According to his lights
(and that is the only fair way of judging our fellows) he had acted in a
kind of fatherly way. I was a young girl under his charge, and he would
have in a measure been responsible had I come to harm through going out
in the night. He had been good-natured, too, in offering to help things
along by providing an eligible, and allowing us to "spoon" under his
surveillance. That I was of temperament and aspirations that made his
plans loathsome to me was no fault of his--only a heavy misfortune to
myself. Yes; I had been in the wrong entirely.

With this idea in my head, sinking ankle-deep in the dust, and threading
my way through the pigs and fowls which hung around the back door, I went
in search of my master. Mrs M'Swat was teaching Jimmy how to kill a sheep
and dress it for use; while Lizer, who was nurse to the baby and
spectator of the performance, was volubly and ungrammatically giving
instructions in the art. Peter and some of the younger children were away
felling stringybark-trees for the sustenance of the sheep. The fall of
their axes and the murmur of the Murrumbidgee echoed faintly from the
sunset. They would be home presently and at tea; I reflected it would be
"The old yeos looks terrible skinny, but the hoggets is fat yet. By
crikey! They did go into the bushes. They chawed up stems and all--some as
thick as a pencil."

This information in that parlance had been given yesterday, the day
before, would be given today, tomorrow, and the next day. It was the boss
item on the conversational programme until further orders.

I had a pretty good idea where to find Mr M'Swat, as he had lately
purchased a pair of stud rams, and was in the habit of admiring them for
a couple of hours every evening. I went to where they usually grazed, and
there, as I expected, found Mr M'Swat, pipe in mouth, with glistening
eyes, surveying his darlings.

"Mr M'Swat, I have come to beg your pardon."

"That's all right, me gu-r-r-r-l. I didn't take no notice to anything ye
might spit out in a rage."

"But I was not in a rage. I meant every word I said, but I want to
apologize for the rude way in which I said it, as I had no right to speak
so to my elders. And I want to tell you that you need not fear me running
away with Peter, even supposing he should honour me with his affections,
as I am engaged to another man."

"By dad, I'll be hanged