ere's some one coming in a buggy, Joe!' she cried, excitedly. 'And
both my white table-cloths are rough dry. Harry! put two flat-irons down
to the fire, quick, and put on some more wood. It's lucky I kept those
new sheets packed away. Get up out of that, Joe! What are you sitting
grinning like that for? Go and get on another shirt. Hurry--Why! It's
only James--by himself.'

She stared at me, and I sat there, grinning like a fool.

'Joe!' she said, 'whose buggy is that?'

'Well, I suppose it's yours,' I said.

She caught her breath, and stared at the buggy and then at me again.
James drove down out of sight into the crossing, and came up close to
the house.

'Oh, Joe! what have you done?' cried Mary. 'Why, it's a new double
buggy!' Then she rushed at me and hugged my head. 'Why didn't you tell
me, Joe? You poor old boy!--and I've been nagging at you all day!' and
she hugged me again.

James got down and started taking the horses out--as if it was an
everyday occurrence. I saw the double-barrel gun sticking out from under
the seat. He'd stopped to wash the buggy, and I suppose that's what made
him grumpy. Mary stood on the verandah, with her eyes twice as big as
usual, and breathing hard--taking the buggy in.

James skimmed the harness off, and the horses shook themselves and
went down to the dam for a drink. 'You'd better look under the seats,'
growled James, as he took his gun out with great care.

Mary dived for the buggy. There was a dozen of lemonade and ginger-beer
in a candle-box from Galletly--James said that Galletly's men had a
gallon of beer, and they cheered him, James (I suppose he meant they
cheered the buggy), as he drove off; there was a 'little bit of a
ham' from Pat Murphy, the storekeeper at Home Rule, that he'd 'cured
himself'--it was the biggest I ever saw; there were three loaves of
baker's bread, a cake, and a dozen yards of something 'to make up for
the children', from Aunt Gertrude at Gulgong; there was a fresh-water
cod, that long Dave Regan had caught the night before in the Macquarie
river, and sent out packed in salt in a box; there was a holland suit
for the black boy, with red braid to trim it; and there was a jar of
preserved ginger, and some lollies (sweets) ('for the lil' boy'), and
a rum-looking Chinese doll and a rattle ('for lil' girl') from Sun Tong
Lee, our storekeeper at Gulgong--James was chummy with Sun Tong Lee,
and got his powder and shot and caps there on tick when he