merry laughter, which made Hector start up.

"Where in the world did that come from?" he exclaimed.

Rob pointed to the wood.

"What can it be?" asked Hector.

Rob did not answer, amused at his cousin's astonishment.

Again, another jovial peal of laughter, followed by a self-satisfied
chuckle, came from the wood.

"What is it? What is it?" asked the others.

"You would have heard it before, many a time, if you had been awake at
this hour," answered Rob. "That is the settler's alarum--the laughing
jackass."

"Laughing jackass!" exclaimed Hector. "I never heard that a jackass
laughed, and I don't see one there," for in his eagerness he had jumped
up, and gone to the window.

The dawn, it should have been said, had just broken.

"Wait until we have more light," said Rob; "perhaps you will then see
our friend. I can just make him out. He is not down on the ground,
where you are looking for him--he is up in yonder tree."

"Up in a tree?" exclaimed his cousins, in chorus.

"Yes; he generally lives up there, but he does not indulge in such
uproarious laughter until early in the morning. I suppose he laughs at
the folly of people lying in bed, and so tries to wake them up."

Hector and Edgar were more mystified than ever. At last they caught
sight of a large brown bird with a big beak, sitting on a bough and
nodding its head, and then laughing away with all its might. They could
now no longer have any doubt whence the sound proceeded.

Just then Harry, arriving from the hut, came into the room.

"Come along, Harry," cried Reggy, "you said there would be time for a
bathe before breakfast."

"I'm your man," said Harry. "Come, be quick, Hector, or we shall be
back before you have put the finishing touch to your toilet."

The two lads hurried down to the river. Except in the water-holes which
were joined by a trickling rivulet the whole bed was dry, but the ponds
were of sufficient depth to afford a pleasant bath.

The boys were on the point of throwing off their clothes to plunge in,
when Harry exclaimed, "Hark! what's that sound?"

"It is like distant thunder," answered Reggy.

"It can't be thunder, there's not a cloud in the sky," replied Harry.
"It seems to me to be coming right down the river. I don't like it; I
heard just such a sound some years ago, when a great flood came down and
rose nearly up to the house. We won't bathe, but run back and tell
father; he'll judge what it is and what'