changed out of my knowledge. I have not seen her
since she was four years and a half old, when you brought her to
Melbourne for me to see, and when she coaxed me out of far more lollies
than were good for her."

"I will bring her up in summer, and you will acknowledge that you would
know her anywhere. As for you, she will know you quite well, for did
not we get your likeness taken at the time, and she shows it to every
one as that of her dear old nurse."

"I hope you're no spoiling the bairn."

"Oh! no, not much--at least, if we are, we will get Miss Melville to
counteract our bad treatment."

"You're no to make Miss Melville a terror--that's no fair. But the wee
things after Harriett, how do you call them?"

"Constance, Hubert, and Eva."

"Well, they should save the eldest from being destroyed by foolish
indulgence, for Emily and Harriett should be learned to give way to
them."

"Everybody gives way to all of the five--but you must not say they are
spoiled, either. Harriett and Emily, too, learned a lot of monkey
tricks on board ship. The gentlemen took so much notice of them, and
encouraged a good deal of impertinence in the children."

"A ship is a bad school for bairns," said Peggy. "Mine will be come
some length before we go on board, and are not like to be so much taken
notice of. Does Mrs. Phillips like England?"

"Very much, indeed. She will not go back with her own goodwill, and I
hope not to need to return."

"All your friends are in this country," said Peggy, "and Mrs. Phillips
will have so much new to see here that she will not regret the station.
And how's Mrs. Bennett, is she still with you, and Martha, Mrs. Tuck
they call her now?"

"They are both on the station yet, Peggy; Mrs. Bennett the same
admirable woman she used to be, but one cannot advance her any way with
such a poor creature of a husband. There is no rise in him; he is a
shepherd, and a shepherd he will remain to the end of his days,
spending his wages in an occasional spree, and then coming back to us
to work for more; while that poor silly Martha happened on one of the
best men about the place, and I have left him an under-overseer. If the
two men could only have exchanged wives, things would appear more
equitably arranged."

"Well," said Peggy, when Mr. Phillips had gone, "people can see other
folks' blunders, but the man that I thought worst mated on the station
was the master himself. You'll have to take high ground with M