" she said. "It's really Billy's job to carry
it for me, but Jim has been coming with me since he came home, so of
course young Billy's got out of hand. And Jim's gone across with Dad to
see old Derrimut, so I had no one. I looked for you and couldn't find
you. And I asked Cecil politely to accompany me, but he put his
eyebrows up, and said fowls didn't interest him. Oh, Wally, don't you
think it's terribly hard to find subjects that do interest Cecil?"

"Hard!" said Wally expressively. "Well, it beats me, anyhow. But then
Cecil regards me with scorn and contumely, and, to tell you the truth,
Nor., when I see him coming I quiver like--like a blancmange! He's so
awfully superior!"

"You know, I'm sure he's not enjoying himself," Norah went on; "and it
really worries us, 'cause we hate to think of anyone being here and not
having a good time. But he does keep his nose so in the air, doesn't
he?"

"Beats me how you're so nice to him," Wally averred. "My word, it would
do that lad good to have a year or two at our school! I guess it would
take some of the nonsense out of him. Was he ever young?"

"I shouldn't think so," Norah said, laughing--"he has such a lofty
contempt for anything at all juvenile now. Well, at least he's looking
better than when he came, so Billabong is doing him good in one way at
any rate, and that is a comfort. But I'm sure he's counting the days
until he goes away."

"Well, so am I," said Wally, cheerfully. "So at least there are two of
us, and I should think there were several more. It's pleasant to find
even one subject on which one can be a twin-soul with Cecil.
Norah"--solemnly--"I have counted eleven different pairs of socks on that
Johnny since I came, and each was more brilliant than the last!"

"I don't doubt it," Norah laughed. "They're the admiration of the
laundry here, and even the men stopped and looked at them as they were
hanging on the line last week. Dave Boone was much interested in that
green pair with the gold stripes, and asked Sarah what football club
they belonged to!"

"Great Scott!" said Wally explosively. "Can you imagine Cecil playing
football?"

"I can't--I wish I could," Norah answered. "Well, never mind Cecil--he's
a tiring subject. Tell me what you think of my chicks."

Norah's special fowl yard was a grassy run divided into two parts, with
small houses and wire-netted enclosures in each. At present one was
devoted to a couple of mothers with clutches of ten