b that he lifted
from the floor, while Mother sat looking at a kangaroo-tail on the
table and did n't notice the cat drag it off. At last Dad said, "Ah,
well!--it won't be long now, Ellen, before we have the deeds!"

We took it in turns to watch the barley. Dan and the two girls watched
the first half of the night, and Dad, Dave and I the second. Dad
always slept in his clothes, and he used to think some nights that the
others came in before time. It was terrible going out, half awake, to
tramp round that paddock from fire to fire, from hour to hour, shouting
and yelling. And how we used to long for daybreak! Whenever we sat
down quietly together for a few minutes we would hear the dull THUD!
THUD! THUD!--the kangaroo's footstep.

At last we each carried a kerosene tin, slung like a kettle-drum, and
belted it with a waddy--Dad's idea. He himself manipulated an old bell
that he had found on a bullock's grave, and made a splendid noise with
it.

It was a hard struggle, but we succeeded in saving the bulk of the
barley, and cut it down with a scythe and three reaping-hooks. The
girls helped to bind it, and Jimmy Mulcahy carted it in return for
three days' binding Dad put in for him. The stack was n't built
twenty-four hours when a score of somebody's crawling cattle ate their
way up to their tails in it. We took the hint and put a sapling fence
round it.

Again Dad decided to go up country for a while. He caught Emelina
after breakfast, rolled up a blanket, told us to watch the stack, and
started. The crows followed.

We were having dinner. Dave said, "Listen!" We listened, and it
seemed as though all the crows and other feathered demons of the wide
bush were engaged in a mighty scrimmage. "Dad's back!" Dan said, and
rushed out in the lead of a stampede.

Emelina was back, anyway, with the swag on, but Dad was n't. We caught
her, and Dave pointed to white spots all over the saddle, and
said--"Hanged if they have n't been ridin' her!"--meaning the crows.

Mother got anxious, and sent Dan to see what had happened. Dan found
Dad, with his shirt off, at a pub on the main road, wanting to fight
the publican for a hundred pounds, but could n't persuade him to come
home. Two men brought him home that night on a sheep-hurdle, and he
gave up the idea of going away.

After all, the barley turned out well--there was a good price that
year, and we were able to run two wires round the paddock.

One day a bulk