he glanced round at the picturesque group
seated in the full blaze of the fire, while the reflections played upon
the dark edge of the forest, piercing the great overhanging branches
from among which a few startled birds dashed out, winged their way round
the circle of light and disappeared again.

"Look, Dean; isn't it beautiful now!"

"Thought you wanted to go to sleep," said his cousin.

"Not I! I leave that to you."

"Yes," continued the big driver, repeating his words, "and I should say
there's plenty up here to fish for."

"I say, Buck, are there so many blacks about here, then?"

"Sometimes, sir."

"And do they go fishing?"

"No, sir; they may do, but I don't know as I ever saw a black go
fishing. You've been to 'Stralia, Dan; do the black fellows out there
fish much?"

"Much?" said Dan, showing his white teeth. "Yes, and hunt and knock the
big kangaroos over with their nulla-nullas and boomerangs. Wittles are
precious scarce there, and they have had a hard time of it to get enough
grub, and I suppose that's why they pick holes in the softy wood trees
to get the big fat grubs out of them."

"Ugh! Horrid!" said Dean.

"No, sir," said Dean, smiling. "It don't sound nice, but I know a
little about cooking, and when them 'Stralian grubs are nicely cooked
over the fire they are not to be sneezed at. There's another thing too
that's very nice eating, baked or roasted, and that's a locus', and I
shouldn't wonder if you could find them out here, for they come in
clouds up in the north and eat everything they find."

"Well, don't cook any for us, Dan," said Mark.

"There's no need, sir, with such a good supply of venison, as you gents
call it, and game birds."

"But I should like you to try your hand with the frying-pan and some
fish."

"You catch the fish, Mr Mark, sir, and leave it to me, and I'll promise
to fry it to rights, egged and crumbed and all."

"What!" cried Dean.

"Well, no, that arn't right, sir. Allers speak the truth, Dan, my boy,
my grandmother used to say; and I will if I can. I could clean and
scale and egg the fish to rights. We can get plenty of them comebacks'
eggs, but the crumbing of them would rather bother me, and I should have
to do it with mealie flour."

There was a short silence as the men sat smoking, and then Mark broke
out with, "We will have a try for some fish; but who is it does the
fishing up here, then, Buck?"

The big driver chuckled, and his eyes