y, going out to see, met the settler coming back.

"What in thunder are you doing with the cows, Peter?" asked Uncle Abe.

"Oh, just driving them out and along a bit over those horse tracks; we
might get into trouble," said Peter.

When the boys woke it was morning, and the mother stood by the bed. "You
needn't get up yet, and don't say anyone was here last night if you're
asked," she whispered, and went out. They were up on their knees at once
with their eyes to the cracks, and got the scare of their young lives.
Three mounted troopers were steaming their legs at the fire--their
bodies had been protected by oilskin capes. The mother was busy about
the table and the sister changing the baby. Presently the two younger
policemen sat down to bread and bacon and coffee, but their senior (the
sergeant) stood with his back to the fire, with a pint-pot of coffee in
his hand, eating nothing, but frowning suspiciously round the room.

Said one of the young troopers to Aunt Annie, to break the lowering
silence, "You don't remember me?"

"Oh yes, I do; you were at Brown's School at Old Pipeclay--but I was
only there a few months."

"You look as if you didn't get much sleep," said the senior-sergeant,
bluntly, to the settler's wife, "and your sister too."

"And so would you," said Aunt Annie, sharply, "if you were up with a
sick baby all night."

"Sad affair that, about Brown the schoolmaster," said the younger
trooper to Aunt Annie.

"Yes," said Aunt Annie, "it was indeed."

The senior-sergeant stood glowering. Presently he said brutally--"The
baby don't seem to be very sick; what's the matter with it?"

The young troopers move uneasily, and one impatiently.

"You should have seen her" (the baby) "about twelve o'clock last night,"
said Aunt Annie, "we never thought she would live till the morning."

"Oh, didn't you?" said the senior-sergeant, in a half-and-half tone.

The mother took the baby and held it so that its face was hidden from
the elder policeman.

"What became of Brown's family, miss?" asked the young trooper. "Do you
remember Lucy Brown?"

"I really don't know," answered Aunt Annie, "all I know is that they
went to Sydney. But I think I heard that Lucy was married."

Just then Uncle Abe and Andy came in to breakfast. Andy sat down in the
corner with a wooden face, and Uncle Abe, who was a tall man, took up a
position, with his back to the fire, by the side of the senior trooper,
and seemed perfectly