rand creature belonging to me, though
there might be a little dread of what he would do next.

In the morning all seemed like a dream, for Dora had vanished, leaving
no trace but her black bag; but while I was dressing a tremendous
cackling among my bantams caused me to look out, when I beheld them
scurrying right and left at sight of the kangaroo leaping after the
three strangers, and my cat on the top of the garden wall on tiptoe,
with arched back, bristling tail, and glassy eyes, viewing the beast as
the vengeful apotheosis of all the rats and mice she had slaughtered in
her time.

From the stairs I heard Dora scouting her brother's orders to tidy
herself for breakfast, adding that Harry never did, to which he merely
replied, "I shall now. Come."

There was a sound of hoisting, that gave me warning rather fortunately,
for he came striding upstairs with that great well-grown girl of eight
perched on his shoulder as if she had been a baby, and would have run
me down if I had not avoided into the nook on the landing.

All that day and the next those three were out; I never saw them but at
meals, when they came in full of eager questions and comments on their
discoveries in farming and other matters. These were the early bright
days of spring, and they were out till after dark, only returning to
eat and go to bed. I found the fascination of Harold's presence was on
all the servants and dependents, except perhaps our bailiff Bullock,
who disliked him from the first. All the others declared that they had
no doubt about staying on, now that they saw what the young squire
really was. It made a great impression on them that, when in some
farmyard arrangements there was a moment's danger of a faggot pile
falling, he put his shoulder against it and propped the whole weight
without effort. His manhood, strength, and knowledge of work delighted
them, and they declared already that he would be a good friend to the
poor.

I confess that here lay what alarmed me. He was always given to few
words, but I could see that he was shocked at the contrast between our
poor and the Australian settlers, where food and space were plenty and
the wages high. I was somewhat hurt at his way of viewing what had
always seemed to me perfection, at least all that could be reasonably
expected for the poor--our pet school, our old women, our civil
dependents in tidy cottages, our picturesque lodges; and I did not half
like his trenchant que