was occupying on the
floor.

"Flower said she would take a little walk," she continued. "And I must
say I forgot all about her. She ought to have been back ages ago."

"Flower went by herself for a walk on the moor!" echoed the Doctor. "But
that isn't safe; she may lose her way, or get frightened. Why did you
let her go, children?"

No one answered; a little cloud seemed to have fallen on the merry
party. Polly again had a pinprick of uneasiness in her heart, and a
vivid recollection of the highest mountain which she was certainly not
trying to climb.

The Doctor said he would go at once to look for Flower.

CHAPTER IV.

A YOUNG AUSTRALIAN.

David was quite right when he said his sister was not like other girls.
There was a certain element of wildness in her; she had sweet manners, a
gracious bearing, an attractive face; but in some particulars she was
untamed. Never had that terrible strong temper of hers been curbed. More
than one of the servants in the old home at Ballarat had learnt to dread
it. When Flower stormed, her father invariably left home, and David shut
himself up in his own room. Her mother, an affectionate but not
particularly strong-minded woman, alone possessed sufficient courage to
approach the storm-tossed little fury. Mrs. Dalrymple had a certain
power of soothing the little girl, but even she never attempted to teach
the child the smallest lessons of self-control.

This unchecked, unbridled temper grew and strengthened with Flower's
growth. When under its influence she was a transformed being, and David
had good reason to be afraid of her.

In addition to an ungovernable temper, Flower was proud; she possessed
the greatest pride of all, that of absolute ignorance. She believed
firmly in caste; had she lived in olden days in America, she would have
been a very cruel mistress of slaves. Yet with it all Flower had an
affectionate heart; she was generous, loyal, but she was so thoroughly a
spoiled and untrained creature that her good qualities were nearly lost
under the stronger sway of her bad ones.

After her mother's death Flower had fretted so much that she had grown
shadowy and ill. It was then her father conceived the idea of sending
her and David to an English family to train and educate. He could not
manage Flower, he could not educate David. The Maybrights were heard of
through a mutual friend, and Flower was reconciled to the thought of
leaving the land and home of her b