ks for the house.

Mrs. Grieves and Cicely had by this time had as much as they cared for
of bush life, and very shortly after announced that the Australian
climate did not suit either Cicely or herself as she had hoped it might,
and that they had made up their minds to return to England.

"I hope they intend to take their silver away with them," said the
manager when Kate told him.

She replied with a laugh, "Oh yes, I don't believe aunt would think life
worth living if she had not her silver with her."

Poor Aunt Grieves! the vessel she travelled by had to be abandoned
before it reached England, and the silver she had suffered so much for
lies buried in the sands of the deep.

As for Kate, she subsequently took Philip Wentworth into partnership,
and he gave her his name.

BILLJIM.

BY S. LE SOTGILLE.

Nestling in the scrub at the head of a gully running into the Newanga
was a typical Australian humpy. It was built entirely of bark. Roof,
back, front, and sides were huge sheets of stringy bark, and the window
shutters were of the same, the windows themselves being sheets of
calico; also the two doors were whole sheets of bark swung upon leathern
hinges.

The humpy was divided into three rooms, two bedrooms and a general room.
The "galley" was just outside, a three-sided, roofed arrangement, and
the ubiquitous bark figured in that adjunct of civilisation.

In springtime the roof and sides of this humpy were one huge blaze of
Bougainvillaea, and not a vestige of bark was visible. It was surrounded
by a paling fence, rough split bush palings only, but in every way
fitted for what they were intended to do--that is, keep out animals of
all descriptions.

In the front garden were flowers of every conceivable hue and variety,
from the flaring giant sunflower to the quiet retiring geranium, and
stuck to old logs and standing dead timber were several beautiful
orchids of different varieties. Violets, pansies, fuchsias and
nasturtiums bordered the walks in true European fashion, and one
wondered who had taken all this trouble in so outlandish a spot.

At the back of the humpy rose the Range sheer fifteen hundred feet with
huge granite boulders, twice the size of the humpy itself, standing
straight out from the side of the Range, giving one the idea that they
were merely stuck there in some mysterious manner, and were ready at a
moment's notice to come tumbling down, overwhelming every one and
everything i