ty, "George Dally,
our man, asked me this morning if he might go into the bush to cut
rafters for the new kitchen, and I gave him leave, knowing nothing of
what arrangements had been made before--and--and--in short, there's not
a man on the place, and--there's nothing to eat."

The four females looked at each other in blank silence for a few
seconds, as the full significance of their circumstances became quite
clear to them.

Mrs Merton was the first to recover.

"Now," said she, while the Spartanic elements of her nature became
intensified, "we must rise to this occasion like true women; we must
prove ourselves to be not altogether dependent on man; we must face the
difficulty, sink the natural tenderness of our sex, and--and--kill a
sheep!"

She laid down the crackers on the table with an air of resolution, and
rose to put her fell intent in execution.

But the carrying out of her plan was not so easy as the good lady had,
at the first blush of the thing, imagined it would be. In the first
place, like other heroes and heroines, she experienced the enervating
effects of opposition and vacillating purpose in others.

"You must all help me," she said, with the air of a commander-in-chief.

"Help you to kill a sheep, ma'am?" said Mrs Scholtz, with a shudder,
"I'll die first! I couldn't do it, and I wouldn't, for my weight in
gold."

Notwithstanding the vehemence of her protestation, the nurse stood by
and listened while the other conspirators talked in subdued tones, and
with horrified looks, of the details of the contemplated murder.

"I never even saw the dreadful deed done," said Mrs Brook, becoming
pale as she thought of it.

"Oh, mamma! much better go without meat; we could dine on cakes,"
suggested Gertie.

"But my love, there is not a cake or an ounce of flour in the house."

"Women!" exclaimed Mrs Merton severely, "we must rise to the occasion.
I am hungry _now_, and it is not yet noon; what will be our condition if
we wait till night for our dinner?"

This was a home-thrust. The conspirators shuddered and agreed to do the
deed. Gertie, in virtue of her youth, was exempted from taking any
active part, but an unaccountable fascination constrained her to follow
and be a witness--in short, an accomplice.

"Do you know where--where--the _knife_ is kept?" asked Mrs Merton.

Mrs Scholtz knew, and brought it from the kitchen.

It was a keen serviceable knife, with a viciously sharp point. Mrs
Me