y intended to go round. It did not,
however, take the turn they had expected, but ran off from the creek,
and this it was that had thrown them out. Troloo now led on quickly
till he found the spot where they had slept. He showed how they had got
up in the morning, and how the eldest girl had knelt down just outside
the hut with the little ones near her, and how they had then set off
running. Soon the youngest had got tired and gone slower and slower.
For several hours they went on, and then the eldest girl lifted up the
youngest and carried her, and then they all sat down. Next, the boy got
up and ran about in all directions and climbed a tree to try and find
out the way they should take. He thought that he had found it, for he
did not sit down again, but they all went on together quickly--sometimes
he, and sometimes his sister, carrying the youngest, and sometimes she
ran, they holding her hands. All this the black discovered as easily as
if it had passed before his eyes, from the look of the grass and shrubs.

Were they getting nearer? No. All this time they were going farther
and farther from home, and what seemed strange, going upwards towards
some high hills in the distance. This is said to be always the case,
when people lose themselves in the woods. If there is high land they
are certain to go towards it.

They came after some time to a marshy spot where some rushes grew. The
children had picked some of these and drank a little water from a pool
which they had dug with their hands. They had had nothing to eat.
Indeed, in few countries does a stranger find it more difficult to exist
in the woods than in Australia, though the natives can nearly always
obtain a meal from roots, or insects, or slugs, or birds, or small
animals which they trap. At length they reached a spot where Troloo
said that the children had spent their second night out. Bill had begun
to build a hut as before, but he had got tired, and they had all slept
close together with only a few boughs over them. The weather was fine,
as it is in that country for the greater part of the year, but it was
chilly at night. Again the children had started off by daylight,
running at first, but soon growing tired, and sturdy Bill had carried
little Mary for a long time on his back.

Before Mr Harlow's party could reach another of the children's camping
places, it grew dark, and they were obliged to camp themselves. There
was no longer much fe