to do almost as much as Sally. Joseph and his boys were
out with the cattle or sheep. Bill was also able to go shepherding.
Little Mary was playing in front of the door; she had not learned to do
much yet. Her sisters heard her cry, "Man coming, man coming!" They
looked out. A man on horseback, with tattered clothes, patched with
skins, rode up. His eyes were sunken, his cheeks thin.

"I want food. Here, girls, bring me some damper, and tea, and mutton,
if you have it, a glass of milk and rum. Quick! I am starving," he
said in a hollow voice.

His looks showed that he spoke the truth.

"Won't you come in and rest?"

"No, no; I'm not to be caught so," answered the man, looking about
suspiciously. "But quick, girl, with the food."

Sally went in and took him out some damper and a slice of mutton, while
Nancy was getting some tea. He ate the food like a starving man and
then tossed off a large basin of tea. When Sarah saw him first from the
window she thought she knew him. His way of speaking made her sure.

"Now girls, just bring me out your father's powder-flask and shot belt,
and any canister of powder there is in the hut. My flask is empty, and
I must have it filled."

On hearing these words, Sarah emptied the flask into a jar, which she
hid away, and with it the canister of powder, and then sent out Nancy
with the empty flask. The man swore fiercely when he found that there
was no powder in the flask.

"At all events, get me some more food. I don't know when I may be able
to find another meal, and if there had been time you should have given
me a hot one."

"That is Tony Peach," said Sarah, as her daughter came in to get more
food. "He has taken to the bush, and that is what his life has brought
him to."

The girls took out as much food as Peach could eat, but he wanted more,
and told them that he must have enough to fill both his saddle-bags.
They brought him out all the food they had cooked in the hut. As he was
stowing away the food in his bags, he happened to look up, and saw two
or three horsemen coming towards the hut. Letting the remainder of the
damper and cheese and meat drop, he gathered up his reins and galloped
off as hard as he could go. The horsemen were Joseph and Tom and Sam.
They rode direct to the hut. When they heard who the stranger was, Tom
and Sam were for giving chase.

"No," said Joseph, "we have no authority to take him up. Leave him in
God's hands. He is w