ne Harry's going to cart this apple?"

"Quite simple," said Norah airily. "Cut it in four, and we'll each take
a bit."

"That's the judgment of Solomon," said Wally, who was lying full length
on the lawn--recovering, as Jim unkindly suggested, from dinner.

"Well, come along," Jim said impatiently--"you're an awfully hard crowd
to get started. We want to reach the falls in fair time, to see the
sunlight on them--it's awfully pretty. After about three or four o'clock
the trees shade the water, and it's quite ordinary."

"Just plain, wet water," murmured Wally. Jim rolled him over and over
down the sloping lawn, and then fled, pursued by Wally with dishevelled
attire and much grass in his mouth. The others followed more steadily,
and all four struck across the paddock to the creek.

It was a rather hot afternoon, and they were glad to reach the shade of
the bank and to follow the cattle track that led close to the water.
Great fat bullocks lay about under the huge gum trees, scarcely raising
their eyes to glance at the children as they passed; none were eating,
all were chewing the cud in lazy contentment. They passed through a
smaller paddock where superb sheep dotted the grass--real aristocrats
these, accustomed to be handled and petted, and to live on the fat of
the land--poor grass or rough country food they had never known. Jim and
Norah visited some special favourites, and patted them. Harry and Wally
admired at a distance.

"Those some of the sheep you saved from the fire?" queried Harry.

Norah flushed.

"Never did," she said shortly, and untruthfully. "Don't know why you
can't talk sense, Jim!"--at which that maligned youth laughed
excessively, until first the other boys, and then Norah, joined in,
perforce.

After again climbing over the sheep-proof fence of the smaller paddock
they came out upon a wide plain, almost treeless, save for the timber
along the creek, where their cattle track still led them. Far as they
could see no fence broke the line of yellow grass. There were groups of
cattle out on the plain. These were store bullocks, Jim explained, a
draft recently arrived from Queensland, and hardly yet acclimatised.

"It takes a good while for them to settle down," Norah said, "and then
lots of 'em get sick--pleuro and things; and we inoculate them, and
their tails drop off, and sometimes the sick ones get bad-tempered, and
it's quite exciting work mustering."

"Dangerous?" asked Wally.

"Not