own squatters out here lose hundreds of cattle and thousands of
sheep in a dry summer, when everything is burnt up."

By this time the bullocks had dragged their load close by, and for the
first time Nic stared at a black figure, dressed in a strip of cloth and
a spear, walking behind the waggon.

"There's one of the blacks, father," whispered Nic, staring at the
shock-headed fellow, who turned a little on one side, and displayed a
short club with a large knob at one end.

"Only the fellow who helped to load," said the doctor.

Nic looked hard, for he had not recognised the man.

"He has got rid of his shirt and trousers, Nic, for the march home.
These blacks are eager to get clothes, but it always seems a misery to
them to wear anything but a bit of cloth."

"But is it never cold here?"

"Very, sometimes--frosty; but they make a bit of a shelter and a tiny
fire, and linger over it till the hot sun comes out, and then forget the
cold. The old people here never even built a hut, Nic--only a shelter--
a rough bit of fence."

In the middle of the day, when the sun came down with tremendous power,
a halt was called beneath the shade of a gigantic gum tree, and Nic for
the first time realised why this name was applied to the one great
family of trees peculiar to the land, for drops of gum which had oozed
out were gleaming red like carbuncles in the hot sunshine.

The doctor sprang from his horse, but Nic sat quite still.

"Dawn with you, my boy," cried his father; but, instead of obeying, Nic
screwed up his face into a peculiar shape.

"I don't feel as if I could, father."

"Oh! Stiff. Down with you, boy. You must work that off."

Nic set his teeth, and rolled off his horse in a most ungraceful way, to
stand feeling as if the ground was unsafe and all on the move.

"Hurt?" said his father, smiling.

"Yes, father. It's as if my legs had been dragged wide apart and
stretched."

"Getting in shape for your saddle, my boy. You'll soon get over this.
Now look here."

Nic did look there, and was shown how to hobble his nag's fore legs to
keep it from straying, and how to unbridle and take off the saddle.

"Always give your horse a good rub down where the saddle has been, Nic,"
said the doctor. "Horses are delicate animals. They deserve good
treatment too. Your nag carries you well, and he looks to you for
payment in food, rest, and good treatment. These make all the
difference in the way a horse will