lmost began to think she must
be. She wasn't tall, and Aileen looked slight alongside of her; but she
was wonderful fair and fresh coloured for an Australian girl, with a
lot of soft brown hair and a pair of clear blue eyes that always looked
kindly and honestly into everybody's face. Every look of her seemed to
wish to do you good and make you think that nothing that wasn't square
and right and honest and true could live in the same place with her.

She held out both hands to me and said--

'Well, Dick, so you're back again. You must have been to the end of the
world, and Jim, too. I'm very glad to see you both.'

She looked into my face with that pleased look that put me in mind of
her when she was a little child and used to come toddling up to me,
staring and smiling all over her face the moment she saw me. Now she was
a grown woman, and a sweet-looking one too. I couldn't lift her up and
kiss her as I used to do, but I felt as if I should like to do it all
the same. She was the only creature in the whole world, I think, that
liked me better than Jim. I'd been trying to drive all thoughts of her
out of my heart, seeing the tangle I'd got into in more ways than one;
but now the old feeling which had been a part of me ever since I'd grown
up came rushing back stronger than ever. I was surprised at myself, and
looked queer I daresay.

Then Aileen laughed, and Jim comes to the rescue and says--

'Dick doesn't remember you, Gracey. You've grown such a swell, too. You
can't be the little girl we used to carry on our backs.'

'Dick remembers very well,' she says, and her very voice was ever so
much fuller and softer, 'don't you, Dick?' and she looked into my face
as innocent as a child. 'I don't think he could pull me out of the water
and carry me up to the cottage now.'

'You tumble in and we'll try,' says Jim; 'first man to keep you for
good--eh, Gracey? It's fine hot weather, and Aileen shall see fair
play.'

'You're just as saucy as ever, Jim,' says she, blushing and smiling. 'I
see George coming, so I must go and fetch in dinner. Aileen's going to
help me instead of mother. You must tell us all about your travels when
we sit down.'

When George came in he began to talk to make up for lost time, and told
us where he had been--a long way out in some new back country, just
taken up with sheep. He had got a first-rate paying price for his
carriage out, and had brought back and delivered a full load of wool.

'I