sy blossom of the brightest
yellow. I like to imagine that the wattle is just prisoned sunlight;
that one early morning the sun's rays came stealing over the hill to
kiss the wattle-trees while they seemed to sleep; but the trees were
really quite wide-awake, and stretched out their pretty arms and caught
the sunbeams and would never let them go; and now through the winter the
wattles hide the sun rays away in their roots, cuddling them softly; but
in spring they let them come out on the branches and play wild games in
the breeze, but will never let them escape.

Past the little wattle grove there is a hill covered with the white
gums. The young bark of these trees is of a pinky white, like the arms
of a baby-girl. As the season advances and the sun beats more and more
fiercely on the trees, the bark deepens in colour into red and brown,
and deep brown-pink. After that the bark dies (in Australia most of the
trees shed their bark and not their leaves), and as it dies strips off
and shows the new fair white bark underneath.

Our party has now come to a gully (ravine) which carries a little
fresh-water creek (stream) to an arm of the sea near by. This is the
camping-place. A nice soft bit of meadow will be found in the shade of
the hillside. The fresh-water stream will give water for the "billy" tea
and for the horses to drink. Down below a dear little beach, not more
than 100 yards long, but of the softest sand, will allow the youngsters
to paddle their feet, but they must not go in to swim, for fear of
sharks. The beach has on each side a rocky, steeply-shelving shore, and
on the rocks will be found any number of fine sweet oysters. Jim and his
mate Tom have brought oyster-knives, and are soon down on the shore, and
in a very short while bring, ready-opened, some dozens of oysters for
their mothers and fathers. The girls of the party are quite able to
forage oysters for themselves. Some of them do so; others wander up the
sides of the gully and collect wildflowers for the table, which will not
be a table at all, but just a cloth spread over the grass.

They come back with the news that they have seen waratahs growing. That
is exciting enough to take attention away even from the oysters, for the
waratah, the handsomest wildflower of the world, is becoming rare around
the cities. All the party follow the girl guides over a slope into
another gully. There has been a bush-fire in this gully. All the
undergrowth has been b