-I could
see him working on a dam we were making across a creek that ran down
there. You remember Old Peter, Walter?'

'Of course I do, Maggie.'

'I knew that Old Peter would keep an eye to the children; so I told
little Wally to keep tight hold of his sister's hand and go straight
down to Old Peter and tell him I sent them.'

She was leaning forward with her hands clasping her knee, and telling me
all this with a strange sort of eagerness.

'The little ones toddled off hand in hand, with their other hands
holding fast their straw hats. "In case a bad wind blowed," as little
Maggie said. I saw them stoop under the first fence, and that was the
last that any one saw of them.'

'Except the fairies, Maggie,' said the Boss quickly.

'Of course, Walter, except the fairies.'

She pressed her fingers to her temples again for a minute.

'It seems that Old Peter was going to ride out to the musterers' camp
that morning with bread for the men, and he left his work at the dam
and started into the Bush after his horse just as I turned back into the
house, and before the children got near him. They either followed
him for some distance or wandered into the Bush after flowers or
butterflies----' She broke off, and then suddenly asked me, 'Do you
think the Bush Fairies would entice children away, Mr Ellis?'

The Boss caught my eye, and frowned and shook his head slightly.

'No. I'm sure they wouldn't, Mrs Head,' I said--'at least not from what
I know of them.'

She thought, or tried to think, again for a while, in her helpless
puzzled way. Then she went on, speaking rapidly, and rather
mechanically, it seemed to me--

'The first I knew of it was when Peter came to the house about an hour
afterwards, leading his horse, and without the children. I said--I
said, "O my God! where's the children?"' Her fingers fluttered up to her
temples.

'Don't mind about that, Maggie,' said the Boss, hurriedly, stroking her
head. 'Tell Jack about the fairies.'

'You were away at the time, Walter?'

'Yes, Maggie.'

'And we couldn't find you, Walter?'

'No, Maggie,' very gently. He rested his elbow on his knee and his chin
on his hand, and looked into the fire.

'It wasn't your fault, Walter; but if you had been at home do you think
the fairies would have taken the children?'

'Of course they would, Maggie. They had to: the children were lost.'

'And they're bringing the children home next year?'

'Yes, Maggie--next year.'

S