第51章

George Storefield's place, for the old man was dead and all the place belonged to him and Gracey, quite stunned Jim and me.We'd been away more than a year, and he'd pulled down the old fences and put up new ones --first-rate work it was too; he was always a dead hand at splitting.

Then there was a big hay-shed, chock-full of good sweet hay and wheat sheaves, and, last of all, the new stable, with six stalls and a loft above, and racks, all built of ironbark slabs, as solid and reg'lar as a church, Jim said.

They'd a good six-roomed cottage and a new garden fence ever so long.

There were more fruit trees in the garden and a lot of good draught horses standing about, that looked well, but as if they'd come off a journey.

The stable door opens, and out comes old George as hearty as ever, but looking full of business.

`Glad to see you, boys,' he says; `what a time you've been away!

Been away myself these three months with a lot of teams carrying.

I've taken greatly to the business lately.I'm just settling up with my drivers, but put the horses in, there's chaff and corn in the mangers, and I'll be down in a few minutes.It's well on to dinner-time, I see.'

We took the bridles off and tied up the horses -- there was any amount of feed for them -- and strolled down to the cottage again.

`Wonder whether Gracey's as nice as she used to be,' says Jim.

`Next to Aileen I used to think she wasn't to be beat.

When I was a little chap I believed you and she must be married for certain.

And old George and Aileen.I never laid out any one for myself, I remember.'

`The first two don't look like coming off,' I said.`You're the likeliest man to marry and settle if Jeanie sticks to you.'

`She'd better go down to the pier and drown herself comfortably,' said Jim.

`If she knew what was before us all, perhaps she would.Poor little Jeanie!

We'd no right to drag other people into our troubles.I believe we're getting worse and worse.The sooner we're shot or locked up the better.'

`You won't think so when it comes, old man,' I said.`Don't bother your head -- it ain't the best part of you -- about things that can't be helped.

We're not the only horses that can't be kept on the course --with a good turn of speed too.'

`"They want shooting like the dingoes," as Aileen said.

They're never no good, except to ruin those that back 'em and disgrace their owners and the stable they come out of.

That's our sort, all to pieces.Well, we'd better come in.

Gracey 'll think we're afraid to face her.'

When we went away last Grace Storefield was a little over seventeen, so now she was nineteen all out, and a fine girl she'd grown.

Though I never used to think her a beauty, now I almost 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 intend to do it every year for a bit,' he said.`I can breed and feed a good stamp of draught horse here.I pay drivers for three waggons and drive the fourth myself.It pays first-rate so far, and we had very fair feed all the way there and back.'

`Suppose you get a dry season,' I said, `how will that be?'

`We shall have to carry forage, of course; but then carriage will be higher, and it will come to the same thing.I don't like being so long away from home; but it pays first-rate, and I think I see a way to its paying better still.'