LOST IN THE BUSH.

St VA tex,

IT was a very hot day, and a hot day in Australia is something that English children
will hardly be able to picture to themselves, so much hotter is it than the hottest day they
can possibly think of. But they can at any rate know by their own experience how
restless it makes children even in a temperate climate, and can remember times when their
elders have said, “ Do be quiet, children, and sit still, if you can; you make yourselves so.
much warmer moving about.” And this was just what a tall, slim Australian girl of sixteen
was saying to her younger brother and sister, who seemed ‘to fancy that any other place
must be cooler than the particular spot in which they happened to be at the moment.

“Sakes alive, children! don’t be worrying round like this, for I can’t do with your
fidgeting at all. Father will be wanting his clothes looked after a bit if he’s going from
home for a week, and all Mrs. Wright’s time is taken up cooking and cleaning while the
shearing’s going on. One good job, that’ll be over to-morrow. He's very rough on_his.
shirts, is father,” continued the girl as she took up one of the flannel garments in question
from a pile lying on the table by which she was standing.

“Oh, Belle!” cried a little eager voice, “is the shearing to be over to-morrow, and
mayn’t we go to the shed now this very minute and watch Jim Long?” and the little girl
caught her breath with excitement as she turned her pretty flushed face up to her sister.

“They do say that Jim can shear a hundred in a day all to himself,” broke in Master
Tommy ; “a hundred, Belle, think of that! But I believe it, ’cos he put a new blade into.
my penknife, and he made that old watch of father’s. to go, and he can dance a hornpipe
better nor any of the other hands, Jim can.”.

And Tommy looked round on his small audience with an air of triumph, as if he had-
proved Jim Long’s capabilities in the sheep-shearing line beyond the shadow of a doubt,

Belle, still busy with her inspection of ‘her father’s garments, smiled at her brother as.
she said, “Why not say at once, Tommy, that Jim Long’s a sailor, or has been one
anyhow, and that sailors are handy—and strong—and gentle—and kind,” with a little .
break between her sentences, as: hersvoice sank gradually into a soft murmur, just as if
she were talking to herself. - oe

“But, Belle, you haven’t answered,” interrupted Libby ; “you haven’t said if we may go.”