the bark, being darkened from recent rain, gave it a drearier appearance
than usual.

A big, coarse-looking youth of about twenty was nailing a green kangaroo skin
to the slabs; he was out of temper because he had bruised his thumb.
The girl unstrapped the parcels and carried them in;
as she passed her brother, she said:

"Take the saddle off for me, will you, Jack?"

"Oh, carnt yer take it off yerself?" he snarled; "carnt yer see I'm busy?"

She took off the saddle and bridle, and carried them into a shed,
where she hung them on a beam. The patient old hack shook himself
with an energy that seemed ill-advised, considering his age and condition,
and went off towards the "dam".

An old woman sat in the main room beside a fireplace which took up
almost the entire end of the house. A plank-table, supported on stakes
driven into the ground, stood in the middle of the room,
and two slab benches were fixtures on each side. The floor was clay.
All was clean and poverty-stricken; all that could be whitewashed was white,
and everything that could be washed was scrubbed. The slab shelves
were covered with clean newspapers, on which bright tins, and pannikins,
and fragments of crockery were set to the greatest advantage. The walls,
however, were disfigured by Christmas supplements of illustrated journals.

The girl came in and sat down wearily on a stool opposite to the old woman.

"Are you any better, mother?" she asked.