with them to open the slip-rails, and they would be back by seven for
dinner. So they started, taking the track by the wool-shed. The wool-
shed was about two miles from the station, and Medlicot's Mill was
seven miles farther, on the bank of the river.

Mr. Giles Medlicot, though at Gangoil he was still spoken of as a
new-comer, had already been located for nearly two years on the land
which he had purchased immediately on his coming to the colony. He
had come out direct from England with the intention of growing sugar,
and, whether successful or not in making money, had certainly
succeeded in growing crops of sugar-canes and in erecting a mill for
crushing them. It probably takes more than two years for a man
himself to discover whether he can achieve ultimate success in such
an enterprise; and Medlicot was certainly not a man likely to talk
much to others of his private concerns. The mill had just been built,
and he had lived there himself as soon as a water-tight room had been
constructed. It was only within the last three months that he had
completed a small cottage residence, and had brought his mother to
live with him. Hitherto he had hardly made himself popular. He was
not either fish or fowl. The squatters regarded him as an interloper,
and as a man holding opinions directly averse to their own interests-
-in which they were right. And the small free-selectors, who lived on
the labor of their own hands--or, as was said of many of them, by
stealing sheep and cattle--knew well that he was not of their class.
But Medlicot had gone his way steadfastly, if not happily, and
complained aloud to no one in the midst of his difficulties. He had
not, perhaps, found the Paradise which he had expected in Queensland,
but he had found that he could grow sugar; and having begun the work,
he was determined to go on with it.