sat preening its feathers in the sunshine.

Mollie looked about her with curious eyes, wondering where she was.
Not in England, of that she was sure--there was a different feel in
the air, colours were brighter, scents were stronger, and that
radiant parrot would never perch itself so tranquilly upon an
English fence.

Then she saw, coming down the path, a girl of about her own age,
dressed in a brown-holland overall trimmed with red braid, high to
the throat, and belted round the waist. She wore no hat, and her
hair fell over her shoulders in plump brown curls. By her side paced
a large dog, a rough-haired black-and-white collie with sagacious
brown eyes. He leapt forward with a short bark, but the girl laid a
restraining hand on his back:

"Down, Laddie, down," she said, "don't you know a friend when you
see one? Come in, Mollie."

And suddenly Mollie knew where she was. This was Adelaide, in
Australia; that was the child in the photograph, whose name, she
knew, was Prudence Campbell; and they were living in the year 1878.




CHAPTER II

The Builders or The Little House