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Show Ra FELON'S LOVE. j 15Y HEXRY V. XESFIELD. j that ha might leave me in a . months for five shillings a week m wages at the next station? At iJm dropped across a very decent yoUnI fellow, just out from the old country with a young wife and no encur brances." "But what did you mean by 'you have and you haven't?" asked Mr-Hall. Mr-Hall. 3- "I mean this the man tells me his wife Is in too delicate a state to d0 any work. His name is Thomas Baynes and he says he can cook well and is handy about the house. I didn't see his wife, but I engaged him at seventy pounds a year, on condition that, If his wife grew stronger, she should assist as-sist you In any light work needlework needle-work or something of that description. descrip-tion. No doubt when they get settled and used to the life they will shake down all right. I must say I was taken with the lad's appearance, so I hope it will turn out satisfactorily." "What a pity the wife is so delicate!" deli-cate!" said Mary. "And when are they coming up, father?" "They started before me, but I over- yards told that the men had not yet ceased from their labors. "Mary," Mrs. Hall called out presently, pres-ently, as she heard some one moving about inside the house, "is that you, dear?" "Yes. mother," replied a tall lithe-looking lithe-looking girl as she stepped out through a French window on to the veranda. "Poor dear mother, you must be quite knocked up!" "I am tired, darling," admitted Mrs. Hall. "Has Jack come up from the shed yet?" CHAPTER HP Far away in the interior of" New South Wales, not many miles from the borders of South Australia, there Is a lovely stretch of country which, at the first glance, a stranger would imagine to be one vast plain. It is a beautifully beauti-fully undulating country in reality, with low hills and wide-spreading valleys, val-leys, belts and clumps of shea-oak and pine, and large lagoons, which, when filled by the winter rains, are the re-soii re-soii of the various wild-fowl with which the country abounds. "No, not yet," answered the girl; "but supper is quite ready, and he won't be long now, I expect." "I do hope that your father will come home tonight. He said he would be ten days perhaps. It is now a fortnight fort-night since be left." "I wonder whether he will have managed to get a cook," said Mary, as she sat on the edge of the veranda at her mother's feet. "All this cooking cook-ing is quite wearing you out. You ought not to have to do it." "I shall be all right after a good night's rest, and if only your father would come back! Can you see nothing noth-ing of him, Mary?" "No, not a sign," said the girl, "but here is Jack, sooner than I expected. Now let us go into supper, and begin." A stalwart sunburnt youth strode up the garden path, and tossing his cabbage-tree hat upon a chair, threw himself at full length upon the grass-plat. took them on the road," returned Mr. Hall; "and they arrived at Sullivan's public-house in the coach this evening. even-ing. I had no time to stop and see them, but asked Sullivan to send them on tonight in his buggy, so I suppose they will be here very shortly." "Poor creature!" remarked Mrs. Hall. "How will she stand bush life if she is such a sickly thing? You say they are young people?" "Yes, quite young. He told me he was twenty-three, but he hardly looks it. However, you will be able to judge for yourself very soon. Oh, there's Long Bill!" he exclaimed, hailing a station-hand who had just come up to the veranda. "How d'ye do, Bill? Has a buggy come up from Sullivan's with a man and his wife for the station? That's all right see them settled in the hut next the men's kitchen, will you? Give a look after them, and make them as comfortable as you can. They are new chums, not used to Some of the vallays contain vast stretehes of dense scrub, whilst others preent a tempting pasture for the herds of kangaroos. In some parts where dams have been made to save the water, there are huts and sheep yards, and far-away out-stations where solitary men dwell, tending the flocks committed to their care, seeing no living liv-ing soul for months together, and wishing to see none. These "hatters," as they are termed, frequently go raving rav-ing mad, and the generality of them are moody, crack-brained creatures who have almost lost whatever humanity hu-manity they once possessed. Facing these great plains, and nestling nest-ling under the brow of a lofty hill on the Barrier Ranges, was a station consisting con-sisting of a comfortable dwelling-house, dwelling-house, built from the boulders which lined the creek close by, a number of men's huts, a wool-shed, sheep and cattle yards and paddocks the last stretching out from the Range for several sev-eral miles into the plains. To the weary "swagsman," who had skirted the Range from the last station for over twenty miles on a blazing hot day, with his roll of blankets slung across his shoulder and his "billy" "bil-ly" in his hand, the sight of Redmount Station was a most welcome one indeed. in-deed. The tall blue gum trees which marked the irregular line of the creek as it debouched from the gully in the hills were visible for a great distance, and, to the sore-footed traveler toiling on towards them, it seemed as if they were never to be reached. But, when j once those trees were gained, the I knowledge of the certain food and rest to be obtained beneath them cheered the fainting spirits, and the hard day's tramp was soon forgotten in the comfort com-fort of the traveler's hut and the stimulating stim-ulating draughts of smoking tea. Mr. Charles Hall was the owner of Redmount, and lord not only of hundreds hun-dreds of square miles of country sur-j sur-j rounding it, but of the countless flocks and herds which grazed thereon. Here he lived with his wife and fami'y, perfectly per-fectly happy and contented, and far away from all excitement, political or "Well, Polly," he exclaimed, "I'm just baked, I can tell you! I wish the governor would hurry home. Leaving Leav-ing me all the shearing to look after is no catch! All this broiling afternoon after-noon I've been drafting out 'strangers,' and working just like a nigger." "Mother's been working hard, too," said Mary reproachfully. "And she doesn't grumble, like you do." "No, by Jove; but then the mater's an angel!" he answered, springing to his feet and throwing his arms around hie mother's neck. "I bet no angel ever cooked dinner for seventy men, with the thermometer at a hundred and ten in the shade, without a murmur! Oh, I'm not to be irreverent, mother? Well, I won't, to please you; but upon my word it was a shame of that brute Johnson to go off at a moment's notice, no-tice, juot at the very busiest time." "Never mind, Jack," interrupted Mrs. Hall, as she leaned her head back over the rail on the lounge-chair and clasped her hands behind her neck. "Don't talk so much, but look out with your young eyes and see if your father is not coming in the distance." "Or, in other words," said Jack, laughing " 'Sister Ann, sister Ann do you see some one coming?' No, mother, no one neither Bluebeard nor the governor. Talking of blue, I wonder won-der what our new cordon bleu will be like. Drink like a fish and swear like a trooper, I suppose, as they all do." "Perhaps father won't have got one at all," observed Mary; "and, if 6o I pity you all, for I'm going' to try my hand at cooking. I stood with my nose close to the meat safe today to roughing it much yet, I expect, and no doubt Vill feel strange at the start." "I have been to see. after them, sir," replied Bill, "so far as the young man would let me, but he seems mighty independent, in-dependent, and says he can do for himself." "Well, that's something strange in a 'new chum,' " said Mr. Hall, laughing; laugh-ing; "but it is a hopeful beginning. If you are passing his hut, tell him to get the men's breakfast at seven sharp tomorrow, to-morrow, and I will go down and give him a look in afterwards on my way to the shed." Long before midnight the whole station sta-tion appeared to be wrapped in slumber, slum-ber, and not a light was to be seen. The very sheep-dogs snored and dreamed as dogs do dream after a hard day's toil, rounding up their flocks and hunting back refractory' subjects to the yards, just as they had been doing the livelong day. Every human being on the station slept Save one. Upon a rude bench outside a hut near the men's kitchen sat a dark-eyed dark-eyed youth, looking upwards into the starry sky. Tears were slowly trickling down his face, and he rocked himself to and fro, struggling to suppress hi6 sobs. Presently Pres-ently he arose, and, clasping his hands above his head, as if in the very agony of his soul, he murmured "How will it all end? Oh, merciful Heaven, how will it end?" Then he entered the hut. (To be Continued.) otherwise, their lives passed wholesomely whole-somely among the rural pursuits and interests with which they were surrounded. sur-rounded. What was it to them thai there was a change of government in England, a fortune lost or won upon the Derby, or a new plot against the czar? What did they care about the life of the old world? Less than nothing! noth-ing! A good lambing season, a heavy "clip," a rise in wool, an occasional run down to Melbourne or Sydney, were matters of far keener interest to them than all the squabbles or rejoicings rejoic-ings of the people of the old country. The owner of Redmount had left England, with his young wife, nearly twenty years previously, and, after the usual amount of struggling inseparable from a colonist's life, had settled down and prospered. His family consisted of two fine grown lads and a girl, who were rapidly becoming more and more useful to him. The elder son, Jaek, though only Just nineteen, already stood to his father quite in the place of an overseer on the "run;" the younger, George, was still at college in Sydney. Shearing had commenced and everybody every-body on the station was hard at work Mrs. Hall had been busy the whole day long cooking for the men, for they had been unfortunate enough at this sea-eon, sea-eon, of all others, to lose their cook Mr. Hall had been absent from home for the past two weeks. Business had taken him away to Melbourne, but that night he was expected home' The day had been exceedingly bot. though break myself into the smell of raw meat, which always make nie feel more or less ill." "Pshaw you might , as well be an English girl!" said Jack scornfully. "If you were anything like a trump you'd kill as well as cook Jennie Smith does." "Never mind; we don't want Mary to be quite such a masculine person as Jennie," interposed Mrs. Hall; which brought forth a rejoinder from Jack that Miss Smith was no end of a "good fellow," after which he suddenly remembered that he was hungry and added hurriedly "But I'm ready for supper, if you are. I'll just run in and wash off some of this dust, and be with you in a few moments," and Mr. Jack swung himself him-self through the veranda and disappeared disap-peared within the house. , CHAPTER IV. Supper was well-nigh over when the barking of dogs announced a late arrival. ar-rival. "That's father!" cried young Jack. "I thought he'd be here tonight. I'll run down to the huts and meet him," and off he darted in the direction of the sounds. After the first outburst of welcome had subsided, some fifty questions had been asked, and Mr. Hall had somewhat some-what satisfied his hunger, he said "And now that I have told you all my news, how have you been getting on in my absence? Shearing going ahead all right. Jack?" "Yes, father. Nothing much to growl about. Pretty fair clip s0 far I think. But you haven't told us yet whether you got the married couple you promised to look out for in Melbourne." "Well, I have, and I haven't," replied re-plied Mr. Hall, leisurely lighting his pipe. "It is the hardest job In the world to get hold of anybody. I saw several couples in town, but they were all so precious independent that it made me quite savage. One lot would not come so far Into the bush; another an-other wanted to know whether I nl-lowed nl-lowed beer and washing. One likely follow had six small children no drawback on the place here, knowing It was only the middle of November and Mrs. Hall was so thoroughly tired out with her exertions that she was retting on a lounge chair in the veranda, ver-anda, anxiously watching the track round the for- of the Range in the hope of seeing her husband in the distance. From where she sat the prospect was lovely indeed. From the house a spacious garden full of shrubs orange and lemon trees, and English flowers, mingled with exotics stretched down the hill-side to a bubbling bub-bling stream. Higher up the gully large gum trees waved their feathery foliage in the evening air, and a grand background of precipitous hills formed a splendid contrast to the plains across which Mrs. Hall strained her yes In vain. The aun had just gone down behind the- hills, and only the brows of the dark peaks were tinged with ite last rays. Thousands of sheep which had that day been shorn were bleating as they streamed out from the yards ' where they had all day been imprisoned. impris-oned. Horses grazed in the home paddock pad-dock close by. side by side with the mllk-cowe, while shouts from the |