so pretty a country as that surrounding Branxholm; and George was always susceptible to beauties of scenery. It was flat, and here were no trees; the sheep fed chiefly off scrub and saltbush. There was very hard work for him and Dugald sinking wells, and yard after yard of solid rock to drive through before there was a drop of water to be go. I was a dry season, and if they failed to get water the run must be abandoned and the sheep driven back home station, for the surface water had absolutely failed as it had never done during the two years in which Mr. Lufton had occupied it, and by which Mr. Lindsay had been led to buy it. But George had worked heroically and Dugald steadily, and in the very nick of time water was found. The want of companionship weighed on George's spirits; the only other residents on the station were the old Highlander and his wife, who spoke as little English as one could believe possible after seven years of colonial life. The old woman certainly could not speak more than twenty-five words, while Dugald himself had been driven by necessity into the knowledge of about a hundred; but it is very difficult to hold connected conversation with so limited a vocabulary, even if George and his assistant had had many ideas in common. If Allan had
