Page:Authors daughter v1.djvu/222

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218
THE AUTHOR’S DAUGHTER.

had given her very frankly, and was delighted to see how well the habit and hat came out in the photograph. Indeed, she seemed more engrossed by the likeness being carried out in these things and on Brownie than by the representation of her own face, which was more interesting to her friends.

Then Allan got his portrait taken, and last of all Mr. Lufton, and as a final proceeding the whole party was photographed, with Mr. Prince standing at the door to welcome them to Bulletin Station. The derivation of the name Mr. Lufton hoped would be lost in the spelling he had given it, for he had tried hard, but ineffectually, to change it altogether; but in old time there had been a precious waterhole close to the site of the house, and some kind Christian had fastened an old soup-and-bouilli tin (which had been emptied, perhaps, in the Katherine Stewart Forbes, or some such early-dated colonial arrival) to a saplin that grew near by a strong piece of twine.

The waterhole and the bouilli-tin had been a landmark on the overland route from New South Wales when the country had been first stocked, and many a pipe had been smoked and quart-pot of tea boiled near those scraggy gum-trees by the rough-and-ready overlanders in old times.