Page:On Our Selection.djvu/121

Rh "Mrs. Rudd! Mrs. Rudd!" he shouted from the verandah. Mother went out.

"Wot's—wot's up with Dave? "

Mother turned pale.

"There's something!"

"My God!" Mother exclaimed—"whatever has happened?"

Young Johnson hesitated. He was in doubt.

"Oh! what is it? Mother moaned.

"Well" (he drew close to her) "he's—he's mad!"

"Oh-h!"

"He is. I seen 'im just now up in your paddick, an' he's clean off he's pannikin."

Just then Dave came down the track, whistling. Young Johnson saw him and fled.

For some time Mother regarded Dave with grave suspicion, then she questioned him closely.

"Yairs," he said, grinning hard, "I was goin' through th' fust set."

It was when Kate was married to Sandy Taylor that we realised what a blessing it is to be able to dance. How we looked forward to that wedding! We were always talking about it, and were very pleased it would be held in our own house, because all of us could go then. None of us could work for thinking of it—even Dad seemed to forget his troubles about the corn and Mick Brennan's threat to