As for dad, he told us out, plump and plain, that he wasn’t going to shift. The Hollow was good enough for him, and there he was going to stop. If Jim and I and Starlight chose to try and make blank emigrants of ourselves, well and good. He didn’t see as they’d have such a rosy time getting over to these new townships on the other side. We might get took in, and wish we was back again before all was said and done. But some people could never let well alone. Here we had everything that any man in his senses could wish for, and we wasn’t contented. Everyone was going to cut away and leave him; he’d be all by himself, with no one but the dog for company, and be as miserable as a bandicoot; but no one cared a blank brass farden about that.

“Come with us, governor,” says Starlight,“have a cruise round the world, and smell salt water again. You’ve not been boxed up in the bush all your life, though you’ve been a goodish while there. Make a start, and bring old Crib, too.”

“I’m too old and getting stiff in the j’ints,” says dad, brightening up a bit,“or I don’t say as I wouldn’t. Don’t mind my growling. But I’m bound to be a bit lonely like when you are all drawed off the camp. No! you take your own way and I’ll take mine.”

“Next Monday ought to see us off,” says Starlight. “We have got the gold and cash part all right. I’ve had that money paid to Knightley’s credit in the Australian Bank I promised him, and got a receipt for it.”

“That’s just like yer,” says father,“and a rank soft thing for a man as has seen the world to drop into. Losin’ yer share of the five hundred quid, and then dropping a couple of hundred notes at one gamble, besides buying a horse yer could have took for nothing. He’ll never bring twenty pound again, neither.”

“Always pay my play debts,” says Starlight. “Always did, and always will. As for the horse—a bargain, a bargain.”

“And a dashed bad bargain, too. Why didn’t ye turn parson instead of taking to the bush?” says father, with a grin. “Dashed if I ain’t seen some parsons that could give you odds and walk round ye at horse-dealin’.”